<<052808.doc>>
IN-Newsletter
Vol. 31, No. 22
May 28, 2008 -- Covers the period May 18-24.
Upcoming Meetings and Events
Programs & Services Committee
May 31 @ 8:30am in Newington, CT
Regulatory Information
Reported by Dan Henderson, N1ND
The final draft of the July QST legislative update article was proofed and the generic letters of US Hose and Senate members for the web were proofed and sent for posting to the ARRL Web. We also proofed the final draft of the reprinting of the FCC Rules booklet which will also include the rules’ chapter from the ARRL Operating Manual along with an additional FAQ section.
We regret the news of the pending retirement of Riley Hollingsworth, FCC Special Counsel and want to thank Riley for what has become a strong working, as well as personal, relationship over the past two years. We also look forward to working with whomever the Commission slots into that position.
We were informed that during the third round of testing at the Beale AFB PAVE PAWS site that approximately 18 amateur 70cm repeaters were apparently on the air without making proper station identifications. The Air Force shares this directly with Riley Hollingsworth at the FCC who has said he will address the issue. We also are waiting on the results of the third round of testing for harmful interference to the Beale site.
Also along the PAVE PAWS line, we internally finalized the draft of an agreement by which coordination of new or modified 70cm repeaters by New England Spectrum Management Council (NESMC) could resume, paying special attention to the needs of the radar site to be protected from harmful interference from amateur sources. The framework ahs been agreed to by all parties involved and as soon as the final wording is approved we will be making an announcement on this topic in the near future.
At the request of the COO, I have become involved in the Fathom project as a team leader for the Advocacy area. Finally, with Field Day approaching the queries are picking up steam. Almost 100 sites were added to the Field Day locator applet in the past week bring the total to almost 850. http://www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/fd/locator.php
Media & Public Relations
Reported by Allen Pitts, W1AGP
The excitement over the new Technical campaign continues with many compliments. Dir. Bill Edgar’s “webinar” had the campaign as its topic (Thanks Bill!) allowing a presentation of the materials to be made to division leaders. The PR Committee held a conference call the night of May 21 and again were happy to have Katie Breen drop in. The deadline for the McGan award was May 23 and two complete nominations were received and are being passed to the committee for consideration. Additional material is being requested to continue to add new items to the www.WeDoThat-Radio.org website. The emails generated by its “contact us” page are currently being screened by Allen and referred to appropriate staff. Any indications that it is a person wanting to become a ham are also being copied to the appropriate Section Manager. Very preliminary discussions are being held to look at options for a desired new video to promote Amateur Radio with a target date next year.
Allen will be traveling to SeaPac in Oregon and then taking a few days of vacation on his return. The June CONTACT! will be posted early so that it is up in time and it will have a great deal of Field Day information for PIOs to get an early start on publicity in their local areas.
Development
Reported by Mary Hobart, K1MMH
The Thank You campaign to Spectrum Defense donors is at the production house. The estimated mail date is June 1 – in advance of the June QST delivery in homes. The mailing went to nearly 18,000 donors who have supported the Defense Fund and especially the BPL efforts over the past five years. Many of the donors have provided multiple contributions – some more than one each year.
Dayton Hamvention was very productive for Development, not only due to the success of the annual Donor Reception, organized and executed by Maryann Macdonald, but also from contributions and commitments made during Hamvention. The Diamond Club saw 14 contributions including several new donations and the Legacy Circle added one significant new member with a million-dollar commitment. In addition, two significant contributions were made to the Teachers Institute from the Dayton Amateur Radio Association and from an individual donor whose contribution supports both the Teachers Institute and the Spectrum Defense Fund.
The follow up letters to major donors for the W1AW Endowment were mailed the week after Hamvention. To date, that campaign has added more than $38,000 to the W1AW Endowment Fund.
Next up is the Education & Technology fund campaign.
Production/Editorial
Reported by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE
Khrystyne Keane wrote and distributed The ARRL Letter, Vol. 27, No. 20, for May 23, 2008. It went out to 69, 672 subscribers. She also voiced and produced ARRL Audio News for May 23.
