IN-Newsletter Vol. 25, No. 51 December 23, 2002 Upcoming Meetings January 16th in Newington, CT at 8:30am A & F Committee January 16th in Newington, CT at 8:30am Volunteer Resources Committee January 17-18, 2003 in Windsor, CT Board Meeting Development The 2003 Defense Fund has reached $233,000 from more than 5400 donors. The average contribution is a strong $43. The overall response rate is 3.9%, which is a percentage point below the 2002 campaign response level. 25% of the major donors (contributors who gave $500 or more) from the 2002 campaign have responded with an average gift of $338. 19% of contributors have opted not to receive a thank you gift. The 2002 Spectrum Defense campaign reached $399,000 by December 31 and so Development is working to close that gap for 2003. A postcard follow up will be mailed to 6800 donors from 2002 who have not responded for 2003. And a web story is being prepared, and the Defense Fund is mentioned in the editorial for February QST. All certificates and thank you gifts for contributions received through December 15 should be in the mail before Christmas. The final report documenting the successful completion of the United Technologies Corporation Grant for ARECC expansion in CT has been submitted with the help of Rosalie White, Dan Miller, LouAnn Campanello and Mark Wilson. As of December 16, 258 hams have received certification out of the 401 enrollees. Word on the proposal for a national rollout is expect in early 2003. The Diamond Club continues to grow. There are 359 contributors giving more than $59,000 for an average contribution of $164. Most of the certificates, acknowledgement letters and pins have been mailed. Development Associate Debra Johnson has worked tirelessly to manage the details of the program and assure that benefits are properly issued. Kathy Capodicasa has done an outstanding job of working through the initial challenges of setting up tools to manage the contributions on the Siebel system with Debra, John Proctor, Cathy Scharr and Alan Cohen. Thank to all for their hard work. We continue to receive inquires on planned giving and memorial contributions. Production/Editorial The February issue of QST has been released to the printer, as has the January/February issue of NCJ and a new printing of Antenna Zoning for the Radio Amateur. Sales & Marketing Marketing The next installment of our advertiser newsletter, "Advertising Matters," has been turned into Production for composition. Among its highlights is a call for ad insertions for the 2003/2004 ARRL Repeater Directory. A news release covering the upcoming book, "Experimental Methods in RF Design," was turned into Production. The release will shore up advance sales of the book with ARRL publication dealers before the new title makes its public debut in February QST. We will soon carry the book, "802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide," authored by Matthew S. Gast and published by O'Reilly & Associates. The book was among some titles suggested for ARRL resale by the Lab and HSMM Working Group. The new offering will be supported by a book review and upcoming QST article on high-speed digital topics. Availability will be announced at <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/new.html> Sales The advertising staff finalized ad insertions for the February issue of QST. All but one section was sent electronically (only 16 pages went out as film.) Our production staff continues to battle the challenges of working with so many different file types submitted each month by our clients. These files must go through extensive checking before they are sent to the printer electronically. From time to time, an ad will not work electronically and film is produced. That film is then submitted separately to the printer to copy dot scan. A new file is created out of the scanned film and the file is dropped into place in the magazine. The sales and marketing team met to discuss the future of the Business Directory that appeared for the first time in the December issue of QST. We concluded that we would consider advertiser input and ask some follow-up questions after this issue has been in circulation for a while. This will provide the information to determine whether or not to make this a yearly insertion. Due to an address linking problem that we were not aware of, 90 individuals were not included on the latest National Contest Journal mailing list. Thankfully, this problem was found shortly after sending the label listing to our printer and these people will be included on a supplemental mailing. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS Certificate (QSLs F/C) 1 WAS Endorsements (QSLs F/C) 3 5 Band WAS Plaques 3 WAC Certificates (QSLs F/C) 46 WAC Certificates (QSLs Checked ES) 19 WAC Endorsement (QSLs F/C) 1 5 B WAC Certificates (QSLs F/C) 4 5 B WAC Certificate (QSLs ES/C) 1 OTC Certificates 20 Long Term Member Inquiries 5 VUCC Initial Apps. 2 Grids 211 VUCC Endorsement Apps. 1 Grids 97 VHF Awards Manager Appt.: Bob Avritt, N7CZ, Great Falls, MT. Processing Status: Current or within three weeks. For the coming week-WAS QSL card checking, long-term member awards, Extra Class certificates, mail out WAC awards, and VUCC awards processing. DXCC The normal detailed DXCC report will return with the next In News. The power supply that runs the DXCC server failed and ISD is working to have DXCC back in operation as quickly as possible. Staff is hard at work trying to finish September submissions. We are working on September 30, and have about 70,000 cards for that date alone. A total of 197,000 cards was received in September, an increase of 33% over September 2001. Between March 1, 2002 and December 15, 2002, we have received about 660,670 cards, up 23% over 2001. We expect to be finished with September business by mid-January, and then will catch up quickly as October and November submissions were light. QSL Branch QSL service status: Current. Cards mailed year to date as of 12/22/2002 - 1,815,115. No cards were mailed this week. Heather Dzamba spent 4 hours conducting tours around HQ. W1AW A special thanks to Maty Weinberg for the work she has done in scanning two chapters of text that will be used for the 2003 W1AW Qualifying Runs. After almost eight years of use, the battery used in the station's Kohler generator (backup power) failed. Thankfully, since it's a regular automotive battery, Greg Kwasowski purchased and installed a replacement. Another AO-40 update: Of late, AO-40 passes have favored Europe and Africa. This has allowed for some pretty neat DX activity on this bird. The latest catch was with TA1D in Turkey. This is the first time W1AW has worked this country (or this far East) via satellite. Joe Carcia repaired the 13.8 VDC power supply feeding the 40-meter Omni VI+ exciter. He also updated the web code practice files. While the generator's battery was out for replacement, Joe cleaned the battery terminals, replaced the bolts, and installed new lugs on the trickle charge lines. Scott Gee processed fast and slow code practice runs for the latter part of the month of December and early January. He also handled some evening phone sales calls in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. W1AW telephone sales year to date (2002): $11,095. Field & Educational Services Rosalie learned that a German school waiting for an ARISS QSO has licensed all kids (about 10) who'll be on the air for the sked! She wrote a thank you note to the Johnson Space Center rep who attended the ARISS Meeting, checked over a CQ article about ARISS, wrote to a Russian ham with the ARISS Team's response to his proposal for the ISS, and networked the Maryland rep of the American Assn of Blood Banks with the Maryland SEC. John Hennessee assisted amateurs with a local government zoning problem in Tom's River, NJ (N2QDQ), and with covenant restrictions in Mt Kisco, NY (K2MMT); Bellevue, WA (K3MH); and Conifer, CO (N0SXX). John proofread 4 chapters of the FCC Rule Book and corresponded with EPA SM Eric Olena about a possible PRB-1 like codification in Pennsylvania. Field Organization/Public Service Team Leona Adams worked on SM election ballots and candidate statements in preparation for printing. SM elections will be held in Oklahoma, North Texas and Montana. As the year draws to a close, SMs are sending in their final expense reports for 2002. This week an outbreak of tornadoes struck Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi. Steve Ewald has been in touch with the respective Section Leaders to gather and forward ARES/RACES activation reports to HQ News editors. Chuck Skolaut submitted the monthly ARRL monitoring report to IARU Region II's Monitoring System Newsletter. Broadcast interference has returned to 14.300 MHz, which the FCC believes is coming from the central-eastern US seaboard. Chuck is assisting in collection and documentation of VHF/UHF interference cases in two states. Director Stinson and Glenn Cacsino, WN0EHE, brought an interference situation to our intention involving the 70 cm band in the Denver, Colorado area. The interference, which is characterized as sounding like "galloping horses," affects the entire band, including the 440-450 MHz repeater portion of the band as well as the lower portion of the band where SSB is used. Local Denver amateurs collected direction-finding information and determined the interference source to be Buckley Air Force Base. The local amateurs involved and a representative from the Denver FCC Office met with the commander of the base and discussed the situation. It was determined the probable cause was their Enhanced Position Location Reporting System (EPLRS) operational at the base. It has been in intermittent operation for some time, but recently it came into use more continuously and was therefore more noticeable to amateurs. The EPLRS system operates at up to 100 W output over the 420-450 MHz band and may be deployed at more airbases in the US. See http://www.gordon.army.mil/tsmtr/eplrs.htm for more