December 2018 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[arrl-odv:27765] Re: DRAFT Petition for Rule Making, Amateur Radio Parity Act (Administrative Implementation)
by Michel, Howard, WB2ITX (CEO) 15 Dec '18

15 Dec '18

Hi Fred, because I believe your intent was to CC the ODV list, and the Executive Committee's intent was to engage the new Directors in this discussion, I have forwarded your email to ODV. 73, Howard, WB2ITX Howard E. Michel, WB2ITX Chief Executive Officer ARRL, The National Association for Amateur Radio® 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111-1494 USA<x-apple-data-detectors://14> Telephone: +1 860-594-0404<tel:+1%20860-594-0404> email: hmichel(a)arrl.org<mailto:hmichel@arrl.org> On Dec 15, 2018, at 12:30 AM, Hopengarten, Fred, K1VR, (Dir, NE) <fred(a)antennazoning.com<mailto:fred@antennazoning.com>> wrote: Mr. Widin: I have made several comments that are interspersed in the FAQ. I am puzzled to learn that it could be possible, according to the FAQ, to willfully violate a federal regulation with a potential monetary forfeiture and not be an outlaw. Similarly, I am disheartened to learn that the ARRL might take a position that violations may be acceptable because “there would be no enforcement.” That doesn’t show much respect for law, does it? To be clear, I do not favor an end-run around the Congress with the NPRM I participated in drafting, when the drafting was done on the assumption that ARPA had passed and fixed the limits of FCC discretion. I do not favor the route now proposed. Fred Hopengarten, Esq. K1VR hopengarten(a)post.harvard.edu<mailto:hopengarten@post.harvard.edu> Six Willarch Road Lincoln, MA 01773 antennazoning.com<http://antennazoning.com> 781.259.0088 From: G Widin [mailto:gpwidin@comcast.net] Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2018 6:21 PM To: Michel, Howard, Wb2Itx Cc: arrl-odv; rjairam(a)gmail.com<mailto:rjairam@gmail.com>; W2RU(a)b2xonline.com<mailto:W2RU@b2xonline.com>; Mike Ritz; hopengarten(a)post.harvard.edu<mailto:hopengarten@post.harvard.edu> Subject: Re: [arrl-odv:27759] DRAFT Petition for Rule Making, Amateur Radio Parity Act (Administrative Implementation) There is obviously some history behind what is in the petition, and how it got to be the way it is. Because not everyone may be aware of this background, I thought it would be helpful to prepare a "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQ) document providing some of this information. This might also become a good basis for communication to members. I've attached the FAQ as a Word document. I'm sure there will be suggestions for change, and I invite these, as they will help improve the document. 73, Greg, K0GW On Thu, Dec 13, 2018 at 10:56 AM Michel, Howard, WB2ITX (CEO) <wb2itx(a)arrl.org<mailto:wb2itx@arrl.org>> wrote: During its electronic meeting on 12/12/18, the Executive Committee approved the filing on the Amateur Radio Parity Act petition for rule making with the FCC, which had been previously authorized by the Board, before December 31, 2018. Meeting minutes are being prepared and will be made available shortly. The Committee authorized sharing the petition with the 2018 and 2019 Board. It is attached. Please note that this petition has not yet been made public, and it should not be shared outside this group. Please share any comments about the petition with Atty Imlay as soon as practical. 73, Howard, WB2ITX -- Howard E. Michel, WB2ITX Chief Executive Officer ARRL, The National Association for Amateur Radio® 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111-1494 USA Telephone: +1 860-594-0404 email: hmichel(a)arrl.org<mailto:hmichel@arrl.org> _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org<mailto:arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv [https://ipmcdn.avast.com/images/icons/icon-envelope-tick-round-orange-anima…]<https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> Virus-free. www.avast.com<https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> <FAQs on ARPA 20181212 draft QA v2 by K1VR.doc>

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[arrl-odv:27764] Re: Draft petition for rule making
by k5ur＠aol.com 14 Dec '18

