November 2013 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[arrl-odv:22075] ARRL Audio News - This Week's Announcer
by Kramer, Harold, WJ1B 11 Nov '13

11 Nov '13

Hi, Courtesy of Sean Kutzko, we have a very unique announcer for the ARRL Audio News this week. The special announcer is about 48 seconds into the news, just past Sean's highlights. Check it out when you can. www.arrl.org/arrl-audio-news<http://www.arrl.org/arrl-audio-news> 73, Harold Harold Kramer, WJ1B Chief Operating Officer ARRL -the national association for Amateur Radio 225 Main Street Newington, CT 06111 (860) 594 -0220 www.arrl.org<http://www.arrl.org>

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[arrl-odv:22074] IN-News
by Kustosik, Lisa, KA1UFZ 07 Nov '13

07 Nov '13

IN-Newsletter Vol. 36, No. 43 November 6, 2013 -- Covers the period October 27-November2. Upcoming Meetings and Events Director/Vice Director Elections November 15 LoTW Study Committee November 15 @ 9:00am in Newington, CT Administration & Finance Committee November 16 @ 8:30am in Newington, CT Development Reported by Lauren Clarke, KB1YDD We are pleased to welcome Edward Seeliger, KD5M as Maxim Society member #135. Development is working with Membership on several new promotions to encourage ARRL members to step up to the Diamond Club level, as well as end of year solicitations. The ARRL Foundation has been open to accepting scholarship applications since October 1, 2013. To date we have received more than 30 applications. Scholarship applications will be accepted until February 1, 2014. Lab Reported by Ed Hare, W1RFI Product Review Bob Allison completed testing of a rather high priced, high performance HF/VHF transceiver. The transceiver's data table is the longest ever compiled for QST's Product Review. The data table, along with data charts and an observations document were passed along to the Product Review Editor and the manufacturer. There were some issues found during testing and Bob is waiting to hear back from the manufacturer. Bob also started testing of a two band, Arduino based HF QRP Transceiver; the first of its kind ever tested in the Lab for Product Review. The Lab's primary spectrum analyzer is back at the Lab, with a new calibration sticker from Agilent, just in time for critical Product Review testing; good news, indeed! RFI Mike Gruber started working on a report for Kermit Carlson on Commonwealth Edison power line noise cases in Illinois. Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R Diane Petrilli reports that October ended with 161,612 members-the highest membership total since dues increased from $34 to $39 in 2001. This is a gain of 669 members over October, and 1,104 members over our year-to-date goal. 71% of October 2013 expirees paid on time (vs. 73% last October). The next membership mailing will be sent on November 13. Jackie Ferreira reports that October product sales were $374,185. Direct sales were $241,281.54; dealer sales were $132,904. The month's sales forecast was $546,559, but a significant amount of the shortfall is associated with fulfillment of the new ARRL Centennial Edition 2014 Handbook. Due to the lag time between receiving orders from members and fulfilling personalized books, a considerable amount of these sales have shifted into the months of November and December. Handbook sales continue to be very brisk-and already another 2,600 orders have accumulated for future fulfillment. A recent staff departure has created a position vacancy in our team of Member Service Representatives. The full-time position has been posted. Summary of warehouse fulfillment activity (reported by Steve