IN-Newsletter Vol. 40, No. 34 September 30, 2015 - Covers the period September 20-26. Upcoming In-Person Meetings and Events United States Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI) September 28-October 2 - ARRL HQ Executive Committee October 3 @ 8:30am in Bloomington, MN LoTW Study Committee November 13 @ 9:00am - ARRL HQ Administration & Finance Committee November 14 @ 8:30am - ARRL HQ Director/Vice Director Elections November 20 @ 9:00am - ARRL HQ Regulatory Information Reported by Dan Henderson, N1ND With the shipping of over 2700 letters for the House and the Senate at the end of the week of September 21, a total of 10,975 letters have been received at the ARRL (5279 House / 5696 Senate) in support of the Amateur Radio Parity Act. With the addition of two co-sponsors on September 25, a total of 99 members of the House have joined Mr. Kinzinger in sponsoring HR 1301 - an even 100 to date. Letters have been sent to 423 offices in the House (96% when you include the non-voting delegates) and all 100 offices in the Senate. Many thanks to the various Directors, Vice Directors, Section Managers and volunteers who are "working the crowd" to produce these letters. In addition, thanks to Lisa Kustosik for her assistance in preparing the letters to ship to Keelen after they arrive in Newington. We continue to work with the ARRL team when they visit Washington, following up to House and Senate office visits with information and preparing Excel listings of all FCC licensees resident in the various districts/states. We have also fielded follow-up phone calls from several Capitol Hill offices. A two-hour presentation was edited and presented on Saturday September 19 for the annual Section Manager Training Workshop. The PowerPoint covered the Regulatory Information office's areas of responsibility as well as additional information provided by ARRL General Counsel. The section on advocacy was expanded, with a bit more detail on the need of the SMs and their staff (SGL/LGLs) to closely monitor state and local legislative activities. At the request of the NCVEC's Question Pool Committee, we reviewed the relevant regulatory / rules section of the new Extra Class question pool being developed and offered input and some corrections on the proposed content. Several updates of the Volunteer Counsel / Volunteer Consulting Engineer databases were processed. A thorough update of the databases will be undertaken in early 2016 as it has been several years since that housekeeping item was done. Assorted email and phone queries on the usual range of topics (such as reciprocal operating, where to find information about PRB-1, etc) are steadily coming into the office as always. With the departure of Matt Wilhelm, W1MSW, as Contest Branch Manager, we have once again stepped in temporarily to keep things on track and schedule in the contest department. The scores for the June VHF contest were received from the log checker, imported into the database, tables generated, and then sent to the author for the write-up. Finishing touches were made on the 2015 Field Day data, tables have been generated, and the article will be delivered to QST production staff the week of September 28. Working with staff from the Radiosport department and volunteers, we finished shipping the certificates for the 2014 Sweepstakes. The engraved plates for the plaques for Sweepstakes were also received and were sorted. Staff is currently working on preparing the shipping database for those plaques. During the month of October, we anticipate shipping the plaques for the 2015 RTTY Round-up and the 2015 International DX Contest. We also anticipate preparing the order for Affiliated Club Competition gavels for the last cycle of contests. (Thanks Kathy Allison, KA1RWY, and Jordan Sakal, KB1ZDZ!) Development Reported by Lauren Clarke, KB1YDD The ARRL Foundation Scholarship Program will begin accepting applications for the 2016-2017 academic year on October 1. I encourage all Directors and Vice Directors to help spread the word about this program. This past year, 83 recipients were awarded scholarships totaling $128,750 in addition to the Goldfarb Scholarship. Additional information and the applications can be found on the ARRL website at http://www.arrl.org/scholarship-program. The ARRL Foundation approved a new scholarship, The Alan G. Thorpe, K1TMW Memorial Scholarship Fund, endowed through The Stratford Amateur Radio Club, Inc. and Alan G. Thorpe, K1TMW (SK). The first award for this scholarship will be presented in 2016 to a licensed amateur radio pursuing higher education at an accredited 4-year college or university. Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R Diane Petrilli reports that September ended with 167,518 members, 1,214 members ahead of the year-to-date goal. This represents a gain from August of 69 members; a loss of 98 was forecasted. The on-time renewal rate for September is 74.79% vs. 71.83% last September. The top sources of acquisition this month were membership applications made online, a September mailing to non-members, and our regular mailings to new licensees. Jackie Ferriera reports that September product sales were $204,326, exceeding the sales forecast of $181,028. Direct sales were $104,789; dealer sales were $99,537 (up 9% from 2014). Royalties earned on sales of our Kindle e-books were $5,909 ($7,130 last month). We now have 16 titles in Amazon's Kindle marketplace, including the newly introduced "Discover Ham Radio" booklet. Anthony Flores, a Shipping Clerk at the ARRL Warehouse, has resigned. Please join us in extending best wishes to Anthony. A temporary worker will fill the post until a new