IN-Newsletter Vol. 28, No. 26 June 29, 2005 Upcoming Meetings A&F Committee July 14 in Newington, CT Programs & Services Committee July 14 in Newington, CT Board Meeting July 15-16 in Windsor, CT. CEO John Hennessee answered the last of the Field Day regulatory questions and questions on ARRL legislative initiatives. He also answered a mix of regulatory questions. He assisted amateurs with local; government concerns in Bayville, NJ (KE2OI) and Gilcrest County, FL (K4HMK). Dave Patton returned from the Friedrichshafen Ham Radio Convention. Wayne Mills also attended from Headquarters. The event seemed to have less participation this year compared to the last few. Visitors complained to us of being bored and unimpressed with the overall event. The DXCC support was excellent and the results of the work in Friedrichshafen will likely prove to be of one of the best years yet. There were over 250 applications handled with over 34,000 QSLs. Lee Ciereszko, N4TCW/DA1TCW, who is living in Germany, volunteered to assist and spent the entire weekend working, as did NCJ Editor Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA, and his wife Vicky, AE9YL. European card checkers also spent many hours working in the booth and included Les, SP6CIK; Gerard, F2VX; Kent, HB9DOT; Andy, OE1AZS; Cliff, SV1IW; Milos, OK1MP; Bert, ON4CAS; Falk, DK7YY; and Michael, DJ5AV. Rick Lindquist, N1RL, vacationing with his wife Jean, stopped by for a while and no doubt took lots of pictures. International Affairs Vice President Stafford was on hand in the booth as well as attending meetings along with Dr. Price, W4RA, IARU President, and Tim Ellam, VE6SH, IARU Vice President. Development Copies of the Annual Report have been mailed to major donors and Legacy Circle members. Development was notified of a new planned giving commitment which adds a new member to the Legacy Circle, bringing that number to 49 commitments. The mid-year grant report to United Technologies is in preparation and due June 30. The Education & Technology campaign is closing in on $105,000 in contributions. The Defense Fund carry over from 2004 now exceeds $42,000. Gifts for the new, Spring 2005 Defense campaign include a desk caddy bearing the new corporate design and a unique red cooler. Photos will be on the web as soon as samples have been received. Media & Public Relations Obviously the big event of the past week was Awareness Week including Kids' Day, HT2Work Day and Field Day. There was discussion about holding Kids' Day further from Field Day so that it may get more individualized attention. This will be considered. HT2Work Day saw activity in the SE areas of the country, but not much in other regions that we could tell. 22 spotters were recruited and they listened for hams showing Amateur Radio to non-hams. The spotters were sent thank you letters and repeater directories. The facilities of W1AW were also used to monitor events that day via Echolink. Field Day results are still coming in but appears to have been a major PR success again from the number of web, news and other media reports gathered so far. In addition to the press releases and information, many reporters have called the office for interviews or more details. Whenever possible they have also been referred to a local club. The annual report arrived from the printer and was immediately mailed out to the B+ list and others. It is also available on the web. Allen Pitts will be going to Anderson Productions on Wednesday afternoon (Bristol) to learn about video production work. Production/Editorial The August 2005 issue of QST was released to the printer June 23. The ARRL Letter, Vol. 24, No. 24, was distributed to 65,816 subscribers on June 24. Jon Bloom (while on vacation) and Tom Hogerty solved a pesky software problem that had delayed distribution of the June 17 edition. There will be no ARRL Letter or Audio News July 1. Both will resume July 8. Sales & Marketing On Tuesday, we were visited by staff from The National Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers (www.narte.org <http://www.narte.org>). The contingent included Terri Marinucci, Operations Director, and Melissa Bregani, Exam