<<010511.doc>> IN-Newsletter <<Microsoft Word Picture>> Vol. 34, No. 1 January 5, 2011 -- Covers the period December 26-January 1. Upcoming Meetings and Events Programs & Services Committee: January 20 @ 8:30am - ARRL HQ Administration & Finance Committee January 20 @ 8:30am - ARRL HQ Annual Board Meeting January 21-22, 2011 @ 9:00am in Windsor, CT Technical Relations Reported by Brennan Price, N4QX Brennan Price continues preparations for next month's Conference Preparatory Meeting, working with NTIA and the FCC to craft the United States strategy on AI 1.23. Brennan and Chris Imlay will meet Thursday to discuss various issues, including our strategies at LF and MF. Jon Siverling is in final preparations for next week's meeting in Mainz, Germany, considering ITU texts regarding power line telecommunications above 80 MHz. Media & Public Relations Reported by Allen Pitts, W1AGP There were a flock of good media hits during the Christmas holiday season. Not only were the usual Santa nets covered, but technical stories of hams from new "apps," hiding the Chevy Camaro antenna and even a ham's crediting Amateur Radio background in developing a microwave cloaking device. (www.arrl.org/media-hits-c ) But the best one of all came from Nevada and Gov Brian Sandoval. Las Vegas Sun - "Amateur radio operators, not Clark County officials, supplied the best information on last week's Las Vegas-area flooding to the state's [EOC]." SEC Don Carlson, KQ6FM, and I talked about how to maximize this opportunity. The flier explaining the many non-emergency community services that hams also provide came in from the printer and will be included in the hamfest packets. It will also soon be able to be ordered from the web. Development Reported by Mary Hobart, K1MMH There are still 2010 gifts to be processed early this week, but it seems that Development will fall well short of the 2010 goals for the Spectrum Defense Fund and the Education & Technology Fund. One large gift for Education was not received. Final numbers will be available when the December financials are complete. Overall results for 2010 were boosted significantly by the receipt of several estate gifts, notably the $1.4 million distributions from the Mathias Joint Trust. Work has begun on the 2011 application for the Combined Federal Campaign. It is due in Washington on January 15. The 2010 Tax Act that was signed mid-December includes the revival of the charitable giving provision for donors aged 70-1/2 who may contribute to non-profits directly from and IRA. The bill extends the 2010 IRA giving deadline to January 31, 2011 and is valid for all of 2011. Production/Editorial Reported by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE The ARRL Letter and ARRL Audio News will resume this week after their holiday hiatus. Lab Reported by Ed Hare, W1RFI RFI The Lakeland, Florida power line noise case remains ongoing. Although the FCC conducted a field investigation, a preliminary report from the complainant suggests that they have concluded, at least in part, that his antenna or part of his antenna system is located too close to the power lines. Mike Gruber has been working with Gordon Beattie, W2TTT at AT&T to resolve a number of U-Verse interference complaints. Gordon reports success in resolving several of them. Considerable progress has also been made in addressing this problem at the company level. Product Review Bob Allison is testing a new receiver. Web Site Mike Gruber has started the new Sounds of RFI Page and discussed it with the new volunteer, Craig Miller. Craig will be visiting us sometime in the next few weeks for training. Mike also made some miscellaneous updates and additions to other pages. Bob Allison worked on updating and correcting several of the technology pages on our Web site. Zack Lau plans to add a new Web page on Radio Reference Circuits. Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R December ended with 156,475 members, a gain of 536 members over November and contributing to an overall gain of 801 members for the fourth quarter. 