IN-Newsletter
Vol. 41, No. 20
June 8, 2016 - Covers the period May 29-June 4.
Upcoming In-Person Meetings and Events
LoTW Study Committee
July 13 @ 10:00am in Newington, CT
Administration & Finance Committee
July 14 @ 8:30am in Newington, CT
Programs & Services Committee
July 14 @ 8:30am in Newington, CT
Second Board Meeting
July 15-16 @ 9:00am in Windsor, CT
CEO Office
Reported by Dan Henderson, N1ND
We are welcoming Laura Smith of the FCC who will be visiting HQ on Friday June 17. Laura will be meeting with Dan Henderson, Chris Imlay, Mike Lisenco, Ed Hare and other HQ staff to discuss different issues.
Lab
Reported by Ed Hare, W1RFI
Product Review Testing
Bob Allison completed testing of a twin band, FM/digital, mobile transceiver. A data table was compiled and passed along to Mark Wilson, K1RO and the reviewer. Bob tested a HF QRP beacon transmitter kit, which was found to be rich in unwanted harmonics. The manufacturer asked for suggestions on fixing this serious problem.
Membership Contact
Zack Lau used the scanning function of new copier to provide a PDF of an old QST Canada article for the author, Bruce, N7RR.
Lab Volunteers
Lab volunteers continue to provide the staff with quality work. Special thanks goes out to Bill Knapp, WA1WK, who has helped considerably with a difficult Product Review. Bill and Bob Allison have discovered several issues with a transceiver that must be addressed by the manufacturer before the review is to be completed.
Volunteer Curator, Mike Marinaro, WN1M, discovered more documents pertaining to the inception of the IARU. Mike has painstakingly documented an incredible amount of archives this year, preserving the history of the ARRL, IARU and Amateur Radio in general. Thanks, Mike.
RFI
Mike Gruber chaired a p1897 meeting for the development of a recommended practice for the resolution of power line noise complaints.
Mike Gruber received a telephone call from the Evanston, IL Police Departments concerning an apparent RFI issue. Key fobs and cell phones were not working properly in a certain neighborhood of the town. In some cases there were reports of people unable to start their cars. The FCC was unable to help. Mike discussed the matter with Kermit Carlson while at Dayton and he agreed to investigate. I shipped our locating equipment to Kermit from Dayton and the Hamvention. Kermit reports that he found a neon sign to be the culprit.
Mike Gruber is planning a follow-up visit to a funeral home in Rocky Hill. As previously mentioned in a weekly report, he was able to confirm that the source of an RFI complaint appears to originate from inside the funeral home. The noise is also consistent with an arcing source. The director of the funeral home has now agreed to let Mike locate the source. Unfortunately the funeral home director doesn't want to do anything about it until August
Sales and Marketing
Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R
Yvette Vinci reports that in May, we processed 18 paid-in-full Life Memberships and 21 Life Membership pledges. "Reminder letters" were sent to 571 members making quarterly payments toward Life Membership.
Yvette tested the digital edition of July QST during Alli Barbieri's vacation.
Jackie Ferreira reports that she has prepared a handful of email solicitations to promote publications and products. Some of the themes include ARRL Field Day, Father's Day, and the start of summer.
An email promoting the ARRL Visa Signature(r) Card was sent to members (by ARRL) on Friday, June 10-and offering a $50 statement credit to cardholders who spend just $200 on a card within the first 90 days of account opening. The creditor and issuer of the ARRL Visa Card is U.S. Bank National Association. For the first 5 months of 2016, ARRL has earned payments of over $17K from US Bank, for royalties, new cards, and card renewals.
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
6/10/2016 803 17.8 24:36:36 9 seconds
6/3/2016 (4 days) 705 19.6 21:23:53 10 seconds
5/27/2016 848 18.8 26:47:40 9 seconds
5/20/2016 780 17.3 26:44:10 12 seconds
Summary of warehouse fulfillment activity, reported by Steve Capodicasa:
Week Ending Packages fulfilled Member Premiums
6/10/2016 1,451 510
6/3/2016 (4 days) 1,456 420
5/27/2016 1,013 554
5/20/2016 976 470
Field Services & Radiosport
Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N
DXCC
Paper/Fieldcheck Processing Time 2-3 Weeks
Logbook Processing Time 1-2 Days
W1AW
On Tuesday, June 7, W1AW participated in the "Cascadia Rising" emergency communications exercise. Thanks to Steve Ewald, and HQ volunteer Skip Colton for manning 20 and 40 meters, respectively, to monitor for any HF activity. Steve Ewald had checked into one of the 20 meter emergency nets in operation. During the rest of the event, Joe Carcia operated the Winlink 2000 (WL2K) system and HF nodes to both send and receive email traffic related to the exercise.
