IN-Newsletter Vol. 26, No. 29 July 23, 2003 CEO The Board of Directors meeting this past weekend in Windsor went very smoothly, thanks to those individuals around the building who helped with various tasks. A special thanks to Linda Mullally for helping Lisa put together all the Board books, also to Mary Hobart for allowing Debra to join Lisa in a joint effort working at the Marriott, to Penny for making sure that the ODV coffee and pastries table was kept neat and clean throughout the day and to Greg for the transportation of individuals and supplies to and from League HQ. Special acknowledgement and thanks to Andy Shefrin for working with the Marriott technicians in making all presentation and computer equipment run like a charm. Development The Spectrum Defense special campaign to Broadband over Powerline has reached $146,204 from 2669 donors. The campaign has a high average contribution of $54.78, much higher than previous Defense Campaigns. The campaign has attracted new major donors at the $500, $1000 and higher levels. With approval from the ARRL Board of Directors, a targeted campaign for the ARRL Diamond Club will be conducted in September to 16,500 members who have been members for 7 - 9 years. The newest benefit for Maxim Society and Diamond Club Director donors has been shipped to 9 qualified donors-- bound volumes of QST, QEX and NCJ. Production/Editorial The September 2003 issue of QST will be wrapped up July 22. Rick Lindquist edited "Happenings" for the September issue of QST. The ARRL Letter, Vol 22, No 28, distributed to 66,559 members-another new record. Rick wrote/edited news items on FCC enforcement; Amateur Radio's response to Hurricane Claudette (two, plus Letter story); In Brief (15 items); the California PRB-1 bill signing; the possible pending space wedding by proxy of Yuri Malenchenko, RK3DUP, The Amateur Amateur column and The Youth@HamRadio.Fun column, among other Web/Letter items. He also "covered" an ARISS QSO in Turkey via teleconference for a pending story. Welcome aboard! Product Review Editor Joel Hallas, W1ZR, is located temporarily in Bob Schetgen's office in the Editorium. His extension is 393 and his interoffice initials are JRH. Stop in and say "hi" next time you're in his neighborhood. Sales & Marketing Deb Jahnke worked with Ingram Publishing to include ten ARRL titles, along with images and short descriptions (50-60 words per title) in their annual Professional/Technical/Reference Guide. The purpose of this guide is to provide a concentrated assortment of professional titles with merchandising guidance for a general/professional audience. The Advertising Team is finishing up work on the August issue of QST. In related advertising sales, we're pleased to announce that both the inside covers of the new edition of the Handbook and the Antenna Book will feature full page, 4 color, paid advertising. All Sales & Marketing staff was on hand to help Directors and Vice-Directors with various questions and requests during board week. Portions of a test membership solicitation have mailed. A sample of lapsed and non-members will receive a copy of the "Amateur Radio Today" video on CD-ROM with a closely tied membership solicitation. A comparable sample will receive our usual "You Belong in ARRL" mailing. A strategy to increase dealer interest in some of our older-edition publications has been planned. A handful of publications will be introduced to ARRL dealers, shortly, with "sale" and "clearance" pricing. Di Szlachetka and Bob participated in a customer transition conference call with representatives of our QST magazine printer, RR Donnelley. Discussions focused on the occasion of a major swap over to new pre-press workflows at RRD and transitioning to their new Digital Solution Center. Bob contributed material to update the Web pages that detail publication resources offered to ARRL Instructors, and in particular a supplement to the Instructor's Manual that incorporates the July 1 Technician Question Pool revisions into the lesson plans. A news release and publication fact sheet for AC Power Interference Handbook have been produced. Mike Gruber has offered to include the fact sheet in correspondence he has with interference investigators and power line companies. Material has also been turned in for September QST house advertising. The issue will include an RFI-themed publications ad. The following publications are now available for ordering: * The Radio Amateur's Satellite Handbook, revised first edition, 4th printing 2003, ARRL Order No. 6583 http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=6583 * 37th Central States VHF Conference--2003, ARRL Order No. 9035 http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=9035 * The ARRL Instructor's Manual SUPPLEMENT, ARRL Order No. 8039S http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=8039S Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 100 WAS