Sales and Marketing
Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R
Our exhibit and activities at Dayton Hamvention wrapped-up this year with much success—to the delight (and hard work) of this year’s coordinator, Katie Breen. Katie reported that our contingent included nearly 120 staff and volunteers. Amy Hurtado and the customer service team are tying the ribbons on our reconciliation. Preliminary totals include over 1,000 membership applications and record sales levels. We sincerely thank all the field volunteers that gave their time and talents to the EXPO. The ARRL weblog produced by Steve Ford, WB8IMY brought over 15,000 unique hits (compared to 6,500 last year). Steve also created several more videos under the Katiew1krb account on youtube.com, again resulting in thousands of views. The ARRL Youth Dinner, hosted at the DARA clubhouse, was attended by more youth than in years past. The youth organizers are already making plans to work with DARA again next year for their event. Thank you to the staff and volunteers that provided ARRL Forums: Andrea Hartlage, KG4IUM; Steve Ford, WB8IMY; Ward Silver, N0AX; Sean Kutko, KX9X; Dave Patton, NN1N; Allen Pitts, WA1GP; Karl Bullock, WA5TMC; and our President Joel Harrison, W5ZN.
Bob is organizing our usual ARRL/IARU exhibit for Ham Radio 2008 in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The event is June 27-29.
Katie participated in the monthly Public Relations Committee conference and is traveling to the Atlantic Division Convention this weekend.
Gail Iannone officially moved into our offices this week. She can be reached at her same extension and email. Welcome Gail!
The Spring/Summer Publications Catalog has arrived. 25,000 copies of the member version were mailed out from the printer on May 16. Dealer catalogs are expected to go out later this week.
A mailing featuring our licensing products is in-the-works.
One of our newest books, Hands-on Radio Experiments by Ward Silver, is now being offered with a parts kit produced by Kanga. Customers have the option to purchase the book or the book-with-kit, similar to ARRL’s Low Power Communication book-with-kit offering.
The Warehouse crew fulfilled 598 packages for publication and product orders, shipped 167 free book membership premiums, and sent May QST mailing supplements.
Warehouse Supervisor Steve Capodicasa recently prepared a rate case that will help reduce some of our freight costs. Bulk delivery of QST from our printer to ARRL Headquarters will now be handled by Roadway Express. Roadway offered more competitive pricing than the service most recently handled by Federal Express.
Now Shipping: Don C. Wallace: W6AM, Amateur Radio's Pioneer, by Jan David Perkins, N6AW. ARRL recently obtained copies of this title from a third-party supplier.
We’ll soon offer a new DVD, produced by Nate Brightman, K6OSC, and titled, “The Story of the Queen Mary and W6RO.” The Queen Mary made its final voyage in 1967 when it was sold to Long Beach, California. The ship’s Wireless Room is a huge visitor’s attraction—from which W6RO operates. The station is sponsored by the Associated Radio Amateurs Of Long Beach. The DVD will make a great club program! We appreciate Nate’s willingness to establish ARRL as the exclusive US distributor.
Product Sales Update
May sales had topped $200,000 by the end of the third week of the month. The amount does not (yet) include our sales in Dayton.
Business Services
Reported by Deb Jahnke, K1DAJ
We are pleased that R & L Electronics has accepted our proposal and will expand their QST advertising to two full pages per issue through the rest of the year.
We are presently working on advertising procurement for August 2008, QST, July/Aug QEX and NCJ and the Ham Express 411.
Membership & Volunteer Programs
Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N
Contest Branch
With the help of Jon Bloom KE3Z, there is now a blog for the Contest Branch. I'll be posting updates there on all things related to the Contest Branch, including status of logs, when certificates and plaques go out the door, and any problems that may arise. You can find it at: http://www.arrl.org/blog/Notes%20From%20The%20Contest%20Branch
Data from the ARRL DX SSB Contest will be processed this week and sent to the results author.
The ARRL Newsletter "The Contester's Rate Sheet" will be getting a facelift. The name will be changed to "ARRL Contest Update," and it will be changed to HTML format. This will take place effective May 28. For more information, visit http://www.arrl.org/contests/rate-sheet/index.html?issue=2008-05-23
The next ARRL contest will be the June VHF QSO Party, held June 14-16. After that, it's Field Day, on the weekend of June 28.
W1AW
The main interior area of W1AW is now painted. Work will soon commence on the kitchen area. With the exception of the wall hangings, the main area is back to normal with respect to the desks, guest book, etc.
The 2008 W1AW Frequency Measuring Test took place on Wednesday, May 21 at 9:45 PM EDT. The test consisted of a single audio tone being transmitted on W1AW’s 80, 40, 20 and 17 meter phone bulletin frequencies. The object of the test was for participants to measure the frequency of that tone. Participants would then input their measurements on the W1AW FMT web site, located at, http://www.b4h.net/fmt/fmtentry.php. The final results will be available on the website 14 days following the test.
