IN-Newsletter Vol. 27, No.29 July 21, 2004 Development The spring Spectrum Defense Fund campaign has reached $229,544 from 4,478 donors. The W1AW Endowment campaign has reached $152,700 from 1,865 donors. The Education & Technology Fund campaign has reached $25,034 from 404 donors. A follow up to 10,000 prior donors will mail July 20. The application for year 3 of the CNCS federal grant was submitted July 14 requesting $266,000 in funds for Emergency communications training and a pilot Community Education Project to build awareness of Amateur Radio's capabilities to organizations involved in emergency management. Shawn Watson, ARRL's Program Officer from United Technologies, visited ARRL HQ to learn more about the relationship between the two organizations. ARRL is currently executing year two of the three-year EMCOMM training grant. Shawn expressed considerable interest in our Education & Technology Program and met briefly with Program Coordinator Mark Spencer, to begin discussions of possible future funding. Congratulations to Development Associate Debra Johnson, KB1LMT, on the successful completion of her General Class license. Media Relations Jennifer worked with a features reporter from the Washington Times. He's working on a general (and comprehensive, based on his questions) story about Amateur Radio, and it may run on July 29th. On the BPL front, Jennifer did two interviews, one with the FCC reporter for Bloomberg news and one for the San Francisco Examiner. Both reporters have been added to our in-house BPL media list. The Public Relations Committee held its monthly conference call. The group has finished up the items for the upcoming Speakers Bureau Pilot Program, which will involve six ARRL Section Managers and their Public Information Coordinators. Jennifer met with the Programs and Services Committee prior to the Board meeting to discuss the plans for this PRC project, along with other committee-related items. Jen started a dialog with a writer who recently contributed a column on BPL to the New York Times. While the column did not mention the downside for Amateur Radio, it's possible that the writer will follow up on the ham radio angle at some point in the future. Production/Editorial The September 2004 issue of QST will be released to the printer July 21. Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter, Vol 23, No 28, distributed to 67,372 members. Rick prepared stories on ARRL Board meeting (advancer); Hawaii governor vetoes ham radio antenna bills; AO-51 commissioning continues; Ohio SM announces BPL team and FCC affirms $11,000 fine for CA licensee, (among other news articles). He also edited FCC Amateur Radio Enforcement Letters plus several news briefs and announcements for the Web and the Letter. With voiceover assistance from Jennifer Hagy, Rick voiced, edited and produced ARRL Audio News for July 16. Sales & Marketing ARRL's new RR Donnelley Logistics (DLS) Account representative met with Kathy Capodicasa last Tuesday. DLS forwards QST to our overseas and Canadian members. The purpose of his visit was to find out how their service is doing and if there was anything they can do to improve it. Kathy made him aware of the delivery problems we have encountered and how the DLS customer service reps tackled the issues. The Advertising Staff is currently working on September 2004 QST, QEX and National Contest Journal. We are pleased to see returning advertiser Mosley Electronics and a brand new advertiser, Microlease, who committed to advertisements through the end of the year. A new edition of Advertising Matters will be in the works as soon as QST leaves for press. The newsletter will feature data/graphs gleaned from the QST Readership Survey. In addition, a next issue of the Dealers Newsline is being created, featuring the new edition of the Handbook and other select titles. Sales of advertising space in the upcoming 2005 Handbook continue coming in as staff put the sell on the last of our prospects. Sales are now 25% over projections. Staff has been able to stimulate a surge of interest in this advertising product and pull some unplanned media advertising spending out of our tight-budgeted clients to make up for some of the revenue loses in other venues. Portions of the week were devoted to working with Directors, supporting them with their individual discovery work in certain areas of interest. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS in the 90th Awards 23 Extra Class Certs. 