April 2010 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[arrl-odv:18859] Re: NEW WEB SITE LIVE
by Richard J. Norton 13 Apr '10

13 Apr '10

It works! >From someone not known to praise everything done in Newington, I'd like to congratulate the staff on their accomplishment. My previous comments about content-to-boilerplate could be quickly obviated by making http://www.arrl.org/news-features the home page. 73, Dick Norton, N6AA On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 1:40 PM, Kramer, Harold, WJ1B <wj1b(a)arrl.org> wrote: > WEB UPDATE > > > > The new Web site is now live to the World --HOORAY!!! TNX TO ALL. > > > > The servers are working fine. > > > > It may have been running a little bit slow at the start because the new DNS > had not been populated but it should be fine now. > > > > The search will start to improve as Google crawls the site. > > > > A few things are not working besides the ones that I sent earlier: > > QST Archive > > Field Day Locator > > We believe that these are data transfer issues from one server to the other > and should be easily corrected. > > > > 73, > > > > Harold > > > > > > Harold Kramer, WJ1B > > Chief Operating Officer > > > > ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio*™* > > 225 Main Street > > Newington, CT 06111 > > Telephone: 860 594 0220 > > email: hkramer(a)arrl.org > > web: www.arrl.org/ > > >

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[arrl-odv:18858] NEW WEB SITE LIVE
by Kramer, Harold, WJ1B 13 Apr '10

13 Apr '10

WEB UPDATE The new Web site is now live to the World --HOORAY!!! TNX TO ALL. The servers are working fine. It may have been running a little bit slow at the start because the new DNS had not been populated but it should be fine now. The search will start to improve as Google crawls the site. A few things are not working besides the ones that I sent earlier: QST Archive Field Day Locator We believe that these are data transfer issues from one server to the other and should be easily corrected. 73, Harold Harold Kramer, WJ1B Chief Operating Officer ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio(tm) 225 Main Street Newington, CT 06111 Telephone: 860 594 0220 email: hkramer(a)arrl.org <mailto:hkramer@arrl.org> web: www.arrl.org/ <http://www.arrl.org/>

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RE: [arrl-odv:18853] SS Mugs
by Jim Weaver K8JE 13 Apr '10

13 Apr '10

Just for perspective - and not intending to point fingers - this isn't the first (nor I suspect will it be the last time) mugs or other breakables break in shipment. I received a broken mug a couple of years ago. It was promptly replaced. I doubt if from a practical standpoint there can be a break-proof shipping container. I also suspect that if we heard of X number of mugs being broken out of Y mugs shipped, there are more out there that were broken. Just an observation. Relative to the present situation, my principal thought is that in today's atmosphere of instant communications, ARRL needs to be certain to communicate equally as rapidly and thoroughly - and appropriately - as those who take their complaints about our operation so rapidly to inappropriate venues. Jim, K8JE _____ From: Kramer, Harold, WJ1B [mailto:wj1b@arrl.org] Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 6:05 AM To: arrl-odv Cc: Kutzko, Sean, KX9X; Dotolo, Kim, KB1TLN; Patton, David NN1N Subject: [arrl-odv:18853] SS Mugs Hi, Just to close the loop, here is a brief explanation the SS mugs situation. As of right now, there are apparently reports of about 10 broken mugs out of over 300 shipped, about 3%. While this is not a terrible breakage rate, we should be able to do better. We have and will continue to replace the broken mugs as soon as we learn about them. No problem. Here's what happened. This year, as always, Sean Kutzko, Contest Branch Manager, ordered the mugs through Barker Specialty. Apparently, because of a slight change in the color of this year's mug, Barker went to a different supplier. That supplier provided the mugs in a different shipping box than the one used in prior years. Indeed, the 2009 version of the shipping box was sturdier and included the words "Fragile" and "Glass" on the outside of the box, the 2010 did not. However, the 2010 version of the shipping box was rated "UPS approved" by the vendor so we assumed that it would be fine shipped via FedEx, our shipping contractor. As they do every year, the mailroom created and applied the shipping labels and mailed them out Sean has addressed this issue with Barker Specialty and made them aware that we were dissatisfied with the packaging. Both our internal folks and Barker will certainly pay more attention to the shipping boxes when we order next year's SS mugs. 73, Harold Harold Kramer, WJ1B Chief Operating Officer ARRL - The national association for Amateur RadioT 225 Main Street Newington, CT 06111 Telephone: 860 594 0220 email: <mailto:hkramer@arrl.org> hkramer(a)arrl.org web: <http://www.arrl.org/> www.arrl.org/ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 9.0.791 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2807 - Release Date: 04/12/10 11:32:00

