IN-Newsletter Vol. 27, No. 44 November 3, 2004 Upcoming Meetings Ballot Counting, Director/Vice Director Elections November 19th in Newington, CT A & F Committee November 20th in Newington, CT at 8:30am Board Meeting January 21-22, 2005 in Windsor, CT CEO Archivist Branch Perry Williams, W1UED is asking all staff to consolidate all paper copies of W5YI Reports in the Archives, for the convenience of all staff. If you know the whereabouts of any copies, please tell him now at ext. 413 or simply bring them up to the cage. The Archives has a broken run of the old pink paper W5YI Reports, between Jan 1, 1990 and January 1, 2000. At least two copies of each issue were circulated among different sets of Hq people. Development The 2005 Spectrum Defense campaign has topped $102,000 from more than 2300 donors. Today's receipts of more than $18,000 are lead by an individual contribution of $10,000. Returns from the follow up letter are beginning to appear. A letter has been prepared to reach out to affiliated clubs to create a 2005 Honor Roll of donating organizations on the web as was done in 2004. Development continues to work with Field & Educational Services on the CNCS EmComm grant and the new Community Education Project. ARRL Foundation Scholarship applications continue to arrive with eight in house so far. Media & Public Relations BPL issues continue to hold center stage. In the meantime, the "Hams Remember" toy drive for children displaced by the Florida hurricanes has already exceeded initial expectations and continues to grow. Multiple press releases and weekly updates have been sent to PIC/PIO's and I look forward to both the response and media stats from this activity. In addition, the monthly CONTACT page of PR tips and help for November is up on the website. Production/Editorial Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter, Vol. 23, No. 43, distributed to 67,345 members on Oct 29, is up slightly from the previous week. Rick prepared and/or edited stories on the FCC's release of the BPL Report & Order, ARRL's participation at a state utility commissioners' meeting to discuss BPL, update on the ARISS/ISS Expedition 10 crew, The Amateur Amateur column, FCC enforcement letters, FCC fines to two entities (both involving amateur licensees), and several news briefs. Rick voiced, edited and produced ARRL Audio News for October 29. Sales & Marketing Since the January 2005 issue of QST has a "Vintage Equipment" theme, a targeted e-mail solicitation has been sent to current and potential advertisers who have products and services that would be a good match. Our general solicitation to all other advertisers will go out at the end of this week. We're pleased to report that Fry's Electronics publication ordering quantities and diversity of titles has picked up considerably over the last several months. They are now stocking all 29 outlet locations. The successful roll-out of the 2005 ARRL Handbook contributed to an exceptional month of product sales. October's sales reached $477,000--a record total among recent years of sales history. As part of the cooperative relationship initiated by the Sales and Marketing group between ARRL and the United States Power Squadrons (USPS), we are assembling some ham radio promotional materials for an upcoming USPS district conference. A brochure is being designed to address the benefits of including ham radio in boating activities. The materials also support ARRL membership and publications. This venue will serve as a test opportunity for us before our planned aggressive participation at their national conference in January. New fall/winter ARRL Publications catalogs have been mailed to 20,000 members and customers. Catalogs have also been supplied to publication dealers and they will be included with outgoing requests for hamfest and examination materials. Diane produced an electronic version of the catalog that can be viewed or printed from online, a great addition to our publications marketing tools. Another successful email enticement was sent to nearly 48,000 members, soliciting subscriptions to QEX and NCJ. The revamped Club Commission Membership Recruitment Program was unveiled this week. Clubs continue to earn $15 commissions for NEW memberships, and now also earn $2 for each RENEWAL they turn in. Details can be found on the web, www.arrl.org/FandES/field/club/forms/club-commission-program.html. Cover material for The ARRL Emergency Communication Handbook and the 17th edition of Hints & Kinks for the Radio Amateur has been delivered to Sue Fagan for design. We are finalizing retail pricing for both books. We successfully negotiated better wholesale pricing on a couple of non-ARRL resale offerings, including the CQ calendars and Klingenfuss shortwave frequency products. Beginning December, the membership renewal notice will include a Diamond Club appeal. Diane worked tirelessly with members of our team and the Development group to carry the design of a form through several iterations. We will be tracking the results very closely in coming months. The Life membership program has remained at a constant level for the past year. We currently have 20,464 Life Members (paid in full and paying). At this time last year, we had 20, 467. Statistics show the average age of a Life member is 49.59. A year ago the average age was 48.28. Last year, 273 members were making payments at this point on the calendar on their Life Memberships. Now there are 231. Membership Services Awards Branch WAC QSL Cards Checked 108 WAC Certs. (276 QSLs F/C) 46 5BWAC (30 QSLs F/C) 1 Extra Class Certs. 