Program Coordinator. There is an MOU between ARRL and NARTE, supporting our ongoing partnership. During the visit, the famed Heptode Award was presented by NARTE to ARRL, for our help coordinating promotional efforts for NARTE at the 2005 ARRL National Convention. NARTE attended the event at ARRL's invitation, and accommodated the association with exhibit space within ARRL EXPO. Next steps in the direct marketing plan for the ARRL affinity Visa card are underway. An email solicitation is being prepared to send to approximately 47,500 members. A direct mail solicitation with an introductory promotion (0% fixed APR on balance transfers) is also being readied. We handled some online course inquiries from students and mentors during Jean's absence for vacation. Product sales had reached $172,852, or about 70% of June's forecast, by the end of the week. A sizeable portion of the difference is attributed to having stocked out of the second printing of the ARRL Handbook in May. Sales calls to dealers and some direct promotions are being used to help narrow the gap in these last couple of days. Work is progressing on a couple of upcoming membership mailings. The mailings will solicit membership from over 50,000 Technician and Technician Plus licensees, and particularly targeting lapsed members. A new QST house ad was designed to help introduce the upcoming ARRL publication, "Amateur Radio on the Move." The book will debut in late-July or August. An email solicitation seeking ads for the ARRL HANDBOOK - 2006 Edition will be sent to current and potential advertisers this week followed by the September QST, September/October issues of NCJ and QEX email solicitation. The advertising staff finished working on August QST. This issue will include the eight page tear-out - Antenna Time! Dollar sales targets were exceeded by $1,500.00 for regular display advertising and the tear-out dollar sales fell short of the target by $116.00. New advertisers in the August issue are Walter H. Volkman, DVD Industries, LLC, and Straightbrass.com. Advertisers returning to QST for August include Ranger Communications, Inc and Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 300 WAS End. (50 QSLs F/C) 1 Extra Class Certs. 6 Replacement Awards 5 Member Inquiries 1 VUCC Initial Apps. 4 Grids 284 VUCC End. App. 1 Grids 25 Awards Mailed 13 HF Awards Manager Appt.: William R. Aurand, W7MQ, Tucson, AZ. Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week-More WAS QSL card checking, plus WAC QSLs, VUCC and WAS/90th awards, mail out this week's processed awards, plus clean-up type filing chores related to the last few batches of LTMAs issued. Contest Branch We finished shipping the 2004 Sweepstakes plaques. The January VHF Sweepstakes web article was proofed and some edits made. We finished mailing the 2005 10-Meter Contest certificates. We printed the 2005 RTTY Roundup certificates, which we will begin mailing during the next week. Field Day queries were at a peak, since it was the week before the event. Affiliated Club Competition gavels for the 2004-05 contest season were ordered. DXCC Branch For the week of: June 26 2005 Beginning Credits 83,595 Credits Received 14,705 Credits Processed 12,391 Ending Credits 85,909 Applications Pending 715 Processing Time (Conventional) 5.7 Weeks Processing Time (LoTW) 1 Working Day DXCC is currently entering applications received on May 22, 2005. DXCC is currently mailing credits received on May 17, 2005. DXCC began opening mail for the department this week. We are current with mail opened and there is 1 working day lag time in mail logging as mail is opened by the end of the previous work day and logged into the DXCC computer the next morning. DXCC applications shown on the web site are now current. Logbook of the World QSO records entered into the system 74,356,449 QSL records have resulted 3,426,046 Logs Processed 128,338 Active Certificates 14,932 Users registered in the system 9,913 Hybrids Pending Mail 55 QSL Bureau Processing time is current. This week, 112 pounds of cards were received from members. Cards mailed as of 06/24/05: 575,750. 