IN-Newsletter Vol. 28, No. 43 October 26, 2005 -- Covers the period October 16-22. Upcoming Meetings and Events A&F Committee Meeting November 19 in Newington, CT Annual Board Meeting January 20-21, 2006 in Windsor, CT CEO Dave Patton attended the Federation of Mexican Radio Experimenters' conference in Vera Cruz along with Jon Siverling. Over 100 people attended, and for the first time in many years there were representatives from all of Mexico's states. Along with checking QSLs for DXCC, WAS, and WAC, Dave and Jon discussed issues including emergency preparedness, reciprocal licensing, and assistance from ARRL and IARU. Jon also acted as master translator, both English to Spanish and Spanish to English, for Dave and Radio Amateurs of Canada President Earle Smith, VE6NM. John Hennessee continues work on the HQ Technician Question Pool Committee. He has also answered a wide range of regulatory questions including a local government zoning case in Concord, CA (ND6H). Development The first returns for the 2006 Spectrum Defense campaign total $3000. The follow up mailing will be out October 31. The letter and strategy for the Year End campaign are in the final stages. Development staff continues to contribute to the Growth Task Force, both in Technician question pool development and in instructional materials development. The ARRL Foundation Board has approved new scholarships starting with awards in 2006. The Northern California DX Association will sponsor a $1000 scholarship and the Dayton Amateur Radio Association will sponsor 2 - $1000 scholarships. Production/Editorial Congratulations to Senior News Editor Rick Lindquist, who has begun his second decade of service on the ARRL HQ staff and is now a member of the 10 Year Club. Rick reports The ARRL Letter, Vol. 24, No. 41, distributed to 65,570 members on Oct 21. He prepared/edited stories on ARRL's latest BPL petition to the FCC, Amateur Radio preparations for Hurricane Wilma, participation by NA1SS in JOTA, the ARRL Toy Drive and several announcements and news briefs. Rick completed editing on "Happenings" for Dec QST and edited the Youth column for October and the latest round of FCC enforcement-related correspondence. Rick voiced, edited and produced ARRL Audio News for Oct 21. The number of known outlets US and worldwide for AAN is up to 210. Sales and Marketing The advertising section of December QST, including the 8 page Holiday tear-out ad section, was completed last week. The budget dollar target for this issue has been exceeded by $7,500.00. LDG placed a two page spread, along with HamPROs and R & L. New advertisers included in this issue are hampal/Bosque Communications, Inc., The Mug Factory, Heinz Bolli AG, KVK Antennas, and Advanced Communications & Electronics, Inc. The new Advertising Matters, including the deadline calendar for 2006 is being created. The Dealer Newsline will be produced this week featuring Basic Radio and Emergency Power for Radio Communications. Sarah Dorsey continued her orientation, and she has been actively preparing the membership planning used in the 2006 budget plan. Sarah also continues work on a fall direct Mail piece. U.S. Bank has introduced a new credit card offering for the ARRL Visa Card program. The Select Rewards Visa(r) Platinum Card has no annual fee and earns 1 free reward point with every net purchase dollar charged. Card holders can redeem points for merchandise, electronics, gift certificates from leading retailers, travel options and much more. Addition info at www.arrl.org/visa Some initial planning is underway to help introduce a product line featuring ARRL's slogan and logo, "When All Else Fails...Amateur Radio." Many members have suggested posters, T-shirts, stickers, and other promotional items. By the end of the third week of October, product sales exceeded the month's plan by $80k, largely attributed to sales of the widely popular new edition ARRL Handbook promotion. An addendum to our joint marketing agreement with HamTestOnline has been executed, allowing for ARRL to resell the web-based license training product. HamTestOnline is now included among our online catalog offerings at www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=9571. Two new ARRL publications will be introduced in December QST. Basic Radio--Understanding the Key Building Blocks by Joel Hallas, W1ZR, is an introduction to radio for everyone: receivers, transmitters, antennas, propagation, radio navigation, and radiolocation. Includes build-it-yourself projects. Order No. 9558, retail $29.95. Emergency Power for Radio Communications by Michael Bryce, WB8VGE covers alternative means for electric power generation: solar, generators, batteries, and more. Order No. 9531, retail $19.95. Information packages for 10 prospective hams were mailed. Online Courses Mentors have been assigned for upcoming courses, including EmComm 1, 2, and 3, and the Technician license course. ON-LINE COURSES Registrations During this week Graduations Antenna Modeling (EC-004) 2 4 HF Digital (EC-005) 0 1 RFI (EC-006) 0 0 VHF/UHF (EC-008) 1 0 Antenna Design and Construction (EC-009) 0 0 Technician Licensing (EC-010) 5 3 Propagation (EC-011) 0 1 Analog Electronics (EC-012) 0 1 Digital Electronics (EC-013) 0 0 Emergency Comm. Level 1 (EC-001) 42 34 Emergency Comm. Level 2 (EC-002) 5 22 Emergency Comm. Level 3 (EC-003) 3 10 Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 200 WAS Endorsements (50 QSLs ES/C) 1 Extra Class Certificates 15 A-1 Operator Nominations 9 A-1 Operator Certificates 1 LTMA Inquiries 4 Replacement Award 1 VUCC Initial Applications 5 Grids 363 VUCC End. Applications 1 Grids 154 Awards Mailed 11 In addition, spent most of the week in various meetings with Bill Moore and working with DXCC staff and various vendors, shipping out various DXCC plaques, plates, pins, etc., resulting from past errors, or damages in shipping, etc. In addition, I began training DXCC staff in the VUCC Program. Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week-VUCC awards, WAC QSL card checking, ship out the DXCC Challenge plaques, mail out the processed awards, and work with DXCC staff on the plaque program and training on Awards Branch programs. Contest Branch Final editing for the 2005 June 2005 VHF QSO Party results article was opened on the ARRL Web. Data entry for the 2005 10 GHz contest has begun, and data entry for the 2005 September VHF QSO Party continued. Additional data was received from the web submissions for 2005 ARRL Field Day and an extra sidebar was written to display some simple data analysis. It was then edited, several photos selected to be included, and sent to Production for layout. Sponsor solicitation letters were mailed for the 2006 International DX Contest plaque program. DXCC Branch For the Week of: October 23, 2005 Beginning Credits 71,550 Credits Received 2,762 Credits Processed 16,262 Ending Credits 58,050 Applications Pending 677 Processing time 9.5 Weeks Year-to-date (2005) Credits Received 518,153 Credits Returned 516,499 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on August 18, 2005. DXCC is currently entering credits received on September 29, 2005. Logbook of the World QSO records entered in the system 81,344,145 QSL records have resulted 3,966,970 Logs Processed 152,823 Active Certificates 16,213 Users registered in the system 10,741 Hybrids Pending Mail 113 QSL Bureau There is a two day processing time delay. This week, 78 pounds of cards were received from members. 37,975 cards were shipped this past Friday. W1AW On Friday, Joe Carcia attended the National Science Teacher Association conference taking place in Hartford. He was presenting the ARRL ETP program, "Bring Space Into Your Classroom at Little or No Cost." Although he had a rather rocky start (just with signing in and registering!) the presentation went well overall. W1AW received as a donation the MFJ-1532N, tri-band (2 meter, 70 and 23 cm) vertical repeater antenna. This antenna will be used as part of the Icom D-Star 23cm digital repeater system. Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the latter part of the month of October. He worked the early afternoon shift on Friday for Joe and also handled some evening phone sales calls in the daily 5 PM to 8 PM time slots. Field & Educational Services Field Organization/Public Service Team Leona is updating the Siebel system with new appointments, cancellations and changes so as to get ready to generate the new Field Organization Appointment Report this week. She has sent out over 20 appointment supply packages to new appointees which include EC, DEC, OES, ORS, SEC TS, ACC and OO. She also entered some new appointments, changes and cancellations as well. Chuck Skolaut monitored the progress of Wilma, the latest in a long series of hurricanes this year. Chuck took part in several teleconferences with Florida section leaders as well as local meetings at headquarters concerning Wilma. Chuck received documentation concerning problems with several 2 meter repeaters and one 220 repeater in California. Intruder reports this week included signals observed on 160, 40 and 20 meters. The one on 20 meters was identified by the Region 1 coordinator as being a well known occurrence from Israel. Steve Ewald worked with Norm Fusaro in spreading the word to the ARRL Field Organization about the Citizen Corps' "NOAA Public Alert Radio Program." Through this program, Citizen Corps has distributed over 16,000 NOAA Public Alert Radios free of charge to every public school in 20 urban areas and two states. Through the ARRL, Amateur Radio operators have been asked to assist these schools in setting up these radios. The Field Organization Team at HQ has also asked the SMs and SECs in the Katrina-affected sections to gather and forward initial information about how many radio amateurs participated and for which particular agencies during the relief efforts. As of the middle of October, we have received 125 Ham Aid applications. EmComm Rosalie has exchanged emails in the past year with a ham at the Department of Homeland Security who proposed a program that networked ARES and CERT. The ham's proposal had been turned down for funding reasons, but is being considered again by DHS. Readers of the ARES E-Letter now total 12,174 -- an increase of 476 in the 18 days since the last issue (a special Hurricane Rita edition). Rosalie named Jimmy Floyd, NQ4U, to replace Sheila Dziubak, KB4G, on the ARES Digital Network Management Team; Sheila's personal situation changed, requiring her to step down. Rosalie networked in past years with a ham at FEMA about MOUs. They exchanged emails this week about ARES' specific involvement with FEMA programs. ARISS As with all ARISS QSOs, Amateur Radio got many media hits after space explorer Greg Olsen's three QSOs. In the Space.com article, Greg cited the importance of sharing his flight experience in order to excite students' imaginations. The ARISS US team added several NASA names, including the head of the astronaut office, to receive our weekly NASA Hq update. The updates list many things, but always include where to find Rick Lindquist's ARISS stories. Johnson Space Center team members met with Russian crew training specialist Irma Roshkova. The team is