December 2015 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[arrl-odv:23688] Thank You and HNY!
by Brian Mileshosky 02 Jan '17

02 Jan '17

Okay, now I'm bored on the air -- same for a zillion other League members and hams across the world. Fair warning: I'm making a Director's motion in January to create a Centennial QSO Party Anonymous or Points Anonymous service, because lots of people now find themselves staring hopelessly at their now absolutely quiet radios. A huge THANK YOU to everyone -- ODV, staff, volunteers, members, hams -- for an absolute home run on the air this past year. Centennial celebration aside, if there is one thing that I hope everyone who participated in the QSO Party walked away with, it is that they became better and more dedicated radio operators throughout the year. That they used this year-long opportunity to learn more about themselves as an op, learned more about their gear, uncovered station and operating limitations and found ways to resolve them, and rediscovered the magic, fun (God forbid), and camaraderie that is ham radio. One very profound moment today was working a few folks in the QSO Party who I hadn't worked since back in January 1, 2014. Staring at that date in the log, and greeting those hams once again, with literally one year of time padding our last QSO was an in-your-face "this year has absolutely flown by way too fast" epiphany. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as they could while it lasted. Happy Centennial, and Happy New Year everyone. Be safe this evening and see you in a few weeks. 73, Brian N5ZGT ARRL Director, Rocky Mountain Division

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[arrl-odv:24932] Status of the WN3A PRB-1 antenna case
by Bob Famiglio, K3RF 31 Aug '16

31 Aug '16

Fellow ODV members: At least three of you have asked recently about the status of the notorious WN3A antenna litigation and whether it has been resolved yet. Here is an update as to the federal court proceedings. You all will recall that the ARRL filed an amicus brief in support of the radio amateur I represent. Copies of my WN3A briefs were also circulated through the ODV server late last summer. You might also recall this case before the 3rd circuit court of appeals concerns a federal judge's legal opinion that any accommodation a town provides a ham, in the towns own judgement no matter how arbitrary, is reasonable accommodation under PRB-1. The federal court ruled hams need not bother coming to federal court for relief under PRB-1 as long as they get a hearing before a local zoning board and a decision is rendered. PRB-1 was found to be very limited in effect by the court. We appealed. Recently we received the attached correspondence from the court clerk scheduling oral argument the week of our next board meeting. This is significant in that the 3rd circuit court does not routinely grant oral argument anymore-decisions are based on the lengthy briefs and research provided by the parties, as they should be. However, in cases which are of first impression and in which a significant precedential decision is anticipated, oral argument is requested by the court as it is here. Our panel of three judges includes the chief judge of the court. This appeals court controls the federal courts in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, but the decision will surely affect the whole country as the case will be quoted as a significant circuit court decision no matter which way it goes. The argument is just a few days before the January board meeting. I may know from the questions from the court as to any leanings, but that speculation is always dangerous. What seems certain is that the court will not just treat this case as a "do over" by just sending it back to the trial court. They could do that without the need for argument. Rather, it likely will decide what PRB-1 actually means in view of the conflicting court decisions and rules for its interpretation from around the country, all raised by the numerous opponents and their various legal arguments against all ham antennas. I expect a written decision in February now, but that prediction may be off. I hope to see you all in the greater Newington area in a few weeks and will let you know what the judges wanted to know during argument. Let's keep our collective fingers crossed. I hope you are all enjoying the holiday season. I am hoping for a late Christmas present from the 3rd circuit court. 73. Bob Famiglio, K3RF Vice Director, ARRL Atlantic Division 610-359-7300 www.QRZ.com/db/K3RF

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[arrl-odv:24909] Strategic Plan
by Kramer, Harold, WJ1B 08 Jan '16

