<<062712.doc>> IN-Newsletter <<Microsoft Word Picture>> Vol. 35, No. 26 June 27, 2012 -- Covers the period June 17-23. Upcoming Meetings and Events Administration & Finance Committee July 19 @ 8:30am in Newington, CT Programs & Services Committee July 19 @ 9:00am in Newington, CT Second Board Meeting July 20-21, 2012 @ 9:00am in Windsor, CT Chief Executive Officer Reported by David Sumner, K1ZZ Retired ARRL General Manager and past IARU President Richard Baldwin, W1RU died June 21. Dick was 92. His long service on the ARRL staff was capped by seven years as General Manager, from 1975 to 1982. He was then elected International Affairs Vice President, serving in that volunteer position for four years. He was IARU President from 1982 to 1999 and was named President Emeritus by the IARU Administrative Council. I will attend the memorial service on Friday, June 29 in Maine. The ARRL stand at the DARC Ham Radio convention in Friedrichshafen, Germany June 22-24 included a very successful demonstration of digital QST. I don't have final tallies on new and renewed memberships but they were running well ahead of last year. Media & Public Relations Reported by Allen Pitts, W1AGP Great Field Day PR this year - the PIOs did a good job. 24 state proclamations and over 60 pages of just the hyperlinks to many hundreds of media hits. Wire release result was also very good. Positive press all around. Development Reported by Lauren Clarke, KB1YDD The W1AW Endowment Campaign has received $50,738 in contributions from 829 donors - 66% of goal. The Spectrum Defense Fund has received $70,215 in contributions from 338 donors. The Diamond Club has received $104,175 in contributions from 592 donors. The Education & Technology Program has received $45,739 in contributions from 454 donors - 70% of goal. An additional $109,194 from six donors has been received in support of the Teachers Institute Program. Production/Editorial Reported by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE The print edition of August 2012 QST was released to the printer June 19. Khrystyne Keane wrote and distributed the June 21 ARRL Letter and voiced Audio News. Lab Reported by Ed Hare, W1RFI Product Review Bob Allison tested a modern 2 Meter Mobile Transceiver for Product Review. Bob created a data table and passed it along to the Product Review Editor. Electronic Publication Support The recent updates to Windows 7 have resulted in Yagi for Windows, a companion program for the Antenna Book, working just fine on some computers, while breaking it on others. The Antenna Book editor is considering his options for future editions of the Antenna Book. Web I uploaded the Propagation forecasts for July. The predicted solar flux is 123. Radio Frequency Interference While the Part 15 rules and limits pertaining interference rule may work on a case-by-case basis for a small limited sources, they are not practical should many bulbs in several houses be contributing to a wide spread problem. It should also be noted that the limits for Part 15 LED bulbs are higher than for Part 18 consumer rated CFL bulbs. The data gathered by this testing will also be used to assess some of these issues, including the interference potential of LED bulbs vs. consumer Part 18 CFL bubs. Sales and Marketing Reported by Diane Petrilli, KB1RNF for Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R An email offer featuring the new Volunteer Examiner apparel and supply items was sent to all ARRL VEs. It has generated 115 orders so far. A TravelPlus for Repeaters special upgrade flyer is at the printer. It will email to 7,500 past purchasers, encouraging them to purchase the new edition at the discounted price of $19.95. Life member quarterly payment letters were mailed and auto-charge payments processed for the June payments. Two summer direct mail packages are in production for publications sales - a Travelplus upgrade flyer and a General and Extra upgrade postcard mailing. Main run for the August QST was pulled and sent to our printing/mailing facility. During the week, the warehouse crew fulfilled 1,020 packages for publication and product orders, 470 membership signing premiums, plus QST mailing supplements. An e-mail was sent to all international members (current and lapsed) encouraging them to visit the ARRL exhibit at the big International Exhibition for Radio Amateurs in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The e-mail promoted the new digital edition of QST, and encouraged visitors to join or renew their membership. Multiple e-mails with various themes -- happy summer, Father's Day, upgrade your license class -- brought in 150 members. The Quickstart Guide for All Hams, the publication sent to all new hams, is being revised. Membership & Volunteer Programs Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N Field Organization/Public Service Team Leona Adams completed preparations for the Section Manager election ballots and candidate statements for Connecticut and Western New York. This material was sent to a local printer by the end of the work week (June 22). Steve Ewald and Leona have been offering assistance and keeping in touch with the new group of Section Managers that are starting office on July 1. Many Section Managers reported by way of their Section Web pages and Section News via e-mail their plans to tour their respective sections during Field Day weekend. Visiting as many Field Day stations and camps as practically possible during Field Day has become a traditional activity among Section Managers. Education Services Reported by Debra Johnson, K1DMJ Mark Spencer and I supported the Dayton Hamvention at the Education Services booth. Mark presented at two different forums. The education forum hosted by Carole Perry WB2MGP was on Friday morning. This is not a conducive time for classroom teacher participation. The audience was around 20 people with only one participant indicating that they were actively teaching. Mark shared forum time with the host, a presenter for kit building, Gordon West, WB6NOA and AMSAT. The other forum was on PIC Programming for Beginners. This forum on Friday afternoon was very well attended, with an estimated 200 people in attendance. Mark received many walk-by visits later during the Hamvention from people who attended this forum. As a result of the popularity of this