IN-Newsletter Vol. 39, No. 30 October 29, 2014 - Covers the period October 19-25. Upcoming Meetings and Events LoTW Study Committee November 14 @ 9:00am in Newington, CT Administration & Finance Committee November 15 @ 8:30am in Newington, CT Director/Vice Director Elections November 21 Lab Reported by Ed Hare, W1RFI Product Review Bob Allison completed testing of a software defined HF/6 meter transceiver. A data table, charts and a comments document were passed along to Product Review Editor, Mark Wilson, K1RO. Upon his approval, the information was then passed along to the manufacturer. Bob also completed testing of an HF handheld SSB transceiver. Testing of this device was previously halted, after a failure of a component. The device was sent back to the factory for repairs and was returned to the Lab. A data table was passed along to Mark Wilson Bob Allison tested an amplified DSP noise cancelling speaker used for communications purposes. Radio Frequency Interference Mike Gruber investigated a U-Verse complaint at K1PAI in Wethersfield. The problem was traced to a switching mode power supply associated with the U-Verse equipment. AT&T (now Frontier) is changing the supply for one that is known to be quiet. Mike Gruber met with Frank Haas, who was here from Florida on tour with his wife. Frank is an RFI investigator for FP&L, and had assisted in the Lakeland case several years ago. Frank also expressed interest in helping with the proposed IEEE Recommended Practice for locating power line noise. Most of the noise on some bands seems to be originated inside the building. I am working with Greg who will assist in a scheduled (and limited) building power shutdown in an attempt to locate the source or sources. Another source of power line noise was located and called in to CL&P's customer service. Mike Gruber had a detailed telephone discussion with Eaton's Jay Haugen to discuss the AFCI problem. Jay is the manager of the electronic circuit breaker division. He hopes that the new "ham friendly" breakers will phase out the problematic breakers in the next few weeks. The new breakers have also been fixing 99% of the RFI issues so far. Regarding the remaining 1%, most problems are being addressed with added effort. A small portion of the remaining 1% are tripping for unknown reasons. These cases may not be related to Amateur radio. Mike Gruber had a teleconference with John Ellis, NP2B and Kermit Carlson to discuss the issues and status of AFCI problems in the Villages, Florida. Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R Yvette Vinci reports that our team of Member Service Representatives has been proactively promoting the 2015 Handbook before finishing every phone call. Many of them have been successful convincing members to add the ARRL Handbook to an order or membership renewal. Diane Petrilli reports that targeted membership solicitations by email have returned 130+ members this month. The most recent mailing to lapsed and never members is just beginning to return applications; 70+ so far. The next membership campaign is set to mail on Nov 17. Jackie Ferreira is attending the Direct Marketing Association's national convention this week. The event focuses on most effective marketing trends and tactics-social, mobile, search, retargeting, email, analytics, cutting-edge mail, creative - lots of good strategies for igniting additional member engagement. We have promoted the annual ARRL Auction and November Sweepstakes. Planning is underway to add the Kindle (digital) edition of The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual to Amazon. Amazon already carries the print edition--but we're hopeful the introduction of a digital edition will capture additional interest in the book. The Production Department has already delivered the file--and we're finalizing pricing and other marketing strategies. Summary of warehouse fulfillment activity (reported by Steve Capodicasa): Week ending Packages fulfilled Member Premiums 10/24/2014 938 880 10/17/2014 1,814 120 10/10/2014 1,077 187 10/3/2014 703 682 Membership & Volunteer Programs Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N DXCC Paper/Fieldcheck Processing Time 2 Weeks Logbook Processing Time 3-5 Business Days Field Organization/Public Service Team The Oregon OOC, along with his OOs, is investigating a jamming that's occurring on a local 440 repeater. Updated information was received regarding a net on 3.908 kHz in the western part of the country. Several reports of a station continuing to operate on 75 meters with a very wide signal were received, and the information was forwarded to the FCC. Extensive documentation was received from a North Carolina OO who was helping relay the report from neighbors of a local CB operator that's using high power and causing trouble with interference to their consumer equipment and power breakers. This situation has been going on for an extended period of time, and the information was forwarded to the FCC. Chuck Skolaut ran a morning code practice session at W1AW and gave a tour of headquarters. Steve Ewald has also been filling in as a back-up operator at W1AW while staff members are away from the station. Steve has been working with the Production Department to edit a portion of the 2014 QST CD-ROM that covers Section News reports from this past year. Leona Adams reports that Mississippi Section Manager Malcolm Keown, W5XX, has been nominated to run for another term of office. Also, Wyoming Section Manager Garth Crowe, WY7GC, has been nominated to run for another term of office. There will be an election in Wyoming since Jack Mitchell, N7MJ, was nominated (as reported already) earlier in October. Nominations for this particular Section Manager election cycle are due at HQ by December 5, and new terms of office will begin April 1, 2015. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Hamfest/Member Contact/ARRL Representative/Meetings/Vacations All Staff 11/27-11/28 Holiday All Staff 12/25-12/26 Holiday Leona Adams 11/7-11/10 PTO Bob Allison 11/26 PTO `` 12/5-12/8 PTO `` 12/17 Jury Duty `` 12/22-12/24 PTO Steve Capodicasa 11/24-11/26 PTO Joe Carcia 11/3 PTO `` 11/5 PTO `` 11/14 PTO `` 12/5 PTO `` 12/12 PTO Lauren Clarke 11/25-11/26 PTO `` 12/24 PTO Jackie Ferreira 10/24-10/31 DMA Conference / PTO Steve Ford 11/24-11/28 PTO Scott Gee 12/24-12/29 PTO Dan Henderson 11/14-11/16 Indiana State Convention, Ft. Wayne, IN `` 11/24-11/26 PTO `` 12/17-1/6 PTO Debra Johnson 11/11 PTO `` 11/24-11/26 PTO Sean Kutzko 12/12-12/19 PTO Diane Petrilli 12/22-12/24 PTO `` 1/26-1/30 PTO Barry Shelley 11/6-11/7 PTO `` 11/18-11/20 Risk Strategies, Chicago, IL Chuck Skolaut 11/4 PTO