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[arrl-odv:18857] ARRL Comments IB Docket 10-68
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 13 Apr '10

13 Apr '10

The attached comments were filed yesterday by Brennan Price in an FCC International Bureau proceeding having to do with domestic preparations for two upcoming ITU conferences: the World Telecommunication Development Conference to be held in Hyderabad, India next month and the Plenipotentiary Conference to be held in Guadalajara, Mexico in October. There will be no ARRL representative on the US delegation to Hyderabad, although Rod Stafford will be present on behalf of the IARU as IARU Secretary. Jon Siverling will be on the US delegation to the Plenipot. In an ITU-related FCC proceeding it is normal for Brennan to draft the ARRL comments but for them to be filed by Chris Imlay as General Counsel. Brennan is the most familiar with the issues and with the state of domestic preparations for these conferences through his participation as a Board member of the US ITU Association. In this instance the draft was not available until the morning of the comment deadline, a delay for which Brennan accepts responsibility and apologizes. The draft was coordinated with Kay, Rod, Jay Bellows, and me, and was also sent to Chris, but as he is in Las Vegas at the NAB Convention he was unable to participate in the review prior to yesterday's close of business at the FCC. I also was unavailable late yesterday afternoon, and with the deadline looming Brennan made what I believe was the right decision under the circumstances, which was to file the comments over his own name on behalf of the ARRL. Kay has made it clear to the EC that this was a one-time departure from the normal process of filings being reviewed by the EC prior to filing and their being filed by the General Counsel. We will do everything we can to avoid a repetition. Dave Sumner, K1ZZ

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[arrl-odv:18856] Web Launch Update
by Kramer, Harold, WJ1B 13 Apr '10

13 Apr '10

After two years of work, we are planning to launch the new Web site later this afternoon. We have tried to be thorough in our testing during the last few weeks, but there are still a few know issues at launch that you should be aware of: * The ODV/SM member search function has not been implemented. It is in progress and it should be ready by the end of the week. * The data transfer from our internal systems to the SM part of the new site had a few bugs. Some Sections are not listed properly. This may affect some SM sites. A few other data transfers may have been affected by the same problem. The problem has been identified and the team is working on it. A temporary work-around has also been implemented in some cases. * The Web user's ARRL Section does not appear when the user logs in. This feature is also in progress and should be implemented by the end of next week. This is a large and complex site. There will be ongoing bugs and glitches that we will need to correct. Thanks in advance for your patience. If you find something that is wrong with the content or functionality, please send an email to Katie Glass KGlass(a)arrl.org with a copy to me. If a user has a problem to report, there is a "Having Trouble?" link at the bottom of most pages that will lead them to a "Contact Us" form that they can fill out to report the problem. The current Web site may be down for a short period of time during the transition. Thanks for all of your assistance and feedback to date about our new Web site. We all appreciate it and we look forward to a successful launch today. 73, Harold Harold Kramer, WJ1B Chief Operating Officer ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio(tm) 225 Main Street Newington, CT 06111 Telephone: 860 594 0220 email: hkramer(a)arrl.org <mailto:hkramer@arrl.org> web: www.arrl.org/ <http://www.arrl.org/>

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[arrl-odv:18854] Re: SS Mugs
by Richard J. Norton 13 Apr '10

