<<020409.doc>>
IN-Newsletter
Vol. 32, No. 5
February 4, 2009 -- Covers the period January 25-31.
Regulatory Information
Reported by Dan Henderson, N1ND
The influx of cellular telephone bills continues, as is expected during this time of year when state legislatures are gearing up. At this time, we are aware of proposed bills in Georgia, Hawaii Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Montana, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming. We are waiting for the Executive Committee’s position paper on cell phone bills so that it can be provided to the SMs and SGLs in these states to assist in their work on these pieces of legislation. We are also aware of a state-level PRB-1 bill in Ohio.
We completed processing the updates to the VC and VCE databases that had come in as responses to the recent request for updates. We received back confirmations, corrections or removal requests from 60 of the 89 VCEs and 139 of the 264 VCs previously listed. We will be printing and mailing new VC/VCE certificates in the next several weeks. Of note is that 27 of the total of 353 pieces of mail sent to these volunteers was returned as undeliverable, though sent to the address which they had on file in the VE/VCE databases. We will follow up on those in the next few weeks as well as print and ship new VC/VCE certificates to continuing volunteers.
The usual member queries on reciprocal operation (CEPT and IARP) were handled along with queries on general Part 97 topics, including use of FM on HF bands other than 10-meters, band plans, and two queries from relatives of deceased operators asking about obtaining their loved ones callsign through the vanity program.
The Field Day packet PDF was prepared, along with PDFs of several individual sections of the packet. These were sent to Web Services for posting and should be available to the public on Monday February 2nd.
Media & Public Relations
Reported by Allen Pitts, W1AGP
Much of the past week was spent responding to requests for materials and information from members and PIOs. More of the PR-101 course has been written and some of the volunteer authors have sent in their sections. These have been added to the work and are being edited. CONTACT! was posted on Feb 1st and preparations made for the Charleston, SC convention on Feb 7.
Meanwhile, the ice storm in KY and surrounding states caused a flurry of ARES activities. Initially there was little about the ham actions in the media, but as it became apparent (especially in KY) that the hams were critical and other communications simply were not working in the ice or overloaded, the Lexington paper began to run daily articles about them. Chris Shaw, W4BGN, was a key player in getting our message out and is to be complimented on work well done in a very chaotic situation. The culmination appears to be the story at http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/story/682579.html which is HIGHLY complimentary to hams in getting the messages through when all else failed.
Development
Reported by Mary Hobart, K1MMH
ARRL Development will welcome Tim Ellam, VE6SH as Guest of Honor at the annual Donor Reception in Dayton on May 13. Invitations to major donors and Directors are in production.
The Diamond Club had a strong start to 2009, producing $21,353 in revenue from 169 contributions, including 37 new donors.
In other campaigns, the Spectrum Defense Fund received $12,665 from 167 contributions for an average donation of $ 75.78 and the Education & Technology Fund received $23,751 from 35 contributions.
Letters are being prepared seeking permission from major donors for the annual listing in the Annual Report, in QST and on the web.
Development provided input for the new membership copy for the new ARRL website.
Development staff are processing the influx of Foundation scholarship applications that arrived at the deadline of February 1.
Production/Editorial
Reported by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE
A revised first edition of Experimental Methods in RF Design has been released to the printer.
Khrystyne Keane wrote and distributed The ARRL Letter, Vol 28, No 4, for January 30, 2009. She also produced and voiced ARRL Audio News for January 30.
Sales and Marketing
Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R
Sales reports will be tabulated for January this week, but the news looks good so far. Membership broke the 155,000 mark over the weekend. And, combined direct and dealer product sales will come close to the $295,000 forecast.
Planning is in full-gear for the 2009 ARRL National Convention at Dayton Hamvention. There are many new ideas and activities being incorporated into ARRL’s exhibit space this year with positive support from both staff and volunteers. For those traveling to work the EXPO this year, you will be receiving an email soon with room reservation information, shirt orders, and other specifics to help organize our team. Thanks in advance for all the help from all departments on making this another successful year at Dayton! You can follow this planning as information is made available at www.arrl.org/expo.
Diane Petrilli and John Proctor have spent some significant time developing new processes to prepare monthly membership stats. Our goal is to generate adequately detailed statistics to help drive our membership marketing decisions.
All printed materials for a special membership mailing targeting ARRL VEs has been received and is due to start mailing this week.
Work is underway on a regular mailing to upcoming license expirees, offering help with license renewals and a membership incentive.
The trial telemarketing campaign is ongoing. Calls are being made to new licensees and lapsed members. This recent campaign has generated approximately 60 new memberships over the last two weeks.
