IN-Newsletter
Vol. 35, No. 39
September 26, 2012 -- Covers the period September 16-22.
Upcoming Meetings and Events
Executive Committee:
September 29 @ 8:30am – Denver, CO
United States Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI)
October 1-5 – ARRL HQ
Director/Vice Director Elections
November 16
Administration and Finance Committee:
November 17 @ 8:30am - Newington CT
Chief Executive Officer
Reported by David Sumner, K1ZZ
Ballots for Full members in the Hudson and Northwestern Divisions will be mailed to those for whom we do not have valid email addresses on Monday, October 1. Also on October 1, emails will be sent to the rest explaining how they can vote electronically.
Media & Public Relations
Reported by Allen Pitts, W1AGP
Despite some airline problems, attending the Radio and Television Digital News Association and Society of Professional Journalist convention was quite successful last week with introductions and pitches made to several major players in media outlets. Of particular joy was addressing journalists about Amateur Radio’s roles in a disaster seminar titled “the BIG one.” A brief conversation with Jeff Fager, Chairman of CBS news, was followed up by an email pitching a story about Amateur Radio’s growth in the age of cell phones and Internet. (We will see what happens... but even if nothing comes of it, he knows we’re here.) I also completed Al Tompkins’ “Video Storytelling Bootcamp” classes which gave me several ideas for future use.
With 7 working days to go before “retirement,” I am creating written and audio files on how to do the many tasks and activities that maintain our PIOs and others in promotions. A draft of my final CONTACT! publication has been created and a final “Media Hits” column is being created for QST.
Production/Editorial
Reported by Becky Schoenfeld, W1BXY
Khrystyne Keane participated in the Section Managers’ Workshop held at ARRL HQ on September 15. She spoke to the 12 Section Managers about The ARRL Letter, the ARRL Audio News and explained the process of how QST is published each month.
Khrystyne wrote and distributed the September 20 edition of The ARRL Letter and produced and voiced the ARRL Audio News.
The Care and Feeding of Transmission Lines, by Joel Hallas, was released to the printer September 20th. This will be Joel’s fifth ARRL book.
Pacificon Legal Seminar proceedings went to press on September 20.
Microwave Update 2012 proceedings went to press on September 24.
Sales and Marketing
Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R
Amy Hurtado reports that she prepared the biannual Life Membership report, including a summary of new Life Members, for the upcoming ARRL Executive Committee meeting. She’s also completing the annually-required US Postal Service Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation for our periodicals QST, NCJ and QEX.
The marketing team has been immersed in 2013 planning and final details for the 2012 ARRL National Convention. The beginning of fall also heralds the busy buying season as we march toward the late-year holidays.
A large mailing featuring new ARRL publications will mail ~ October 5. The mailing promotes the new 2013 ARRL Handbook, new 10th edition ARRL Operating Manual, current 22nd edition ARRL Antenna Book and new Amateur Radio Public Service Handbook. A follow-up mailing has been prepared for early November.
The fall/winter publications catalog is being wrapped up and will go to the printer before the end of the week.
Now Shipping: Antenna Modeling for Beginners, by Ward Silver, NĜAX.
Summary of warehouse fulfillment activity (reported by Steve Capodicasa):
Week of | Packages fulfilled | Member Premiums |
9/17 | 898 | 594 |
Steve Ford, Michael Keane and Bob Inderbitzen teleconferenced with the developers of TravelPlus for Repeaters, continuing their planning that will eventually lead to our introduction of an ARRL Repeater Directory application (app) for use on smartphones.
Our affinity benefits partner US Bank has mailings planned in October, promoting the ARRL Visa credit card. Our earnings for the program from January through August are $24,490. We had a particularly good August, boosted by new card holders acquired as a result of an emailing we conducted during the summer.
Membership & Volunteer Programs
Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N
W1AW
Joe installed a new Kenwood TS-590 HF/6 transceiver in the Harris racks. This transceiver is now used for the 40-meter W1AW broadcasts. He also updated the web code practice files. Joe also began reorganization of the operating positions in Studio Three.
