IN-Newsletter Vol. 27, No. 5 February 4, 2004 Development The 2004 Spectrum Defense Fund continues to draw support. Since the beginning of the year, the fund has received more than $37,000 in contributions from 607 donors, including several major gifts ($500 or more). The average contribution of $60.96 is high, reflecting the continued interest and concern for the future of our frequencies. The next full campaign for Spectrum Defense is scheduled for March 2004. The campaign for the W1AW Endowment saw its first returns on January 29. In the first three days the Fund has received more than $5000 from 48 donors, including the first multi-year pledge. Full information and donation form with photos of the unique and beautiful gifts, are available on the web. The first Diamond Club solicitation for new donors is expected to mail in February to about 10,000 members. The renewal program for existing Diamond Club members and the monthly solicitation to ARRL members continue. Development is working with Mark Spencer to seek funding for two projects related to the Education & Technology Program: a pilot program for a summer teachers' institute and a federal grant proposal to incorporate Amateur Radio's public service and volunteer tradition in schools. Development will mail permission letters to 2003 donors who contributed $1000 or more (in single or multiple gifts) for listing in the 2003 Annual Report, in QST and on the web. The next issue of the Legacy Circle Letter is planned for February to introduce the specifics of the ARRL Endowment. Information will also be placed on the web. Media Relations Jennifer distributed hometown news releases for Section Managers (those who responded back - about half) who started their terms on January 1. Two Board-level hometowners were distributed. Several more are being wrapped up and will be distributed shortly. A talent coordinator from the "Late Show with David Letterman" contacted the PR department after seeing ARRL's Web story on seven-year-old Extra Mattie Clauson, AD7BL. Jennifer contacted Mattie's parents, and they'll be talking to the Letterman staff about a possible appearance opportunity for Mattie. More details when they're available. Letterman featured six-year-old Veronica Harrington, KC6TQR, on the program more than 10 years ago. Jen heads off to the Mississippi State Convention on February 6, to serve as the HQ representative and put on a PR forum. Jennifer finalized the production schedule for the 2003 Annual Report, and work on that project begins very soon, approximately a month ahead of last year's schedule. She shared the schedule with all those involved with the project, and met with Sue Fagan and Steve Ford to get their input on the schedule from a production department standpoint. The December clip reports were mailed to the Board, and to members of the PR Committee. Production/Editorial We are pleased to welcome back (half days for now) Technical Secretary Helen Dalton, who had been out following a surgical procedure. Maty Weinberg pinch-hit for Helen in her absence. Dan Wolfgang and Sue Fagan quickly wrapped up a replacement CD for Experimental Methods in RF Design and sent it off to the duplicator on January 29. The March/April issue of QEX has been released to the printer, as has a new printing of RF Exposure and You. We checked printer's proofs for The FCC Rule Book. Stu Cohen has submitted technical manuscripts for the April issue of QST. Rick Lindquist reports another record distribution for The ARRL Letter, Vol 23, No 05 (Jan 30) of 67,761 members, or approximately 44% of the ARRL membership. That's up by nearly 200 from the previous record set just last week. Rick prepared stories on the ARRL's filing of its "Restructuring II" petition with the FCC, an update on "The Big Project," AO-40's latest problems, a 7-year-old Extra class licensee, FCC amateur enforcement actions, Solar Update (for the Web), In Brief (21 items), KG4IUM's Youth column, a couple of W1AW bulletins and a few short announcements for the Web. With voiceover assistance from Jennifer Hagy, Rick voiced, produced and edited ARRL Audio News for Jan 30. Dave Hassler compiled his monthly ARRL in Action Web column, prepared three features for the Web site and wrote several news items for the Web. Bob Schetgen is wrapping up his April QST columns. Sales & Marketing We are now transitioning the bulk of our package delivery to Fedex Ground service to take advantage of better discounts. Historically, Fedex overnight and 2-day packages needed to be manually processed. We needed to contact the Warehouse or web site to get a shipping quote. With the installation of the new Fedex software, we are now able to offer Fedex overnight, 2-day etc services through the Seibel system as a standard shipping option. We have only been using the new Fedex network for a week but have tracked a number of packages to delivery and so far are happy with the service. We will be monitoring feedback closely over the next several weeks. We still provide UPS and USPS service for those clients who have a specific preference. Membership cancellations due to the licensing proposal now total 19. We have one member who rethought his position and re-joined. On the other side of the equation, there have been one or two new members who indicate that they made their join decision based on our license restructuring action. 5,000 copies of the ARRL Publications Catalog were mailed to members, customers, and prospective customers on January 27. We reviewed new items that will be introduced into the ARRL logo merchandise program administered by our partner Barker Specialty Company. A couple of older and less popular items will be discontinued to make room for fresh new styles and colors. Some new additions will also be made to the ARES product offerings. A newly-designed membership certificate and replacement membership card was introduced this week. Members can navigate to the following site (you must be logged-in as an ARRL member) to make their own certificate and card: http://www.arrl.org/members-only/memcert.html January's large membership campaign was mailed January 29-30. The mailing list included 99,612 expired and prospective membership leads. Field & Educational Services Rosalie worked with Cleveland hams who want to start an Elmer program. She conferred with the ARISS team on issues involving the next ISS Expedition crew. She networked with Connecticut VOAD representatives. ARISS had a successful QSO with Kings' School in the UK; the BBC Web news ran a story on the QSO. Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program Mark Spencer's has developed a new letter to schools that will be receiving ARRL grants. The revised letter better spells out the program expectations and requires signatures indicating that two school official have read and agree to the expectations. Our goal is for schools to better clarify plans and prevent complications in installing equipment. Mark has also compiled a list of new school equipment needs and sent it for bids. Teachers and hams are asking for advice on hands-on ham activities for summer school programs. We have received a few unsolicited anecdotes about using the no-solder CPO printed in QST. After Mark's visit to the CT Board of Education Services for the Blind, a blind staffer joined a ham licensing class. Latest stats on Kid's Day are: participants sent 204 surveys showing 701 kids making 2,668 QSOs -- 29% were elementary or pre-schoolers, 56% middle schoolers, and 15% high schoolers. Field Organization/Public Service Team Leona Adams received a petition nominating Joe Phillips, K8QOE, to continue as Ohio SM for the next term -- the petition isn't due until June. She handled many Field Appointment record updates and changes from Section Leaders, and added 25 new Field Organization appointees to the database. Chuck Skolaut received several reports of CB-type amplifiers for sale on e-bay and forwarded those to Riley Hollingsworth. Chuck is keeping track of unidentified signal reports on several 40-meter frequencies in the CW portion of the band. CW beacons have been heard on 1908-1910 kHz; these have been tentatively identified as "fish net beacons" or radio navigational services. Steve Ewald compiled 196 responses from an informal survey of Section Leaders and ARES leaders regarding ham radio involvement in Community Emergency Response Teams (a program of Citizen Corps). ARES groups within 47 ARRL sections have some involvement with local CERT groups, with other Sections working on getting involved. Steve took part in an Ad-Hoc Committee on ARES Communications telecon meeting. Emcomm Grants Dan Miller sent seminar materials for the Miami and Orlando events in February where 14 and 18 people have signed up to attend, respectively. He reports that seats for the most recent Level l emcomm course were filled within 20 hours, and for the Level II course in 3 days, and finally for the Level III course, in 4 days. Gail Iannone sent 16 convention applications to the Executive Committee. She also sent 11 hamfest approval letters and 3 convention approval letters to sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's approval of the events as ARRL-sanctioned, processed 16 door prize orders, and sent 9 handout packages for upcoming events. She coordinated travel for Ed Hare as HQ rep at the Vermont State Convention, February 28, and for Chuck Skolaut, K0BOG, as HQ rep at the San Francisco Section Convention, July 9-11. Linda Mullally updated 47 club records and did 1 reactivation. She registered 13 Volunteer Instructors and 1 Teacher. She entered new ham information into the database as the necessary preparation for the information that will go to clubs. She checked membership rosters of 5 affiliated clubs. Mary Lau wrote a "Business in the Works" status report for Foundation President Tom Frenaye, processed contributor acknowledgments, made changes to the Foundation Director listing on ARRLWeb, and will be cutting a grant check for signatures. She is also processing scholarship applications as they arrive. Regulatory Information John Hennessee continues to receive many questions and comments on the ARRL restructuring proposal. He answered the questions and forwarded everything to the appropriate Director. Comments in the second part of the week seemed more reasonable. Jim, N7HKO, reports that the hearing for Washington state HB 5200 was not as successful as they would have preferred, but that they would try again. This bill would specify a minimum height below which state and local planners can't regulate. John assisted an amateur in Prescott, AZ (KA4IVG) with a covenant problem. CCE Jean Wolfgang learned more about CCE procedures, and familiarized herself further with Excel and Access. She turned over files on School Club Round-up, EAs, ARISS, Kid's Day and Scouts to Mark Spencer. Jean has been in contact with Directors to obtain information on the winners of the Humanitarian Award and the engraved plaques have arrived. Membership Services Awards Branch WAC Certs. (72 QSLs ES/C) 12 5BWAC Cert. (30 QSLs ES/C) 1 LTMA Inquiries 10 LTMA Records to Siebel 40 LTMA File Card Records Done 23 A-1 Op. Noms. 8 VUCC Certs. Processed 10 VUCC Backfill Apps. 1 Grids 125 VUCC Initial Apps. 4 Grids 894 VUCC End. Apps. 11 Grids 722 Awards Mailed 45 Processing Status: Current or up to four weeks. For the coming week-Basic WAS awards for January, VUCC awards processing/mailing, A-1 Operator certificates, mail out awards done this week, and complete filing chores from the most recently issued LTMAs and enter the information into their Siebel records. DXCC Branch For the week of: February 2, 2004 Beginning Cards 96,837 Cards Received 3,838 Cards Processed 11,921 Ending Cards 88,754 Applications Pending 690 Processing Time 11.5 Weeks Year-to-date (2004) Cards Received 21,928 Cards Returned 58,416 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on November 11, 2003. DXCC is currently entering cards received on December 5, 2003. QSL Bureau QSL Service Status: There is a delay of 2 weeks. This week, 115 pounds of cards were received from members. Approximately 250 pounds of cards are waiting to be processed. Cards mailed as of 01/31/2004: 71,750. No cards were mailed this week. W1AW Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the month of February. He also handled some evening phone sales calls in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. Joe spent the first half of the week rebuilding the 2003 FMT Database. Although located on the server, for some unknown reason the data had gotten corrupted. He also corrected a problem with the 10-Meter Harris Amplifier. Also, with assistance from Mike Tracy, KC1SX, the problem plaguing the Command Technologies 40-Meter amplifier was tracked down and corrected. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List Dave Sumner 1/29-2/5 Vacation Joel Kleinman 2/6-2/10 Vacation Jennifer Hagy 2/6-2/8 Mississippi State Convention Danny Sayad 2/12-2/13 Vacation Bill Moore 2/6-2/8 Hamboree, Miami, FL Dan Miller 2/5-2/8 Hamboree, Miami, FL `` 2/9-2/11 Vacation `` 2/13-2/15 Hamcation, Orlando Dennis Motschenbacher 2/12-2/14 SE Division Convention, Orlando 2/19-2/26 Vacation Rose-Anne Lawrence 2/9-2/20 Vacation