67 A-1 Op. Noms. 5 LTMA Inquires 2 Filing Chores/LTMAs 76 VUCC Initial Apps. 7 Grids 858 Awards Mailed 13 Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week-WAS QSL card checking, Basic WAS awards for Oct., WAS/90th awards, and mail out all awards processed this week, including all the foreign WAC awards. Contest Branch During the last two weeks, the Field Day and June VHF Web articles were finalized and opened to the membership. We completed printing 2004 DX Contest certificates and prepared the mailing labels. We will begin stuffing envelopes and mailing in the next week. Data entry for the 10 GHz contest and September VHF logs continued. Two contest disqualifications were prepared for action by the ARRL Awards Committee. The 2004 August UHF results were received from the log checker, processed, and tables sent to the author. We received back the author's work and the QST results article for August UHF which were then sent to Production. Checked results for the 2004 September VHF QSO party were received and a small error detected. The log checker corrected the coding problem and the results are being reviewed. We have also started work on the EME database to incorporate the new categories. DXCC Branch For the week of: October 31, 2004 Beginning Cards 54,031 Cards Received 11,999 Cards Processed 15,134 Ending Cards 50,896 Applications Pending 394 Processing Time 5.2 Weeks Year-to-date (2004) Cards Received 477,689 Cards Returned 484,236 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on September 24, 2004. DXCC is currently entering cards received on September 24, 2004. Logbook of the World QSO records entered into the system 52,297,826 QSL records have resulted 1,920,301 Logs Processed 75,775 Active Certificates 11,632 Users registered in the system 8,553 Current Applications 172 Ready Applications 74 Applications Awaiting Mail 98 QSL Bureau Processing time is 2 days. This week 120 pounds of cards were received from members. All cards received have now been processed. Cards mailed as of 10/31/04: 882,310. No cards were mailed this week. W1AW Joe uploaded W1AW/90 logs to LoTW. He finished with the input of HPM/135 entries (final total is 448). He created the texts for the November W1AW Qualifying Runs. He also processed two Qualifying Run certificates and one endorsement. Joe processed some older W1AW/90 QSL card requests and also updated the W1AW web code practice files. Scott worked on slow and fast code practice files for the month of November. He also handled some evening phone sales calls in the daily 5 PM to 8 PM time slots. Field & Educational Services Rosalie requisitioned Morse code study materials for Johnson Space Center -- several astronauts are interested in upgrading because the ARISS station will soon have HF capability. She pulled all required achievables from the CEP grant into a list, and spent Wednesday making plans with Bill Barrett on moving forward with his immediate tasks; she set up a skeleton timeline to be fleshed out. She listed possible byproducts from the grant that are desirable for ARRL beyond the grant's direct goals. Field Education Support Gail Iannone sent 7 hamfest approval letters and 1 convention approval letter to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's approval of their events as ARRL-sanctioned. She processed 8 hamfest/convention material orders and 1 label request for upcoming events. She also sent Charter of Affiliation certificates to 15 new ARRL-affiliated clubs. Linda Mullally, who handles F&ES database work and departmental materials fulfillment, among other duties, has found other employment and we wish her well. Temporarily, Margie Bourgoin, KB1DCO, will be coming back soon to F&ES to fill the empty spot. Having previously done many of the duties, she will require only minimal training for the things that have changed in F&ES. Club/Mentor/Volunteer Instructor Program Norm Fusaro identified clubs for a cities list recommended by Citizen Corp for Bill Barrett to consider for our CEP grant. Norm received 300 club responses to his hamfest survey; he compiled the data and started a report for the clubs. He wrote a Web article with a survey for readers, about a club and their hamfest. He spoke with Austin ARC members about their 85th anniversary celebration (of ARRL affiliation), and made a certificate and plaque for them, contacting the SM and Director about a presentation. Norm fielded questions from, and aided, clubs not clear on the new rebate. He networked with the Director, Vice Director and SM about a STX club issue. CCE Jean Wolfgang finished drafting the write-ups for each of the online courses