68,250 cards were mailed this week. W1AW Many thanks to Dan Henderson, N1ND, John Hennessee, N1KB, Debra Johnson, K1DMJ, Joel Kleinman, N1BKE, Harold Kramer, WJ1B, Allen Pitts, W1AGP, Mark Spencer, WA8SME, Doris Spencer, KF6QKL, Dave Sumner, K1ZZ, Rosalie White, K1STO, Joe Carcia, NJ1Q, and guest operator Jordan (and his mother Jodi) for their operating W1AW in the 2005 ARRL Field Day. This year, the station was able to operate as a 2-transmitter "Class F" station, given its emergency power/bulletin dissemination system. NOT counting bonus points, W1AW has a "claimed" FD score of at least 2900. 1,100 QSOs were made on 80 to 6 meters, using CW and phone. This includes the GOTA station, and at least two satellite contacts and a number of RTTY contacts on 40 and 20 meters. W1AW was just eight (8) sections shy of "sweeping" the 80 ARRL sections. Next year's Field Day will be even better! Joe updated the web code practice files. He created the texts for the July W1AW Qualifying Runs. He also processed certificates and one endorsement for the Qualifying Run award. He updated the web code practice files. He also processed regular W1AW QSL card requests. Joe also worked the late afternoon/night shifts on Thursday and Friday for a vacationing Scott Gee. He also handled the weekend W1AW Field Day message transmissions. Field & Educaitonal Services The ARISS Team is finalizing a CD of instructions on using the SSTV equipment and software programs. It will be sent to the ISS crew on a future Progress flight. 200 pieces of work were submitted by schools from around the world for the DVDs that will be installed on SuitSat. Two Russian schools are being scheduled for ARISS QSOs, the first Russian schools in quite some time. F&ES will debut a new, national ARES e-newsletter this summer. Rosalie has asked Rick Palm to edit it, and he agreed. She collected materials and sent these to him for the first edition. The intended audience includes ECs, DECs, SECs, SMs, OESs and ARES members who are ARRL members. Rosalie critiqued a draft of changes that may be implemented to refresh the ARISS Web site. She took part in the monthly ARISS-International telecon. Field Organization/Public Service Team Steve Ewald joined the monthly Citizen Corps teleconference, and reported on the ARRL National Convention and Field Day. Field Day prep is still a common topic in Section-related news and correspondence. Orange SM Carl Gardenias, WU6D, was a guest speaker about emergency communications at the REACT International Convention in California (within the Orange Section). Convention sponsor, Crest REACT, is an ARRL affiliated club, and ARRL maintains a Memorandum of Understanding with REACT, International. Resources and reporting forms for the 2005 SET (October 1 and 2 or any time in the upcoming autumn season) were posted on the ARRL Web. Chuck Skolaut garnered the assistance of Official Observers surrounding Alabama to help monitor unidentified interference to an 80-meter CW net. He also received some pertinent data about ongoing cases on 40- and 75-meters and forwarded this to the FCC. Volunteer monitors picked up "bubbling water-like" sounds for a signal on 17 meters. The FCC learned that it was actually a harmonic of a Cuban jamming station. More information was also received concerning a "freeband repeater" with an output on 27.620 MHz. Leona Adams worked with our in-house printer to get the Los Angeles and Wyoming SM election ballots printed. The candidates' statements were prepared and were ready to be printed. The ballots are scheduled to be mailed from HQ by July 1. Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program Mark Spencer helped a few youth who dropped by W1AW to participate in Kid's Day operations. Overall there seemed to be good activity on the bands, plus we got many reports of media coverage around the country. Two more votes were received from the EC, so Mark will execute the grants for schools, which will complete this year's rounds of grants. The final shipment of resources arrived for the teacher's institute. Mark will use an updated microcontroller package; checkout of these went well. The expenditures for the TI have been well below budget and should remain so. The instructor