IN-Newsletter Vol. 27, No.32 August 11, 2004 Development The Education & Technology Fund has reached nearly $70,000 from 681 donors, including a generous grant from the Brandenburg Life Foundation to support the Teachers Institute. The Spring 2004 Spectrum Defense Fund has reached $234,508 from 4,574 donors. The fall 2005 campaign is in development and will mail to all ARRL members in mid-September. Work on the launch of a new Long Time Member Award program is proceeding. Certificate design and plaque selection is underway. The first certificates will be mailed to recognize members of 50 years or more. Debra Johnson is "auditing" the inaugural Teachers Institute of the Education & Technology Program. Debra will be working on grants for this initiative and for the Education & Technology Program. Development ads promoting the Diamond Club and the Legacy Circle have been prepared for the 2005 Handbook. The new membership renewal form to be used in 2000 first and second member renewal notices has been completed. Dan Miller gathered information on ARRL's data collection process for submission to CNCS as a "Promising Practice". Development will welcome a representative from CNCS on August 18 to discuss the tools ARRL uses in data collection related to the federal grant. For the ARRL Foundation, all the 2004 scholarship checks have been processed and mailed. Ballots were completed to approve a new investment policy for the ARRL Foundation and a grant was approved to fund registration and expenses for the 2004 ARDF Championship. Media Relations Dave Sumner did a BPL-related interview for a story in Investors Business Daily newspaper. Jennifer was interviewed by a Hartford (CT) Courant columnist who was interested in ARRL's archives project upstairs in "the cage." The column ran, and included information and quotes from Director Frenaye, chair of the Historical Committee. Jennifer assisted a member who writes a weekly column for the San Mateo (CA) Daily News. The topic was BPL. At the request of a member in Lake Jackson, Texas, Jen offered advice for a club's ham radio display at the local library. A newsletter writer with the Office of Rural and Community Affairs in Texas called for information (the ham radio angle) on the BPL tests getting started in three area counties. Ed Hare put out a call for informed and involved hams in the affected areas to contact HQ. We found someone local to do the interview. Jen participated in the PR Committee's August conference call to discuss ongoing projects and tie up loose ends with the group. In the next couple of days, Jen will finish editing all materials for participants in the Speakers Bureau Pilot Project, and send the materials out on CD. The PRC will be following up with participants on their progress, and will promote the pilot project on the Web, and in other appropriate outlets. Jen is also going over documents for the PR portion of the New Section Manager Workshop in September. The July issue of Contact! has been posted to the PR Web page. Production/Editorial The September/October issues of NCJ and QEX have been released to the printer. Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter, Vol 23, No 31, distributed to 67,782 members on August 6. That is (by 21 copies) a new circulation high! Rick submitted an article on the ARRL award winners for Oct QST. He also prepared news stories on the end of a BPL field trial in North Carolina, the first ham radio hurricane-related activations for the 2004 tropical storm season (three stories), the early end of the YV0D DXpedition, an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with students in Japan as well as several news briefs and a couple of W1AW bulletins. With voiceover assistance from Jennifer Hagy, Rick voiced, edited and produced ARRL Audio News for Aug 6. Sales & Marketing Department A 5,000 piece "test" membership mailing has been prepared. The leads were drawn out of a larger pool, planned for the fall mailing. The test mailing has an enriched free book premium, a new message, and even a new envelope. We expect to have a sufficient return quantity from the test mailing to make a number of decisions about the fall mailing by mid-September. When September QST reaches mailboxes, so will a special introductory promotion for the 2005 Handbook. Customers pre-ordering the new edition by September 30 will receive a limited edition reproduction of the "First QST" (or while supplies last). The advertising team is busy filling October QST. Also on the burner is a possible 8-page "holiday themed" tear-out for November QST. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 150 WAS Certs. (550 QSLs F/C) 11 WAS Cert. (150 QSLs ES/C) 3 WAS Ends. (150 QSLs F/C) 3 WAC Certs. (42 QSLs ES/C) 7 5BWAC Certs. (60 QSLs ES/C) 2 LTMA Records to Siebel 9 A-1 Op. Noms. 4 A-1 Op. Certs. 