IN-Newsletter Vol. 27, No. 1 January 5, 2004 Upcoming Meetings January 15th in Newington, CT at 8:30am A & F Committee January 15th in Newington, CT at 8:30am Volunteer Resources Committee January 15th in Newington, CT at 9:00am Membership Services Committee January 16-17, 2004 in Windsor, CT Board Meeting Development The 2004 Spectrum Defense Fund raised more than $230,000 before December 31, 2003, surpassing its budgeted goal of $225,000. The success of this campaign brings the 2003 revenues for Spectrum Defense to more than $606,000 from more than 12,000 donations, against YTD expenditures of $95,000 (through November 30). The major campaign in support of the W1AW Endowment is in final production. The campaign will be mailed to more than 132,000 ARRL members in mid-January. This campaign is unique in two ways -- the selection of high end thank you gifts (including a pen and ink drawing of W1AW, a set of four etched glass tumblers, and an etched crystal mug, and a two-tone metal pin) and a new fund raising tactic encouraging multi-year pledges to support the Endowment. Keep and eye on the Web and in the mail. The Diamond Club continues to grow through new donors and renewals. A new Director level donor contributed $5000 at the end of 2003. This is one of Development's most important revenue streams since it provides unrestricted revenue. Mark Simcik is completing work on the new ARRL Scrapbook on the Web. This new section of the Web was inspired by a donor who encouraged ARRL to provide a platform for radio amateurs to tell their favorite personal Amateur Radio stories. This new interactive web opportunity is similar in concept to the contest Soapbox and will be promoted in a story on the Web and in the ARRL Letter. The 2004 application for ARRL to participate in the Combined Federal Campaign has been filed. If approved, ARRL will be listed on the web and in brochures encouraging philanthropy by government employees. This program brought ARRL more than $10,000 in contributions from federal employees last year. ARRL received a new planned giving commitment valued at $10,000. Development is already planning a major donor reception for Thursday evening, May 13 in Dayton. Time and place to be determined. Media Relations Jennifer is working on setting up an on-air contact between a ham in Chattanooga, TN, and the president of the Turkish IARU society (TRAC) in Istanbul. Chattanooga's ABC television affiliate wants to cover the contact, and information on what Turkish hams are doing to help in the aftermath of the earthquake in Iran. The station plans to interview the US ham about the role Amateur Radio can play during disasters in this country, and the connection to homeland security. The logistics are being worked out. The public relations report for the upcoming Board meeting has been submitted. The Public Relations Committee members have reached a decision on the 2003 Leonard Award winner, and a motion has been submitted to the appropriate Director. The PRC report for the Board meeting has been submitted. On President Haynie's behalf, and with his approval, Jennifer sent letters of appointment and reappointment to PRC members for 2004. We expect the committee to be in place on January 19. Production/Editorial Joel Hallas has prepared several New Products items and a Short Takes write-up for QST, and has delivered January/February NCJ Web page files to the Webmaster. Stu Cohen has turned in the technical articles, "The Doctor is IN" column and the "Hands On Radio" column for March QST. Dave Hassler prepared two feature stories for the Web site. Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter, Vol 23, No 1 (Jan 2, 2004) distributed to 67,054 members. Rick wrote/edited news stories on the additional AMRAD and DERA comments on BPL, which tied in with a sidebar story on BPL deployment involving Lompoc, California, and Manassas, Virginia. Rick also compiled/edited "In Brief" for Dec 31, 2003 (17 items), an obituary for Joe T. Knight, W5PDY, the Youth Web column, and FCC enforcement actions. Rick voiced/edited/produced ARRL Audio News for Jan 2 with voiceover assistance from Jennifer Hagy. Sales & Marketing On Friday January 2 the warehouse completed the difficult and challenging task of the Year End Inventory process. We are readying a large membership mailing. Plans include mailing to 100,000 expired and "never" members in January, and another 82,000 in February. An emailing was sent to ARRL members on Monday, soliciting subscriptions for NCJ and QEX. Similar messages have been sent quarterly, producing good results. By the end of the week, we had taken 142 QEX subscriptions and 27 for NCJ. Bob has been evaluating the results of using advanced list processing to improve the deliverability of addresses within our mailing files. Advertising launched our extremely aggressive First Quarter campaign to book significant commitments for our specialty advertising products. The opening results are very satisfying, providing us with optimism that we will see many absent advertisers return to normal exposure levels in our publications. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 400 WAS Cert. (Replacement) 1 WAC Certs. (Replacements) 2 OTCs 18 Extra Class Certs. 