Capodicasa): Week of Packages fulfilled Member Premiums 10/28/2013 939 626 Membership & Volunteer Programs Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N DXCC DXCC Branch Credits Applications 2012 Carryover 112,095 1,170 2013 Received 1,030,309 11,118 Cumulative Total 1,142,404 12,288 2013 Processed 1,121,897 12,070 Remaining 20,507 218 Paper/Fieldcheck Processing Time 2 Weeks Logbook Processing Time 3-5 Business Days Logbook of the World Category Oct 2013 QSO Records Entered Into System 531,158,049 QSL Record Matches 77,675,504 Logs Processed 4,888,611 Active Certificates 91,345 Registered Users in System 60,723 Logbook Inquiries Oct 2013 Emails 1,239 Phone Calls 185 Total 1,424 W1AW Workers from Ideal Fence Company (New Britain, CT) were on hand this past Wednesday to replace the fencing around the Center, Satellite and South towers, as well as the Center tower's guy wires, with new black vinyl coated chain-link fence. They also installed new gates on the tower fences. Joe processed regular QSL card requests. He updated the web code practice files as well as the W1AW and West Coast Qualifying Run web schedules. Joe processed two Qualifying Run certificates and two endorsements. He also created the texts for the W1AW November Qualifying Runs. Joe assembled and ran coaxial lines to connect the 2 meter and 70cm satellite antennas in W1HQ to the radio equipment being used for satellite work. He configured the W1AW MARS station to receive digital transmissions in preparation for a New England region MARS exercise. In the week prior, Joe conducted some final testing on four new Eaton/Cutler-Hammer arc-fault breakers. Field Organization/Public Service Team One radio amateur from Virginia successfully completed requirements to become an Official Observer this week. Regional OOs were alerted to monitor for lack of proper identification noted on a 75 meter frequency and a constant carrier was noted on 3501.68 kHz. The FCC is following up on continued reports of a station operating outside of his license class privileges. Chuck Skolaut received documentation from an Ohio amateur regarding an operation on 10 meters by an unlicensed operator. The information was forwarded to the FCC. A number of reports were received regarding operation by licensed amateur as well as non-hams in the free band portion of the band above the normal CB band and the FCC is being made aware of this. Steve Ewald has been preparing to attend the All Ohio ARES Conference in Columbus. Matt Welch, W8DEC, the Ohio Section Emergency Coordinator and a team of other Ohio Section Leaders have arranged an interesting agenda and schedule of activities for the all day event. Tennessee Section Manager election ballots continue to arrive. Ballots are due at ARRL Headquarters by Friday, November 15, and the counting of the ballots is scheduled for the following Tuesday (November 19). Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Hamfest/Member Contact/ARRL Representative/Meetings/Vacations All Staff 11/28-11/29 Holiday Leona Adams 11/7-11/8 PTO Bob Allison 11/7-11/8 PTO Steve Capodicasa 11/8 PTO `` 11/25-11/27 PTO Joe Carcia 11/27pm PTO `` 12/13 PTO `` 12/30 PTO Lauren Clarke 11/27 PTO `` 12/26 PTO Steve Ewald 11/8-11/9 ARES Conference, Columbus, OH Scott Gee 11/11 PTO `` 12/23-12/27 PTO Mike Gruber 11/8 PTO Dan Henderson 11/8-11/9 Hamjam, Atlanta, GA `` 11/14-11/17 Indiana State Convention, Ft. Wayne, IN Harold Kramer 11/9 Atlantic Division Convention Webinar Lisa Kustosik 11/8-11/27 PTO Maryann Macdonald 11/21-11/22 PTO `` 12/24-12/31 PTO Dave Sumner 11/8-11/10 Midwest Division Convention, Lebanon, MO Sharon Taratula 12/24 PTO