4 VUCC Initial Apps. 7 Grids 843 VUCC End. Apps. 2 Grids 118 Awards Mailed 20 Also, spent 1.3 days on LTMA and HF/VHF Awards Managers matters. Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week-WAS/90th awards, order 5BWAS plates, process/mail VUCC awards, compile the latest VUCC awards recipient list for Oct. QST, mail out this week's awards processed, plus filing chores associated with the most recent 25- and 40-year LTMAs issued. Contest Branch Data entry for all paper and emailed Field Day submissions has been completed and the List of Logs received has been posted to the web. Approximately 48% of the record number 2233 submissions were received via the web applet provided by Bruce Horn, which has allowed for the data entry to be completed earlier than in previous years. The 2004 DX Phone contest results article was received from the author. A version for QST was edited and sent to Production. The full web version has been sent to Web Services for formatting and posting for preview. Data entry for IARU paper logs has begun. DXCC Branch For the week of: August 8, 2004 Beginning Cards 39,239 Cards Received 8,356 Cards Processed 14,435 Ending Cards 33,160 Applications Pending 235 Processing Time 3.8 Weeks Year-to-date (2004) Cards Received 317,944 Cards Returned 380,000 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on July 12, 2004. DXCC is currently entering cards received on July 12, 2004. One new offshore card checker was appointed this week in Israel. Two offshore nominations are pending for Spain and Denmark. Logbook of the World QSO records entered into the system 48,493,042 QSL records have resulted 1,650,228 Logs Processed 62,217 Active Certificates 10,771 Users registered in the system 7,623 Current Applications 75 Ready Applications 26 Applications Awaiting Mail 49 QSL Bureau Processing time is approximately 8 days from receipt. This week 108 pounds of cards were received from members. Approximately 140 pounds of cards are waiting to be processed. Cards mailed as of 08/08/04: 688,975. No cards were mailed this week. W1AW Scott worked on slow and fast code practice files for the latter part of the month of August. He worked the early afternoon shift on Friday for a vacationing Joe Carcia and also handled some evening phone sales calls in the daily 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. Joe updated the web code practice files. He uploaded W1AW/90 logs to LoTW and made a few repairs to some equipment used in Studio Two. Field & Educational Services A teacher who got licensed because of an ARISS QSO has now earned her General; she wants her class to progress to HF and more science studies. The ARISS team received six Yaesu FT-100Ds and tuners; the radios are being qualified for flight, and used for crew training and procedures development. The team drafted off-gassing test plans for SSTV equipment for the ISS, to be done by White Sands Missile Test Facility. Commander Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, did his first QSO -- for a youth aerospace event. This helped to test QSOs supported by Russia's Mission Control -- practice for a future mission where the US astronaut won't be a ham. The second QSO this week was with a Japanese youth group. ARISS radios will be shut off this week for a spacewalk. Gail Iannone sent 13 hamfest approval letters to sponsoring committees confirming Division Directors' approval of the events as ARRL-sanctioned, processed 36 orders for handouts and door prizes for upcoming events, and processed 3 label requests for upcoming events. She reviewed affiliation paperwork for 10 new clubs and sent them to the Directors and SMs for their approval in addition to acknowledgement letters to the club officials. She sent 1 new SSC application to the Director, SM, and ACC for approval, and coordinated travel for HQ reps: Chuck Skolaut at the Missouri State Convention on August 21, and Norm Fusaro at the WNY Section Convention on August 7-8. Linda Mullally updated records of 29 clubs with 4 club reactivations and handled 4 Special Service Club renewals. She registered 6 Volunteer Instructors and 1 schoolteacher. She took care of 1 label request, sent out 380 assorted brochures, and handled a stack of ARISS QSL cards from ISS Field Day QSOs. She entered 6 new clubs into the database system, and is looking into a possible problem with our Web forms sent by Special Service Clubs via email to her. CCE Jean Wolfgang and Dan Miller took part in a meeting of people involved with the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium, our Web host for our on-line continuing education courses. They discussed some possible future options for our on-line