IN-Newsletter Vol. 27, No.41 October 13, 2004 Upcoming Meetings Executive Committee October 16th in Dallas, TX at 8:30am United States Telecommunications Training Institute Course: Amateur Radio Administration October 18-22 in Newington, CT Ballot Counting, Director/Vice Director Elections November 19th in Newington, CT A & F Committee November 20th in Newington, CT at 8:30am Development The 2005 Spectrum Defense Fund has raised nearly $26,000 from 551 donors in its first full week of returns. The follow up appeal will be mailed mid-week to 50,000 major donors and prior donors. Work is being completed on the CNCS report on ARRL data collection related to the CNCS grant. A draft report was sent to appropriate staff after a site visit from a CNCS staffer charged with gathering information and making recommendations for data collection methods for all CNCS Homeland Security grantees. Development participated in interviews for the grant-funded CEP Coordinator position. A working group was convened October 8 to discuss issues and remedial protocols for Siebel data related to the new long term members awards program. Work is beginning on a new fund raising project -- the Year End Appeal - to be mailed to 50,000 prior donors in mid November. First scholarship applications have been received by the ARRL Foundation for the 2005 award cycle. At a CT Conference of Education Foundations a school district stepped forward to be the pilot for a total school district immersion in the wireless technology education Teachers Institute. A meeting has been scheduled for October 18 to discuss details and timing. Media & Public Relations BPL is obviously the major issue of the week. Negotiated and launching national toy drive from hams to children in central Florida. Letter sent to Brad Shaw (VP Home Depot) on possible joint program. Finishing up research on first CERT-HAM deployment for article. Updated press folders. With PR Committee, preparing new materials for grass roots work. Production/Editorial Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter, Vol. 23, No. 40, distributed to 67,172 members on Oct 7 (a day early because of Rick's travel schedule). Rick prepared two stories on BPL--the NTIA's last comments and one on Progress Energy's pulling down its system in NC, a story on the ISS crew's wrap-up news conference, the FCC Amateur Radio enforcement letters and several news briefs. Rick voiced, edited and produced ARRL Audio News. He traveled to Arlington, VA, Oct 8 for the AMSAT-NA Symposium and Annual Meeting (and will stay for the ARISS International Delegates meeting, which wraps up Oct 13). Sales & Marketing The 2005 Handbooks arrived into stock early last week. Backorders are shipping with the preorder Special Edition 1st QST reprint. After a number of days delay due to computer problems, Kathy Capodicasa and Fulfillment staffers Zoe Belliveau, Fatima Lorusso, and Danny Sayad are busy releasing backorders. We expect to have the majority of backorders released from the Seibel system by weeks end. We anticipate actual shipping to be completed over the next week or so. Thank You goes out to F&ES staff for agreeing to delay their nightly computer backups. Doing so allowed John Proctor and ISD to channel all after hours computer resources to our needs. The Warehouse Staff shipped 2,112 packages totaling 25,000 pounds Thursday & Friday. Steve Capodicasa (Warehouse Supervisor) remarked that he has not seen volume like this in the 18 years he has worked for the League. "It is almost like we are just treading water to stay afloat each day before more orders keep rolling in." Working with Dan Miller, we produced two web banners for the grant-sponsored CNCS emergency communications courses. This advertising directs more prospective students to the online courses during the registration periods. An email promotion during the Columbus Day holiday weekend drove some additional traffic to the e-store. Online orders topped $11,000 by Monday morning. We have reviewed printer's proofs for the upcoming membership direct mail campaign. Mailing is scheduled for approximately October 18. The following new items are now available for ordering via the ARRL e-store: #9345, Microwave Update 2004 #9458, Build Your Own Low-Power Transmitters #9495, CQ Amateur Radio Operators Calendar #9465, International Antenna Collection Volume 2 #9471, LF Today #9487, Radio Amateur Callbook CD-ROM (2005) #9503, CQ Classic Radio Calendar We wish to express our thanks to all of the staff that pitched in to help us get us through this exciting surge in business. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 300 WAS Certs. (650 QSLs F/C) 13 WAS Certs. (500 QSLs ES/C) 10 Replacement Award 1 LTMA Inquiries 3 25-Year Member Awards 8 40-Year Member Awards 2 50-Year Member Awards 9 60-Year Member Awards 3 A-1 Op. Noms. 4 VUCC Certs. Processed 14 VUCC Backfill App. 1 Grids 263 VUCC Initial Apps. 2 Grids 298 VUCC Endorsement Apps. 6 Grids 605 Awards Mailed 36 Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week - WAS/90th awards, Extra Class certificates, compile the latest VUCC award recipient list for Dec. QST, mail out the LTMAs processed this week, order the 50- and 60-year member plaques, and mail out the rest of this week's processed awards. Contest Branch The 2004 Field Day web report was finalized and sent to Web Services for formatting. The General Rules, HF Rules and VHF Rules for the Web were posted. We edited the QST production and Web versions (which were posted) of rules announcements for Straight Key Night, RTTY Round-up, January VHF SS, and the DX Contest. We also edited the 2004 June VHF QSO Party results back from production. Data entry on September VHF QSO Party paper submissions continued and we began work on data entry for the 2004 10 GHz and Up competition. DXCC Branch For the week of: October 10, 2004 Beginning Cards 66,527 Cards Received 18,036 Cards Processed 15,370 Ending Cards 69,193 Applications Pending 577 Processing Time 4.2 Weeks Year-to-date (2004) Cards Received 445,244 Cards Returned 440,320 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on September 6, 2004. DXCC is currently entering cards received on September 16, 2004. LoTW fees collected via DXCC this week: $176.11. LoTW fees collected via DXCC for the month of September 2004: $478.55. Logbook of the World QSO records entered into the system 52,047,034 QSL records have resulted 1,843,376 Logs Processed 71,974 Active Certificates 11,437 Users registered in the system 8,305 Current Applications 175 Ready Applications 67 Applications Awaiting Mail 108 QSL Bureau Processing time is approximately 4 days from receipt. This week, 86 pounds of cards were received from members. Approximately 70 pounds of cards are waiting to be processed. Cards mailed as of 10/10/04: 801,460. No cards were mailed this week. W1AW Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the month of October. He also handled some evening phone sales calls in the daily 5 PM to 8 PM time slots. Joe uploaded W1AW/90 logs to LoTW. He worked the late afternoon/night shift on Friday for a vacationing Scott Gee. Joe also reviewed and inputted all the HPM/135 log entries received to date (currently 372). Field & Educational Services Rosalie and Jean met to talk about some ways to attract members to take our online technical courses. An ARISS QSO took place with a French primary school, and a second QSO was done with two Polish high schools and a university. Rosalie finalized three Power Point presentations for the ARISS International Meeting next Monday and Tuesday. She networked with NASA on duplicate info filled out by teachers in the NASA Web eval form. A 30-something member wrote: "As a user of the ARISS equipment I just wanted to say thank you. My first space contact was through ISS; since then it has continued to thrill me with every contact I make. Thank you for helping to put the thrill back into ham radio." Field & Education Support Gail Iannone sent 5 hamfest approval letters and 2 convention approval letters to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's approval of the events as ARRL-sanctioned. She processed 9 hamfest/convention material orders and sent paperwork for 1 new club applying for ARRL affiliation to the Division Director and Section Manager for their approval in addition to an acknowledgement letter to the club official. She also sent 15 letters to newly-ARRL-affiliated clubs stating the Executive Committee's approval. Linda Mullally updated records for 27 clubs with 3 reactivations. She sent 448 assorted brochures, 3 Exhibit Kits and 15½ JOTA Kits. She renewed 3 SSC clubs, merged records of 1 club, and handled 2 Vanity E-mail requests. She added 14 new club records to the database. She mailed 10 Field Appointment supply packages. She registered 4 Volunteer Instructors and sent 41 graduation kits for instructors to use, and sent 11 CEU certificates to be awarded. Club/Mentor/Instructor Program Norm Fusaro spoke with NTX SM Roy Rabey about Mentorfest, a very unique and exciting event that you'll hear more about. Norm's weekly club article was on club programs. He is making notes on ways to improve the current Volunteer Instructor program. He reviewed article submissions for QST. Mark and Norm are now administrators of the Youth Skeds Web page; Norm added 