IN-Newsletter Vol. 25, No. 42 October 21, 2002 Media Relations Jennifer followed up with a Washington Post reporter who interviewed Jennifer and Mary Hobart a few weeks ago. The article has not made it to print yet, largely due to the staff time being devoted to the sniper story. The reporter hopes that the article will run during the week of October 21. A reporter with The Democrat & Chronicle out of Rochester, NY, is working on an Amateur Radio Feature story. Jennifer was interviewed for the article which is tentatively scheduled to run on November 6. The interview covered a lot of basic information about ham radio, how people get into the hobby, how much equipment costs, etc. The Public Relations Committee is currently working on an effort to beef up the publicity effort for next year's Amateur Radio Awareness Day. Per a Board motion made by Director Fallon in July, the group is tossing around several possibilities and will submit a proposal to the VRC by November 1. Jennifer contributed to this project. Thanks to Sue Fagan for getting stock photos on CD for the editor of the new Corporate Connecticut magazine. An article on ARRL and the federal and UTC grants is expected in either the November or the December issue. Jennifer and Dave Sumner have reviewed the manuscript for a new publication (earlier reported on here) called "Hello World, A Life in Ham Radio." Dave caught a few technical errors and Jennifer worked with the author to incorporate the changes. The book is scheduled to be published in the spring. Media Hits for December's QST issue were written and filed. Jennifer completed the edits to the 12-chapter, all new PIO Handbook. The files have been sent over to Tom Hogerty and he's begun work for the Web-based publication. Thanks go to the PRC for working on this very time-consuming project! Sales and Marketing Sales Lisa Tardette's Dealer telemarketing efforts paid off with $7397.36 in gross publication sales last week. In addition she added three new ARRL book dealers - with purchase orders in hand - to our client base: East Coast Computers, Portsmouth, VA; D & D Radio Electronics, Bronx, NY; and Quality Technical Books, Ann Arbor, MI. In addition to regular ad page space, December QST will feature a four-page ad section entitled the ARRL Amateur Radio Buyer's Guide. The guide is comprised of multiple listings of Amateur Radio equipment and book dealers, listing names, addresses, e-mail, phone and other contact information. Customers were offered the option to list in any of five categories for a small fee. Multiple listings were encouraged. For the past month or so, the Sales & Marketing staff has been working with an advertiser and RR Donnelley on an advertising insert for QST. After much hard work and negotiation, plans have been finalized for an advertising package consisting of a two-page 4-color ad spread with a die-cut, perforated, embossed insert in the middle. This innovative treatment is being use to call attention to the Yaesu FT-897 by GigaParts, in their first-ever QST ad. The owners of GigaParts worked closely with Yaesu, our staff and our printer to be the first to employ this new ARRL offering. The ad will appear on pages 16 and 17 of December QST. Bob is coordinating house ads for December's issue of QST. A new ad has been produced in cooperation with the F&ES staff to promote the continuing education program courses. Marketing The new Fall/Winter 2002 publications catalog left for the printer on Friday. A large mailing will be conducted in about two weeks. In addition to our publication and product line, this catalog includes a promotion for the ARRL Certification - Continuing Education courses and shows the registration schedule through March 2003. We will watch course registrations closely to gauge the impact of the catalog and QST promotion Janet Rocco has been learning her new responsibilities and is now ordering all third-party publications resold by ARRL. One of this week's orders was for publications produced by the Radio Society of Great Britain. The items ordered will re-supply our warehouse for the busy holiday shopping season. The company handling our corporate apparel reported excellent sales for the 2nd and 3rd quarters. The new emergency service gear has significantly increased order activity. ARRL receives a commission for these sales without having to actually handle the transaction and product shipping. Production/Editorial We have reordered TravelPlus, the Handbook CD and the Communications Quarterly CD. We also ordered a new title, The ARRL Antenna Compendium Volume 7. We checked page proofs for the November/December issue of NCJ. The December issue of QST will be released to the printer October 23. Lab Mike Gruber, W1MG, has rejoined the ARRL Lab staff to handle the RFI-engineer responsibilities. Ed Hare reports that the transition should be pretty seamless, as Mike has very good instincts, based on his years of experience dealing with members. The email address rfi@arrl.org <mailto:rfi@arrl.org> now goes to Mike on a regular basis. Power-line interference appears to remain the #1 interference problem being handled by the ARRL Lab. For information, the basic steps ARRL uses to help members are: o Refer the member to the ARRL web page: <http://www.arrl.org/rfi-elect.html> and