14 Dec '18

Hi Jim: Regarding a Special Board Meeting, a provision in Article 4 states: Article 4: ...... Special meetings of the Board shall be called by the President upon written request of a least one half of the membership of the Board as then constituted. We will need 8 Directors to provide such a request, so counting yours, we will need 7 more. 73Rick - K5UR -----Original Message----- From: James Tiemstra <k6jat(a)comcast.net> To: Rick Roderick <k5ur(a)aol.com> Cc: arrl-odv <arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org> Sent: Fri, Dec 14, 2018 11:57 am Subject: [arrl-odv:27763] Draft petition for rule making Dear Rick: As a follow-up to our prior conversations on this subject, I request that you call for a vote on conducting a Special Meeting of the Board of Directors of the ARRL to consider postponement of the filing of the draft petition for rule making circulated by CEO, Howard Michel, WB2ITX, until after the upcoming Annual Board of Directors meeting next month. The reason for such a postponement would be to allow the newly elected Board to participate in a potentially momentous policy decision by the League, and is based on the following considerations: 1. There is no urgency, much less an emergency, mandating an immediate filing of the draft petition a little more than two weeks before the regularly scheduled annual Board meeting. 2. Postponement is not a decision on the merits of the draft petition which should be carefully and fully considered in January. 3. It is clearly impractical, unrealistic and ultimately unhelpful to request fully informed and well considered comments on the draft petition from individual Board members before December 31, 2018. 4. The existence of prior Board authorization is a fallacy, and begs the question as to why further authority was sought as well as a request for comments; no specific timetable for or contents of the petition were provided to the Board before yesterday. 5. Filing the draft petition now might very likely be seen as an affront to the newly elected Directors, and the campaign platforms upon which they were elected. 6. The Executive Committee's decision to pursue a new request for rule making exceeded its authority which is limited to "[a]pplying existing Board policy to make decisions between Board meetings" (emphasis added, Bylaw 40). 7. The decision of the Executive Committee to proceed now has usurped the Board's authority to review and consider embarking on a new and materially different campaign to implement the Amateur Radio Parity Act. 8. The draft petition is far from being sufficiently refined for filing; it is repetitive, overly argumentative and antagonistic, exaggerates facts, is historically inaccurate, relies too heavily on the failed results of our legislative efforts and overstates the case to the detriment of its argument. 9. At this time, in its present form and absent any specifics of reliance by government officials, the draft petition poses a greater risk of damaging the interests of Amateur Radio Operators and the League than it does in accomplishing anything of near term benefit to those interests. The proposal to move forward with a new petition for rule making is exactly the type of decision that it is incumbent upon the entire Board, and only the full Board, to make. We all have a fiduciary duty to deliberate and do what is best for Amateur Radio. Sincerely, Jim Tiemstra, K6JAT Pacific Division Director _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv

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[arrl-odv:27763] Draft petition for rule making
by James Tiemstra 14 Dec '18

14 Dec '18

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[arrl-odv:27762] IN-Newsletter
by Pereira, Carla, KC1HSX 14 Dec '18

14 Dec '18

Attached is this week's IN-Newsletter with updates from around the building. Be sure to click on all of the links! Happy Friday!

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[arrl-odv:27759] DRAFT Petition for Rule Making, Amateur Radio Parity Act (Administrative Implementation)
by Michel, Howard, WB2ITX (CEO) 13 Dec '18

13 Dec '18

During its electronic meeting on 12/12/18, the Executive Committee approved the filing on the Amateur Radio Parity Act petition for rule making with the FCC, which had been previously authorized by the Board, before December 31, 2018. Meeting minutes are being prepared and will be made available shortly. The Committee authorized sharing the petition with the 2018 and 2019 Board. It is attached. Please note that this petition has not yet been made public, and it should not be shared outside this group. Please share any comments about the petition with Atty Imlay as soon as practical. 73, Howard, WB2ITX -- Howard E. Michel, WB2ITX Chief Executive Officer ARRL, The National Association for Amateur Radio® 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111-1494 USA Telephone: +1 860-594-0404 email: hmichel(a)arrl.org

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[arrl-odv:27758] PSC Meeting Minutes, 2018
by Rod Blocksome 12 Dec '18

12 Dec '18

The Programs & Services Committee met five times in 2018: Jan. 18, 2018 - At ARRL HQ Apr. 18, 2018 - On Teleconference June 28, 2018 - On Teleconference July 19, 2018 - At ARRL HQ Nov. 14, 2018 - On Teleconference Admittedly we have been tardy in getting the minutes of these meetings approved and published to the ARRL web site - but now we are caught up. You will find the approved minutes of these meetings at: http://www.arrl.org/psc-minutes 73's, Rod Blocksome, K0DAS PSC Chairman

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[arrl-odv:27747] Projecting membership into the future, and the data required
by Mike Raisbeck 11 Dec '18

