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IN-Newsletter
Vol. 30, No. 45
November 7, 2007 -- Covers the period October 28-November 3.
Upcoming Meetings and Events
Ballot Counting for Director/Vice Director Elections
November 16 in Newington, CT
Administration &Finance Committee
November 17 in Newington, CT
Programs & Services Committee
December 8 in Newington, CT
Administration &Finance Committee
January 17 in Houston, TX
Programs & Services Committee
January 17 in Houston, TX
Annual Board Meeting
January 18-19, 2008 in Houston, TX
Sincerely Compiled by,
Regulatory Information
Reported by Dan Henderson, N1ND
We continued working with Air Force Frequency Management and the FCC on the mitigations letters that the FCC will be sending starting possibly the end of the week of November 5. Of concern is that apparently the DoD has turned over the newly identified seven repeaters in New England to the FCC, bypassing a chance for the ARRL to attempt to mitigate the problem before the FCC becomes involved with the newly identified repeaters. We will continue working on this during the upcoming week.
The 2007 ARRL Field Day results for the web were posted and opened to the membership during the week. We also spent significant time in the week working with and teaching the new Contest manager on several types of tasks he needs to learn using Access and preparing results and awards.
A series of exchanges was held with a club in Kansas involving a request they received to have their amateur radio operators work with the television production company that does the “Extreme Home Makeover” show. A similar query was received about six-eight weeks ago for the same television program. They were advised that Part 97.113 (b) is specific about amateur radio not being used in any activity related to the program production or incidental newsgathering.
Working with Debra Johnson I reviewed portions of the script of their new Technician video course, which led to several significant changes. And as usual, numerous member queries on a wide range of issues from reciprocal operating, traveling with equipment, and the IARU Region 2 bandplan were answered.
Media & Public Relations
Reported by Allen Pitts, W1AGP
While a great deal of time was spent on several issues and the prevention of bad publicity, positive gains were also achieved this week. John Kanzius’ work on using radio waves to kill cancer cells hit the national papers this week – and he has been happily sharing his ham radio roots with reporters. Allen has been in regular contact with him for several months and he is agreeable to being part of the planned 2008 campaign highlighting the technical aspects and “McGiver” spirit of hams. “Clean” video was secured from Icom which will also be used in 2008 to show Dstar operations. Ted Randall of KAIJ is writing a piece about how ham licenses are seen as a major asset by prospective employers in broadcast communications for 2008. Forbes Magazine had an article on “dead” technologies that ended with a reference to ham radio and how, despite the claims of some, it is STILL saving lives and so is far from dead. Meanwhile the AARP published their list of recommended hobbies that retirees might like – and ham radio was #1.
Development
Reported by Mary Hobart, K1MMH
The 2008 Spectrum Defense Campaign is rolling along. Responses through 11/5/07 total more than $71,000 from more than 900 donors. The average contribution is a very healthy $77.16. The follow up to 31,000 prior donors is in the mail as is the personalized follow up to major donors and major prospects. After another week or so we will begin evaluation of the segmentation strategy based on the data from the Target Analysis conducted in the summer.
The Diamond Club rebounded in October to yield 44 new Diamond Club donors and 136 renewal contributions for the month. Gross revenue for October 2007 topped $31,000 bringing the Year To Date gross revenue total to $320,834, compared to $196,245 for October 2006 for a 63% increase. Average contributions for new and renewing Diamond Club donors were 63.5% and 44% respectively.
ARRL welcomes two new Maxim Society donors – Dr. Beurt SerVaas, W9WVO and Claudie and Herb Schuler, K2HPV. These new members bring the number of Maxim Society donors to 40.
Development is working with Product Marketing Specialist, Jackie Cornell, on mailing the new fall 2007 publications catalog to Diamond Club donors at the Brass Level ($250) and above. The catalog mailing includes a letter to these 300+ donors thanking them for their financial support and encouraging them to pay special attention to new publications being offered.
Work continues on the Endowment Campaign brochure and strategy that will highlight special gift opportunities.
The annual Year End campaign is expected to mail immediately after Thanksgiving.
Production/Editorial
Reported by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE
This past week we said “hasta lavista baby” to Production Assistant Joe Shea. Joe worked side by side with Jodi Morin for more than 15 years, creating professional-looking magazine pages from the files created by the QST editors. We’ll miss him!
This week we welcomed Assistant Editor Steve Sant Andrea, WB2GYK, to the Editorium. Steve, who hails from Woodbury, started working on preparing manuscripts for Production on his first day of work! He’s in the office that was once occupied by Rick Lindquist.
We checked printer’s proofs for the new edition of The ARRL Operating Manual.
Joel Kleinman posted “ARRL in Action” to the ARRL Web covering the month of October.