75% of December expirees paid on time, compared to 74% in December 2009. We started out 2010 with 156,125 members and so had a gain of 350 for the year. Multiple broadcast e-mails bolstered acquisition in December, including e-mails sent to Guest web site users, and appeals to lapsed Technicians encouraging them to upgrade. This last group brought in 216 Technician class members - a 2.08% response rate. Finally, some holiday-themed promotion for gift memberships generated 105 applications. December product sales were $316,491, exceeding the sales forecast of $283,689. Direct sales were $191,256; dealer sales were $125,235. We finished the year off with a successful fourth quarter, exceeding budget by almost $15k. Publication sales totaled $3,117,789 in 2010. Handbook sales exceeded expectation, putting the 2011 edition (introduced in October) ahead of budget by $31,916. The hardcover incentive (purchasing the hardcover edition at the softcover price) accounted for 76% of Handbook sales this quarter. The fifth edition of ON4UN's Low-Band DXing was introduced in December, contributing sales of $20,926. The ARRL General Class License Manual, revised 6th Edition and reintroduced this month with a new exam review CD-ROM feature, contributed sales of $10,049. The phones are busy!...with members and customers completing year-end renewals, address changes, circulation inquiries, publication orders, and requiring help with web site registrations and password resets. Happy New Year from the team-on-the-telephone: Ally, Sabrina, Kim, Cathy, Mark KB1FMY and Penny N1NAG. Membership & Volunteer Programs Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N DXCC Branch Credits Applications 2009 Carryover 183,658 1,354 2010 Received 850,277 6,981 Cumulative Total 1,033,935 8,335 2010 Processed 916,265 7,417 Remaining 117,670 918 Processing Time 7 Weeks Logbook of the World Category December 2010 % Change Jan - Dec 2010 QSO Records Entered Into System 317,118,818 21% QSL Record Matches 35,755,473 34% Logs Processed 1,828,292 42% Active Certificates 56,689 19% Registered Users in System 37,536 19% Logbook (Email Only) Inquiries December 2010 Maintenance 1,097 Initial Setup Inquiries 844 Award Related Concerns 252 Customer Usage Issues 691 Phone Calls 289 Total 3,173 W1AW Thanks to Mike Corey, W5MPC, for operating W1AW during the 2011 Straight Key Night. Mike used a home-brew key that was donated to W1AW. He made 13 QSOs, all on 80 meters. On Wednesday, December 29, members of the "3 Steves and a Kurt" group operated W1AW. They made 234 QSOs on 40 through 6 meters. On Thursday, December 30, members of the SPARK radio club from Pennsylvania were on hand to operate W1AW. They made only 15 QSOs on 40 meters. Field Organization/Public Service Team Thanks to the Headquarters' Mailroom staff for sending out the Arkansas Section Manager election ballots on December 28, and that was before the January 3, 2011, mailing deadline. Members in the Arkansas Section will have February 18 to return their filled-in ballots. Editorial work was completed for the March QST Public Service column. Some after-action ARES reports and SKYWARN-related public service reports have been arriving from the Sections and states where weather troubles have been occurring in recent weeks. One amateur from San Joaquin Valley completed certification to become an Official Observer this week. Intruder reports this week included fishermen heard on 40 meters off the coast of Texas, Over the Horizon Radar on 17 meters, and the "Gurgler" jamming signal on 18090 kHz. Chuck Skolaut fielded questions that included AMTS stations located in California, remote station operation from overseas, operation overseas, and several complaints about interference on 75 meters. Education Services Reported by Debra Johnson, K1DMJ Education & Technology Program We were able to bring two new Teachers Institute instructors on board this past month. Matt Severin, N8MS has been contracted to teach the TI-2 on Space in the Classroom that is sponsored by DARA in Dayton, Ohio. Tommy Gober, N5DUX will join the team, training with Miguel Enriquez, KD7RPP at the proposed Albuquerque and Parallax TI sessions this summer. Nathan McCray, K9CPO and I reviewed and wrote recommendations for the grant applications submitted for the November round. The Executive Committee approved the 5 grants we recommended, which included three station grants and two progress grants. Nathan updated the equipment lists that we send out to our schools that have been awarded grants. He removed antenna tuners from the "wish lists." One of the important concepts that need to be taught at our ETP schools is how important it is to install a properly tuned antenna whether it is homemade or bought on the market. Antenna tuners tend to make people lazy in tuning their equipment and sloppy with installation. So, in the future, if schools really want a tuner, they'll have to raise funds elsewhere. Miguel reports that another antenna was built for a VHF / UHF setup in a new classroom in his high school in Tucson. A third antenna was installed for "world TV" reception. The microwave dish is currently being installed so that the students can watch television stations from around the world. He comments, "If my students are too poor to do any traveling, they can still benefit by bringing the world to them." Miguel is talking to a company