During the prior weekend (September 15, 16) W1AW played host to the new ARRL Section Managers who were in attendance for the ARRL SM Workshops. Thanks to Steve Ewald and Chuck Skolaut for hosting the activity at W1AW.
Field Organization/Public Service Team
Incumbent Section Managers Dale Temple, W5RXU (Arkansas) and Garth Crowe, N7XKT (Wyoming) have been nominated to run for new terms of office in their respective sections. New terms for this particular election cycle begin in April 2013, and the announcement for nominations appears in October QST.
One radio amateur from Western Washington completed requirements to become an Official Observer this week. We alerted regional Official Observers to monitor and check out a report of intentional interference to the Texas Traders Net on 7.245 MHz and the Continental Traders Net on 3.922 MHz. ARRL Headquarters received documentation about a business using 2 meters and forwarded this information to the FCC for follow up.
We also sent to Laura Smith at the FCC some details about a net that acts as a source of information for listeners. We asked for an opinion regarding a potential broadcasting aspect. Several members in our Intruder Watch reported an unidentified RTTY signal on 14.024 MHz. Later, with the help of the Region 1 Monitoring Coordinator, it was identified as a Russian military signal.
Education Services
Reported by Debra Johnson, K1DMJ
Nathan McCray K9CPO met with Section Managers at the recent HQ Orientation to offer information about the programs and services the Education office support. He also took the opportunity to demonstrate some new instruction content being developed by Mark Spencer, WA8SME for the Education & Technology Program. The Section Managers enjoyed trying out the SeaPerch™ robot in their hotel pool.
On Sept. 22, I represented ARRL at the Washington State Convention in Spokane. The convention was well attended and well organized. Estimated attendance was 475. The convention was sponsored by 8 regional clubs. Eight commercial vendors had booths, and there were about 55 swap tables. My forum was well attended—I’d estimate there were about 20 people in the audience. Division Director Jim Fenstermaker, K9JF. Eastern WA Section Manager, Mark Tharp, KB7HDX, Western WA Section Manager, Jim Pace, K7CEX, as well as Idaho Section Manager, Ed Stuckey AI7H, were all present to staff the ARRL booth. We had a constant flow of traffic most of the day. The membership promotion Bob Inderbitzen put together for the WA convention was very well received. We took 25 3-year membership renewals, 7 2-year renewals and 15 1-year renewals.
Licensing Instruction
Nathan McCray is writing an orientation course for instructors. The content is focused on getting organized to instruct, assessing personal skills, developing learning objectives and lesson plans, and classroom management. He is also putting these skills into practice offering a General Class license course for ARRL employees.
Education & Technology Program
Mark Spencer continues to develop the sensor packages that will be available for deployment on a sea buoy or on the SeaPerch™ robot, in addition to the sensors he has already developed that would deployed in a balloon near space expedition. The latest additions are an ozone sensor and a water pressure sensor. Mark is also working on a communications package that will permit data to be sent from the SeaPerch robot to a tethered receiver buoy and from there to a receiving station. He has successfully demonstrated a proof of concept for a new robotics program that will connect with ham radio using packet command and control from off-site locations, potentially between school stations with packet capability, and also via the amateur radio station on the ISS. This new program, now called MAREA (Mars-Lander/Marine ARISS Robotic Exploration Activity) is an outcome of our partnership discussions with AMSAT and NASA. Instruction on use of remote sensors and data management in hands-on science experiments is part of the new advanced Teachers Institute Remote Sensing and Data Gathering curriculum we hope to offer in 2013. Mark Spencer and I held a webinar with members of DARA’s planning council to provide an overview of the new curriculum, and the new MAREA program, which we followed with a proposal requesting their investment in the new Teachers Institute program, along with their continuing support for the TI-2 on Space Communications.