The 2009 ARRL Field Day logo has been designed. T-shirts, participation pins and other items will be available for ordering shortly.
The Warehouse crew fulfilled 1,178 packages for publication and product orders, shipped 212 membership premiums, and mailed QST supplements. In addition, they completed a mailing to international members with “annual CD-ROM only” subscriptions.
Membership & Volunteer Programs
Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N
DXCC Branch
Credits Applications
2008 Carryover 94,890 876
2009 Received 49,695 410
Cumulative Total 144,585 1,286
2009 Processed 62,253 550
Remaining 82,332 736
Processing Time 8 weeks
Category January 2009
Triple Play WAS 77
WAS Certificates (Manual) 18
WAS Certificates (LoTW) 34
A-1 Op Nominations 17
A-1 Op Certificates 22
Extra Class Certificates 17
WAC Certificates 13
VUCC New / Grids 13 / 1,323
VUCC Endorsement / Grids 14 / 844
Processing Time Current
Logbook of the World
Category January 2009
QSO Records Entered Into System 204,053,863
QSL Record Matches 18,016,713
Logs Processed 818,522
Active Certificates 37,156
Registered Users in System 24,265
Logbook (Email Only) Inquiries January 2009
Triple Play WAS Inquiries 1,325
Lost Certificates 141
User Email Problems 134
Directions Not Followed 78
Startup Inquiries 69
Total 1,747
W1AW
Joe created the texts for the February W1AW Qualifying Runs. He processed one Qualifying Run endorsement. Joe also constructed a digital/CW interface for the Yaesu FTDX9000D transceiver. He also upgraded the PC in Studio One that is used for the FTDX9000D.
Scott worked on slow and fast code practice files for the early part of the month of February.
Field Organization/Public Service Team
ARRL HQ staff attempted to keep in touch with the Field Organization members and Section Leaders in the ice-storm stricken states to find out what levels of Amateur Radio activity had been established in response to the storm.
Dennis Dura and Steve Ewald participated in the quarterly teleconference hosted by the National Citizen Corps office for its affiliated partners and organizations.
Leona Adams reports that Headquarters received petitions that nominated the following folks for new terms of office as Section Manager beginning July 1, 2009: Al Shuman, K1AKS, incumbent SM, New Hampshire; Richard Krohn, N2SMV, incumbent SM, Northern New Jersey; Jim Cross, WI3N, incumbent SM, Maryland/DC, and Lauri “Mac” McCreary, KG7C, in Utah.
This past week, the FCC named Laura Smith of Pennsylvania to fill the vacancy created when Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, retired in 2008 as Special Counsel for the Spectrum Enforcement Division of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau. She will continue enforcement work out of Gettysburg. Chuck Skolaut reports that one radio amateur from New Mexico has joined the ranks as Official Observer. Connecticut OOs are checking for improper operation on 2 meters in the northeastern part of the state. Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota OOs were asked to listen for 160 meter interference. Monitors in Wyoming have reported interference from a commercial AM station to 160 meters. More information will be gathered.
Sincerely Compiled by,
Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ
Assistant to the CEO
Staff Absentee List
Leona Adams 2/20 Vacation
Margie Bourgoin 4/14 Vacation
`` 5/13-5/17 Dayton Hamvention
Steve Capodicasa 2/6 Vacation
Steve Ford 2/17 Vacation
`` 3/20 Microhams Conference, Seattle, WA
`` 4/2-4/3 AES Superfest, Milwaukee, WI
`` 4/20-4/24 Vacation
Scott Gee 3/4-3/6 Vacation
`` 4/15-4/17 Vacation
`` 4/27-4/28 Vacation
`` 5/14-5/15 Vacation
Mike Gruber 2/27-2/28 Vermont State Convention, Colchester VT
Dan Henderson 4/10-4/12 North Carolina State Convention, Raleigh, NC
Mary Hobart 2/13-2/15 Southeastern Division Convention, Orlando, FL
`` 5/5-5/9 ARRL DX Phone, Cuacao
`` 5/13-5/17 Dayton Hamvention
Bob Inderbitzen 2/13 Vacation
`` 4/13-4/15 Vacation
Joel Kleinman 3/2-3/11 Vacation
`` 3/26 Vacation
Harold Kramer 3/5-3/10 Vacation
Rose-Anne Lawrence 3/17 Vacation
Brennan Price 2/2-2/7 ITU Radiocomm. Advisory Group, Geneva
Dave Sumner 2/6 Vacation
`` 2/27-3/2 IARU Reg.1 EC Meeting, London England
Alex Tara 3/10 Vacation