52 scheduled events for JOTA weekend, with more being posted every day. Certification and Continuing Education Jean Wolfgang found it necessary to change the start dates on some of the technical courses to more evenly distribute administration duties. After reviewing the upcoming Analog Electronics course, Jean alerted the Publications Department that they may see an increase in some of our book sales. This course will probably become available late this year. Jean handled the volunteer recognition letters and requested 77 mentor checks. She set up 2 hybrid classes for this month, and assigned and processed 4 technical classes. The first RF Propagation class begins on Friday, October 15 with a nice-sized group of 34 students. Amateur Radio Education & Technology Thanks to Norm's efforts in getting clubs involved, Mark Spencer is noticing a lot of interest in JOTA right now. The Youth Skeds Web page is functioning again, and JOTA activity is being posted. W1AW will host local boy scouts during JOTA with staff from FE&S as control operator; focus will be on radio merit badge in a day. Another Project school will lose their program at the end of this year because the teacher is being let go. There is time to try to get another school in the area engaged. Regulatory Information John Hennessee submitted a number of changes for the next printing of the ARRL FCC Rule Book, meeting a short turnaround deadline. He is saving a number of non-critical changes for the next edition which will include major changes on restructuring. He also assisted an amateur with a local government zoning problem in LaPlata, CO (W9KV) and with covenant restrictions in Madison, MS and San Antonio, TX (W5JLR). EmComm Grants Dan Miller has been making arrangements for presentations and some exhibit booths at 2005 events such as HamCation in Orlando (Feb.), The National Hurricane Conference in Baton Rouge (March), and APCO in Denver (August). He worked on the ARRL Web's news story about the September Grant Update, and with Steve Ewald for a Digital Communications Study in cooperation with the ARESCOM Ad-Hoc Committee. Thanks to Jean Wolfgang, Tom Hogerty and Jon Bloom on new Web improvements to the EmComm sites including updates to the hybrid class registration form and the EmComm Course FAQ. The Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium (CTDLC) has replaced the CTDLC Sample Course with an ARRL Sample Course. It is geared for potential ARRL students and focused on our emergency communications course formatting. Field Organization/Public Service Team Chuck Skolaut received reports and information about problems on two different repeaters in Ohio and on problems in California concerning the use of 440 FM and ATV frequencies. Complaints on HF included malicious interference on 20 meters, indecent language on 40 meters and a possible intruder on 75 meters. The FCC's monitoring request of 7258 kHz (MidCars net frequency) has initiated a follow-up response from an OOC who determined that although interference was noted on frequency, it was unintentional. Leona Adams updated Field appointments, cancellations and changes into the Siebel system. She generated the Field Organization Appointment Reports and sent them to SMs via e-mail. She also entered Section expenses into their appropriate budget sheets and verified these budget reports with Accounting. Several EC and DEC packages of supplies were sent to new appointees plus three Official Observer test packages. Some ARRL Emergency Coordinators are already compiling results of their Simulated Emergency Tests from the past week and are reporting them to Steve Ewald and their Section Leaders. ARES teams have throughout the fall season to conduct their annual SETs. Steve took part in Connecticut's SET. Steve will attend SM Doane's forum at the Connecticut State convention, Sunday. He is working on assignments with ARESCOM committee members, and participated in their teleconference. Articles for December QST's Public Service column were edited and turned in to Production. 73, Sincerely, Dave Patton, NN1N Special Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer DCP: lk Staff Absentee List Dave Sumner 10/15 Executive Committee Meeting, Dallas, TX `` 10/22 Vacation Dave Patton 10/20-10/25 FMRE Convention, Queretaro, Mexico Robert Inderbitzen 10/15 Vacation `` 12/2-12/3 Vacation Joe Carcia 10/15pm Vacation `` 10/20pm Vacation Dan Miller 10/14-10/17 Pacificon 2004, San Ramon, CA `` 10/21-10/22 Vacation Kathy Allison 10/20-10/22 Vacation Wayne Mills 10/21-10/27 RSGB Convention, England Danny Sayad 10/15 Vacation Kathy Capodicasa 11/11-11/15 Vacation Eileen Sapko 10/14-10/15 Vacation