Certificates (150 QSLs F/C) 3 WAS Endorse. (100 QSLs F/C) 2 WAS Endorse. (50 QSLs ES/C) 1 WAC QSL Cards Checked 72 WAC Certs. (12 QSLs ES/C) 2 L/T Member Inquiries 26 25-Year Member Awards 10 40-Year Member Award 1 A-1 Operator Noms. 4 VUCC Backfill Apps. 1 Grids 100 VUCC Initial Apps. 1 Grids 5 VUCC End. Apps. 5 Grids 178 Awards Mailed 40 Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week-WAS QSL card checking, 5-BWAS plaques, 25- and 40-year member awards, and VUCC awards processing and mailing. Contest Branch We worked with the consultant to correct problems in the 10 GHz certificate database and some issues with the DX certificate database. Data entry for June VHF paper logs began. Mailing of certificates printed last week continued. The 10 GHz certificates for 2002 were printed. Sorting and preliminary assessment of Field Day logs began. Additional work was done on the DX CW article for the web. The QST DX CW article was edited. Boxes and photos for the web version of the 2003 DX Phone results were prepared for the Web. Lines scores for the 2003 January VHF Sweepstakes were marked and sent to Production to be added to the QST PDF for the web. DXCC Branch Weekly Report July 20, 2003 Beginning Cards 115,711 Cards Received 9,566 Cards Processed 8,361 Ending Cards 116,916 Applications Pending 858 Processing Time 6.7 Weeks Year-to-date (2003) Cards Received 323,071 Cards Returned 410,552 QRPs issued this week 0 QRPs issued total 299 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on June 3, 2003. DXCC is currently entering cards received on June 12, 2003. DXCC experienced computer problems on Thursday this week and it was down for most of the day. QSL Bureau QSL Service Status: Current. Cards mailed as of 07/20/003: 845,375. Cards mailed on 07/18/2003 66,150. Heather Dzamba spent 2 hours conducting tours around HQ. W1AW Thanks to Mark Spencer, WA8SME for his getting W1AW enrolled in the FISTS club. W1AW now holds FISTS number 10200. Activity on AO-40 continues, with two (2) contacts being made with amateurs in Japan. Given the footprint of the bird at the time, the QSOs were made near the end of the pass over New England. Joe updated the web code practice files. He tracked down a problem with the Harris exciter used on 160-meters. (The problem is severe enough to require the exciter being sent back to Harris Corporation for repair.) He corrected a problem with the 2-meter satellite antenna feedline coming into the station. Joe also processed regular W1AW QSL cards requests. Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the latter part of the month of July and early August. Scott also handled some evening phone sales calls in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. W1AW Telephone Sales year to date (2003): $15,934 Field & Educational Services Rosalie handled action items for the VRC, worked with Steve on the best way to encourage SMs to use the new Department of Homeland Security SoA to start working with CERT groups, and she introduced newer F&ES members to directors and vice directors. Field & Education Support Team Linda Mullally completed 23 Club Updates with 1 Reactivation. She registered 8 Instructors and 1 Teacher. She also mailed out 9 Exhibit Kits and 2 JOTA kits and completed the Statistic Reports for QST (BPL and PSHR). Linda also assisted Lisa Kustosik in assembling Board books for the BOD meeting. Margie Bourgoin reports 5 newly affiliated clubs just approved by the EC. All these new clubs have been added to the database, with letters and certificates generated. Two new clubs were sent on for Director approval. Margie helped Jean with item for the new Harmonics youth page. This week the " Harmonics " youth page went live. Jean Wolfgang has designed pages showing several "ham-sters" (with some familiar call signs) ready to show kids about ham radio. There are also puzzles and even a memory game on the site. A great deal of thanks goes to Tom Hogerty for his assistance. We are already getting positive feedback on the site. Jean has also been working on the award articles for QST and the Web. Gail Iannone wrote 40 hamfest and 8 convention announcements for the September issue of QST; sent 5 hamfest approval letters and 1 convention approval letter to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Directors' approval of the events to be "ARRL-sanctioned"; processed 4 label requests, 12 door prize orders, and sent 12 handout packages for upcoming events. She also coordinated travel for the following HQ reps: Dan Miller, K3UFG, Missouri State Convention to be held on August 23 in Columbia; Dennis Motschenbacher, K7BV, Northern New York Section Convention to be held on October 11 in Lake Placid; and Rosalie White, K1STO, Michigan State Convention to be held on October 31-November 1 in Holland. Mary Lau worked on a final report of the ARRL National Convention and made editorial changes to several EAD web pages. Regulatory