<<090110.doc>> IN-Newsletter <<Microsoft Word Picture>> Vol. 33, No. 35 September 1, 2010 -- Covers the period August 22-28. Upcoming Meetings and Events United States Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI) September 27-October 1 - ARRL HQ Executive Committee Meeting October 23 @ 9:00am in St. Louis, MO Ballot Counting for Director/Vice Director Elections November 19 in Newington, CT Regulatory Information Reported by Dan Henderson, N1ND During the past two weeks, we have handled about a dozen changes/corrections to the 2010 ARRL Field Day database and have begun the process of working on the results article, due in early October. It does appear that we will once again have record participation for Field Day. The final draft of a letter to ARRL members asking them to contact their members of Congress and support an increase in the charitable mileage deduction for volunteers was approved and sent to the DLAC Grassroots program for distribution. We also are aware that NC SGL Bob Conder, K4RLC, has approached Congressman David Price who has agreed to sign on as a co-sponsor of HR 2160. On August 18, ARRL Laboratory Manager Ed Hare, W1RFI and RIB Manager Dan Henderson, N1ND, visited the Cape Cod AFS PAVE PAWS radar site to meet the new commanding officer, Lt. Col. Shawn Smith. As part of that meeting, we briefed Smith on previous ARRL activities related to mitigation of interference to the radar from Amateur Radio sources and worked with him in preparing a presentation he would be giving at the 2010 New England Division Convention in Boxboro, MA on August 28. The RIB Manager assisted Lt Col. Smith at the presentation, which was attended by approximately 100 amateurs. Lt. Col. Smith shared that things are in good shape concerning interference at his site at this time and thanked the amateur community for their work in reducing the amount of harmful interference responsibly. An ordinance forwarded to HQ from OK Section Manager Dean Feken, KL7MA, was reviewed, and while it is not inline with statutes giving the FCC full jurisdiction over RF cases, it does not include Amateur Radio so no action is necessary from the amateur community. We have also begun working with a CT amateur on questions arising from replacing an existing tower on his property, which is located in a designated historic district. Several routine member queries were addressed on a variety of issues ranging from reciprocal operating and equipment certification to proper repeater use and ID requirements. Media & Public Relations Reported by Allen Pitts, W1AGP Interest and preparations for the celebration of ARES' 75th anniversary have begun to spin up and the main wave of activity is expected shortly after the Labor Day holiday. 30 and 60 second audio PSA's have been created using the voice of Pete Summers, KL2GY. Web pages have been updated with 75th anniversary information. A wire release has been crafted for use next week. The postcards, which were an experiment, have been very well received and are being used. (I will definitely keep that idea for use again in the future.) Media outlets are being contacted and pitched. While there is still no response at all from the White House on our request, other organizations have been interested in the story. Meanwhile, I am working together with Dave Clausen on the Hello-Radio and Emergency -Radio websites. (These were the two campaign websites that we specially created for NON-hams to become interested that were hacked when Networks Solutions had security issues and lapses with their servers.) We believe we have the malicious code removed and I am exploring ways to efficiently update their contents and then bring their unique information and graphics into the main ARRL website. I have an interview set up with the rock group Arcade Fire for 9/10/10 and am working with Kevin O'Dell, N0IRW, on editing the video PSA done for us by college students at York Tech in SC. Together with EPP Manager Mike Corey and help from Rob Macedo, KD1CY; Julio Ripoll, WD4R; John McHugh, K4AG; and Victor Morris Jr., AH6WX, we prepared a topic paper for IARU submission. I provided background information and history about volunteer screenings and credit checking for coming CreditCards.com article. The September issue of Contact! was published with extensive information for the ARES anniversary. Development Reported by Mary Hobart, K1MMH The Spectrum Defense Fund receipts for 2010 now stand at $112,000. Work will begin next week on the second issue of Spectrum Defense