Khrystyne Keane wrote and distributed The ARRL Letter, Vol. 26, No. 44, for Friday, November 2. It went out to 65,541 subscribers. Khrystyne also voiced and produced ARRL Audio News for October 26. Thanks to Andy Shefrin, Joe Carcia, Jon Bloom and Greg Kwasowski for their assistance in moving the recording studio across the hallway to Khrystyne’s office and getting things set up for Steve.
Lab
Reported by Ed Hare, W1RFI
Sales and Marketing
Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R
Membership climbed again in October, now totaling 152,582 members—and up 369 members from September. Strong renewals and consistent acquisition contributed to the month’s gains. Membership is running ahead of forecast by 2,236 members YTD.
October product sales were $413,137. The amount is short of plan by $126,542, but $46k higher than Oct 2006. The greatest share of the shortfall is attributed to lower-than-predicted October sales for the new 2008 ARRL Handbook. Year-to-date sales are $2,694,107—97% of plan, and $348,000 ahead of the comparable 2006 period. We hope to narrow some of October’s shortfall with better-than-predicted sales of the Handbook and other new titles in November and December.
Earlier this fall, we introduced the third edition of ARRL’s Low Power Communication, authored by Rich Arland, W3OSS. This new edition includes the complete assembly manual for a 40 meter transceiver kit produced by MFJ Enterprises. A special product bundle is available, offering customers the book-and-kit. The initial surge of interest exceeded our expectation, and we've already gone back to MFJ a couple of times for more units. With such a high demand for these kits, we have experienced a large number of orders, and we regret any inconvenience with order delays (a news story was posted). The kit selected for this offering is the MFJ 40 Meter CW Cub Transceiver Kit. The project meets an important ARRL goal for developing active radio amateurs. We can't think of a better way to encourage more hams to experience low-power operating and building, as well as helping to grow the community of active QRPers.
The Fall Publications Catalog has arrived. Along with the usual direct and dealer distribution, we’ll mail catalogs to Diamond Club members with the 10% publication discount benefit.
During the week of October 29-November 2, the Warehouse crew fulfilled 1,314 packages for publication and product orders, shipped 268 free book membership premiums, and 2 November QST mailing supplements. Warehouse Supervisor Steve Capodicasa reported that his crew shipped 584 packages on Monday, Oct 29--a very big day! A few members of our customer service team contributed overtime and some weekend hours to help maintain our delivery service standard.
Building Manager Greg Kwasowski, W1GJK, has re-activated the ARRL Audio-News feed for telephone callers placed on-hold. This audio feature replaces the commercial radio feed. While we try to minimize calls placed on-hold, we’re hopeful that the ARRL Audio News feature will make the experience more interesting and enjoyable.
Bob participated in a publication planning meeting for the ARRL Repeater Directory. He has also joined Harold and Jon Bloom on site visits to a couple of firms that specialize in web development and design.
A new Club Awards Program is in-the-works, and includes planning with our business partner Barker Specialty Company. This new program will establish a selection of personalized awards. For example, a club will be able to order an engraved plaque to honor a club member, or for a special achievement. The awards will include ARRL logos and artwork, and options to include additional customization and personalization. A process for placing these personalized orders online will be up-and-running in about 30 days.
December’s issue of QST will mail November 6-13.
There are a couple of notable staff changes in the Sales and Marketing Department. Jackie Cornell has been promoted to Product Marketing Specialist—advancing her role in marketing our products and publications. We wish Jackie much success in her new responsibilities. We have also welcomed lobby receptionist and switchboard operator Penny Harts, N1NAG, to the department. Bringing Penny and her task areas into the customer service team will help increase our effectiveness in supporting members and customers.
Business Services
Reported by Deb Jahnke, K1DAJ
Staff members were busy to the end of the second annual ARRL On-Line Auction that concluded Friday November 2 at 3:00. During the course of the week staff responded to 289 inquiries.
The results:
This year’s ARRL On-Line Auction produced $53,769 in winning bids, an increase from last year of over $13,000. Of the 181 items up for bid, only 6 small ticket items were not bid on. There were 311 unique bidders who placed 1317 bids. In the end, 120 bidders came away as winners.
The item receiving the most bids was the Eagles CD and the ARRL Junque Boxes came in second. The item receiving the most page views, however, was the Cottage at Mountain Breeze, St. Croix. The total number of page views for all items was 65,974.
We had 2423 new registrants this year as well as 1161 returning registrants from last year, browsing the items.
At the conclusion of the auction, we received a number of messages from bidders and browsers indicating that the event was thoroughly enjoyable and wanting to know the dates of the next event.