Information John Hennessee assisted amateurs with local government zoning problems in Libertyville, IL (N9JV), Bedford Township, MI (WD8RKW), and Omro, WI (K9LO). He assisted amateurs with covenant problems in Napa, CA (AE6KL) and Boulder, CO (W0RUN). He received multiple inquiries from amateurs asking about California AB 1228, the bill signed by the Governor earlier this week. This bill codifies PRB-1 as a state statute and is the 20th such statute. For a list with text of the states which have signed such bills, see http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/PRB-1_Pkg/index.html#statut es. John sent complimentary copies of The FCC Rule Book to all contributors and posted an FCC statement of the preemption of RFI on the regulatory RFI Preemption page at http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/rfi-legal/index.html#lawsui t. Thanks to Chris Imlay for news of the FCC MO&O. Field Organization/Public Service Team An FCC General Communications Emergency lasted throughout the week in response the Amateur Radio emergency operations related to Storm Claudette as it came ashore the South Texas coastline. Steve Ewald was in touch with South Texas Section Leaders and passed along news reports Rick Lindquist. Steve worked on September QST, and has noted that 23 electronic relay messages were sent out via the ARRL Web service over the last two weeks by 19 different Sections. Many Monthly Section News Summaries have also been released. Leona Adams has received and handled an increased number of Section Manager travel expense report forms for reimbursement this past week. The monthly list of new hams for each section were sent to Section Managers. Santa Barbara Section Manager Rob Griffin, K6YR, has submitted a petition to run for another term of office as SM. The deadline for nomination petitions for the SM Class of January 2004 is September 5. Chuck Skolaut met and discussed Official Observer and monitoring issues with the FCC's Riley Hollingsworth on Thursday when Riley was here at HQ prior to the Board Meeting. Four new Official Observers passed their training exams this week, and Chuck received and processed 74 OO reports from the field. Amateur Radio Education & Technology Project A draft of a proposed change to the Project grant application is in staffing for release. The proposed application requests more substance and detail that will assist in statistical analysis and also help the teacher/applicant think through their proposal more thoroughly. The updated curriculum is ready for final editing and proof reading before being sent to editorial staff. Teachers who have been working over the summer months have reviewed many of the proposed activities and have provided positive and valuable feed back. EmComm Grants Dan Miller reports that 17 people attended the ARECC Seminar in Gainesville, GA last Friday. All expressed gratitude for the additional knowledge gained. One person went into the seminar as a non-ARRL member but joined before the convention ended to participate in on-line EmComm courses and eventually become a Mentor/Instructor. Dan also did a short presentation on Saturday at the GA Section ARES meeting organized and run by SEC Mike Boatright, KO4WX. Dan has sent materials ahead for his 2-hour CCE presentation next weekend at Ft. Tuthill in Arizona. C-CE Hand-drawn sketches created by Ian Poole and several published figure pulls for 6 Learning Units of the RF Propagation course have been transmitted and are now included in the Graphics Department's workload. Ward Silver sent all Learning Units to the editor and provided all graphics for the Antennas course. Though the editor for the Antennas course has been on an extended vacation, however, progress toward beta testing is expected, soon. CTDLC will be physically moving servers and changing ISPs next month. As a result the platform will be unavailable for a 25 hour period. All active students and mentors have been so advised. We also intend to remind them two more times before the actual event. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW: lk Staff Absentee List All Staff 9/1 Holiday Mark Wilson 7/28-8/1 Vacation Rosalie White 7/24-8/4 Vacation Dan Miller 7/25-7/27 Ft. Tuthill, AZ Hamfest `` 7/28-7/30 Vacation Joel Kleinman 7/25 Vacation `` 8/5-8/15 Vacation Steve Ford 7/28-8/1 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 8/15-8/17 Huntsville Hamfest/AARE meeting " 8/29-8/24 ICOM/SGC/SteppIR sales calls " 9/06-9/09 WPA Section Convention " 9/19-9/21 W9DXCC Convention - personal " 9/23-9/28 MFJ/ArraySol/TXTwr sales calls " 10/02-10/05 Ten Tec Hamfest " 10/10-10/12 NNY Section Convention Dan Henderson 7/24-7/28 WNC Hamfest/Vacation Jo-Ann Arel 7/28-8/1 Vacation LouAnn Campanello 7/25-8/1 Vacation Karen Isakson 8/4-8/11 Vacation AnnMarie Pinto 8/11-8/22 Vacation Perry Williams 7/26-9/2 Vacation Wayne Mills 8/19-8/25 Hamfair, Tokyo `` 8/26-9/4 Vacation