<<041509.doc>> IN-Newsletter <<Microsoft Word Picture>> Vol. 32, No. 15 April 15, 2009 -- Covers the period April 5-11. Upcoming Meetings and Events Second Board Meeting July 17-18, 2009 @ 9:00am in Windsor, CT Regulatory Information Reported by Dan Henderson, N1ND An unfortunate April fool's email involving a California county banning amateur radio was the cause of significant activity during the week. After learning of the hoax, we confirmed that it was not true with officials in the San Luis Obispo Board of Supervisors office. Approximately 40 email and telephone queries were answered regarding the story. After the end of business Thursday, we learned that officials at the FCC had been in contact with SLO County officials, which led to county officials sending out a press release debunking the story. We worked with a Volunteer Counsel on a CC&R issue in Georgia and with Mike Gruber in the ARRL Lab on an RFI question about the new fluorescent light bulbs. We also were in contact with amateur friends in Italy near the earthquake zone and were able to provide information to the Web editors for a story on amateur radio involvement in relief efforts. Field Day inquiries remain steady - ranging from "what entry category will we be" and "does this qualify for a bonus" to using techniques such as NVIS. Currently 409 groups in 47 states, five Canadian provinces and Puerto Rico are listed on the Field Day Locator web applet. Finally, a presentation for the NC Section Convention was prepared. Media & Public Relations Reported by Allen Pitts, W1AGP The text for the annual report is complete and passed on to Sue Fagan for paste up. A half hour radio interview was done with Christy Pepper Johnson, News Director-Announcer-Public Affairs of Moody Radio South in AL. Also gave her AL and MS section level contacts. Media Hits for QST is done. Unfortunately, despite putting out info on the PR reflector about the San Louis Obispo hoax on Thursday, it continued to escalate. While no long-term harm seems to have been done, the over-reaction of hams in future events is a cause for concern. Several excellent media hits came from Bill Moffitt's (AE6GS) PIC work following the cutting of a fiber optic cable leaving a large area around San Jose, CA without phone, cell or Internet. Not only did the hams respond, but Bill took time out of work to talk to the right people and make sure the hams were credited in the news reports. He did very well! Final preparations are being made for the National Association of Broadcasters convention next week. Development Reported by Mary Hobart, K1MMH Diamond Club revenues continue to meet targets in 2009. Results through March total $53,979 in revenue from 310 donors. The mail campaign to support the Education & Technology Program is in production with a target mail date of May 1. Responses for attendance at the annual Donor Reception in Dayton continue to come in with more than 60 attendees so far. Production/Editorial Reported by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE The May/June 2009 issues of QEX and NCJ have been released to the printer. Khrystyne Keane wrote and distributed The ARRL Letter, Vol. 28, No. 14, for April 9, 2009. Lab Reported by Ed Hare, W1RFI Bob Allison assisted Mike Gruber in building two dipole antennas for a power line interference case. Mike Gruber purchased and shipped five different antennas and related hardware to Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) for purposes of an RFI investigation. This equipment is being loaned to them in an effort to help resolve a longstanding power line noise case. One more complainant in Texas has responded to Mike Gruber's request for a case update. This list is being generated for Laura Smith, who is still attempting to catch up on outstanding interference cases, including power line noise. Mike Gruber sent one ARRL Letter to Xcel Energy. Dayton HamVention Plans for the kit building class at the Dayton Convention are coming together. Through solicitation of the Technical Advisors, enough help has signed on as instruction assistants. I am currently corresponding with all involved to assign time slots. All 200 kits are now in house and only a few tool kits remain back ordered. Lab Maintenance Bob Allison evaluated our equipment in the cage room for either keeping or disposing. We will need all Lab employees to mark equipment needed to be saved with green dots. Bob Allison installed shelving in Tony Nesta's office for his supplies Member Contact On April 25, 2009, Edand Bob will host the New England QRP Club for a meeting here at ARRL HQ. A tour of the Lab, book sales, operation of W1HQ and rig testing are planned. Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R A test DM package is mailing on 4/15 to 20,000 prospects - variable data and messaging are being utilized on a full color form. The 2009/2010 Repeater Directories along with the 2009/2010 Travel Plus are being shipped to all Officers, Directors and past VIP's this week. A 60,000 spring direct mail piece and the 2009 spring/summer publications catalog have been sent to the printer. Expected mail dates are by the end of next week. The 2009 ARRL National Convention Exhibit and Activities Guide <http://www.arrl.org/announce/nc/2009/souvenirProgram.pdf> is now available at www.arrl/org.expo. The warehouse welcomed Alan Gosselin to the Warehouse Team after Eric Pagel's departure. They shipped 678 fulfillment packages and 450 Membership premiums. Now Shipping: TravelPlus for RepeatersTM 2009/2010 Edition and the 2009 ARRL Field Day items (t-shirts, hats, pins) Membership & Volunteer Programs Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N W1AW Joe updated the web code practice files and their archives. He processed one Qualifying Run certificate and two endorsements. He also processed regular QSL card requests. Scott worked on slow and fast code practice files for the middle part of the month April. Field Organization/Public Service Team Scott Rausch, WA0VKC, of Piedmont, has been appointed Section Manager of the ARRL South Dakota Section. He is serving the balance of the term of Rich Beebe, N0PV; Beebe passed away on March 16. Dave Patton, NN1N, in consultation with Dakota Division Director Jay Bellows, K0QB, made the appointment effective Tuesday, April 7. Steve Ewald and Leona Adams have been in touch with Scott to help him get started. The Public Service column for June QST is also in preparation. The Field Organizations in Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Georgia have new Official Observers who started this past week. After being silent for 3 days, the "gurgle" signal returned to 20 meters, and updated information was forwarded to the FCC. Chuck Skolaut reports more stations continue to register for the Global SET exercise scheduled for April 18. ARRL HQ received updated documentation was on case surrounding 75 meters. Chuck also prepared the monthly ARRL Monitoring System/Intruder Watch report. Education Services Reported by Debra Johnson, K1DMJ Kim Mancuso has returned from leave and is back to a regular work schedule of 30 hours. China Chaney continues to support the Education Department 8 hours per week. The Modulation and Waves Fundamental Board developed by Mark Spencer for the ETP is now available online: http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=0017 for licensing instructors to purchase as resource for instruction. Mark builds the boards and volunteers at HQ help us package and bundle the board with its instructional CD to prepare it for inventory in our warehouse. Thanks to Jackie Cornell for setting this set up as a product in our inventory and order system and in our online catalog. Mark Spencer WA8SME has assembled and packaged the keyer kits and the kits for the 24-hour clock to be used at the Dayton Solder 101 booth. They have been shipped to HQ. Mark also reports that there are enough sign-ups to hold a Train the Trainers course scheduled at Pacificon. He notes an up-tick in requests for information and help on the Sat688 project and other projects posted on the web page from the general ham population. Education & Technology Program Mark Spencer's article describing the new TI-II that will be piloted this summer was recently published in the AMSAT Journal. Mark reports that the equipment for this program has arrived and the participants have been identified and notified. Hotel arrangements for the Roswell TI have been made. Several good new stories have come in demonstrating the impact of the outreach efforts of the ETP. Students at Granite Bay Montessori scored some major wins at a local science fair with ham radio related projects. Students at Wilson High School in Long Beach, CA reported the impact of their involvement with ham radio upon their college application process and the scholarships they received based on their ham radio activities. Mark Spencer was invited to an awards presentation at the school for the students. Stories for the Web are forthcoming. Nathan McCray K9CPO reports that the weather satellite set up at West School in Zion, IL is complete. He is working with teachers at West school on how to use the information in the classroom. One of teacher is using the shots and the cloud temps to teach proportions and converting Celsius to Fahrenheit. Nathan also continues to answer questions from other ETP schools with the installation of their weather equipment and how to work with the software. In addition he made another successful presentation to a local school and is encouraging a teacher that is working on an ETP grant for that school. There are three other teachers from that school that are going to apply for the TI this summer. March was an exceptionally busy month for Miguel Enriquez KD7RPP in Southern Arizona. He made eight presentations to math, science and any other interested teachers extolling the virtues of the TI and seeking participants for the Pueblo TI. He has fifteen teachers who are interested. Miguel also completed the course design for the Radio / Video Class entitled "Radio, Space and Wireless Technologies" which he will pioneer next year here at Pueblo High School. Both Miguel and Nathan continue their preparations