In-Newsletter Vol. 25, No. 13 April 2, 2002 Upcoming Meetings April 20th in Ft. Worth, TX at 8:00am A&F Committee Development On March 25-26, the campaign to support the ARRL Education and Technology Program mailed 170,000 pieces of mail to active and some lapsed members. The first contribution was received on April 1. Follow up letters will be mailed at the end of April. In addition to the mail campaign, a web presence has been created with a link from the top of the ARRL home page. Due to IRS and postal regulations, thank you gifts for contributions of $250 or more are only presented on the web. A new certificate, pin and mug have been created for this campaign. Response to the first quarterly planned giving mailing has been strong. Nineteen respondents have expressed interest and have requested more information. Two members have identified their commitment to a planned gift to ARRL. This activity brings our total planned giving commitments to five. A proposal for a tiered membership program has been submitted for review and approval by the Board. Development will be presented at the Maryland Convention in Timonium on April 6 and 7, including a presentation and Q & A on Saturday afternoon. Media Relations Plans for the annual PR forum in Dayton (Sunday May 19th at 8:80 AM) are almost complete. This year's title is "Emergency Response: Telling the Amateur Radio Story." The program will focus on promoting ham radio and dealing with other public relations issues when disaster strikes. The speakers have been lined up and all necessary information has been submitted to the Hamvention Forums Chair. The Public Relations Committee will hold its annual meeting in Dayton again this year. Those members who will be traveling to Dayton will attend. Jennifer was interviewed for an article that appeared in the Chattanooga (TN) Times Free Press. The reporter was interested in how ham radio was faring as a hobby today and he interviewed several members from a local club. She was also interviewed by a reporter from the weekly La Faria News in Texas. The reporter asked to be put on our press list, particularly for press releases that have to do with ham radio emergency communications. Everything is set for ARRL's presence at the National Association of Broadcasters convention beginning April 6th. The ARRL booth will be well stocked with handouts and volunteers ready to answer visitors' questions. Jennifer submitted a brief news item to Rick Lindquist for the Web. Several requests for radio and TV public service announcements were fulfilled. Publications The May issue of QST has been released to the printer. Field & Educational Services Rosalie prepared a report on how ARRL networks with served agencies we have MOUs with, and a summary of SM usage of on-line resources for the VRC teleconference she was part of Wednesday night; she also drafted meeting minutes. She created two PowerPoint talks for the annual ARISS International Meeting. She wrote the agenda for, and took part in, an ARISS School Group Meeting, and prepared minutes of the last meeting. The ARISS team was exuberant over getting these quotes from the Expedition 4 ISS crew, since their return to earth is delayed 1 month while the new crew trains to fix the robot arm: Astronaut Dan Bursch, KD5PNU said: "Please pass on my many thanks to whoever helped setup the St. Thomas contact...it was a lot of fun, and I am ready to do these ANYTIME!!" Astronaut Carl Walz, KC5TIE said, "It was great talking to the Zeehan Primary School. They had good questions, and everything worked out exactly as planned. Looks like I'll have a chance to do a few more school contacts with our extra time up here." The K7RAT school QSO is scheduled to air on Saturday's Weekend Nightly News on NBC. The IMAX media kit for their new film, Space Station, makes mention of ARISS. Regulatory Team John Hennessee assisted amateurs with covenant problems in Fountain Hills, AZ (AC7HF) and Montgomery County OH (N8XCR) and with amateurs experiencing zoning problems in Cape Coral, FL (K1KHP), Crowley, LA (K5UA) and Malvern, PA (W3BG). He also processed the Volunteer Counsel application of Trevor Lewis, KD1YT -- until he applied, there were no VCs in Vermont. Brennan Price completed the monthly Monitoring System Report for IARU Region 2. He began review of documents from Chris Imlay for a potential brief bank. Brennan reminded coordinators of the deadline to get payment for submissions to the Repeater Directory. Tape in one case was submitted to the FCC. Per President Haynie, Brennan asked a Volunteer Counsel to assist a NJ ham cited by local authorities for allegedly causing interference. Brennan summarized for a Web story, the NPRM proposing to bar a range of repetitive amateur applications -- the NPRM will not affect the vast majority of dismissed amateur applications (those dismissed without prejudice for procedural deficiencies). It only affects applications denied or dismissed with prejudice. C-CE Dan Miller reports 36 C-CE graduates this week. An exam session in St. Charles, MA resulted in two Level I, two Level II and one Level III certifications. Four people have graduated from the Antenna Modeling course. Requests for beta-testers for the new course on satellites has been sent. Field Organization/Public Service Team The Oregon Section Manager election ballots and candidate statements were set to be mailed