11 Dec '18

Folks, We've been talking for some time as a Board about the aging membership and the aging hobby in general. There has been some lip service to the notion of a demographic time bomb out there, but our information hasn't been solid enough to create the "oh my God !!" reaction that I suspect is warranted. I don't recall seeing any projections of membership that I thought were based on careful analysis. Such material may exist, but I'm not aware of it. There may be something buried in some committee reports on ODV, but nothing pops out at me. I asked Director Frenaye about it, and he couldn't come up with any that weren't cursory either, though he did give me some very good information on attempts to deal with this that we have made in the past. It also seems to me that there is enough data available out there that a good statistician or actuary could tease out a very accurate projection of membership over time, based on life expectancy, current age of members, various membership acquisition rates, various membership retention rates, etc. Back in engineering school years ago (I mean YEARS ago) I chose to take probability in the math department, rather than statistics in the engineering department, so I really don't know how to do it myself. Tom did some investigation a while back, and it appears that we can get detailed data pertaining to the ages both of members, and of hams in general. It would cost on the order of $10,000. That gets us the data. I'm not sure what the actuarial work would cost. What could we learn? Things like: - will the membership begin to fall off? When and how fast?- how fast do we have to create new hams and new members in order to reverse such a trend- how sensative are these trends to the ages of new Hams nd Members that we might create If I had to guess, I would say that the numbers would be far more alarming than most people think. I imagine a curve that looks flat for 3 or maybe 4 years, then drops off precipitously, perhaps at an annual rate of 5% or more. I'm also going to guess that the position of the knee of the curve is more dependent than we suspect on membership acquisition rate. I also predict that the age spread (deviation around the mean) is critical to the calculation, and that our age distribution is rather tight (ie., lots of members between 55 and 75, relatively few below that) making for a fast falloff. But then I'm only guessing. So, I propose that we spend a few serious dollars to try to figure this out. Here is my proposal, framed as a motion. Any takers on the front Bench? 73,MikeK1TWF ------------------------- Your-Name-Here WHEREAS it appears that the population of Hams in general and ARRL members in particular is aging, and WHEREAS the effects of this demographic phenomenon will likely have a profound effect on ARRL membership, in turn having profound effects on the organization THEREFORE it is moved: 1. that the ARRL acquire detailed data on the age of Hams and of ARRL members; and 2. that we enlist the services of a suitable actuary or actuarial firm to analyze this data and create a model so as to generate for us defensible projections of Ham and League Member counts over the next 20 years, using various assumptions as to rate of creation of new Hams, proportions of new Hams who will become members, ages of new Hams, etc. COST: roughly $10,000 for the data and roughly $5,000 for the analysis Mike Raisbeck k1twf(a)arrl.net

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[arrl-odv:27752] OK1YQ DXCC Investigation
by Michel, Howard, WB2ITX (CEO) 11 Dec '18

11 Dec '18

December 10, 2018 Re: OK1YQ DXCC Investigation On November 20, 2018 the Radiosport Department reported to ODV that we were investigating DXCC submissions by OK1YQ. The investigation was begun based on emails from DXers about OK1YQ suddenly showing up in the standings with significant scores, particularly on 160m. As with any investigation we assume the party to be innocent of any wrong doing until such evidence can support the contrary. In the note we had stated that Jarda was disqualified however, this is not true. This claim came about from e-mails from former DXCC Manager Bill Moore in which he used the words “disqualified” and “banned” but, as it turns out, this was just puffery on Bill’s part as theirs was not a good relationship. Jarda has never been officially disqualified from DXCC under any call sign. Jarda was most cooperative in this investigation. He immediately shipped the requested 160m QSL cards to us and provided the tracking information within 24 hours of our request. He took no time to “stack the deck.” Jarda also provided a copy of the OK1YQ operator permit as requested. When the QSL cards arrived, we carefully checked each one. A sampling of the cards was compared to log extractions that had been requested for specific dates from his QSO partners. We also compared some of the QSOs to LoTW records of his QSO partners. No discrepancies were found. Afterwards we returned the QSL cards to Jarda and thanked him for his cooperation. At this time, we have no reason to believe that there was any wrongdoing or alterations in any of the submissions made by OK1YQ. Essentially, we have a longtime DXer who submitted several years’ worth of QSLs to be applied to his DXCC award which catapulted him up in the standings. The investigation is closed. Norm Fusaro, W3IZ Radiosport and Field Services Department Manager -- Howard E. Michel, WB2ITX Chief Executive Officer ARRL, The National Association for Amateur Radio® 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111-1494 USA Telephone: +1 860-594-0404 email: hmichel(a)arrl.org

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[arrl-odv:27751] January second century column
by Michel, Howard, WB2ITX (CEO) 10 Dec '18

10 Dec '18

Colleagues, My January Second Century column that is now available on the web. It offers an insight into how I see ARRL. http://www.arrl.org/files/file/QST/This%20Month%20in%20QST/January2019/Janu… 73, Howard, WB2ITX -- Howard E. Michel, WB2ITX Chief Executive Officer ARRL, The National Association for Amateur Radio® 225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111-1494 USA Telephone: +1 860-594-0404 email: hmichel(a)arrl.org

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[arrl-odv:27750] Formal Notice: ARRL 2019 Annual Board Meeting
by Pereira, Carla, KC1HSX 10 Dec '18

10 Dec '18

Dear Officers, Directors and Vice Directors of the ARRL: Attached is the formal notice of the 2019 ARRL Annual Board Meeting, sent on behalf of Secretary Barry Shelley. Also attached are the Agenda for the meeting, and a copy of the accommodations form. Please let me know if you have any trouble opening these documents. Respectfully, Carla Pereira, KC1HSX Executive Assistant to Chief Executive Officer ARRL Newington, CT 06111 860-594-0242

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