in Phoenix about a student business venture to manufacture and distribute 1GHz - 11GHz down converters for ATV. If they can design a simple board, he is considering having the students in the radio club populate the boards for sale with the profits coming to the club to finance its activities and to pay for their antenna site rental on Mt. Lemmon. Nathan has set up shop to build out remote decoder boards for the ETP. He ordered parts to assemble 50 of these boards, which he considers to be one of the more valuable introductory learning projects in the ETP library. He connected with a local amateur radio club (Racine Megacycle Club, Racine WI) which agreed to help get the radio station set up at his school. This club has an active ATV program and a very active fox hunt group. They have already donated a ton of equipment and are excited about getting his students involved in amateur radio! ARISS ARISS celebrated its 10th anniversary on December 21. On this date in 2000 Astronaut William Shepherd, KD5GSL supported the first ARISS contact with Burbank School students in Burbank, Illinois. To date, ARISS has supported 565 contacts with students, stimulating their interest in science and technology. Astronaut Paoli Nespoli, IZ0JPA, and Astronaut Cady Coleman, KC5ZTH, are now on the ISS for their six-month stint. They plan to be very active supporting ARISS educational activities. Astronauts Joe Acaba, KE5DAR and Aki Hoshide, KE5DNI slated for Expedition 31 in 2012 were recently trained, and along with Suni Williams, KD5PLB who will be returning for Expedition 32, a high level of support from crew promises a steady level of activity for the ARISS program into 2012. According to ARISS Program Manager, Rosalie White K1STO, this means we'll be looking for additional volunteer support for contacts at school ground stations from local hams! A teacher at Windsor Central High School (NY), which recently sponsored an ARISS QSO and education activities related to ham radio and technology, wrote this note: "The four-week ARISS program we sponsored has been an exceptional experience for our students. The day they spoke to Colonel Wheelock was extraordinary for both the regular and special needs students. They were in awe of the experience. Other students were so impressed that they have signed up to attend our upcoming technology programs." NASA gave needed approval for using the VHF and UHF Ericsson handheld radios in the ISS Columbus module. Currently, the radios are stored in the Russian module. When the Ericssons are moved and installed in Columbus in early 2011, there will be two ham stations on that ISS, so the ARISS team is working on a plan to coordinate astronaut ops. ARISSat-1 has been shipped from Johnson Space Center to Moscow, Russia's airport. Russia's Energia representatives are expected to accept the hardware and then the Russian and two US ARISS team members who are now in Moscow will install the battery and the hardware for the Kursk University experiment. Then they will test the satellite for flight. A final safety review will follow in January. ARISSat-1 is scheduled to launch on a Progress rocket, 41P, on January 28. Continuing Education Program Jennifer Knapp and I have been meeting with IT Staff on the project to reconfigure the admin system for this program and redesign the registration system which is part of the integration with the new Moodle online platform on which we will launch future online courses. The new Intro to EmComm course is in development with the contracted instructional designer. In coordination with Emergency Preparedness Manager, Mike Corey, W5MPC we sent communications to EmComm online mentors, field instructors and examiners about the planned delivery of the new online course and the transition plan for field instruction and exams. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Staff Absentee List Steve Capodicasa 1/10 Vacation `` 1/24 Vacation `` 2/11 Vacation Jackie Ferreira 1/12-1/19 Vacation Dan Henderson 12/6-1/10 Medical Leave Sabrina Jackson 1/7 Vacation Khrystyne Keane 2/1-2/2 Vacation Joel Kleinman 1/5-1/7 Vacation Barry Shelley 1/7 Vacation `` 2/4 Vacation `` 2/18 Vacation Hamfest/Member Contact/ARRL Representative Dave Sumner 1/8 Delta Division Convention, Hammond, LA Norm Fusaro 1/9 Southern Florida Section Convention, Ft. Myers, FL Joel Hallas 1/22-1/23 Wheaton Comm. Radio Amateurs Hamfest, Wheaton, IL Mike Corey 1/28-1/29 Mississippi State Convention, Jackson, MS Bill Moore 2/11-2/12 Southeastern Division Convention, Orlando, FL Bob Allison 2/18-2/19 Arizona State Convention, Yuma, AZ Joel Hallas 2/25-2/26 Vermont State Convention, Colchester, VT Harold Kramer 3/5 South Texas Section Convention, Rosenberg, TX
