IN-Newsletter Vol. 40, No. 36 October 14, 2015 - Covers the period October 4-10. Upcoming In-Person Meetings and Events LoTW Study Committee November 13 @ 9:00am - ARRL HQ Administration & Finance Committee November 14 @ 8:30am - ARRL HQ Director/Vice Director Elections November 20 @ 9:00am - ARRL HQ Media & Public Relations Reported by Sean Kutzko, KX9X On Thursday, October 15, we rolled out the ARRL National Parks on the Air event. Response has been overwhelmingly positive. In less than 20 hours since the rollout, we already have five registered activations on the Activations calendar, which is part of the NPOTA leader Board area at http://npota.arrl.org Anticipation is high, especially among the outdoor radio groups like Summits on the Air. We are fielding questions via email, on the NPOTA Facebook group, and on the NPOTA Twitter feed. Most of the questions we are fielding are things we address in our NPOTA FAQ page; we simply point them to that online resource. There is a ton of initial buy-in, and there will be activity on January 1. Thanks again to all departments and staffers who assisted on this project. Here's to a successful event! Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R All Hands on Deck! Steve Capodicasa reports that the warehouse has been busy fulfilling backorders of the new editions of the Handbook and Antenna Book. This is some of our busiest activity of the year. Following a staff resignation a couple of weeks ago, a temporary employee has been capably helping the other warehouse clerks until we fill the open positon. Special thanks to Ally Riedel, Margie Bourgoin, Yvette Vinci, and the mailroom staff for lending lots of extra help. It has been a team effort! Yvette completed the annual Statements of Ownership, Management, and Circulation for each of ARRL's periodicals. The corresponding statements will be published in the December issue of QST and the Nov-Dec issues of QEX and NCJ. Bob Inderbitzen finalized planning for ARRL's exhibit at Pacificon, the Pacific Division Convention. The convention is October 16-18 in San Ramon, California. Our booth will support letter-generating for the Amateur Radio Parity Act, handheld radio testing sponsored by the ARRL Lab, and membership sign-ups. The booth will be staffed by Director Bob Vallio, W6RGG; Vice Director Jim Tiemstra, K6JAT; and Section Managers Jim Latham, AF6AQ - East Bay; John Bigley, N7UR - Nevada; Bill Hillendahl, KH6GJV - San Francisco; Dan Pruitt, AE6SX - San Joaquin Valley; Brandon Bianchi, NI6C - Santa Clara Valley; Dr. Carol Milazzo, KP4MD, Sacramento Valley; Bob Schneider, AH6J - Pacific Section; and ARRL Lab volunteer Matthias Zapatka, AJ4BB. Vice President Jim Fenstermaker, K9JF will lead a presentation, sharing an update with members on behalf of the Strategic Planning Working Group. Bob will also be making a presentation during the Pacificon banquet on the 'value of ARRL membership.' Yvette prepared a report for the recent Executive Committee Meeting with a listing of the elected Life Members since the last EC meeting-264 new Life Members. Yvette reported that on Wednesday, September 23, a reminder emailing was sent to members with a summary of "What's trending" in October QST-taking advantage of some early analytics shared by Alli Barbieri. The notification was sent to 121,887 members. Jackie Ferreira reports that the fall/winter ARRL publications and product catalog is being completed. A Columbus Day weekend sale featuring ARRL Amateur Radio maps was distributed Friday morning. Jackie shared some good results from a mailing promoting the new editions of the ARRL Handbook and ARRL Antenna Book. The mailing includes a coupon for customers ordering both books-which has been redeemed over 645 times. This compares better to a similar mailing in 2011, redeemed 498 times. We have started to receive new products supporting our suite of "National Parks on the Air" merchandise. The product line will be introduced with the NPOTA announcement on October 15. Diane Petrilli organized an appreciation luncheon for +30 tour guides and other headquarters volunteers who do so much to support ARRL members and our staff. During the lunch, the volunteers were invited to share their own ideas for the ARRL Strategic Plan, which Bob Inderbitzen will carry to the working group committee as suggestions and feedback. Diane reported that we have started to insert a buck slip in all membership related mailings, disclosing the dues rates effective January 1. Similar information is included in all e-mailed renewal notices. Accompanying this information is some background supporting the "value of ARRL membership." For more information, visit www.arrl.org/dues<http://www.arrl.org/dues>. A special membership appeal was designed to accompany a mailing organized by Section Manager Jim Larsen AL7FS (Alaska). The mailing includes a special redeem code, so that we can track membership applications to