9 RCCs 5 A-1 Operator Noms. 3 LTMA Inquiries 27 Awards Mailed 27 Processing Status: Current or up to four weeks. For the coming week-More WAS QSL card checking, basic WAS awards for December, order the 50- and 60-year member plaques, LTMA research/letters from members' inquiries, VUCC awards processing, and mail out awards processed this week. Contest Branch Revisions to the IARU QST write-up were made. An addition was written and included to fill the remaining space. Additional tables and information were prepared for the September VHF results author and emailed to him. Several contesting rules violations are being examined for possible forwarding to the Awards Committee for consideration. Sweepstakes data entry continued. We handled numerous requests for assistance with problem logs for the Sweepstakes, 160 Meters and 10 Meters contests. While the QST announcement and Contest Branch web site have the correct dates for the 2004 January VHF SS, Contest Corral inadvertently used the wrong dates. This is generating quite a number of phone calls and email queries. Data entry for SS CW entries continued as did data entry for Sweepstakes Mugs and Pins. DXCC Branch For the week of: January 4, 2004 Beginning Cards 120,167 Cards Received 4,126 Cards Processed 9,315 Ending Cards 114,978 Applications Pending 910 Processing Time 13.1 Weeks Year-to-date (2003) Cards Received 621,087 Cards Returned 720,895 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on September 30, 2003. DXCC is currently entering cards received on September 30, 2003. Data entry and editing is finished for September 30 applications. We are currently mailing out the remaining applications for this date and all September applications should be out the door by the end of the upcoming week. QSL Bureau QSL Service Status: There is a delay of approximately 2 weeks. Cards mailed as of 12/31/2003: 1,358,474. Cards mailed on 12/31/2003: 84,700. This is a decrease of 604,690 cards in 2002. W1AW Thanks to Mark Spencer, WA8SME for operating W1AW in both the Straight Key Night and "Kid's Day" 2004. During SKN, he made 22 QSOs on 80 and 40 meters. During Kid's Day, he made 34 contacts on 40, 20 and 15 meters. It's worthwhile to note that for SKN, Mark used the Straight Key taken from "Old Betsy," which was Hiram Percy Maxim's Spark Gap transmitter. Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the month of January. He worked the late afternoon shift on Friday for a vacationing Joe Carcia. He also handled some evening phone sales calls in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. Joe processed the last of the Frequency Measuring Test submissions. The final tally is 214 submissions. This is up 56% from the 2002 FMT. (In 2002, there were 137 submissions.) Preliminary results of the test will be posted shortly on the W1AW FMT web page. Joe also updated the web code practice files and cleaned up the Hiram Percy Maxim Straight Key (taken from "Old Betsy") for use during the 2004 SKN. Field & Educational Services Field & Educational Support Team Linda Mullally updated 35 clubs with 2 reactivations and registered 8 Instructors. She checked club rosters for 2 clubs and mailed out 42 initial supply packages for new appointments. Jean Wolfgang added a message to the Amateur Radio in the Classroom online newsletter alerting teachers to a new ARISS lithograph. She is also preparing International Humanitarian Award nomination packets to be sent to the VRC, and answered several emails pertaining to Kid's Day. Tom Cote processed 4 new SSC applications, 2 renewals and 2 new club affiliations. He also helped Jerry Ellis with CCE Data entry. Mary Lau wrapped and submitted her March, "At the Foundation" column, and is processing scholarship applications that are starting to come in advanced of our February 1 deadline. She also updated the database information at The College Board organization, publishers of the popular The Scholarship Handbook. Mary is also going to half-days starting the week of January 5th. Field Organization/Public Service Team Thanks to the Mailroom Staff, the San Diego Section Manager election ballots and candidate statements were mailed from HQ on December 29. League members in San Diego have until February 20 to return their marked ballots. Leona Adams has been processing an influx of 2003 Section Leader expense reports. An ARRL member from Pennsylvania visited Chuck Skolaut at HQ and delivered an audio tape that documented some on-going 40-meter interference involving Spanish-speaking radio amateurs. They got in touch with Riley Hollingsworth who, in turn, asked the FCC's Monitoring Station in Columbia, Maryland, to listen. The source of the interference was coming from Cuba, so the FCC is referring the matter to their international division for further handling. Steve Ewald continues to receive ARRL Simulated Emergency Test reports from Field Organization Leaders from across the country. These reports, due at the end of January, represent local and section ARES emergency exercises that were held on the SET weekend in October and throughout the fall season. Regulatory Information John Hennessee assisted amateurs with local government zoning problems in Fresno, CA (KF6SVI) and Marcy, NY (K2KLV). He also worked on a new FAQ for the regulatory Web page on repeaters, auxiliary operation, ancillary uses, types of control and similar issues. He also had an interesting chat with KK4NO about possible operations by the Southern Baptist Convention in Iran in the wake of the major earthquake (it isn't possible for foreigners to operate an amateur station there). CCE Jerry Ellis processed a number of CCE Field Exam results and produced and mailed relative EmComm Certificates and ID cards. He also opened EC-003 Level III EmComm for the month, prepared certificates and ID cards for the week's EmComm on-line graduates and mailed these with refund checks. He also produced mentor stipends to accompany revised mentor certificates for mailing. The Big Project Initial e-mail notifications were sent to schools that were approved by the EC for Project/Progress Grants. A total of 14 schools were approved for grants. Letter notifications will go out the first week of January. Parts for the Project Activity Board were kitted over the holidays. The VOMs were received from the manufacturer, and digital scopes are the only components left to arrive. Notification was sent to schools that the kits will be available to ship in February, and only to schools that, per requirement, specifically apply to receive one. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operations Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List Dave Sumner 1/16-1/17 BOD Meeting `` 1/29-2/5 Vacation Mark Wilson 1/16-1/17 BOD Meeting Barry Shelley 1/16-1/17 BOD Meeting Mary Hobart 1/16-1/17 BOD Meeting Lisa Kustosik 1/15-1/17 BOD Meeting Dennis Motschenbacher 1/16-1/17 BOD Meeting Rosalie White 1/16-1/17 BOD Meeting Wayne Mills 1/16-1/17 BOD Meeting Dave Patton 1/16-1/17 BOD Meeting