13 Apr '10

Unfortunately it appears that those involved still do not understand the problem. There is *not* a problem with the strength of the boxes. As was mentioned in my message, the boxes themselves are fine. The problem is that the boxes are approximately two inches larger than the cups inside, and the cups are able to move around freely inside the boxes. There is no packing material of any kind in the boxes that would restrain that movement. When the boxes are tossed during shipment, as they inevitably are, it is possible that the forces of impact will be felt in the mug handle alone causing it to fracture. If there is proper packing material in the boxes, impact forces are most likely to be distributed to the entire mug which would be able to absorb them. Putting labels on the outside of shipped packages with the words “Fragile” and “Glass” has not been a historically effective way to insure safe delivery of poorly packed contents. There is a reason that is a large packing materials industry exists. Put the words "packing" and "peanuts" into a search engine and you will find many products designed for this purpose. My inspection shows that one and a half sheets of properly crumpled newspaper would likely be very adequate to protect each mug. As an aside, the purpose of sending the message to ODV was not related to the mugs but to try to draw attention to something else that would save the League a couple hundred dollars a year with no apparent downside. 73, Dick Norton, N6AA On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 6:05 AM, Kramer, Harold, WJ1B <wj1b(a)arrl.org> wrote: > Just to close the loop, here is a brief explanation the SS mugs > situation. As of right now, there are apparently reports of about 10 broken > mugs out of over 300 shipped, about 3%. While this is not a terrible > breakage rate, we should be able to do better. We have and will continue to > replace the broken mugs as soon as we learn about them. No problem. > > Here’s what happened. This year, as always, Sean Kutzko, Contest Branch > Manager, ordered the mugs through Barker Specialty. Apparently, because of > a slight change in the color of this year’s mug, Barker went to a different > supplier. That supplier provided the mugs in a different shipping box than > the one used in prior years. Indeed, the 2009 version of the shipping box > was sturdier and included the words “Fragile” and “Glass” on the outside of > the box, the 2010 did not. However, the 2010 version of the shipping box > was rated “UPS approved” by the vendor so we assumed that it would be fine > shipped via FedEx, our shipping contractor. As they do every year, the > mailroom created and applied the shipping labels and mailed them out > > Sean has addressed this issue with Barker Specialty and made them aware > that we were dissatisfied with the packaging. Both our internal folks and > Barker will certainly pay more attention to the shipping boxes when we order > next year’s SS mugs. >

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[arrl-odv:18853] SS Mugs
by Kramer, Harold, WJ1B 13 Apr '10

13 Apr '10

Hi, Just to close the loop, here is a brief explanation the SS mugs situation. As of right now, there are apparently reports of about 10 broken mugs out of over 300 shipped, about 3%. While this is not a terrible breakage rate, we should be able to do better. We have and will continue to replace the broken mugs as soon as we learn about them. No problem. Here's what happened. This year, as always, Sean Kutzko, Contest Branch Manager, ordered the mugs through Barker Specialty. Apparently, because of a slight change in the color of this year's mug, Barker went to a different supplier. That supplier provided the mugs in a different shipping box than the one used in prior years. Indeed, the 2009 version of the shipping box was sturdier and included the words "Fragile" and "Glass" on the outside of the box, the 2010 did not. However, the 2010 version of the shipping box was rated "UPS approved" by the vendor so we assumed that it would be fine shipped via FedEx, our shipping contractor. As they do every year, the mailroom created and applied the shipping labels and mailed them out Sean has addressed this issue with Barker Specialty and made them aware that we were dissatisfied with the packaging. Both our internal folks and Barker will certainly pay more attention to the shipping boxes when we order next year's SS mugs. 73, Harold Harold Kramer, WJ1B Chief Operating Officer ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio(tm) 225 Main Street Newington, CT 06111 Telephone: 860 594 0220 email: hkramer(a)arrl.org <mailto:hkramer@arrl.org> web: www.arrl.org/ <http://www.arrl.org/>

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[arrl-odv:18852] Re: Fwd: [CQ-Contest] Broken ARRL clean sweep mug
by Tom Frenaye 13 Apr '10

13 Apr '10

At 01:27 AM 4/13/2010, Bob Vallio wrote: >I'm glad to hear about KX9X's action. However, wouldn't it be nice if we, and our members, didn't need to read the CQ-Contest reflector to learn what is happening at HQ? Bob - I think we have a different philosophy. I don't want to hear of every problem and solution that HQ staff has to deal with. When I am aware of a problem, I usually contact the manager in Newington who I think is responsible (or Dave Sumner or Harold if I'm not sure), I don't need to send it to ODV. I also start by trusting staff members to do the right thing. I guess we see the glass differently, one mostly full, one mostly empty. -- Tom ===== e-mail: k1ki(a)arrl.org ARRL New England Division Director http://www.arrl.org/ Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444