4 25-Year Member Awards 5 40-Year Member Awards 4 50-Year Member Awards 2 LTMA Inquiries 3 A-1 Op. Noms. 18 VUCC Initial Apps. 6 Grids 665 VUCC End. Apps. 3 Grids 185 Awards Mailed 56 Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week-time will be used responding to various correspondence, processing A-1 Op. certificates, certifying awards manager appointments, and mailing out this week's awards. Contest Branch The twice daily updating the Field Day list of Logs Received via the web applet at www.b4h.net/cabforms continued. As of Friday July 16, 614 Field Day summaries had been submitted via that system. Several items were prepared for the Thursday July 15 meeting of the Programs and Services Committee of the Board. We began shipping 2003 November Sweepstakes plaques. The 2004 DX Contest pins arrived and were shipped. The revisions for the ARRL International EME Competition were received from the Programs and Services Committee. At that time, we updated the rules for the ARRL Web and wrote the contest announcement for the September issue of QST currently in production. Based on a participant query, we discovered that at some time during the submission of logs for the 2004 January VHF Sweepstakes there was apparently a problem with the robot receipting and storing logs. Contest Branch staff searched the queue of all saved email for the event and identified logs that had not been included. These have been sent to the Log Checker for the event to be scored and returned. We also contacted via email each of the participants and explained the situation. We have also contacted the robot keeper asking him to see if he can identify what may have caused the situation to happen. DXCC Branch For the week of: July 18, 2004 Beginning Cards 78,884 Cards Received 5,559 Cards Processed 11,310 Ending Cards 73,133 Applications Pending 534 Processing Time 3.1 Weeks Year-to-date (2004) Cards Received 340,506 Cards Returned 334,947 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on June 26, 2004. DXCC is currently entering cards received on July 1, 2004. Bill Moore attended the Pacific Northwest DX Convention this past weekend in Seattle. Twenty-one (21) DXCC apps were checked totaling 1,229 country credits. Special thanks to the following card checkers for their help: Al Rovner K7AR, Carl Luetzelschwab K9LA and Don Clower KA7T. Logbook of the World QSO records entered into the system 46,910,908 QSL records have resulted 1,560,235 Logs Processed 59,322 Active Certificates 10,543 Users registered in the system 7,446 Current Applications 115 Ready Applications 58 Applications Awaiting Mail 57 QSL Bureau Processing time is approximately 8 days from receipt. This week 122 pounds of cards were received from members. Approximately 150 pounds of cards are waiting to be processed. Cards mailed as of 07/18/04: 600,075. No cards were mailed this week. W1AW Joe spent some time setting up/installing equipment and software to perform a Winlink 2000 demonstration for various ARRL Board/committee members. Two stations (one on HF and one on VHF) were used to send text/documents and pictures to/from the Internet using amateur radio communications. Joe also repaired the Command Technologies 20-meter amplifier. He created the texts for the July W1AW Qualifying Runs and uploaded W1AW/90 logs to LoTW. Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the latter part of the month of July and early August. He also handled some evening phone sales calls in the daily 5 PM to 8 PM time slots. W1AW Telephone Sales year to date (2004): $21,068 Field & Educational Services Rosalie White finished preparation of material for the Programs and Services Committee Meeting. She worked with Mary and Dan on the final round of finalizing the Year 3 CNCS grant. Rosalie provided draft material for a story about a Girl Scout multi-state Jamboree and about IEEE award winner (astronaut) Tony England. The ARISS Team supported another successful QSO for a Japanese high school. Linda Mullally updated 40 clubs with 1 reactivation. She registered 7 Instructors and 2 Teachers, and handled 1 label request. She sent out 6 Exhibit kits and 1 Scouting kit as well as 485 assorted brochures. She compiled the monthly Statistic reports for QST (PSHR, BPL, SEC, STM). Gail Iannone wrote 57 hamfest and 14 convention announcements for the September issue of QST and sent to the Managing Editor. She also processed 20 material orders for handouts and door prizes for upcoming events, and processed 3 label requests for upcoming events. EmComm Grants Dan Miller has provided up-to-date grant reports and his 3rd-grant-year projected travel log to assist with the CNCS application for our final year. The Winlink 2000 demonstrations for the Board members went very well, thanks to Steve Ford and Joe Carcia. Dan has sent materials ahead for his SATERN EmComm Seminar next weekend in Kansas City. Certification Program Jean Wolfgang requested 87 reimbursement checks, printed certificates and IDs for EmComm graduates. She worked with Mr. Lincoln to find outdated CCE printing plates. Jean sent mentor calls out for 3 courses and opened several more sections for registrations. She sent rosters to mentors and CTDLC for 5 Level 1 sections and one section of the Technician License courses, which will begin on Tuesday with a total of 137 students. Since January, we have had 239 students register for technical online courses and 185 students participated in at least one EmComm field test. Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program Preparations for the August Teacher's Institute continued this week. Mark Spencer published the event's agenda and resources that will be part of the presentation and take-home items for classroom use were procured. Overall, each participant will leave the institute with approximately $1,000 of resource materials that they can use directly in their home classrooms. Congratulations to Debra Johnson, of the Development Office, for achieving her general class license on Friday, July 16. Mark Spencer, who was the classroom instructor, said, "Debra has been a exemplary student in the general class that has been on-going for the past few months here at the HQ." Club/Mentor Program Norm Fusaro reports that the New Amateur Web page has seen over 400 hits in its first 30 days of operation, and the ARRL Affiliated Clubs reflector now has over 160 active participants. In addition to editing and sending out the club newsletter, Norm has highlighted two clubs on the Club Companion page. One of the stories is about a club & school in Kalamazoo and their Big Project students at Field Day. He also took this week's opportunity to meet and talk with many members of the Board of Directors. Regulatory Information Missouri Section Manager Dale Bagley, K0KY, reports that the Missouri PRB-1 bill was signed by the governor on July 24 and is effective August 28. This makes the 21st state to pass PRB-1 legislation. John Hennessee and other staffers provided staff support. The text appears on the local government zoning page. He is also completing another FAQ. He assisted an amateur with a local government zoning problem in Wheaton, IL, and an amateur in Isle of Palms, SC (N9JLE), with a covenant restriction. The following shows corrections to this portion of last week's IN-Newsletter: John assisted amateurs with local government zoning problems in Lincoln, MN (WB5VIK), Blue Grass, IA (KB0BA), Cortlandville, NY (WA1GZY is moving from Florida to New York). He assisted an amateur in Marina Del Rey, CA (K6ZMW) with a covenant problem. Field Organization/Public Service Team Leona Adams started the week by making sure that all Sections Managers received their monthly Field Organization Appointment reports. Over 30 initial supply packages were sent to new Field Organization appointees. Minnesota SM election ballots are being arriving at HQ. The receipt deadline Friday, August 20, and they will be counted on August 24. Chuck Skolaut returned from his trip to the successful San Francisco Section Convention where he was the keynote speaker for the banquet and conducted a forum. Three audio tapes from OOs in direct response to FCC monitoring requests of a California repeater and a 20-meter frequency have arrived. The FCC is seeking help from Michigan Official Observers to monitor a specific situation, and Chuck is the liaison between the FCC and the OOs. Steve Ewald took part in the ARESCOM teleconference as it discussed its report for the ARRL Board meeting. Steve conversed with Oklahoma SM John Thomason, WB5SYT, who reports that Oklahoma Amateur Radio operators have gained strong credibility with the Oklahoma Department of Health when it comes to providing back-up and emergency communications. Here's an example: In a message from Ed Kostiuk, of the Oklahoma Department of Health, to his colleagues, Ed writes: "I had the opportunity to speak with John Thomason at lunch the other day. I want to make sure we are using all HAMS operators in our pre-planning, and in our MIPS (Mass Immunization Prophylaxis Site) exercises throughout the State. "I have over the past several years worked with these folks and always found them to be professional in their field. They are without a doubt the biggest communications (interoperability) asset we have. With the exception of our Satellite phones, communications have always failed me no matter the incident. HAMS has always been there and done an outstanding job of providing communications when all else has failed." 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List Mark Wilson 7/26 Vacation Lisa Kustosik 7/29-8/9 Vacation Monique Levesque 7/23-8/3 Vacation Perry Williams 7/16-9/7 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 7/23-7/25 Central States VHF, Toronto, Canada-personal `` 8/20-8/21 Convention, Albuquerque, NM `` 8/27-8/29 SW Division Convention, Phoenix, AZ-personal `` 9/24-9/26 EWA Section Convention, Spokane, WA Robert Inderbitzen 7/19-7/30 Vacation Debra Jahnke 8/6-8/13 Vacation Janet Rocco 7/26-7/30 Vacation `` 8/9-8/13 Vacation Mark Dzamba 8/23-8/27 Vacation Pam Dzamba 8/23-8/27 Vacation Steve Ford 7/31-8/8 Vacation Gail Iannone 7/19-7/23 Vacation Zoe Belliveau 8/9-8/13 Vacation Kathy Capodicasa 7/26-7/27 Vacation Fatima Lorusso 8/5-8/6 Vacation MaryAnn Macdonald 7/19-7/23 Vacation Steve Ewald 7/26pm-7/29 National Citizen Corps Conference, Denver, CO Mark Spencer 7/22-7/24 VEC Conference, Gettysburg, PA Bart Jahnke 7/22-7/24 VEC Conference, Gettysburg, PA Perry Green 7/22-7/24 VEC Conference, Gettysburg, PA Jean Wolfgang 7/23-7/28 Vacation John Hennessee 8/19-8/30 Vacation Dan Miller 7/19, 21, 22pm Vacation " 7/23-7/25 SATERN Seminar, Kansas City, MO " 8/9-8/12 APCO Convention, Montreal, Canada " 8/13-8/15 New England Div. Conv, Boxboro, MA " 8/26-8/29 SW Div Convention, Phoenix, AZ Eileen Sapko 7/22-7/23 Vacation Sandy Lund 7/21 Vacation Judy Miller 7/21 Vacation `` 7/23 Vacation Joe Carcia 8/6 pm Vacation Stu Cohen 7/19-7/27 Vacation Debra Johnson 7/26-7/30 Vacation Mary Hobart 8/27-8/29 SW Division Convention