the ARRL RFI Book o Encourage the member to use the above to work effectively with his/her power company o If that fails, ARRL then writes a letter to the power-company CEO, under the wing of our agreement with the FCC o If the company is cooperative, ARRL helps their staff understand how to troubleshoot and repair noise problems o If necessary, ARRL sends some of these cases to the FCC for the now-famous "FCC power-company" letter The Amateur Radio Interference Assessment Project: Ed Hare has been working closely with Greg Lapin, recently appointed to spearhead the ARIA project. This fell right in line with some work Ed has done recently in the automated measurement of signal/noise levels using simple methods and amateur equipment. Although the method can be used with only an amateur receiver and RMS-reading voltmeter, Ed has been spending most weeknights and weekends writing computer software that uses a sound card to read the receiver output, can also interface with an ICOM PCR-1000 donated by ICOM and reads a GPS receiver, automatically at specified intervals to record signal strength and GPS position automatically to disk. Though Ed's first project is to measure power-line noise, this system can be used with any amateur equipment, including transverters, to measure field strength. Here is a fast example of the results of Ed's drive to work this morning, measuring power-line noise on Ed's route to work. Though this reports the results in "S" units, the program also uses the known noise floor of the receiver and antenna gain to calculate actual field-strength levels in microvolts/meter. <<ole0.bmp>> Ed Hare helped Chris Imlay prepare another Ex Parte filing in response to some additional information that Savi Technology provided to the FCC about their so-called analysis of the lack of interference potential from their proposed RFID systems. This can be seen on the FCC web page at: <http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6513295351> Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 350 WAC Certificates(192 qsl's checked by IARU) 32 WAC Endorsements(72 qsl's checked by IARU) 12 5 Band WAC Certs.(60 qsl's checked by IARU) 2 Long Term Member Inquiries 4 VUCC Initial Applications 2 Grids (Data Entry) 118 VUCC Endorsement Applications 5 Grids (Data Entry) 358 Extra Class Certs. Mailed 83 WAS Awards Mailed 24 Processing Status: Current or within three weeks. For the coming week-WAS Specialty, VUCC, and Code Proficiency awards, Extra Class certificates, and mail-out the foreign WAC awards. DXCC Branch Weekly Report October 20, 2002 Beginning Cards 246,257 Cards Received 4,488 Cards Processed 11,151 Ending Cards 239,594 Applications Pending 2,430 Processing Time 7 Weeks Year-to-date Cards Received 666,098 Cards Returned 505,661 QRPs Issued this week 3 QRPs YTD 244 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on August 30, 2002. DXCC is currently entering cards received on September 3, 2002. Wayne Mills attended the RSGB HF Convention and brought back 62 apps totaling 7220 QSOs. Bill Moore attended the New Providence ARC in New Jersey and gave a talk to 45 members (most were non-DXCC). One DXCC application was checked. Contest Branch Work continued on paper log data entry for the September VHF QSO Party, 10 GHz and Up, and August UHF contests. A plaque shipment was processed. The new redesigned contest certificates arrived from the printer and we will begin processing a series of HF and VHF contest certificates this coming week. VHF/UHF surveys are coming in for the MSC Study as well as email comments in regards to the study. These are being stored and printed for delivery to the MSC Committee after the deadline for submission. W1AW Scott Gee worked on slow and fast code practice runs for the latter part of the month of October. He also handled some evening phone sales calls in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. Joe Carcia processed all the domestic W1AW/5 QSL card requests, in addition to regular card requests. He also began creating transmit files for the upcoming W1AW Frequency Measuring Test. Joe also worked the Friday night shift for Scott Gee. W1AW telephone sales year to date (2002): $9,555. Field & Educational Services The ARISS team reports a successful QSO with a Texas school and with Dutch Scouts working the Jamboree. Rosalie took part in an ARISS officers' telecon to set the agenda for the December international meeting at Goddard. She networked with a rep from the Mercy Medical Airlift group that also got a CNCS grant. She and Jerry began discussions about science fairs. She began coordination work on HamCom 2003 ARRL forums. Regulatory Information John Hennessee assisted amateurs with local government antenna restriction issues in Selden, NY (KC2KGQ); Brevard County, FL (KD4UWV); Polson, MT (AK7T) and with a covenant problem in Newark, OH (K8JZW). He reviewed the regulations unit of the CCE RFI Course. He assisted an Oklahoma ham contacted by the Ft Worth FAA requesting help locating the source of a spur from a police system interfering with aircraft as high as 30,000'. Chuck and John handled an OO matter involving the recent FCC emergency declaration. John was asked by the Guam Visitors Bureau if Guam hams could inform the Bureau, during