to lead a TI session this summer. ARISS An ARISS QSO was made on March 26 with Cotswold School, a primary school in Christchurch, New Zealand. The ARISS contact was integrated into the science curriculum on the solar system and space exploration. Students learned about requirements to become an astronaut and about life in space. The school is setting up an Amateur Radio station; and an amateur radio club. These students have learned about sound waves, the history of radio communication, and basic circuit building. An ARISS contact on March 27 for the Istituto Compresivo Statale Alessandro Volta in Lecco, Italy was integrated into the curriculum through lessons in radio, astronautics, astronomy and English. The ARISS Team is experimenting with D-Star for transmitting school QSOs. The first experiment was with this Italian school, on Reflector REF007, Channel B (Gallarate). Prior to their ARISS QSO, students at the St Thomas School in Brisbane, Australia, took part in satellite QSOs, learned how the satellite communications worked, built some simple ham equipment, participated in demos of the reception of weather satellite images, and also went to an astronomy night. The teacher wrote: "In just under two years the students of St Thomas, myself and our team went from having a very basic knowledge of Amateur Radio, space, and technology to getting licensed, building an antenna array, learning how to use all the equipment, speaking with numerous ham radio operators, Richard Garriot, using APRS on the ISS, the ISS repeater, and listening to ARISS contacts on our equipment. Thanks to the project, we have a real interest in amateur radio and astronomy in the school that was not present before." Students at the Marcelino Canino Canino Middle School in Dorado, PR, interviewed Astronaut Mike Fincke, KE5AIR, on March 31. Under the school's Microsatellite Student Program, the students design, construct, build and launch microsatellites which are tracked and recovered with the help of ham radio operators. The aim is for students to become future competitive professionals. Of major interest to the students is Joseph Acaba, the first astronaut of Puerto Rican descent, crew member of the ISS on STS 119. Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi, KE7KDP/HA5SIK, stepped on board the ISS on Saturday, March 28, and was already on the radio making contacts Sunday morning over North and South America. That night he transmitted his first SSTV image. During the week he made five school QSOs. The schools he selected were ones that had exceptional science programs, including one NASA Explorer School. Hams began to download his SSTV images and submit them to the special ARISS web site for review. Images were then available to see on the ARISS SSTV gallery site at: http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ariss/SSTV/ Simonyi continued making random voice QSOs throughout the week. The ARISS ground station at the Goddard Space Flight Center is sporting a new call sign, K6DUE. Roy Neal's wife wanted his call sign to be used by the ARISS Team after he became a Silent Key. It is an honor for our team to use his call sign, as he was a most-dedicated volunteer for both SAREX and ARISS. We remember that NASA removed all non-essential payloads from the shuttle after the Challenger accident, and if it weren't for Roy, SAREX would not have been re-approved for flight. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Staff Absentee List All Staff 5/25 Holiday Hugh Brower 4/24-4/29 Vacation Steve Capodicasa 5/11-5/15 Vacation Joe Carcia 4/22 Vacation `` 5/8 Vacation `` 5/13-5/17 Dayton Hamvention `` 6/19 Vacation Jackie Cornell 4/20-4/24 Vacation Steve Ewald 4/24-4/25 Louisiana State Convention, Monroe, LA `` 4/26-4/30 Vacation `` 5/1-5/4 Pacific Division Conv/EMCOMM West; Reno, NV Steve Ford 4/18-4/26 Vacation `` 5/14-5/20 Dayton Hamvention/Vacation `` 6/3-6/5 Publishers Conference, Washington, DC `` 6/27-7/5 Vacation Norm Fusaro 4/15-4/24 SRT International DX Convention - Italy Scott Gee 4/15-4/17 Vacation `` 5/14-5/15 Vacation Mike Gruber 5/29-5/31 Rocky Mountain Division Convention, Estes Park, CO Joel Hallas 4/27-5/1 Vacation `` 5/13-5/19 Dayton Hamvention/Vacation Ed Hare 4/20-4/24 C63 EMC Committee, Piscataway, NJ `` 5/13-5/19 Vacation `` 5/20 IEEE SDCom EMC committee, Philadephia, PA `` 5/21-5/24 Wyoming State Convention Dan Henderson 4/17-4/19 Tennessee Section Convention, Memphis, TN `` 5/14-5/17 Dayton Hamvention `` 5/29-5/31 Atlantic Division Convention, Rochester, NY Mary Hobart 4/17-4/20 International DX Convention, Visalia, CA `` 5/13-5/17 Dayton Hamvention Amy Hurtado 4/23-4/24 Vacation Khrystyne Keane 4/24-4/26 Arkansas State Convention, Rogers, AR `` 5/13-5/17 Dayton Hamvention Lisa Kustosik 5/13-5/15 Vacation Maryann Macdonald 5/14-5/17 Dayton Hamvention Carol Michaud 4/15-4/17 Vacation Bill Moore 5/13-5/17 Dayton Hamvention Dave Patton 4/14-4/21 International DX Convention, Visalia, CA/Vacation `` 5/13-5/17 Dayton Hamvention Allen Pitts 4/19-4/26 NAB, Las Vegas, NV Barry Shelley 4/16-4/21 Vacation Sharon Taratula 4/16 Vacat