courses, and the currently existing procedures. Jean has begun to compile a list of "keywords" pertaining to the technical courses; these words should help Web users to find our courses. Club/Mentor Program Norm Fusaro met with Sue Fagan to collaborate on a logo for the Mentor Program. He finished his plans and presentation and materials for the WNY Convention. After interacting with Mt Baker ARC club members and uncovering the club's great mentoring program, Norm wrote a feature story for the Web about a young ham, his mentor, and the club's program. He interviewed several other new hams and their mentors for upcoming articles. Emcomm Grants Dan Miller prepared material for the APCO conference (including a new survey of public safety officials attending), and the New England Division Convention. Both events are the same week. Our grantor, CNCS, feels we gather facts better than other grantees, and asked for a report on our procedures, which Dan is compiling. His SATERN presentation saw 60 attendees; statistics follow: * 35% were Extra class licensees, 24% Generals, 19% Technicians * 57% had been licensed 10+ years, 16% 1-5 Years, and 11% 1 year or less * 81% were ARRL members, 41% claimed Citizens Corp Involvement * 22 of the respondents totaled 562 volunteer hours per month for an average of 25.5 hours per person--another above average group! Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program Mark Spencer mailed announcement letters and award checks to our recent education award winners. Teacher's Institute preparations are on track. All resources to be given to teachers are in hand, reference materials duplicated, and presentations in the can; teachers begin to arrive on Aug 7. A presentation on ham radio was given to a local Youth Summer. The numbers were not high, but the enthusiasm of the kids made up for it. Public Service/Field Organization Steve Ewald attended the 2004 National Citizen Corps Conference for ARRL where he networked with 200 representatives from national, state and local Citizen Corps groups and other affiliates from around the country. Steve plied them and got first-hand stories about ARES and Amateur Radio groups continuing to provide valuable and positive contributions to the Citizen Corps mission. New York SMs have received their vests purchased with New York State grant funds. SMs are preparing lists of hams who will get the vests; George Tranos plans to award them at ARES meetings, with the first on Aug 10. Chuck Skolaut received and forwarded to the FCC documentation concerning problems occurring on two different 20-meter frequencies. Monitoring Stations and others are investigating and observing broadband noise on 20 meters in Texas and potential power-line noise on 40 meters in New York. Chuck also heard about an Internet site that's offering suspected illegal radios for sale. Leona Adams received a petition nominating Matthew Anderson, KA0BOJ, of Ashland, Nebraska, as the next SM. Petitions for the new terms beginning in January are due at HQ by September 10. There has been a noticeable increase in Section expense reports received, and Leona has been handling these. Regulatory Information John Hennessee assisted amateurs with local government zoning restrictions in Boynton Beach, FL (WK8K--moving from Michigan); Washoe County (Reno), NV (N7GXI); and Exceter, RI (KD1WD). He assisted a person with a covenant problem in Anacortes, WA (license pending). He also reviewed constitutions for clubs which have applied for affiliation with ARRL, and he processed a VCE application. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW: lk Staff Absentee List Perry Williams 7/16-9/7 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 8/9-8/13 Vacation 8/20-8/21 Convention, Albuquerque, NM `` 8/27-8/29 SW Division Convention, Phoenix, AZ-personal `` 9/24-9/26 EWA Section Convention, Spokane, WA Debra Jahnke 8/6-8/13 Vacation Janet Rocco 8/9-8/13 Vacation Zoe Belliveau 8/9-8/13 Vacation John Hennessee 8/19-8/30 Vacation Dan Miller 8/9-8/12 APCO Convention, Montreal, Canada " 8/13-8/15 New England Div. Conv, Boxboro, MA " 8/26-8/29 SW Div Convention, Phoenix, AZ AnnMarie Pinto 8/9-8/20 Vacation Joel Hallas 8/6-8/20 Vacation Bob Schetgen 8/4-8/13 Vacation Bart Jahnke 8/13 Vacation Chuck Skolaut 8/15 Kansas State Convention " 8/20 Vacation " 8/21 Missouri State Convention Mark Dzamba 8/23-8/27 Vacation Pam Dzamba 8/23-8/27 Vacation Mary Hobart 8/27-8/29 SW Division Convention Danny Sayad 9/7-9/10 Vacation " 9/17 Vacation Joel Kleinman 8/27-8/31 Vacation Eileen Sapko 8/13-8/16 Vacation Joe Carcia 8/13pm Vacation Sharon Taratula 8/16 Vacation Bill Moore 8/17-8/23 JARL Convention Dan Henderson 8/20 Huntsville AL Convention 8/23-8/27 Vacation Wayne Mills 8/23-9/3 Vacation