topic, Mark has been asked to offer a forum on this topic at the National Convention at Pacificon. We used the opportunity at Dayton for face to face meeting time with our AMSAT partners to discuss educational objectives for ARISS and the FOXsat project, and to talk with many members about educational outreach and new developments in the ETP curriculum. Education & Technology Program The twelve ETP grant applications submitted for the May cycle were reviewed and recommendations sent to the Executive Committee for consideration. All eleven recommended grants were approved. Notification emails and letters have been sent to the schools. A news story <http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-executive-committee-approves-resource-grants-for-11-schools> with the details has been posted to the website. Ten of the schools receiving grants have had a teacher attend a Teachers Institute or are enrolled to attend this summer. Four of the applicants have either participated in the ARISS program or have proposals accepted for future participation. All seats in the Teachers Institute being offered this summer have been filled and the rosters finalized. The participants have been notified. Hotel reservations are made and participants are confirming their travel arrangements. Resources have been ordered and shipped. Mark replenished the stock of clock kits that was tapped to support kit building at Hamvention and Pacificon. He is working on a minimalist antenna project for schools wanting to access ISS and other VHF satellite resources in their classrooms. Progress is being made on the pre-amp portion of the minimalist antenna concept. The data produced from the ETP buoy continues to demonstrate teachable moments for remote sensing projects and Mark continues to explore other ideas for remote sensing activities to be added to the portfolio of possibilities for the TI2 remote sensing being developed for next year. Scouting I updated the ARRL website with information about JOTA 2012 and am writing an article for September QST. License Instruction and Continuing Education Program Amy Strickland shares the following activity counts for May New License Class Listings 28 New Instructor Registrations 20 New Teacher Registrations 8 EC-001 Field Exams 7 EC-001 Offline Classes 7 ARISS The Amateur Radio Education Partnership group is exploring a possible opportunity to upgrade the station on the Columbus module of the ISS with a Kenwood D710. The ability to use the additional capabilities of this station to engage educational topics is being evaluated. The ARISS international partners continue to discuss possible enhancements for the Ham TV project proposed by ESA. As part of the recruiting effort within the wider ham radio community for ARISS ground support teams and Technical Mentors needed to support the audience expansion of the ARISS program, I've developed web pages for the ARRL website that explains these opportunities. You'll find the information at: http://www.arrl.org/ariss-volunteers. Recent US Contacts On Thursday, May 24, students from Northland Preparatory Academy in Flagstaff, Arizona participated in a direct contact with Joe Acaba, KE5DAR on the ISS, facilitated by members of the Coconino Amateur Radio Club. Approximately 550 students, staff and administrators, as well as Dr. Jeffrey Hall, director of the Lowell Observatory, and the mayor were in attendance. The contact complemented a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) curriculum, which included on-the-air activities with amateur radio, and students building a Radio Jove receiver with the guidance of hams from Coconino ARC. The Arizona Daily Sun ran an article on the event <http://azdailysun.com/news/local/education/voice-from-the-final-frontier-at-npa/article_2a397493-3985-58b5-a833-7f3780a66479.html> . International Contacts On Friday, June 1, an ARISS contact was held between on-orbit astronaut Don Pettit, KD5MDT and St. Mary's Catholic Primary School in Hay, NSW, Australia via telebridge station VK6MJ. Approximately 200 students and guests were in attendance. Students were well prepared for the radio connection and had been learning about space, the Space Station and astronauts. Kawatinagano Higashi Junior High School in Kawatinagano, Osaka, Japan had a successful direct contact on Wednesday, June 6 with André Kuipers, PI9ISS. The contact was supplemented with lessons about the ISS and its mission. ESA-ESTEC (European Space Research and Technology Centre) arranged for an ARISS contact that was held on Tuesday, June 12 at the Ruimtevaart Museum in Lelystad, the Netherlands with students that had taken part in André Kuipers' Mission: Spaceship Earth competition. Through this program, Kuipers gave assignments to Dutch school children and the winners of the competition were invited to the event. Telebridge station W6SRJ in California handled the radio connection. Students from St. Anne's Primary School in Strathfield South, NSW, Australia spoke with Joe Acaba, KE5DAR on Wednesday, June 13 via telebridge station LU8YY in Argentina. Approximately 150 people attended the event. The contact was integrated into the space curriculum across all grades and was held along with the school's science fair. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Hamfest/Member Contact/ARRL Representative/Meetings/Vacations All Staff 7/4 Holiday Leona Adams 7/5-7/6 Vacation Joe Carcia 6/29 Vacation `` 7/2-7/6 Vacation `` 7/13 Vacation `` 7/20 Vacation `` 7/27 Vacation Steve Ewald 7/3 Vacation Steve Ford 8/6-8/10 Vacation Mike Gruber 8/27-8/31 Vacation Joel Hallas 8/22-8/23 Vacation Dan Henderson 7/2-7/6 Vacation `` 7/26-7/30 Central States VHF Conference, Cedar Rapids, IA `` 8/16-8/20 West Virginia State Convention, Weston, WV Amy Hurtado 7/9-7/13 Vacation `` 7/18 Vacation `` 7/26-7/27 Vacation Gail Iannone 6//29-7/6 Vacation Bob Inderbitzen 7/10-7/17 Vacation `` 8/17-8/20 Southeastern Division Convention, Huntsville, Alabama Debra Johnson 7/5-7/6 Vacation Monique Levesque 7/2-7/10 Vacation Diane Petrilli 7/23-7/25 Vacation `` 8/6-8/10 Vacation Steve Sant Andrea 6/29-7/6 Vacation Chuck Skolaut 6/19-6/28 Friedrichshafen Convention, Germany/Vacation Amy Strickland 7/10-7/11 Jury Duty Dave Sumner 6/28-6/29 Dick Baldwin's memorial service 7/6 Washington, DC 7/9-7/12 Radio Society of Great Britain