08 Jan '16

As a member of the Strategic Planning Working Group, I am forwarding this version of the Strategic Plan and its supplement to the entire ARRL Board on behalf of Chairman Jim Fenstermaker and the other Working Group members. The two strategic planning documents are attached as pdfs. Jim's introductory remarks regarding the current version are contained in this email. I have also attached Jim's remarks as a Word doc. As Jim has noted, this has been a long and carefully thought out effort. All of us on the Committee hope that the Board will give this plan due consideration as the ARRL's roadmap to its future. 73, Harold Harold Kramer, WJ1B ARRL Chief Operating Officer --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- December 10, 2015 TO: ARRL Officers, Directors, and Vice Directors As noted in earlier correspondence, the Strategic Planning Working Group planned to issue our report and recommendations regarding the ARRL's Strategic Plan for the next half decade. That report is included as two attachments to this memo. During 2015, the Working Group worked diligently to craft a plan the will serve to be a road map to the future of the ARRL. We are confident that the two documents attached will generate challenges, ideas, questions, and solutions to the environment we will be working in during the next five years. The first document attached is the proposed Strategic Plan for the ARRL for 2016-2020. This document includes a commentary regarding our charge, the team members involved in crafting this plan, and acknowledgements and sources used throughout our deliberations. Also included in the document is a recap of the mission, vision, and value statements. Note that we "tweaked" the Value Statements to include additional clarification language in respect to the Excellence and Diversity and Inclusiveness Values. We feel these slight modifications better encompass and explain our Values. The heart of this document are those Strategic Goals supporting the ARRL's Mission, Vision, and Values follow on pages 8 through 14. These Six Goals include the key elements that the Working Group believes will meet the needs of the ARRL and its stakeholders in the next five years and beyond. Of primary importance is meeting the ever-changing and diverse needs of our members - the ARRL's reason for being. Following each goal is a brief discussion of the Goal and a set of Initiatives which further enhance and support the Goal. An initiative which has describable current examples has these examples italicized. We spent many hours discussing, categorizing, and wordsmithing the Goals, explanations, and Initiatives in order that they would be understandable and succinct. It is these elements of the Strategic Plan that the Working Group recommends adoption by the Board during its January 2016 Annual meeting. While not necessarily a part of the Strategic Plan, the Second Document included in this distribution is a Supplementary and Supporting list of tactics that we believe support the Plan. As noted during our deliberations and in status reports to the ODV, the Strategic Goals are the "What we want to do" while Tactics are "What we need to do" to satisfy individual goals. Note that these Tactics have not been prioritized. The Working Group attempted to "tie" each Tactic to Initiatives and hence Goals. This linkage can be seen on the Matrix included as pages 2 through 22 of the supplement. In addition, we attempted to further segregate the Tactics into a Status including Ongoing, Improve, and Proposed activities. Even though an ongoing tactic might be currently in place or operating satisfactory, any task we do can always be advanced based on both internal and external needs. Finally, we attempted to estimate broad funding requirements for each tactic based on our estimate of a Low, Medium, High, or Unknown Cost of implementation. This explanation is noted on Page 2 of the Supplement. The second part of this section is a recap of the Value of ARRL Membership which appeared in October QST. This article helped us ground our analysis and discussion. While our work spanned over 9 months, the real work for all of us now begins. We must review our current situation, begin to prioritize the needs, develop timelines and measurements for individual tactics, and identify tactic leaders and teams. We believe these activities are the responsibility of the Board and Management as the ARRL seeks to implement the Strategic Plan. Please review our recommendations and suggested tactics. We welcome questions and comments resulting from our work. It has been a thoughtful process, many challenges, hard work, and many conversations to present this recommendation to the ARRL Board. The Strategic Planning Working Group is a strong Team and provided many ideas to our process. It has been a delight to work with such a motivated group of people. Thanks to all of these individuals and to others who provided us ideas, information, challenges, and analysis. Jim Fenstermaker K9JF Chair, ARRL Strategic Planning Working Group December 11, 2015

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[arrl-odv:24937] IAVP Report Document No. 5
by John Bellows 31 Dec '15

31 Dec '15

Happy New Year to all! The IAVP Report, Doc. No. 5 is atteched. 73, Jay, KØQB

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[arrl-odv:24936] New Book Shipment
by Kramer, Harold, WJ1B 31 Dec '15

31 Dec '15

Hi, First of all, Happy New Year 2016. I have had a few questions on this so I just wanted to let everyone know that you are being shipped three new books: The Radio Amateur's Workshop Work the World with JT65 and JT9 ARRL's Small Antennas for Small Spaces 2nd Edition We are also enclosing 10 copies the latest print version of the Radio Waves Newsletter. We have more of these if you need some. 73, Harold Harold Kramer, WJ1B Chief Operating Officer ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio(r) 225 Main Street Newington CT 06111-1494 Telephone: 860-594-0220 Fax: 860-594-0259 email: hkramer(a)arrl.org<mailto:hkramer@arrl.org>

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[arrl-odv:24935] Document #17
by Northwestern Division Director - Jim K7CEX 30 Dec '15

30 Dec '15

All Attached I submit the 2015 Amateur Radio Legal Defense & Assistance Committee report. 73 and Happy New Year Jim, K7CEX

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[arrl-odv:24934] ARRL Financial Reports
by Shelley, Barry, N1VXY 29 Dec '15

29 Dec '15

Good Afternoon: At the recent A&F Committee meeting I was asked to remind the Board that the monthly financial reports are posted to the ODV section of the ARRL web site (http://www.arrl.org/financial-reports) every month once they've been distributed to the Committee. The financial reports also include a written discussion of the results which is posted to this page as well. 73, Barry J. Shelley, N1VXY Chief Financial Officer ARRL, Inc. The National Association for Amateur Radio (860) 594-0212 www.arrl.org

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[arrl-odv:24933] IN-News
by Kustosik, Lisa, KA1UFZ 29 Dec '15