Membership & Volunteer Programs
Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N
Awards Branch
Category Sept. 2007 Oct. 2007 Year-to-Date Year End Goal
WAS Certificates (Manual) 16 20 236 282
WAS Certificates (LoTW) 4 4 175 295
A-1 Op Nominations 22 16 384 601
A-1 Op Certificates 12 7 179 288
Extra Class Certificates 9 8 166 194
WAC Certificates 37 30 270 313
VUCC New / Grids 9 / 1,278 14/1,664 86/ 11,107 144 / 13,581
VUCC Endorsement / Grids 15 / 984 9 / 648 81 / 5,205 109 / 6,533
Processing Time 6 Weeks 0 Weeks 2 Weeks
DXCC Branch
Category Sept. 2007 Oct. 2007 Year-to-Date Year End Goal
Credits Processed 50,160 47,465 517,057 622,215
Credits Received 42,141 61,581 528,722 622,342
Applications Returned 554 515 4,737 5,643
Applications Received 552 572 5,368 5,643
Applications Pending 1,221 1,340 599
Processing Time 8 Weeks 11 Weeks 3 Weeks
Logbook of the World
Category Sept. 2007 Oct. 2007 2006 Year End
QSO Records Entered Into System 140,748,544 144,643,143 116,730,953
QSL Record Matches 9,805,977 10,232,360 7,193,911
Logs Processed 436,353 457,489 305,569
Active Certificates 26,652 27,197 21,889
Registered Users in System 17,497 17,839 14,474
Logbook (Email Only) Inquiries Sept. 2007 Oct. 2007
Lost Certificate 109 107
DXCC Status Inquiries 50 56
Data Not Shown 19 11
No TQ6 File Received from LoTW 6 4
Additional Certificate Requests 34 42
Cannot Log on to LoTW User Page 25 12
Cannot Upload Log to LoTW User Page 19 9
No TQ5 File Received by LoTW 36 15
Incorrect Date Range 18 18
Lost Personal Password 9 13
User Email Problems 24 14
WAS Status Inquiries 3 6
Club Inquiries 12 6
New Callsign Changes 7 7
Cannot Understand Error Messages 12 11
Logbook Startup Inquiries 28 17
Cannot Activate/Load TQ6 Certificate 5 15
Logbook Suggestions 5 3
QSO Downloaded 7 9
Additional Documents Needed 8 7
Need Postcard 2 3
Other Inquiries 41 23
Total Inquiries 479 408
QSL Branch
Sept. 2007 Oct. 2007 Year-to-Date 2006 Year End
Cards Received 63,900 76,500 698,100 924,900
Cards Mailed 96,000 78,000 817,750 1,000,475
W1AW
Joe processed four (4) Qualifying Run certificates. He also created the texts for the November W1AW Qualifying Runs. Joe created the 2008 Qualifying Run schedules for both W1AW and the West Coast stations. He and Ward Silver continued with the testing of the 2007 FMT data entry web page. Joe also moved the ARRL Audio News equipment from Rick Lindquist’s old office into Khrystyne Keane’s office. He also installed part of the software complement used to generate the ARRL Audio News audio files.
Scott worked on slow and fast code practice files for the first part of the month November.
Field Organization/Public Service Team
In a message sent to all Section Managers, the Field Organization Team thanked our SMs for their time and efforts. This special mention helped recognize International Volunteer Manager Appreciation Day that was celebrated in several countries around the world on November 1. IVMA Day was founded in 1999, and it promotes a greater awareness of the role of volunteer managers in the mobilization and support of the world’s volunteers.
With only two more months left in 2007, Leona Adams has noticed an increased number of section-related expenses, and she has been processing these as they arrive. About two more weeks remain until Alaska and Tennessee Section Manager Election ballots are due at HQ. These ballots will be counted on November 20.
The monthly ARRL Monitoring System/Intruder Watch report has been compiled and forwarded to the IARU Region 2 Coordinator. Chuck Skolaut has been keeping track of the intruder reports, and they included Over the Horizon (OTH) radar interference on 40 meters, a shortwave station on 10 meters and a fish net beacon on 1814 kHz off of the California coast. The FCC is following up on documentation supplied by OOs in Arizona and Illinois on two recent cases. Also, interference to a 2 meter repeater in Illinois is being investigated.
Sincerely Compiled by,
Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ
Assistant to the CEO
Staff Absentee List
All Staff 11/22-11/23 Holiday
Katie Breen 11/15-11/19 Vacation
Steve Capodicasa 11/9 Vacation
`` 11/19-11/21 Vacation
Steve Ewald 11/21-11/30 Vacation
Steve Ford 11/11-11/12 MDC/FAR Digital Conference, Washington, DC
Scott Gee 11/12-11/13 Vacation
`` 11/29-11/30 Vacation
`` 12/10-12/12 Vacation
`` 12/26 Vacation
Ed Hare 11/8-11/10 IEEE EMC Society SDCom meeting Ft Lauderdale, FL
Dan Henderson 11/19-11/21 Vacation
`` 12/20-1/4 Vacation
Bob Inderbitzen 11/12 Vacation
`` 11/21 Vacation
Debra Johnson 11/21 Vacation
`` 12/7-12/10 Vacation
Lisa Kustosik 11/30-12/4 Vacation
Dave Sumner 10/23-11/7 Washington/Geneva