a communications emergency, if the airport was in operational. EmComm Grants Dan Miller has been busy preparing for his four-hour seminar at Pacificon on Friday afternoon. Twenty people have signed-up to attend the seminar, so far. UTC and CNCS classes are moving ahead very nicely. We are at the halfway point with UTC grads, and 74 CNCS grads with 588 students registered. Field & Educational Support Team Mary Lau sent ARRL Foundation checks to grantees in Cresco, IA, and Missouri City, TX. Updates were made to Foundation scholarship information listed with the registries published by the College Board (NY); Falcon Management Division of Pepsico, Inc. (UT); and Reference Service Press (CA). Sections/Divisions with e-messages this week included: NE, IN = 2; NLI, OH, ID, SFL, EWA, MN, LA, SD, IL, AR, and SW Div = 1 each. Linda Mullally registered 6 Teachers and 5 Instructors. She updated 46 clubs, and compiled Public Service Honor Roll and Brass Pounder League statistics for the Public Service column in QST. Margie Bourgion reports 3 new clubs processed to the Director/SM for approval at that level, and 8 new Clubs have gone on to the Executive Committee for final vote by email. She also assisted Leona in sending out initial supply packages to new Field Organization appointees. Jean Wolfgang, delighted, notes that The ARRLWeb Youth Sked page has worked great for JOTA -- better than expected. We registered about 150 JOTA stations! This will provide a list of email addresses for the JOTA survey that will follow. It will provide contact information for others doing JOTA, and scouts or hams who make the decision at the last moment to participate. Gail Iannone sent 4 hamfest approval letters to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's approval for the events to be ARRL-sanctioned, 2 initial hamfest application packets to clubs requesting ARRL-sanctioning for their events; processed 4 door prize orders, 2 label requests and sent 4 handout packages for upcoming events. Field Organization/Public Service Team Chuck Skloaut assisted John Hennessee with parts of the FCC Rule Book revision. Chuck networked with Riley Hollingsworth about OO Advisory Notices, and approved exams for two new Official Observers. He received a request from a California ham for an application authorizing 219 MHz operation. Leona Adams handled data entry of appointments, cancelations and changes into Siebel and TASS. Margie helped with this. Leona sent 30 initial supply packages to appointees, and prepared the schedule for the 2003 SM Election Cycle dates. Steve Ewald continued work on December QST. About 68% of SMs mentioned the December "Section News" columns would be their last; many promoted their ARRL Section Web Pages and e-newsletters. New SM Rich Beebe, N0PV, said, "I am getting good response to the new emails and faster updates on the web site." NTS leaders are sending responses to Steve for the VRC questionnaire. CCE For the Web survey (online until 10/27) sampling member interest in new courses, 630 responses have been received. The topics, in order of preference, are: Antennas 101, Radio Propagation, VHF/UHF Beyond the Repeater, Trouble Shooting, Test Equipment, Basic Electronics, and Contesting 101. Howard Robins edited all sections of the new RFI Course, and set up an Excel form of data to help our online host format the course. Beta-testing should commence in early November. Jerry Ellis made mentor assignments for courses opening on Monday. He processed certificate requests and approvals for third-quarter mentor stipends, and aided with grant registrations. We are having certificates for the UTC and CNCS graduates commercially printed for batch-processing on a laser printer. This should greatly improve the efficiency of certificate fulfillment. Amateur Radio Education and Technology Program Jerry Hill networked with the Connecticut Science Teachers Association president, who'll bring the math, technology and communications chairs at his school to Hq to learn about The Big Project and discuss science fairs. Jerry says the curriculum has gone to the printer, and that Vice Director Leggette will visit one of our Pilot Schools to see their station and how they work with SkyWarn and other served agencies. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List Name Date(s) Reason Dave Patton 10/23-10/29 Vacation Brennan Price 11/1-11/3 Georgia Section Convention, Lawrenceville LouAnn Campanello 10/28-10/31 CNCS Seminar, Washington, DC Dan Miller 10/18-10/21 Pacificon CCE Seminar `` 10/29-10/31 CNCS Seminar, Washington DC Mary Hobart 10/28-10/31 CNCS Seminar, Washington DC `` 11/1-11/3 A&F Committee, Denver CO Rick Lindquist 11/1-11/4 Vacation Stu Cohen 10/25-10/26 Eastern States VHF Conference, Enfield, CT `` 11/8-11/9 AMSAT Annual Meeting, Dallas, TX Eileen Sapko 10/22 Vacation Deb Jahnke 10/22-10/23 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 10/23-10/25 Vacation `` 10/28-11/01 So.Cal Sales Trip `` 11/04-11/05 Vacation `` 11/18-11/22 No.Cal Sales Trip Ed Hare 10/28 Meet with Pegasus Satellite wrt TV field-strength measurements 11/10-11/16 IEEE C63 "RFI" committee meeting, Baltimore, MD 11/18-11/19 TIA T1E1 "VDSL" standards committee meeting, Atlanta, GA Zack Lau 10/25 Vacation Bob Inderbitzen 12/6 Vacation