IN-Newsletter
Vol. 41, No. 34
September 30, 2016 — Covers the period September 19-23.
Upcoming In-Person Meetings and Events
United States Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI)
October 3-7 – ARRL HQ
Section Managers’ Workshop
October 7-9 – ARRL HQ
Executive Committee
October 22 @ 8:30am in Chicago, IL
LoTW Study Committee
November 11 @ 10:00am in Newington, CT
Administration & Finance Committee
November 12 @ 8:30am in Newington, CT
Development
Reported by Lauren Clarke, KB1YDD
The ARRL Foundation will begin accepting applications for the 2017 scholarship program on October 1, 2016. Awards are in the range of $500 - $5,000, and interested applicants can read full
eligibility requirements and deadlines at
www.arrl.org/scholarship-program.
The ARRL Foundation Board of Directors unanimously approved a new scholarship. The Lois Manley, K7LMZ, and Randall Pitchford, WW7ZZ, Scholarship will award $1,000 scholarship annually to
an FCC licensed student from the ARRL Northwestern Division (with preference given first to individuals living in Oregon), and who is pursuing a degree in the Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields.
A 60,000-piece direct mail solicitation is being sent out this week seeking contributions for the Education & Technology Fund.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Government made the Individual Retirement Account (IRA) Charitable Rollover provision, for individuals over the age of 70 ½, permanent. The Development Office
has been marketing this to our membership throughout the year; ARRL has more than 17,000 members over the age of 71. The Development Office will be sending a mailing to these members to encourage charitable gifts by the end of the year. Already, we have
received several generous donations through this program. Members can learn more at www.arrl.org/ira-distributions.
Education Services
Reported Debra Johnson, K1DMJ
Education Services welcomes Lisa Kustosik as part-time administrator. Lisa’s knowledge of the organization and ARRL systems will be valuable as she applies her knowledge to the programs
supported by the Education Services department.
We have received reports from Girl Scout leaders indicating that more than 200 girls have completed the new Radio & Wireless Technology Patch Program thus far.
Education & Technology Program.
Dave Cripe, NM0S has redesigned the Wave Modulation instructional board incorporating some new features and has sent prototype kits to Teachers Institute instructors to assemble and test.
ARISS. In preparation for the Fall proposal window we revised the ARISS proposal guide and proposal form. We opened
the Fall proposal window on September 1 to solicit educational proposals from US schools for contacts to be scheduled July – Dec 2017. The proposal window closes November 1. We are offering two online Information Sessions in September.
The first use of the ARISS loan ground station met with failure for the contact scheduled at Lewis & Clark National Park on September 3. The ARISS operations team hosted a follow up conference
call to troubleshoot the issues for the next use. In spite of an unsuccessful direct contact on September 3, ARISS operations was able to schedule a second attempt via telebridge on the following Saturday, September 10, which was successful. The local ham
team reports that overall the effort with the Park planning for the NPOTA event and ARISS contact generated some really good energy for the club as well as opened doors for future connections within the local community.
In addition to the contact at Lewis & Clark National Park in early September, scheduled ARISS contacts in August and September included telebridge contacts with Scouts at Space Jam 10 in
Rantoul, IL and with students at Space Camp at the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. Direct contacts were hosted for campers attending summer STEM camp at the Kopernik Observatory and Science Center, in Vestal, NY and with students at the Children’s
Museum in Indianapolis, IN and at the Lawrence Library in Lawrence, KS. Watch
a video from the Kopernik Observatory contact. Internationally, contacts were successfully hosted in Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Spain and Japan.
Field Services & Radiosport
Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N
DXCC
|
Paper/Fieldcheck Processing Time |
2 Weeks |
|
Logbook Processing Time |
1-2 Days |
Field Organization/Public Service Team
Reported by Steve Ewald WV1X
At the request of President Roderick, CEO Tom Gallagher and Directors, many Section Managers over this past week have been encouraging and asking their respective section members to contact
their U.S. Senators (by way of the “Rally Congress” Web page site) and ask them to support H.R. 1301, the Amateur Radio Parity Act.
Steve Ewald has been preparing for the upcoming Section Managers’ Workshop, scheduled for Friday through Sunday, October 7 -9 at ARRL Headquarters. Fourteen new Section Managers have signed
up to attend, and the main travel day to Connecticut is October 6. Several Headquarters staff leaders, staff members and ARRL volunteers will be assisting Steve during the event. Thank you.
Leona Adams reports that Virgil Silhanek, K7VZ, of Phoenix, has been nominated to run for the office of Arizona Section Manager. The next term of office starts in April, 2017, and nominations
are due at Headquarters by December 9, 2016.