preparing a proposal (vying with other programs) to get a potential exhibit at Goddard Space Flight Center's Visitor Center. Rosalie and Frank Bauer were named the US points of contact for the ARISS International committee planning ARISS' involvement in President Bush's Moon, Mars and Beyond initiative. Astronaut Bill McArthur made general QSOs during his lunch hour last week, and took part in JOTA. Bill is selflessly hoping to have time to make museum QSOs and general QSOs on weekends, in addition to weekday school QSOs. Astronaut Bob Behnken passed his ham exam, and received KE5GGX. He's in the NASA selection pool for future ISS crews. Rosalie prepared background information on two agenda items she'll speak to at the ARISS-I monthly telecon next week. Field Education Team This week Norm Fusaro worked with the QPC on questions for the new Tech pool. Norm also wrote a story for the web and edited another submitted by a member. Tom Hogerty posted both articles to the web. Norm also helped several clubs with ARRL recruiting efforts and detailed the commission program as it applies to their membership. Gail Iannone sent six convention applications and seven new club affiliation application packages to the Executive Committee meeting for their consideration. She sent 12 hamfest approval letters and three convention approval letters to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Directors' approval of their events as "ARRL-sanctioned," and processed five handout and door prize material orders for upcoming events. She also sent one new SSC approval letter and certificate and one SSC renewal letter and certificate to a clubs seeking and renewing their SSC status. Gail finalized review and signed the contract for the DoubleTree Hotel and sent it to the Sales Manager there for the 2006 Dayton Hamvention. Roseanne worked on SSC renewals all this week. Six were completed this week, six certificates and letters to the president will go out next week, three were good until 2006 and they will be notified, one was two years old and needed to apply for SSC. She assisted two people with their club alias email forwarding. Norm and Roseanne are working on a new, updated Graduation Kit to include an updated "Nobody Talks To Me" and frequency chart. An instructor called today and ordered ten kits. Roseanne also took in some sales orders and conducted interviews for an upcoming story on archiving club history. Roseanne helped someone looking to start a radio club in a hospital for ham MDs and nurses, and link up with other such clubs in the Gulfport, Mississippi area, in the event of another large scale disaster. Roseanne had an opportunity to meet with Mike Harris from Tasmania, Australia. Mike stopped by Thursday to inquire about emergency communications. This visit was made possible by the Winston Churchill Trust. He left a brochure about the trust and its very prestigious fellowship. His primary interest is marine ham radio communications. Bill Moore assisted him with net info, and Roseanne explained the books available and handouts. She will get a package of ARES info ready for him for his return visit next Friday when Steve Ewald is back from vacation. Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program-Mark Spencer I presented the ETP at the California Council of Electronics Instructors on October 22 in San Mateo, CA. The presentation was made to approximately 30 electronics instructors teaching in the middle school through the community college level. This was the right kind of audience for the ETP. During the presentation I summarized the goals and opportunities offered by the ETP and highlighted the ARRL publications and on-line courses that were applicable to their teaching. Overall the presentation was well received and many after-presentation questions and discussions indicated interest and that the audience listened. There will probably be a number of applications stimulated from the effort and maybe some applications to attend the TI. One thing I was looking to accomplish with this trip was to scope out a location for the west coast TI. San Mateo is not a good candidate! I was not impressed with the college campus or the facilities that are available. The CCEI, though a well established group, is not well organized under the current leadership and therefore though they expressed willingness to support the TI, their support would be more work than it is worth. Additionally, traffic congestion in the SF area is counter productive and TI participants would spend more time trying to get to the TI than actually participating in the TI. Parallax has offered the use of their classroom space and technology for the TI. If the dates work out, the Parallax offer is a very viable location for the west coast TI. Sincerely, Dave Patton, NN1N Special Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer DCP:lk Staff Absentee List Harold Kramer 10-31-11/1 Vacation Dave Patton 10/28 Vacation `` 11/21-11/28 Cartagena, Colombia (CQWW CW) Lisa Kustosik 11/3-11/4 Vacation Ed Hare 10/31-11/2 Vacation `` 11/9-11/11 IEEE BPL study project, Portland, OR Wayne Mills 11/21-11/30 Timbuktu, Mali (CQWW CW) Dan Henderson 10/28 Myrtle Beach Convention Steve Ewald 10/19-10/26 Vacation Jean Wolfgang 10/28 Vacation Scott Gee 12/12-12/13 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 11/3-11/4 Vacation `` 11/11-11/12 US Power Squadrons HQ, Raleigh, NC Sarah Dorsey 11/11-11/12 US Power Squadrons HQ, Raleigh, NC Steve Ford 11/11 Vacation `` 12/24-1/3 Vacation Eileen Sapko 10/26-10/27 Vacation Bob Inderbitzen 12/27-12/30 Vacation Kathy Capodicasa 10/31-11/2 Vacation