Joe updated the W1AW QST code practice source web page. He updated the web code practice files and their archives. He continued with certain equipment installs with the ENG van.
Field Organization/Public Service Team
On Friday, June 10, the nomination receipt deadline for the summer Section Manager election cycle arrived. Leona Adams reports that there will be two elections this season. In Minnesota, incumbent Section Manager Skip Jackson, KS0J, will face Ann Foster, K0ANN, of St. Anthony, Minnesota. In Ohio, incumbent Section Manager Scott Yonally, N8SY, will face Matt Welch, W8DEC, of Windsor, Ohio.
Charles Motes, Jr. K1DFS, of Plainville, was the only nominee to submit a Section Manager's petition for the next term of office in Connecticut. His term will begin October 1. The current Connecticut Section Manager, Betsey Doane, K1EIC, decided not to run to another term of office after having served in this position since December 1991.
Kevin O'Dell, N0IRW, will return as Oklahoma Section Manager in October. He was the only nominee to submit a petition, and the current SM, Lloyd Colston, KC5FM, decided not to run for another term of office. Kevin, N0IRW, was the Oklahoma SM from October, 2010, through September 2014.
Oscar Resto, KP4RF, will become Puerto Rico's Section Manager in October. He was the only nominee to submit a petition, and Rene Fonseca, NP3O, the present SM decided not to seek a new term of office. Rene has been Section Manager for since October 2012.
The following incumbent Section Managers were unopposed during the nomination period, and they will begin new two-year terms of office starting October 1: Laura Mueller, N2LJM (Western New York); Jeff Beals, WA4AW, (Southern Florida); Fred Kleber, K9VV (Virgin Islands); Lynn Nelson, W0ND (North Dakota); Ed Stuckey, AI7H (Idaho).
The Kentucky OOC reports that an operation on 3843 kHz has improved recently, and previously reported bad language on an Alabama repeater has improved or ceased. An Illinois station reports hearing Cyrllic 5 letter code groups on 14.10825. Several questions were asked about enhanced SSB operation and grow lamps. Checking out a complaint regarding an Official Observer revealed he had acted appropriately. An intruder reported on 7055 kHz to 7060 kHz appears to be an Over the Horizon Radar from overseas. Address information was researched for a Western Washington Official Observer, and Chuck Skolaut conducted 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 7/4 Holiday
Bob Allison 7/22-7/23 Oklahoma Section Convention, Oklahoma City, OK
Alli Barbieri 6/9-6/13 PTO
Steve Capodicasa 6/13 PTO
`` 6/27 PTO
`` 8/22-8/26 PTO
`` 9/19-9/23 PTO
Lauren Clarke 6/13-6/21 PTO
Jackie Ferreira 6/23-6/24 PTO
`` 7/18-7/22 PTO
Steve Ford 6/10 PTO
`` 7/5-7/15 PTO
Norm Fusaro 6/22-6/27 International Exhibition, Friedrichshafen, Germany
`` 8/5-8/7 Texas State Convention, Austin, TX
`` 8/19-8/21 West Virginia State Convention, Weston, WV
Tom Gallagher 6/10-6/12 West Gulf Division Convention, Irving, TX
`` 6/14-6/21 PTO
`` 6/22-6/27 International Exhibition, Friedrichshafen, Germany
`` 6/20 Meeting with Fugate, Washington, DC
`` 7/14-7/16 Committee Meetings/Board Meeting
`` 8/12-8/14 New Mexico State Convention, Albuquerque, NM
Scott Gee 6/30-7/8 PTO
Mike Gruber 8/22-8/26 PTO
`` 9/26-9/30 PTO
Ed Hare 6/10-6/20 PTO
Dan Henderson 6/10 PTO
`` 6/29-7/1 PTO
`` 7/14-7/16 Committee Meetings/Board Meeting
Bob Inderbitzen 6/17 PTO
`` 6/21-6/27 International Exhibition, Friedrichshafen, Germany
`` 6/28-6/29 PTO
`` 7/5-7/8 PTO
Debra Johnson 6/16-6/23 PTO
Lisa Kustosik 7/14-7/16 Board Meeting, Windsor, CT
Sean Kutzko 6/17-6/19 Tennessee State Convention, Knoxville, TN
`` 6/27-7/1 PTO
Zack Lau 6/17 PTO
Diane Middleton 6/14-6/17 PTO
`` 7/19 PTO
`` 7/25-7/29 PTO
Becky Schoenfeld 6/27-6/29 AMP Conference, Washington, DC
Barry Shelley 6/17-7/1 PTO
`` 7/14-7/16 Committee Meetings/Board Meeting
`` 7/18-7/26 PTO
Chuck Skolaut 8/20-8/21 Kansas State Convention, Salina, KS
Yvette Vinci 6/17 PTO