and sent these to Bob Inderbitzen. Potential students will now be able to find the course titles and descriptions in ARRL's online catalog. She noticed an increase in registrations sent in by mail this week. Jean processed 3 Field Exam packages, which represented 61 tests. She processed the weekly EmComm graduations and printed the required certificates and ID cards. Field Organization/Public Service Team Chuck Skolaut compiled ARRL's monthly contribution to the Monitoring System report. He has another report on hand that is likely CODAR interference on the 12-meter band. Official Observers have been documenting malicious interference cases on the 20- and 40-meter phone bands. Also, many reports of suspected illegal equipment for the 10-meter band advertised for sale on the Internet were received and forwarded to the FCC this past week. Leona Adams updated the Field Organization database with changes to records, appointment cancellations and fifteen new appointments as supplied by the Section Leaders. Section Manager Election ballot envelopes continued to arrive, and they may do so until the November 19 receipt deadline. She handled Section-related travel and administrative expense reports. Steve Ewald heard from EPA SM Eric Olena and his Section Leaders after the Section co-sponsored an emergency communications conference. Over 80 hams, state officials, and county emergency management officials took part with speakers and attendees representing 23 counties in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey. Steve took part in the monthly Citizen Corps and Affiliate's telecon, updating listeners on our CEP grant. He reviewed material for possible use in QST's Public Service column. SMs have been discussing broadband over powerline issues and the 2004 SET activities in their section news and section-wide correspondence or Web pages. CEP Grant Project Bill Barrett is continuing with his research and learning. Goals were clarified, an initial road schedule was worked out, and individual meetings were held with S.Ewald, N.Fusaro and M.Spencer to refine and sort the evolving target cities list against existing ARRL known field resources. Bill met with Mary Hobart and Rosalie White to identify initial approximate delivery dates and plans for various items including the booklet, CD, and initial production design for his main presentation. He received two ham inquiries and one non-ham Citizen Corps Council inquiry from non-target cities; he'll supply useful interim material to them in return for results feedback. Regulatory Information John Hennessee made another round of last-minute corrections to the FCC Rule Book, researching FCC matters such as dockets affecting the amateur allocation at 75.5-81 GHz, certain government and non-government allocations between 28 MHz and 36 GHz and allocations above 76 GHz. He reviewed yet-to-be-implemented changes to Part 97, and decided which ones to hold until the next publishing of the book. When making these types of editing decisions for the Rule Book it's like trying to hit a moving target. He's also waiting on the Report and Order for changes in the sharing status of the amateur 2390-2395 MHz band. EmComm Grants Program Dan Miller has set up his last three trips for the 2004 year. The first is in Melbourne, Fla; then next is the in Dallas, followed by Los Angeles. Dan has contacted people about upcoming trips for 2005. He is pleased with the Marketing staff's work on the new Web banner ad for the CNCS Level l classes. He updated the survey he uses to better suit his next seminar. He prepared the tabletop exhibit material, and shipped it to a volunteer in Dallas who will assist with set up. Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program Mark Spencer anticipates recommending 8 of the 10 school applications he received for one of our grants; deadline is Nov 1, and the EC will get them Nov 15. A nice compliment: Parallax has taken Mark's TV Remote Decoder kit concept and developed a course on that type of wireless technology; it starts with the foundation of our curriculum focus (wireless technology), and extends to computer programming to use wireless technology. Mark worked on a lesson activity for students to figure the speed of light from Doppler shift measurements off NOAA satellites -- for 20% he gets consistent results, not bad for measuring with a micrometer and cutting with an ax. He is developing a basic electronics course for students and new hams. 73, Sincerely, Dave Patton, NN1N Special Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer DCP: lk Staff Absentee List All Staff 11/25-11/26 Holiday Dave Sumner 11/9pm-11/10 Washington Robert Inderbitzen 12/2-12/3 Vacation Dan Miller 11/4-11/6 SSCA Melbourne, FL `` 11/7-11/10 IAEM, Dallas, TX `` 11/14-11/17 IACP, Los Angeles, CA Kathy Capodicasa 11/11-11/15 Vacation Scott Gee 11/8-11/10 Vacation Bill Moore 11/12 Ft. Wayne Indiana Convention Joe Carcia 11/19 Vacation Leona Adams 11/4 Vacation Rick Lindquist 11/5-11/7 GA State Convention, Lawrenceville 11/22-11/24 Vacation Mark Dzamba 12/24-12/30 Vacation Pam Dzamba 12/24-12/30 Vacation