<<080608.doc>> IN-Newsletter <<Microsoft Word Picture>> Vol. 31, No. 32 August 6, 2008 -- Covers the period July 27-August 2. Upcoming Meetings and Events Executive Committee Meeting October 18 @ 9:00am in Chicago, IL Ballot Counting for Director/Vice Director Elections November 21 in Newington, CT Regulatory Information Reported by Dan Henderson, N1ND With the cooperation of Bob Lanning, W6OPO president of NARCC (the repeater coordinating group for northern California), we finished compiling as accurate contact information as possible for the repeaters near Beale which were newly identified by the Air Force as needing mitigation for PAVE PAWS. On Thursday I held a good discussion with George Dillon of the FCC, who is now handling this issue. Dillon asked for the contact information on the new repeaters, which we provided. His plan of action will be similar to that taken by Riley Hollingsworth with the second PPR list - the FCC will begin making phone calls (or emails if phone numbers were not available) to these repeater owners explaining the issue and asking them to voluntarily implement the dB reductions requested. The ARRL role will continue to be to provide information and support on request to any repeater owner who asks for it (either thru the FCC or directly to us). Dillon shared that they have not decided how to handle the repeaters that had previously been identified and requested to reduce signal strength but have not done so as of yet. I shared the League's position that if the Dept. of Defense wished to implement a quiet zone around the radar site, that such a request needed to go through the proper rule-making procedures. Simply creating a de facto quiet zone based on claimed DoD numbers which have not been examined or confirmed by the FCC was not in the best interest of the amateur community. I spoke with Bill Cross at the FCC about some "loose ends" - corrections to things inadvertently changed or omitted from the updates to the Federal Register when 04-140 and 05-235 were implemented. This includes things like fixing the inadvertent change to the Technician class maximum power limit on bands above 50 MHz. He shared that those fixes are included in an ordering clause to the action on the spread spectrum petition which is forthcoming (but no expected date is known at this time). Updates of the "Logs Received" page for Field Day were posted daily during the week. Since Field Day is not able to use the robot for this function, it is done manually. By the end of the week over 19003 entries have been submitted using the www.b4h.net web applet - an increase of about 100 web applet submissions from 2007. Several hundred additional paper and non-applet submissions have also been received. Contest Branch staff should begin processing them the week of August 4. Media & Public Relations Reported by Allen Pitts, W1AGP CONTACT! for August is posted and was emailed to PIOs. We are encouraging all local clubs and ARES groups to sign up with the READY.gov September Preparedness Campaign. The federal government is planning a major PR push this year in informing families of the need to make an emergency plan. While the ARRL is registered as a national organization, their format is slanted for small, local groups. As many of our clubs are already doing events, we should get credit for them and it can only aid our legislative, regulatory and emergency position if we maximize their sign in pages with Amateur Radio registrations. Groups and individuals can register to become members by visiting www.ready.gov, and clicking on the National Preparedness Month banner. Information is also being sent via the SEC and SM reflectors as well as the ARRL letter. Allen participated in a telephone training conference call on TV show bookings and is evaluating the benefits, options and resources available for creating our own specific classes and trainings for ARRL PIOs in 2009. Development Reported by Mary Hobart, K1MMH ARRL has received a second distribution from the estate of Robert Stoner of $21,621. Added to the first distribution amount of 27,027, the Stone estate has added $48,648 to the General Fund of the ARRL Endowment. During 2008 ARRL has received estate proceeds totaling $695,793 which have been added to the ARRL Endowment. The 2008 W1AW Endowment campaign has exceeded its goal of $55,000. The revenues total $57, 539. Campaigns for Education & Technology, Historic Preservation and Lab Funds will be in the mail by week's end. A follow up to major donors for the Education & Technology Fund will follow in about two weeks. Development will join Steve Ewald to represent ARRL at a Citizen Corps conference in Oklahoma City the week of August 18 - 21. Production/Editorial Reported by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE Larry Wolfgang represented ARRL HQ at the Austin Summerfest/Texas State Convention this past weekend. Khrystyne Keane wrote and distributed The ARRL Letter, Vol. 27, No. 30, for August 1, 2008. It went out to more than 71,000 subscribers, a new high. She also voiced and produced ARRL Audio News for August 1. Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R Membership closed for the month of July up slightly with an increase over last month of 51 members totaling 153,492. September QST is on schedule to mail August 5th thru August 12th. The 2-page ARRL publication spread is being redesigned for the October issue of QST. The redesign will include our third party items. A 2/3-page house-ad is being constructed for the AES Fall/Winter 2008 catalog. The ad will feature the new ARRL General Class Course for HAM RADIO Licensing and the 2009 ARRL Handbook. The Warehouse crew processed 874 packages of fulfillment orders. We also shipped 171 free book membership premiums and sent 2 August QST supplements. Membership & Volunteer Programs Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N Awards Branch Category June 2008 July 2008 Year-to-Date WAS Certificates (Manual) 41 38 250 WAS Certificates (LoTW) 13 21 105 A-1 Op Nominations 21 26 148 A-1 Op Certificates 19 17 122 Extra Class Certificates 11 10 57 WAC Certificates 16 15 126 VUCC New / Grids 17 / 2,623 7 / 785 71 / 8,070 VUCC Endorsement / Grids 15 /873 11 / 611 76 / 4,250 Processing Time Current Current DXCC Branch Credits Applications 2007 Carryover 210,239 1,771 YTD Received 411,964 3,764 Cumulative Total 622,203 5,535 YTD Processed 548,853 4,890 Remaining 73,350 645 Processing Time = 6 weeks Contest Branch Sean Kutzko, KX9X had a busy week here in Contest-land. We released the results from the ARRL DX SSB contest, only to cause a ruckus among the DX multi-op stations. Due to a communications error between myself and Ward Silver, NØAX, the results author, the results tables were left out of the final print version of the article. By the time the error was found, one page of the DX SSB space had been claimed for other uses in QST. With no way to reclaim the space, Ward made the editorial decision to cut the DX Multi-op listings in the QST article and state they were available in the online version of the results. This was not well-received by the DX community. Ward and I co-signed a statement to the contesting community explaining what had happened and how this was not a policy shift in DX contesting coverage. Ward and I have reviewed the process by which stories make it into print in QST and found where the miscommunication occurred. This particular error has been addressed and is not likely to occur again. Logs for the August UHF contest this past weekend are starting to come in. We're over 2,800 logs received for the IARU contest. Data entry for 2008 Field Day will begin this week. 2007 10 GHz and EME certificates are printed and will be going out the door this week. IARU 2007 certificates have been delayed due to a delay in the redesign of the certificate. These will be going out the door ASAP. Lastly, I will be attending the Dakota Division convention in Rochester, MN this coming weekend along with Dennis Dura, K2DCD. Logbook of the World Category June 2008 July 2008 QSO Records Entered Into System 174,592,102 178,794,998 QSL Record Matches 13,919,660 14,448,378 Logs Processed 630,578 650,907 Active Certificates 32,332 32,969 Registered Users in System 21,196 21,573 Logbook (Email Only) Inquiries 2008 YTD Lost Certificates 925 DXCC Status Inquiries 505 Directions Not Followed 420 Additional Certificates 395 Startup Inquiries 283 Total 2,528 QSL Branch June 2008 July 2008 Year-to-Date Cards Received 39,000 48,750 411,150 Cards Mailed 113,800 0 307,150 Field Organization/Public Service Team Leona reports that she received two Section Manager nomination petitions for the term beginning January 1, 2009: Dale Bagley, KØKY for the Missouri section and Rick Stoneking, W2RDS for the Southern New Jersey section. Dick Flanagan, K7VC, Section Manager for Nevada is resigning as of August 15, 2008 due to health reasons. Dave Patton, MVP Manager has appointed ARRL Assistant Section Manager, Joe Giraudo, N7JEH as the new SM for Nevada effective August 15, 2008 to serve for the remainder of Dick's term. Leona has been corresponding with Joe concerning this new SM appointment. The deadline for SM ballots for the upcoming SM election in Idaho and Western New York are due at ARRL headquarters by Friday, August 15, 2008. Ballots will be counted by MVP staff Tuesday, August 19, 2008. Amateurs from the Connecticut and San Diego sections completed certification to become Official Observers this week. OOs in California are checking out a report of suspected unlicensed people using a local repeater. Intruder reports this week included reception of the Russian single letter "D" beacon on 7039 and 5 letter code groups on 3528.5 KHz. Word was received of a bogus FCC warning letter to an amateur that was posted on an individual's web page. A report of an emergency beacon on APRS by a German station was forwarded to the DARC, later reported as unintentional. Chuck assisted at W1AW one day this week by running the early CW practice. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Staff Absentee List All Staff 9/1 Holiday Katie Breen 8/4-8/8 Vacation Hugh Brower 9/29-10/3 Vacation Joe Carcia 8/1-8/8 Vacation `` 8/15 Vacation Steve Ford 8/11-8/15 Vacation Norm Fusaro 9/22-9/26 Vacation Scott Gee 8/25-8/26 Vacation `` 10/3 Vacation `` 12/23-12/26 Vacation Joel Hallas 8/11 Vacation Dan Henderson 8/22-8/24 Roanoke Division Convention, Jackson's Mill, WV `` 8/25-9/2 Vacation Mary Hobart 8/18-8/22 Citizen Corps Conference, Oklahoma City/Vacation `` 9/19-9/21 W9DXCC, Chicago, IL `` 10/3 Vacation Amy Hurtado 8/8 Vacation Gail Iannone 8/18-9/2 Vacation Bob Inderbitzen 8/4-8/15 Vacation Karen Isakson 8/4-8/8 Vacation Khrystyne Keane 8/22-8/29 Vacation Linda Kleinschmidt 8/11-8/15 Vacation Sean Kutzko 8/8-8/10 Dakota Division Convention, Rochester, MN Zack Lau 8/11-8/15 Vacation Rose-Ann Lawrence 9/5 Vacation Monique Levesque 8/8-8/15 Vacation Bill Moore 8/15-8/17 Southeastern Division Convention, Huntsville, AL Dave Patton 8/18-9/1 Tokyo Japan Ham Fair Ann Marie Pinto 8/11-8/22 Vacation Allen Pitts 8/7 Jury Duty `` 8/11-8/15 Vacation Ashley Rakus 8/13-8/15 Vacation Barry Shelley 8/11-8/22 Vacation Dave Sumner 8/8-8/11 Vacation Sharon Taratula 8/8 Vacation Maty Weinberg 7/28-8/8 Vacation