Thursday afternoon (March 29). Leona Adams handled the preparations, and thanks goes to the Mailroom staff for getting these out before the April 1 deadline. Steve Ewald hosted Major Buzz Szarek, WM1W, of the Air Force Research Lab in Rome, NY, who had a proposal to conduct a joint simulated emergency test of APRS this summer. Radio amateurs in New York state will be invited to monitor the progress of a plane equipped with APRS and then report pertinent data to a central point. This could possibly serve to demonstrate an emergency application of APRS. Details need to be worked out. Steve has been preparing for his trip to the National Hurricane Conference in Orlando. The Big Project Jerry Hill is representing ARRL at the National Science Teacher's Association national convention. NASA paid for the booth space, registrations and electricity, etc. The convention normally brings in close to 20,000 schoolteachers. Field & Educational Support Team Mary Lau added new participants to the ARRL Web Resources Listserver, and gave readers assigned topics for both the Field Appointees and Web/Software programmers. Topics under discussion involve use, content, general improvements, tools and utilities for ARRL Section Web pages. Margie Bourgoin wrote a note to SMs and ACCs to ask them to "nudge" the Special Service Clubs in their Sections to please update their records; notes will go later, to the clubs themselves. Margie also extends a huge thank you to Forrest for all his help in figuring shipping times and costs, and for doing the actual shipping of 1000 Archie comic books to South Africa for future ARISS QSOs to be done by ISS visitor Mark Shuttleworth. Shuttleworth's company paid $430 for the shipment. Jean Wolfgang coordinated with Tom Hogerty for making two changes on the certificate (for the next running of Kid's Day) on the ARRLWeb. She also provided Handi-Ham material to assist a gentleman with Parkinson's disease who found it very hard to operate his radio. Linda Mullally updated 47 records for affiliated clubs plus 2 club reactivations. She registered 3 ARRL registered instructors and 1 schoolteacher; she reports that 33 students graduated this week from the on-line C-CE classes. Gail Iannone sent 8 hamfest approval letters to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Directors' approval of the events as ARRL-sanctioned. She processed 14 door prize orders, 2 label requests, and sent 15 handout packages for upcoming events. She coordinated travel for HQ staff for the following conventions: Rosalie White, K1STO, Wyoming State, on May 24-26 in Casper; Mary Lau, N1VH, San Francisco Section, on June 28-30 in Ferndale, CA; and Ed Hare, W1RFI, Atlantic Division, on May 31-June 2 in Henrietta, NY. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSLs 50 WAS Certificates 16 5BWAS Ceritficates 5 WAC Certificates 25 WAC Endorsements 5 A-1 Operator Nominations 2 A-1 Operator Certificates 6 Long-Term Member Inquiries 20 VUCC Initial Awards 4 VUCC Grids (data entry) 335 VUCC Endorsements 6 VUCC Grids (data entry) 420 For the coming week - WAS and WAC QSL card checking, foreign WAC awards, Basic WAS awards for March and VUCC data entry and mailing of awards. DXCC Branch Week Ending March 31, 2002 Beginning Cards 40,479 Cards Received 9,236 Cards Processed 11,990 Ending Cards 37,725 Applications Pending 272 Backlog Time 2 Weeks Year-to-date Cards Received 126,975 Cards Returned 209,340 QRP Issued this week 1 QRP YTD 177 Card Return: DXCC is currently mailing applications received on March 15, 2002. Card Processing: We are entering cards received on March 22, 2002. 1 Millennium award issued -- now totaling 2,982. Contest Branch The second issue of the biweekly ARRL Contest Rate Sheet newsletter, edited by Ward Silver, N0AX, was published March 27. It included several contributions and suggestions from readers. Circulation is now 1500 and growing -- not bad for a publication first announced less than a month ago. We are making good progress with the various aspects of online contest results. We are planning to unveil the online 2001 CW Sweepstakes results -- with the online score database, expanded writeup and online Soapbox -- in April. Printed results of this contest are scheduled for June QST, which goes to the printer April 24. QSL Branch QSL Service Status: Current. Cards mailed as of 03/31/2002: 530,475. No cards were mailed this week. Janet spent 4 hours conducting tours around HQ. W1AW Joe updated the web code practice files. He also worked the Monday and Tuesday night shifts for a vacationing Scott Gee. Scott worked on fast and slow code practice runs for the month of April. He handled evening phone sales calls in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. W1AW Telephone Sales year to date (2002): $3,098. 73, Sincerely, David Sumner, K1ZZ Executive Vice President DS:lk Staff Absentee List Name Date(s) Reason Dave Sumner 4/3 Washington `` 4/4-4/8 Vacation Mark Wilson 4/1-4/3 Vacation Dave Patton 4/5-4/11 Vacation Carol Patton 4/5-4/11 Vacation Mary Hobart 4/6-4/7 MD State Convention, Timonium Diana Lamson-Lucas 4/12 Vacation Steve Ewald 4/1-4/4 National Hurricane Conference, Orlando Rosalie White 4/3-4/7 Annual ARISS Meeting, Montreal Brennan Price 4/5-4/7 Washington State Convention, Yakima Leona Adams 4/15-4/17 Vacation Rick Lindquist 4/5 MD State Convention, Timonium Joel Kleinman 4/10-4/12 Vacation