hire is made-so the warehouse can keep up with fulfillment of the new editions of the Handbook and Antenna Book. The new editions have just arrived. Yvette is preparing the annual Statements of Ownership, Management, and Circulation for each of ARRL's periodicals: QST, QEX and NCJ. 2016 National Convention Planning Orlando HamCation, Feb 12-14, 2016 The staff team for the convention has been committed, including exhibit and activity assignments. Hotel and registration information, shared previously with the ARRL Board, has now been shared with Section Managers. Summary of warehouse fulfillment activity, reported by Steve Capodicasa: Week ending Packages fulfilled Member Premiums 9/25/2015 657 428 9/18/2015 612 529 9/11/2015 556 382 9/4/2015 967 657 Field Services & Radiosport Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N DXCC Paper/Fieldcheck Processing Time 3 Weeks Logbook Processing Time 2-4 Business Days Number of Centennial applications processed: Centennial Challenge QSO 2558 W1AW/WAS 1829 W1AW Joe processed three Qualifying Run certificates and three endorsements. He made another repair to the Ameritron AL-1200 amplifier located in the broadcast racks. He also updated the September web Qualifying Run schedule. Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the week. He also processed some VUCC applications and certificates. Field Organization/Public Service Team One radio amateur from Indiana successfully completed requirements to become an Official Observer. Using direction finding techniques, OOs in Illinois were able to locate a hidden transmitter that had been the source of interference to a local repeater. Several reports of jamming on7200 kHz by the same station were received, and obscene language was reported on 3843 kHz. Chuck Skolaut also received reports of unlicensed fishermen using 2 meters in the Los Angeles and Orange sections. These reports are now being investigated. North Carolina Official Observers are checking on non-hams using 146.520 MHz. Leona Adams reports that, with help from the Mailroom Staff, Section Manager election ballots and candidate statements were mailed to from Newington on September 24. ARRL members in the Santa Barbara Section will have until November 20th to return their ballots to Headquarters. Ballot counting is scheduled for November 24. Education Services Reported by Debra Johnson, K1DMJ During August and September we recorded 101 instructor registrations, 6 teacher registrations, and 102 ham radio license class listings. Scheduled ARISS contacts with US schools/organizations in August included: Space Jam in Rantoul, IL on August 8 and Pima County 4H Club<http://www.kvoa.com/clip/11789159/tucson-students-speak-with-astronaut-on-iss> in Tucson, AZ on August 22, both with astronaut Kjell Lindgren, KO5MOS, Maconaquah School District<http://www.kokomotribune.com/news/mac-students-to-contact-astronaut-on-international-space-station/article_69336d0a-1c39-11e5-b85d-5bac3554fad1.html> in Bunker Hill, IN on August 27 with astronaut Kimiya Yui, KG5BPH, and with New Mexico Military Institute<http://krqe.com/2015/09/16/new-mexico-military-institute-students-talk-to-nasa-astronaut-in-space/> on September 16 with Lindgren. Eleven international contacts were also completed during the period with students in Switzerland, Japan, France, Australia, Germany, Russia and Finland. Members of the ARISS International working group held a meeting in Tokyo August 20-23, hosted by ARISS delegate Keigo Komuro, JA1KAB, in conjunction with Japan Amateur Radio League's 90th anniversary celebration and international Ham Fair Exposition. Rosalie White, K1STO, attended representing ARRL as our voting delegate. Important discussions centered on revision to the partnership's Terms of Reference, the appointment of a new Sustainability and Funding Committee, and equipment planning for an upgrade to the ISS station in the Columbus module. Read the ARRL news story<http://www.arrl.org/news/ariss-international-delegates-meet-in-tokyo> recapping the meeting for more detail. ARISS Europe Chairman, Gaston Bertels, ON4WF announced his retirement<http://www.arrl.org/news/view/ariss-europe-chairman-retires-successor-elected>. His successor leading the European delegation will be Emanuele D'Andria, IØELE. Progress on developing a grant proposal package for solicitation of funding for ARISS from corporations is being made with the help of CASIS (Center for Advancement of Science in Space). Revisions to the ARISS proposal form were completed in time for the opening of the September 1- November 1 proposal window for contacts to be scheduled July-December 2016. Three online Information Sessions were hosted for prospective applicants during September. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Hamfest/Member Contact/ARRL Representative/Meetings/Vacations All Staff 11/26-11/27 Holiday All Staff 12/25 Holiday Bob Allison 10/18 Connecticut State Convention, Meriden, CT Lauren Clarke 11/25 PTO `` 12/24 PTO Mike Corey 11/13-11/15 HamJam, Alpharetta, GA Steve Ewald 10/2 PTO Steve Ford 10/16-10/18 AMSAT Symposium, Dayton, OH Jennifer Glifort 9/28-10/2 PTO Mike Gruber 9/28-10/2 PTO `` 10/16 NEAR-Fest, NH Dan Henderson 10/8-10/18 RSGB Convention, Milton Keynes, UK / PTO `` 11/23-11/25 PTO Bob Inderbitzen 10/16-10/18 Pacific Division Convention, San Ramon, CA Debra Johnson 10/8-10/20 PTO `` 11/16 PTO `` 11/25 PTO Harold Kramer 10/1-10/2 PTO `` 10/13-10/15 PTO Zack Lau 10/13 Jury Duty Brennan Price 10/16-10/18 Microwave Update, San Diego, CA Barry Shelley 10/1-10/2 PTO Dave Sumner 10/2 Executive Committee Meeting, Bloomington, MN `` 10/5-10/19 IARU Reg.3 Conference/AC Meeting, Indonesia