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[arrl-odv:22068] FCC staffing changes
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 06 Nov '13

06 Nov '13

Newly appointed FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced his key staff appointments today. His Chief of Staff will be Ruth Milkman who has been heading the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. Replacing her on an acting basis is Roger Sherman, who is coming to the FCC from the minority staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Dave K1ZZ

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[arrl-odv:22057] Changes in Repeater Directory data collection
by James F. Boehner MD 05 Nov '13

05 Nov '13

I truly applaud this effort! Those of us in the Southeast have the SouthEastern Repeater Association (SERA) as a coordinating body. There was a long time problem with SERA maintaining their database. We have had several individuals within the organization that have led the effort in correcting the database, eliminating paper repeaters and developing web-based yearly updates by repeater owners. They have developed policies for de-coordinating repeaters that have not been updated yearly. So this shows some progress, but there are problems: I called a repeater owner in my city to let him know that his long-standing repeater was listed as uncoordinated. He told me that the on-line form was so difficult to navigate, that he gave up. The organization has a long standing policy to not digitize their repeater data, otherwise they feel that no one will buy their journal. This is a bit outdated in this day and age. The file they supply the ARRL may be unique, and has not been vetted by the repeater owners. They have a statement, "The codes column contains the tone frequency or CTCSS access code for those repeaters for which the owner or trustee has given us written permission and asked that we publish them." This is REALLY outdated in this day and age. It appears to defeat the purpose of the repeater manual and Travel Plus. It doesn't distinguish what repeaters are FM, D-Star, APCO 25, MotoTRBO, etc. in the journal listings. The data they supply the ARRL may distinguish them, as I see that SC repeaters that are D-Star are listed as such this past year. I have a MotoTRBO repeater on 443.4625 MHz. The Journal lists it as 443.462, and in the general listings. It does not distinguish the mode, and apparently truncates the printed data. I think having the repeater owner/trustees responsible for their repeater data (with oversight by the coordinating body) is an excellent idea. We will have to use a webpage that is not members only, as I'm sure there are many repeater owners that are not ARRL members. That being said, I'm sure there is some value-added service we can provide to repeater owners that ARE ARRL members for membership encouragement! If there is interest, I would be happy to report my findings regarding the MotoTRBO system. I know Chris (and the EC) had a bit of heartburn with the FCC to legalize the mode, and there were numerous discussions on this list about those efforts. '73 de JIM N2ZZ ARRL Vice Director Roanoke Division From: arrl-odv-bounces(a)reflector.arrl.org [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ Sent: Friday, November 01, 2013 10:52 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:22052] Changes in Repeater Directory data collection All Directors: At Minute 9.3 of the October 5 EC meeting I reported on a plan developed by Steve Ford, WB8IMY to improve the accuracy of listings in the ARRL Repeater Directory. The new procedure for collecting and maintaining repeater data is explained in the attachment, which will be going out to frequency coordinators next week. Until now, repeater coordinators have provided all of the information for the Repeater Directory listings. While the data is in a common database, we regard each coordinator's data as "their" data and allow them to manage it. The degree to which the coordinators do so varies widely. As a result we receive complaints about the accuracy of the listings and are at somewhat of a competitive disadvantage to other published repeater listings. The new procedure allows data to be received directly from repeater operators. However, coordinators will still have ample opportunity to "vet" the data for their areas and to make changes, for example to delete uncoordinated repeaters. 73, Dave Sumner, K1ZZ Chief Executive Officer

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[arrl-odv:22052] Changes in Repeater Directory data collection
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 04 Nov '13

04 Nov '13

All Directors: At Minute 9.3 of the October 5 EC meeting I reported on a plan developed by Steve Ford, WB8IMY to improve the accuracy of listings in the ARRL Repeater Directory. The new procedure for collecting and maintaining repeater data is explained in the attachment, which will be going out to frequency coordinators next week. Until now, repeater coordinators have provided all of the information for the Repeater Directory listings. While the data is in a common database, we regard each coordinator's data as "their" data and allow them to manage it. The degree to which the coordinators do so varies widely. As a result we receive complaints about the accuracy of the listings and are at somewhat of a competitive disadvantage to other published repeater listings. The new procedure allows data to be received directly from repeater operators. However, coordinators will still have ample opportunity to "vet" the data for their areas and to make changes, for example to delete uncoordinated repeaters. 73, Dave Sumner, K1ZZ Chief Executive Officer

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[arrl-odv:22062] Changes in Repeater Directory data collection
by James F. Boehner MD 04 Nov '13

04 Nov '13

On my last post, I forgot to add another problem. SERA (SouthEastern Repeater Association) is in the red -1,155.73. ARRL Fees gave them an "other" income of $3,341.00. That income is sorely needed by the organization. It should give them an incentive to provide data that is acceptable with all ARRL conditions. '73 de JIM N2ZZ -----Original Message----- From: arrl-odv-bounces(a)reflector.arrl.org [mailto:arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] On Behalf Of Jim Millsap wb4nws Sent: Sunday, November 03, 2013 9:10 PM To: G Widin Cc: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:22061] Re: Changes in Repeater Directory data collection Repeater journals make enough off of membership fees, ex: $20-30 per year, so I would prefer data sent straight to ARRL for more accurate reporting. Might generate more ARRL membership if individual owners sent their repeater data in. Jim Millsap Southeastern Vice-Director Sent from my iPhone-Jim Millsap On Nov 3, 2013, at 7:39 PM, G Widin <gpwidin(a)comcast.net> wrote: > I should perhaps clarify that my reply to Dave's original note assumed that those currently receiving the $ for submitting repeater info would likely not be mollified by the provision to pay them if correct data are received. > 73, > Greg > > > _______________________________________________ > arrl-odv mailing list > arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org > http://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org http://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv

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