measure the effectiveness of the effort. Membership appeals were prepared for email-including some seasonally-themed messages for Pacificon, Columbus Day, and Halloween. A website graphic was created to promote the upcoming School Club Roundup. A similar promotion was made on the ARRL Facebook page. Summary of warehouse fulfillment activity, reported by Steve Capodicasa: Week ending Packages fulfilled Member Premiums 10/9/2015 1,439 220 10/2/2015 1,078 417 9/25/2015 657 428 9/18/2015 612 529 Lab Reported by Ed Hare, W1RFI Radio Frequency Interference Mike worked on assembling a Working Group for IEEE P-1897, which will be a Recommended Practice for the Resolution of Power Line Noise Complaints. He also updated the existing document. Greg Kwasowski now reports that the expense to make these proposed modifications to fix the interference from the HVAC system to W1HQ will be considerable. There is also no guarantee that the fix will eliminate the interference. This would also appear to contradict the previous report that there was a delay due to shipment of parts from Japan. At this point, Mike Gruber has done all he can with regard to this situation A decision must be made by management as whether or not they want to spend the money. Mike Gruber investigated the marketing of Class A Part 18 ballasts at a nearby Walmart. Electronic Publications Travelplus GPS continues to be unusable to most hams. Garmin's developer web page now warns Notice: Plugin Support Is Ending. We have temporarily discontinued sales of this product. Due to evolving web standards, modern browsers are ending support for most third-party plugins, including the Garmin Communicator Plugin. If you're using the Communicator Plugin on your website, be aware that most major browsers will not be supporting plugins in the future. http://www.garmindeveloper.com/web-device/garmin-communicator-plugin/ Field Services & Radiosport Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N DXCC Paper/Fieldcheck Processing Time 3 Weeks Logbook Processing Time 2-4 Business Days Number of Centennial applications processed: Centennial Challenge QSO 2700 W1AW/WAS 1907 W1AW Joe processed two Qualifying Run certificates. He also modified an audio/PTT/FSK interface to be used with a Kenwood HF/6 transceiver that was sent to the Azores Islands. Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the week. He also processed some VUCC applications and certificates. Field Organization/Public Service Team The main focal-point weekend for the annual Simulated Emergency Test was October 3 and 4, and Steve Ewald has noticed that many SET reports are already arriving at ARRL Headquarters. Please note that many SETs are scheduled throughout the fall season to help maximize participation and coordination with served agencies. Headquarters also heard from several Section Leaders and ARES groups along the U.S. Eastern seaboard who were on alert during the first weekend of October while watching the track of Hurricane Joaquin. Leona Adams has been receiving and processing a number of Field Organization appointments and updated information for the data base from our Section Managers and Section Leaders. A few Section Manager election ballots for the Santa Barbara election have already been delivered to ARRL HQ. The receipt deadline for these ballots is November 20th. Chuck Skolaut compiled and forwarded the monthly ARRL Monitoring System/Intruder Watch report to the Region 2 IARU Monitoring Coordinator. A number of Official Observers assisted in a monitoring request regarding an unlicensed operator on 20 meters. The FCC's Laura Smith praised the actions of an OO and the program in an email to the recipient of an advisory who had responded to the OO in a very negative way. Updated information was forwarded to the FCC regarding a 6 meter interference case in Oregon. The Orange OOC is working on some reported interference on 40 meters. A question was received regarding AMTS operation in southern California. A report of interference occurring on the OMISS net on 75 meters was received and is being checked out. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Hamfest/Member Contact/ARRL Representative/Meetings/Vacations All Staff 11/26-11/27 Holiday All Staff 12/25 Holiday Bob Allison 10/18 Connecticut State Convention, Meriden, CT Lauren Clarke 11/25 PTO `` 12/24 PTO Mike Corey 11/13-11/15 HamJam, Alpharetta, GA Steve Ford 10/16-10/18 AMSAT Symposium, Dayton, OH Mike Gruber 10/16 NEAR-Fest, NH Dan Henderson 10/8-10/18 RSGB Convention, Milton Keynes, UK / PTO `` 11/23-11/25 PTO Gail Iannone 10/16-10/21 PTO Bob Inderbitzen 10/16-10/18 Pacific Division Convention, San Ramon, CA Debra Johnson 10/8-10/20 PTO `` 11/16 PTO `` 11/25 PTO Harold Kramer 10/13-10/15 PTO Brennan Price 10/16-10/18 Microwave Update, San Diego, CA Steve Sant Andrea 10/16-10/20 PTO Chuck Skolaut 10/8-10/16 PTO Dave Sumner 10/5-10/19 IARU Reg.3 Conference/AC Meeting, Indonesia