Thanks to Bill Moore, NC1L for handling the Friday morning code practice for the vacationing Joe Carcia.
Joe and Greg completed the interior painting of W1AW’s main area. Joe also updated the web code practice files and their archives. Joe and Scott also conducted the 2008 FMT with Joe handling the audio announcements and tone transmissions and Scott taking all the measurements for each band.
Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the latter part of the month of May and early June. On Friday, in addition to his normal shift, he also worked the early afternoon shift for Joe.
Field Organization/Public Service Team
On Tuesday, May 20, Paul Eakin, KJ4G, was elected as the new Section Manager for Northern Florida. His term begins July 1. He takes the SM’s post from Rudy Hubbard, WA4PUP, who has been Northern Florida Section Manager since 1990. Field Organization Team members Leona Adams, Steve Ewald and Chuck Skolaut counted ballots, got in touch with SM-elect and the other two candidates following the election, and they prepared the news release for the ARRL Web page.
Richard Krohn, N2SMV, will also be starting as Northern New Jersey SM on July 1. Rich did not face opposition to his nomination. He takes the reins from Bill Hudzik, W2UDT, who has served as SM since 2001. The following incumbent ARRL Section Managers will begin new terms of office on July 1: Tom Ciciora, KA9QPN (Illinois); Bill Woodhead, N1KAT (Maine); Bonnie Altus, AB7ZQ (Oregon); Bill Dale, N2RHV (Santa Clara Valley); Paul Gayet, AA1SU (Vermont), and Don Michalski, W9IXG (Wisconsin).
In response to the large tornado that struck Colorado, Section Manager Jeff Ryan, K0RM, kept in touch with HQ staff to report that Colorado ARES District 10 had 31 operators who were providing communications service to the Windsor Emergency Operations Center and Fire Dept Headquarters.
Special Counsel in the FCC Spectrum Enforcement Division Riley Hollingsworth announced plans to retire from the FCC later this year. He stated his intention "is to head out in July” assuming the results of the second round of the PAVE PAWS/440 repeater monitoring in California present no complications.
Chuck Skolaut received the monthly Intruder Watch monitoring report from the Region 3 coordinator. Two unidentified signals were reported this week. One report (by a station in Arkansas) appears to be a wide digital type signal, and the other one is likely caused by a local source in Minnesota. Both are being studied. Unlicensed fishermen off the Louisiana coast are using a 2 meter simplex frequency. The details have been forwarded to the FCC for their assistance. HQ also forwarded a complaint and a wave file recording of an operation on 14.275 MHz.
Sincerely Compiled by,
Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ
Assistant to the CEO
Staff Absentee List
Leona Adams 6/6 Vacation
Kathy Allison 6/3 Vacation
`` 6/30-7/7 Vacation
Jo-Ann Arel 7/7-7/14 Vacation
Katie Breen 5/30-5/31 Atlantic Division Convention, Rochester, NY
`` 7/10-7/14 Rocky Mt. Division Convention, Bryce Canyon, UT
Steve Capodicasa 6/10 Vacation
Joe Carcia 6/20 Vacation
`` 7/7-7/11 Vacation
`` 7/18 Vacation
`` 7/21 Vacation
Ann Figat 5/28 Jury Duty
Steve Ford 6/9-6/10 National Publishers Conference, Washington, DC
`` 6/24 Vacation
Scott Gee 6/30 Vacation
`` 7/1-7/3 Vacation
Ed Hare 5/29-5/30 IEEE SDCom meeting, Salt Lake City, UT
`` 6/2-6/9 Vacation
Dan Henderson 6/21-7/7 Friedrichshafen, Germany/Vacation
`` 8/23-8/30 Vacation
Gail Iannone 5/27-29am Vacation
Bob Inderbitzen 6/24-7/1 Friedrichshafen, Germany
Deb Jahnke 6/27-7/6 Vacation
Debra Johnson 6/27-7/6 Vacation
Joel Kleinman 6/5-6/6 Vacation
`` 6/9-6/10 National Publishers Conference, Washington, DC
Lisa Kustosik 6/2 Vacation
`` 6/20-6/30 Vacation
Zack Lau 6/6 Vacation
`` 6/19-6/20 Vacation
Kim Mancuso 6/23-6/30 Vacation
Carol Michaud 5/30 Vacation
Alan Pitts 5/29-6/2 NW Division Convention, Seaside, OR
`` 6/3-6/8 Vacation
Dave Sumner 6/2-6/3 Washington, DC
`` 6/23-7/1 IARU AC Meeting/Friedrichshafen, Germany