preparations for the first TI outside of HQ (in Ohio) are complete. Field Education Team Norm Fusaro worked with several clubs regarding their Field Day events, including a Texas club that he helped coordinate a FD visit from their State Representative. A datapoint about the number of people who read Norm's web stories about the new hams is reflected in the number of look-ups for the new hams on QRZ.com. The numbers increases dramatically (500 +) indicating that readers are interested in these new-ham stories. The president of Columbia Amateur Radio Club in SC reprinted Norm's article on learning CW in their newsletter and reports that three candidates passed their exam as a result of learning tools suggested in the article. Norm completed a program covering leadership for club officers, which will be made available via the web and become part of his workshop at the Southwest Convention this September. Margie Bourgoin processed 36 updates to club records, and reactivated two older clubs. She added data for seven newly affiliated clubs to the Siebel database. She proofread candidate statements with Leona. Margie is working with Cathy Scharr to get a reminder postcard in the mail to all clubs about updating their records. Gail Iannone sent seven convention applications to the Executive Committee for approval, and sent seven letters to the convention committees confirming the EC's approval of events as ARRL-sanctioned. She sent five hamfest approval letters and one convention approval letter to the sponsoring committees confirming Directors' approval of events as ARRL-sanctioned. She processed six label requests for upcoming events and coordinated travel for Allen Pitts for HQ Rep at the Texas State Convention on Aug. 5-6. She sent eight approval letters to new clubs seeking ARRL-affiliation, confirming the EC's approval. She sent five charter of affiliation certificates to the SMs and ACCs who chose to present them to the newly-affiliated clubs. Gail proofread the "Coming Conventions" and "Hamfest Calendar" Columns for August QST. Bill Barrett is trying to re-schedule his Tennessee Citizen Corps meeting that was cancelled; the first responders want to meet, but there were conflicts with dates. Bill is waiting to hear from the Connecticut Citizen Corps as to who will host his statewide meeting. He reports that the Staunton (VA) meeting was successful, and was actually two meetings. The 9AM meeting had 28 key people from the multi-county region, and a second meeting was held at 7 PM, and was one of the best meetings, to date. EmComm Grants Dan Miller is preparing for the Western Region Citizen Corps Conference. He has just completed 13 days of exhibiting our table top display or giving a talk or seminar, all during the month of June. The list of conferences was in last week's weekly report. Sincerely, Dave Patton, NN1N Special Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer DCP: lk Staff Absentee List All Staff 7/4 Holiday Fatima Lorusso 6/27-7/1 Vacation Lisa Tardette 6/27-7/8 Vacation `` 7/15 Vacation Wayne Mills 7/14-7/16 Board meeting Dan Miller 6/27-7/8 Vacation Rick Lindquist 6/23-7/1 Vacation Joel Kleinman 7/7 Vacation Roseanne Lawrence 7/6 Vacation Steve Ford 7/1-7/10 Vacation Jon Bloom 6/13-7/4 Vacation Jean Wolfgang 7/8 Vacation Bob Inderbitzen 7/25-7/29 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 7/1-7/8 Vacation `` 7/14-7/16 Board meeting `` 7/29-7/31 Rocky Mountain Division Convention Rosalie White 7/14/7/16 Board meeting Dave Sumner 7/14/7/16 Board meeting Dave Patton 7/14-7/16 Board meeting `` 8/15-8/22 Tokyo Ham Fair Harold Kramer 7/14-7/16 Board meeting Lisa Kustosik 7/14-7/16 Board meeting Mary Hobart 7/14-7/16 Board meeting Barry Shelley 7/14-7/16 Board meeting `` 7/17-7/22 Vacation `` 8/4-8/5 Vacation `` 8/15-8/19 Vacation Monique Levesque 8/1-8/5 Vacation Joe Carcia 7/1-7/8 Vacation Perry Williams 7/21-8/17 Vacation Judy Miller 6/30-7/6 Vacation Kathy Allison 7/5-7/8 Vacation Ed Hare 8/25-9/2 Vacation Maria Somma 7/15 ½ day Vacation `` 7/22-7/23 NCVEC Conference, Gettysburg, PA `` 7/25-7/29 Vacation Zack Lau 6/30-7/1 Vacation Eileen Sapko 7/1 Vacation Stu Cohen 7/5-7/6 Vacation