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[arrl-odv:18849] Re: Fwd: [CQ-Contest] Broken ARRL clean sweep mug
by Tom Frenaye 13 Apr '10

13 Apr '10

Quoting Bob Vallio <rbvallio(a)gmail.com>: > One thing I have yet to see is someone on HQ Staff taking ownership of this > issue. It's too late to fix the broken mugs, but I would hope that a policy > has been, or soon will be, put in place to replace the broken mugs at no > charge; and, that some mailing room standards will be adopted to preclude a > recurrence of this operational error. Who will it be? Actually, someone posted a message on the CQ-Contest reflector about a broken mug over the weekend. It seemed like it was only an hour or two later that KX9X replied, said he'd work on the issue and offered to replace any broken mugs. Can't expect much more from staff members than to work even during their days off!! -- Tom/K1KI -- Tom Frenaye, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093

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[arrl-odv:18850] Re:RE: Fwd: [CQ-Contest] Broken ARRL clean sweep mug
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 12 Apr '10

12 Apr '10

Bob, of course the broken mugs (so far we know of 9) will be replaced at no additional cost to the persons who earned them and paid for them. I hope no one doubted that for an instant. Dave ________________________________ From: Bob Vallio [mailto:rbvallio@gmail.com] Sent: Mon 4/12/2010 8:34 PM To: arrl-odv Cc: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:18846] Re: Fwd: [CQ-Contest] Broken ARRL clean sweep mug One thing I have yet to see is someone on HQ Staff taking ownership of this issue. It's too late to fix the broken mugs, but I would hope that a policy has been, or soon will be, put in place to replace the broken mugs at no charge; and, that some mailing room standards will be adopted to preclude a recurrence of this operational error. Who will it be? Bob Vallio -- W6RGG On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 12:15 AM, Dwayne Allen <dwayne(a)wy7fd.com> wrote: We (WY7SS) got ten (five for each contest mode) and NONE were broken. WY7FD -----Original Message----- From: jfenster(a)pacifier.com [mailto:jfenster@pacifier.com] Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2010 20:29 To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:18843] Re: Fwd: [CQ-Contest] Broken ARRL clean sweep mug My mug came through in one piece. But, last year's was broken. The packaging is rather suspect. 73 Jim K9JF > See the message to the CQ-Contest reflector below. > > I also got a rattling package containing two Sweepstakes mugs myself. > Opened > one up and the handle was in a number of pieces. The other one rattles > like > there are also many parts inside. Was planning on bringing them back to > Newington in May. > > Therefore assume that essentially everybody receiving a Sweepstakes mug > this > year also received one of these glue-it-yourself mug kits. > > I look at the packaging with disbelief. How could anybody expect something > that fragile to not break during shipment? The outside of the package was > in > perfect shape. > > ... and I used to complain that they sent me first-class copies of QEX and > NCJ in two separate envelopes postmarked the same day instead of putting > them in a single envelope. > > Expectations diminishing with time. > > 73, > > Dick Norton, N6AA > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Ryan Jairam <rjairam(a)gmail.com> > Date: Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 3:07 PM > Subject: [CQ-Contest] Broken ARRL clean sweep mug > To: CQ-Contest Reflector <cq-contest(a)contesting.com> > > > My XYL (KC2OYY) scored a clean sweep in the November phone sweepstakes > contest. Since this was her first she wanted the clean sweep mug so we > ordered one. Lo and behold this week we found on our porch a box > delivered via Fedex. When we picked it up, it sounded like a bunch of > nuts and bolts inside. > > Opened it and it was the clean sweep mug, shattered into about 10 pieces. > > But what is remarkable is that the mug was not packed with any sort of > padding at all, not even brown paper. It was just thrown in a box, > label slapped on and sent off on its way. > > She's going to call ARRL on Monday but I find it really disappointing > that no one found it appropriate to pack such a fragile item with > care. > > I hope everyone else got their mugs in one piece. > > 73 > > Ryan, N2RJ > _______________________________________________ > CQ-Contest mailing list > CQ-Contest(a)contesting.com > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest >

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