Matters. The mail campaign for the Education & Technology Fun dropped August 31 to 75,000 prior donors and members. The goal is to raise $60,000 to fund the stations in school, a portion of the education service expenses and the Teachers Institutes. The Diamond Club continues to make progress toward its 2010 goal. Net receipts to date total approximately $160,000 toward the 2010 goal of $263,000. ARRL members and donors continue to take advantage of the monthly giving option to support ARRL. Development is working on a special appeal to prior donors to the Historic Preservation Fund. Production/Editorial Reported by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE The October 2010 issue of QST was released to the printer August 23. Khrystyne Keane wrote and distributed The ARRL Letter and voiced and produced ARRL Audio News for August 26, 2010. Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R A flat rate shipping offer on orders of $40 or more helped stir-up some additional end-of-month direct sales. The promotion was supported by a series of email solicitations. A fall mailing is being prepared to mail to 20,000 of our best customers. The mailing piece will feature the new 2011 ARRL Handbook (shipping October), Storm Spotting and Amateur Radio, Remote Operating for Amateur Radio, licensing materials, ARES 75th anniversary items (shipping early Sept), and the 2011/12 ARRL Calendar (shipping October). This edition of the 13-month ARRL Calendar will feature the vintage radio photography of Joe Veras, K9OCO. ARRL supported a booth at the New England Division Convention in Boxborough, Massachusetts, August 28-29. Amy Hurtado and Deb Jahnke organized and supported the exhibit. 75 membership applications were taken, including 2 Life Membership payments (67 in 2009, including 1 Life). Some higher-valued signing premiums helped boost multi-year memberships (25). Dave Sumner was the guest speaker at the banquet dinner on Saturday evening. The Member Services team has been introduced to a new Account Information System (AIS), developed by the IT staff. This intranet (in-house) web service is used to access some member account information, permitting our staff to review and modify email newsletter subscriptions, email addresses, and the bulk email system's opt-out suppression list. While members may also update their own email address and newsletter preferences via their online membership profile, this capability will allow us to service requests received by phone, email, and mail. Work is ongoing to support the IT team as they develop AIS data entry screens for product sales and the integration of the AIS and e-store with the organization's accounting system where sales records and inventories are maintained. We've started to receive direct mail responses to a recent Membership Benefits Survey. The survey had previously been completed online. This sample group, surveyed by mail, includes members that did not respond, and another sample of members without known e-mail addresses. Results will be analyzed and reported in late September. We have reached an agreement with Cana Kit Corporation of British Columbia, Canada to produce the ARRL's PIC Programming Kit. The kit is intended to be used with ARRL's PIC Programming for Beginners book (sold separately). A revised edition of the book, authored by Mark Spencer WA8SME, will refer to the availability of the kit. The kit includes all of the parts and boards necessary to complete the labs and project covered in the book. The kit also includes a PIC programmer. The kit will retail for approximately $140 and will be introduced this fall. During the last 2 weeks, the warehouse crew fulfilled 1,125 packages for publication and product orders, 558 membership premiums, and QST mailing supplements. Membership & Volunteer Programs Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N Contest Branch Just over 3,700 logs have been received for IARU 2010, an increase of nearly 300 logs from 2009. 181 logs have been received for the August UHF contest. While we still have a week to go before the log submission deadline, this is a significant drop from last year's 243 logs. 2010 June VHF data has been received from the log checker and Sean, KX9X, is processing it. The results article is due to ARRL HQ by September 24. The August Rookie Roundup was a big success, despite poor conditions. 