Mark’s article in October QST describing the Satellite CAT (computer aided tuning) Interface for Working the Analog Birds (p. 40) that he developed for the ETP has been attracting quite a lot of interest. We will be inventorying a quantity of these boards+ PIC and interface kits in the ETP for sale at price that will cover costs plus contribution to our ETP development expense, along with providing a contribution to AMSAT.
With the help of Lauren Clarke KB1YDD in the Development Office, Nathan McCray and I completed a grant application to a Connecticut affiliate of NBC for a local educational outreach opportunity.
ARISS
Recent budget cuts and education program re-alignments at NASA are shaking out as the new fiscal year begins October 1. We are in conversation with our contacts within NASA about changes that may affect the ARISS program, including a significant loss of NASA operational support that is threatened. In order to reestablish ARRL’s and AMSAT’s working relationship with NASA for this program, as well as the commitments and obligations of the international partners, the US ARISS management team is turning our attention to drafting a new charter agreement that will address these issues and identify roles and responsibilities of each partner. We have been operating the program without a formal agreement for many years. The last agreement was formalized at the beginning of the SAREX program in 1996.
September has been a very active month for ARISS. In addition to international contacts that included 1 in Japan, 2 in Germany and 2 in Australia and 1 in Poland, the US team supported 6 contacts:
Sept. 12: Marcelino Canino Middle School, Dorado, Puerto Rico with Joe Acaba KE5DAR.
Sept 13: NASA Goddard Child Development Center, Greenbelt, MD, direct with Akihiko Hoshide KE5DN.
Sept 13: Burns Sci-Tech Charter School, Oak Hill, FL, direct with Sunita Williams KD5PLB.
Sept 20: Sunset Hills Elementary, San Diego, CA, direct contact with Aki Hoshide. Link to a local television story and a local newspaper story.
Sept 21: Lafayette Middle School, Lafayette, GA, direct with Sunita Williams KD5PLB. Link to local television news stories WDEF, WRCBTV, and to a local newspaper story.
Sept. 24: Waxter Young Women’s Academy, Laurel, MD, telebridge with Akihiko Hoshide KE5DNI.
Sincerely Compiled by,
Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ
Assistant to the CEO
Hamfest/Member Contact/ARRL Representative/Meetings/Vacations
Holiday 11/22-11/23 Holiday
Holiday 12/24-12/25 Holiday
Leona Adams 9/27-9/28 Vacation
Margie Bourgoin 10/4-10/5 Vacation
Joe Carcia 10/8 Vacation
Jackie Ferreira 10/10-10/15 National Convention, Santa Clara, CA
Steve Ford 10/10-10/13 Jury Duty
Scott Gee 11/9-11/15 Vacation
`` 12/21-12/26 Vacation
Mike Gruber 10/1-10/5 Vacation
`` 10/12 NearFEST, Deerfield, NH
Joel Hallas 10/3 Vacation
`` 10/10 Vacation
`` 10/17 Vacation
`` 10/24 Vacation
`` 10/31 Vacation
Ed Hare 10/1-10/5 ANSI EMC Committee Meeting, Santa Clara, CA
`` 10/14 IEEE EMC Society Chapter meeting, Detroit, MI
`` 10/15-10/16 IEEE EMC Society Standards Dev. Comm. meeting, Denver CO
Dan Henderson 9/21-10/1 SEDCO, Sevierville, TN / Vacation
`` 11/16-11/21 Indiana Section Convention, Ft. Wayne, IN / Vacation
Amy Hurtado 10/10-10/15 National Convention, Santa Clara, CA
Bob Inderbitzen 10/5-10/8 Vacation
`` 10/10-10/15 National Convention, Santa Clara, CA
Khrystyne Keane 9/28 Vacation
`` 10/26 Vacation
Harold Kramer 10/5-10/7 MFJ 40th Anniversary, Starkville, MS
Zack Lau 9/25-9/28 Vacation
Maryann Macdonald 9/24-10/1 Vacation
Diane Petrilli 10/11-10/15 National Convention, Santa Clara, CA
Barry Shelley 9/28 Vacation