information on the system. Of course the military is the primary user of the 70 cm band, and amateurs are secondary. Nevertheless, after discussion, the commander said that he would do what he could to aid in minimizing interference while still meeting his objectives and mission. The base has some control over the channels used and will operate the system only as needed (it had been operating 24/7). The results of the changes will be monitored and re-evaluated in the future. Chuck Skolaut is the staff contact for questions about this problem. Field & Education Support Team Linda Mullally registered 2 schoolteachers and 9 volunteer instructors. She updated 37 club records and reactivated another club. Margie Bourgoin added 6 more new Director-approved clubs to the database and sent out welcome packets and certificates. Margie also reports activity from volunteer instructors getting ready for classes in early January. Gail Iannone sent 22 hamfest approval letters and 3 convention approval letters to sponsoring committees confirming the Director's approval for the events as ARRL-sanctioned; processed 14 door prize orders and 14 handout packages for upcoming events. She coordinated travel for Mike Gruber as HQ rep to the Florida State Convention on February 1-2, and for Dan Henderson as HQ rep to the Tennessee Section Convention on February 8-9. Jean Wolfgang assisted the Boy Scout Headquarters with the Radio Merit Badge book. They are working on correcting a spectrum chart that was printed incorrectly in the last edition. Mary Lau released the Foundation Notice of Annual Meeting and Agenda for their January 18th Meeting. She also worked with the Nebraska Career Information Center of Lincoln, NE, and Peterson's Publications to update Foundation listings in their scholarship databases. EmComm Grants Thanks goes to CT SM Betsey Doane and all CT mentors, we've met our goal for the UTC grant with 251 of the Level I, and 16 of the Level II, students graduating! The last 9 attended an all-day session at Hq., and the numbers will rise over the next few weeks as students continue to complete. Under the CNCS grant, 446 students have successfully completed the Level I course. 197 new students began this week in CNCS-sponsored classes, including hybrid classes in Washington and Wisconsin. Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program Jerry Hill reviewed the new Tech question pool to see how it might affect the curriculum his teacher team devised. He assisted two hams who teach at the US Air Force Academy, and had questions about the legality of using ATV in the classroom. He had a 45 minutes sked of Q&As with students of Winchell Elementary School in Michigan. Total number of Big Project schools is now 40, with total number of students involved being 1317, and 209 of these are licensed. CCE Howard Robins did a large amount of work to finalize the RFI course, editing text and figures. He received excellent support from the graphics department-- they turned hand-drawn sketches into electronic files, and pulled figures from ARRL pubs. Howard set up the pre-registration reminder email to those requesting it, with 45 reminders going out for January's first Level 1 course. Jerry Ellis prepared new answer overlays for field examiners he corresponded with. He processed field exam results, printing and mailing certificates for those, plus for other requests he got for certificates. He compiled and submitted data to Accounting for the next batch-printing of CNCS refund checks, and he mailed last week's batch of checks and certificates. He assigned mentors for Level 3 and HF Digital classes opening on Monday. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List Name Date(s) Reason All Staff 12/25 Holiday All Staff 1/1 Holiday Mark Wilson 12/26-1/3 Vacation Lisa Kustosik 12/26-1/2 Vacation Jennifer Hagy 12/23-12/27 Vacation Gail Iannone 12/23-1/3 Vacation Steve Ford 12/30-12/31 Vacation Rick Lindquist 12/26-12/30 Vacation Joe Carcia 12/24 & 12/31 Vacation Howard Robins 12/23-1/3 Vacation Mary Lau 12/26-12/27 Vacation Jan Carman 12/23-1/2 Vacation Monique Levesque 12/26-1/2 Vacation Bob Schetgen 12/23-12/27 Vacation Joel Kleinman 12/30-1/3 Vacation `` 1/7 Vacation Kathy Capodicasa 12/23 Vacation Bob Inderbitzen 12/24 & 12/31 Vacation Deb Jahnke 12/26-12/27 Vacation Zoe Belliveau 12/26-12/31 Vacation Lisa Tardette 12/23-12/27 Vacation Cathy Stepina 12/26-12/27 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 12/26-12/27 Vacation Scott Gee 12/26-12/27 Vacation Wayne Mills 12/23-1/3 Vacation Sharon Taratula 12/24 Vacation Martin Cook 12/26 Vacation Bill Moore 12/26-1/3 Vacation Dan Henderson 12/24-12/27 Vacation Leona Adams 12/23-12/24 Vacation `` 12/30 Vacation Chuck Skolaut 12/23-12/27 Vacation Jerry Hill 12/23-12/27 Vacation John Hennessee 12/23-12/30 Vacation Rosalie White 12/26-12/27 Vacation `` 12/31 Vacation Dan Miller 12/26-12/31 Vacation `` 1/3 Vacation Mary Hobart 12/20-12/24 Vacation Debra Johnson 12/26-1/2 Vacation Scott Gee 12/26-12/27 Vacation