125 Rookies and 48 Non-Rookies submitted logs, nearly double from the debut Rookie Roundup held this past April. The online score submission form on the ARRL web site made entry easy for all, and many entrants logged their QSOs in the real-time web logger, created by N5KO and K5TR. Results were posted less than a week after the final QSO was logged and certificates will be available for download by the winners within a week. Sean, KX9X, was the ARRL representative at the Tokyo Ham Fair over the weekend of August 22-23, at the request of JARL. 291 DXCC applications were processed. Long-time DXer JA1UQP was the star of the card-checking process, having brought in 28 deleted countries to add to his total, including such noted deleted entities as Blenheim Reef, Farquhar, Geyser Reef, Aldabra, Jabal At Tair (Abu Ail) and others. Numerous "ooohs" and "ahhhhs" were audible. W1AW W1AW received another round of donations of audio products from Heil Sound. In addition to some mic adapters, mic booms with associated hardware, two (2) PR781 microphones, two (2) GM5 Gold Mic and two (2) PRO Set Elite headsets were received. Joe updated the web code practice files and their archives. He created the texts for the September W1AW Qualifying Runs. He updated the W1AW and West Coast Qualifying Run schedules web pages. He also updated the weekly QST text source web pages. Joe also processed one Qualifying Run endorsement. He also sent to M-Square Antenna systems an ailing rotator and control console for repair and tracked down yet another problem with a rotator atop the 120' Rohn tower. Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the last part of the month of August and early September. He also assisted the DXCC department with the editing of applications. Field Organization/Public Service Team The summer Section Manager election ballots were counted on Tuesday, August 24. Thanks to MVP staff members Leona Adams, Chuck Skolaut, Ashley Rakus and Steve Ewald for handling the ballot-counting duties. After the votes were counted, David Fowler, K4DLF, was elected in Southern Florida, and incumbent Ohio Section Manager Frank Piper, KI8GW, was also elected. In Oklahoma, Kevin O'Dell, N0IRW, will become Section Manager since he was unopposed. The following incumbent Section Managers were also unopposed and were declared re-elected for terms starting on October 1: Betsey Doane, K1EIC, Connecticut; Ed Stuckey, AI7H, Idaho; Skip Jackson, KS0J, Minnesota; Lynn Nelson, N0ND, North Dakota; Roberto Jimenez, KP4AC, Puerto Rico; John Ellis, NP2B, Virgin Islands; and Scott Bauer, W2LC, Western New York. Incumbent Section Managers Tom Dick, KF2GC, of Northern New York, and Dee Turner, N4GD, of West Central Florida, have been nominated to run for new terms of office starting on January 1, 2011. A new Official Observer from Santa Barbara has joined the Field Organization, and a radio amateur from Connecticut was approved for the ARRL Monitoring System/Intruder Watch program. ARRL HQ received the monthly Intruder Watch newsletter from IARU Region 3. IARU Region 1 monitors followed up on a report that Radio Uganda was being heard on 7195 kHz. Later reports that it had moved out of the band are still to be confirmed. A report of severe RFI was received from Eastern Pennsylvania, and the OOC and OOs there are investigating. An OO in Northern New Jersey is also looking into interference to a local 440 repeater. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Staff Absentee List All Staff 9/6 Holiday Kathy Allison 9/22-9/27 Vacation Jon Bloom 8/25-9/3 Vacation Margie Bourgoin 9/17 Vacation Steve Capodicasa 9/6-9/10 Vacation Mike Corey 9/16-9/17 NPSTC Meeting, Orlando, FL `` 9/21-9/23 HS Conference, Biloxi, MS `` 10/8-10/16 GAREC Conference, Curacao/Vacation `` 10/31-11/4 IAEM Conference, San Antonio, TX `` 11/17 NPSTC Meeting, Washington, DC Steve Ewald 9/17-9/18 EMCOMM East; Rochester, NY Steve Ford 9/20 Vacation Mike Gruber 9/27-10/1 Vacation Joel Hallas 9/3 Vacation `` 9/10 Vacation Dan Henderson 9/24-10/3 Ten-Tec Hamfest,(TN)/W4DXCC/SEDCO/Vacation `` 10/13-10/19 Pacificon, San Ramon, CA/Beale AFB `` 11/12-11/14 Indiana State Convention, Ft. Wayne, IN Mary Hobart 9/10 Vacation `` 9/24 Vacation `` 10/1 Vacation `` 10/15-10/16 Pacificon, San Ramon, CA `` 10/22 Vacation `` 10/29 Vacation Gail Iannone 8/20-9/7 Vacation Sabrina Jackson 9/3 Vacation Joel Kleinman 9/9 Vacation Lisa Kustosik 9/7 Vacation Monique Levesque 9/20-9/24 Vacation Maryann Macdonald Sick Leave Bill Moore 9/10-9/13 Virginia Section Convention, Virginia Beach, VA Dave Sumner 9/30-10/9 IARU R2 Conference/AC Meeting, El Salvador `` 10/22pm-10/24 Executive Committee Meeting, St. Louis , MO