29 Dec '15

IN-Newsletter Vol. 40, No. 47 December 30, 2015 - Covers the period December 20-26. Upcoming In-Person Meetings and Events LoTW Study Committee January 12 @ 9:00am in Newington, CT CEO Search Committee January 13 @ 9:00am in Newington, CT Administration & Finance Committee January 14 @ 8:30am in Newington, CT Programs & Services Committee January 14 @ 8:30am in Newington, CT Annual Board Meeting January 15-16 @ 9:00am in Windsor, CT Lab Reported by Ed Hare, W1RFI Product Review Senior Test Engineer, Bob Allison, WB1GCM, is currently testing a high performance HF/6 meter transceiver. Testing of it should be wrapped up shortly. Next to be tested--a 220 MHz handheld transceiver. ARRL Laboratory Volunteer Martin Ewing, AA6E, has assisted Bob Allison with several Product Review devices during 2015, especially with the setup of software defined radios. We've had more than a couple of devices that came with poorly translated instructions, but Martin is an expert at solving complicated puzzles. The Lab is grateful for his volunteer work. Web Zack Lau uploaded the Propagation Forecasts for January 2016-the predicted solar flux is 118. Donation The ARRL Lab accepted a donation of vintage equipment from a Radio Amateur who lives in Plymouth Massachusetts. Included in the donation are items that will be added to the ARRL Historical Collection, such as a Johnson Kilowatt Matchbox (antenna tuner). This tuner was one of the first commercially made high power antenna tuners designed specifically for Amateur Radio use. The donated tuner is in mint condition, having never been used. Historical Collection Volunteer, Jonathan Allen, K2KKH, has cataloged 1,443 hardware items in our historical collection. Historical Collection Volunteer, Mike Marinaro, WN1M, has cataloged several dozen full size file boxes of documents from the 1970s through the early 90's. Though this era may not seem like the distant past, the documents will provide insight for future generations of the dedication and hard work the ARRL performed on behalf of its members and the Amateur Radio Service, worldwide. Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R Jackie Ferreira reports that a special offer postcard promoting the new ARRL Periodicals DVD mailed to 5,500 past purchasers. 368 orders were received over the Christmas weekend. Now Shipping: 2015 ARRL Periodicals on DVD. Summary of warehouse fulfillment activity, reported by Steve Capodicasa: Week Ending Packages fulfilled Member Premiums 12/24/2015 970 578 Yvette Vinci reports that on Tuesday, December 22, a reminder emailing was sent to members with a summary of "What's trending" in January QST-taking advantage of some early analytics shared by Alli Barbieri. The notification was sent to 122,991 members. Summary of Sales and Marketing Department telephone group, reported by Yvette Vinci: Week Ending Calls Answered Calls Per Hour Total Talking Duration Average Speed of Answer 12/24/2015 754 20.9 26:08:53 12 seconds Field Services & Radiosport Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N DXCC Paper/Fieldcheck Processing Time 3-4 Weeks Logbook Processing Time 2-4 Business Days Number of Centennial applications processed: Centennial Challenge QSO 2807 W1AW/WAS 1997 W1AW Joe Carcia updated the web code practice files and their archives. He processed three Qualifying Run certificates and three Qualifying Run endorsements. Joe updated the 2016 Qualifying Run schedules on the web. He also installed all the power and antenna connectors on the rotator and coaxial cables that will be used for the ARISS Go-Kit. He began work on setting up the Elevation and Azimuth rotators for the kit as well. Field Organization/Public Service Team The ballots and the candidate statements for the winter time Section Manager elections were printed and delivered to ARRL Headquarters. Thanks to the Mailroom staff for preparing the ballot mailing to members in the Virginia, Pacific and San Diego sections. Section expense and section-related travel reports continued to arrive in Leona Adams' in box as the end of the year approaches. One radio amateur from South Texas completed requirements to become an Official Observer this past week. An application was received from a radio amateur in Puerto Rico wishing to become a member of the ARRL Monitoring System/Intruder Watch. He was added to the group after Headquarters received approval from the Southeastern Division Director. Several Hawaiian stations reported hearing a spur on 30 meters from WWVH. The engineers were cooperative in checking on their transmitter. Questions received this week included one on FCC RF exposure rules, the 90th anniversary IARU special event stations, antenna zoning and an antenna construction question that was referred to Joel Hallas. Another nomination was received for the International Humanitarian Award, and Chuck Skolaut filled in for vacationing staff by conducting one morning code practice at W1AW. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Hamfest/Member Contact/ARRL Representative/Meetings/Vacations All Staff 1/1 Holiday Steve Ford 12/21-12/31 PTO Dan Henderson 12/17-1/5 PTO Bob Inderbitzen 12/24-12/31 PTO Steve San Andrea 12/28-12/31 PTO Dave Sumner 12/28-12/30 PTO `` 1/8 DARA meeting, Dayton, OH

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[arrl-odv:24931] Reports
by Dale Williams 28 Dec '15

28 Dec '15

Good morning all. Attached are two reports for the forthcoming Board Meeting: Document 16, Ethics and Elections Committee Report for the second half of 2105 Annual Report of the Great Lakes Division Best wishes for the coming year, Dale Williams WA8EFK

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[arrl-odv:24930] Reports target date
by Kay Craigie 26 Dec '15

26 Dec '15

The Board meeting falls as early as it can this time around, since January begins on a Friday. Please aim to have reports posted to the ODV and also sent to Lisa (she is not on the ODV distribution) by January 8, one week before the meeting starts. If you are the liaison to a committee chaired by an outside volunteer, please pass this information to the chair. Happy almost New Year! 73, Kay N3KN

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