Lab
Reported by Ed Hare, W1RFI
Product Review Testing
Bob Allison, WB1GCM started testing of two DMR handheld transceivers. Bob could not figure out how to program them due to the poor instructions. Martin Ewing, a lab volunteer, also tried
with no luck. The handhelds are going to the reviewer who is familiar with the product. Hopefully, clearer instructions will be the result of the review.
Bob moved on to testing of a portable HF CW/SSB transceiver. Testing is going well so far.
Volunteers
Lab volunteers continue to be of valuable help. Lori Kosior, N1SMK, is in the process of creating links from our technology pages to Product Review Videos. This covers the time period from
May 2012 to present. Pete Turbide, W1PT is currently working on testing equipment that has been donated for this year’s on-line auction. Pete also assisted Bob Allison with preparing past Product Review equipment for the on-line auction. Martin Ewing, AA6E,
assisted Bob Allison in the lab by getting a WSPR Transmitter prototype working. This 20 meter, 10 mW transmitter was hooked up to a rooftop antenna and heard by several stations in the South.
Operating
Mike Gruber, W1MG, is enjoying vacation on Cape Cod. He talked with Bob Allison on 2 meters SSB, operating just south of Provincetown.
Zack Lau W1VT has confirmed contacts with 44 National Parks and 44 National Parks. He has worked Sean KX9X/2 who is vacationing in Hyde Park NY. There are still three months left to participate
in the ARRL National Parks on the Air operating event.
Sales and Marketing
Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R
Yvette Vinci reports that on Tuesday, September 20, a reminder emailing was sent to members with a summary of “What’s trending” in October QST — taking advantage of some early analytics that she had pulled.
The notification was sent to 121,160 members.
Diane Petrilli reports that the first large membership campaign since before summer is beginning to reach mailboxes and return applications. She regularly conducts targeted membership appeals via email.
Materials were assembled and shipped to support ARRL’s booth at Pacificon, the ARRL Pacific Division Convention (Oct 14-16).
Bob Inderbitzen worked with our affinity benefit partner, US Bank, to develop new content to promote the ARRL Visa credit card. A new landing page was prepared by Jackie Ferreira at
www.arrl.org/visa. Earnings from the credit card program topped $30K through August.
Additional work was completed by the marketing team to support 2017/18 planning.
The new ARRL 2017 Calendar, featuring photography from National Parks on the Air activations, was introduced across our social media channels including Facebook and Twitter – and spurred on traffic
to the ARRL e-store.
Now Shipping:
·
New 11th edition
ARRL Operating Manual for Radio Amateurs
·
New 2017
ARRL Calendar
Summary of Sales and Marketing Department telephone group, reported by Yvette Vinci:
|
Week Ending |
Calls Answered |
Calls Per Hour |
Total Talking Duration |
Average Speed of Answer |
|
9/23/2016 |
860 |
19.1 |
27:12:48 |
8 seconds |
|
9/16/2016 |
810 |
18.0 |
28:44:42 |
11 seconds |
|
9/9/2016 (4 days) |
507 |
14.0 |
17:16:33 |
9 seconds |
|
9/2/2016 |
866 |
19.2 |
30:39:10 |
10 seconds |
Summary
of warehouse fulfillment activity,
reported by Steve Capodicasa:
|
Week
Ending |
Packages fulfilled |
Member Premiums |
|
9/23/2016 |
787 |
365 |
|
9/16/2016 |
486 |
428 |
|
9/9/2016 (4 days) |
586 |
350 |
|
9/2/2016 |
1,068 |
426 |
Sincerely Compiled by,
Carla Pereira
Assistant to CEO
Hamfest/Member Contact/ARRL Representative/Meetings/Vacations
Bob Allison 10/17-10/21 PTO
`` 11/3-11/4 Club Travel
`` 12/26-12/30 PTO
Steve Ford 10/3 PTO
`` 11/7 PTO
Tom Gallagher 10/13 – 10/16 Pacificon 2016, San Ramon CA
`` 10/21 – 10/22 Executive Committee Meeting, Chicago IL
Mike Gruber 9/26-9/30 PTO
`` 10/14 PTO
Ed Hare 10/14 PTO
Dan Henderson 11/10-11/13 Indiana Section Convention / Ft Wayne IN
Gail Iannone 10/7-1/9 Sick Leave
Bob Inderbitzen 9/27-10/6 UK National Hamfest, Newark, England/PTO
`` 10/7-10/10 RSGB Convention, Milton Keynes, England
`` 10/13-10/18 Pacific Division Convention, San Ramon, CA/PTO
Debra Johnson 10/14-10/22 PTO
Becky Schoenfeld 9/26-9/28 PTO
Yvette Vinci 10/7 PTO