IN-Newsletter Vol. 28, No. 7 February 16, 2005 CEO Staff welcomed Harold Kramer to Headquarters this week and he spent some time meeting informally with staff throughout the building. Development Of the Diamond Club's 155 contributors in January, nearly 80 were new. With full pages ads in QST and the monthly solicitations as part of the member renewal process, the program is seeing solid growth. Contributions to the 2005 Spectrum Defense Fund in 2005 now exceed $20,000, bringing the total for the fall campaign to more than $249,000. The 2004 Year End campaign is enjoying spillover that now totals $7,485, bringing that campaign total to more than $29,000. Development is immersed in processing nearly 300 scholarship applications for the ARRL Foundation to be reviewed by the ARRLF Scholarship Committee for spring 2005 awards. Copy for the Education & Technology Fund campaign is under review and gifts have been selected. Final data selection for the 40 year Member Loyalty Awards is underway and the congratulatory letter finalized. A trip to the Orlando Hamcation yielded information on a new estate gift. Production/Editorial The 2005-2006 Repeater Directory was released to the printer this week, and The 2000-2004 QST View CD set was shipped to the duplicators this week. Joel Hallas reports that the Product Review column and New Product announcements were submitted for April QST well ahead of schedule. The April issue will be released to the printer Friday, February 18. In addition, work on Product Review and New Products for May QST is almost complete. Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter, Vol. 24, No. 06, distributed to 66,271 members on Feb 11. Rick prepared/edited stories on persistent BPL problems in Austrian city of Linz, ARISS school group QSO with UK high schoolers, ARRL Expo 2005 and Dayton Hamvention, Desecheo Island landing permit denied again, The DX Magazine's most-wanted list and numerous news briefs. He also worked on "Happenings" for April QST. With soundbite assistance from Bob Inderbitzen, Rick voiced, edited and produced ARRL Audio News for Feb 11. Sales & Marketing Advertising pages are complete for the new edition of the ARRL Repeater Directory and have been turned over to Production. Revenue targets of $17,577.50 exceeded the 2005 target of $15,000 by $2,577.50. It also exceeded the 2004 actual advertising revenue of $14,808 by 16%. April 2005 QST is wrapping up and it appears that we will exceed our targets by a small margin. In addition to several new advertisers placing small ads, we have been working with Burghardt Amateur Center to increase the size of their advertisements. We have just completed an agreement with Burghardt to run, at the minimum, a half page, 4-color ad each month for the next 10 issues. They will also run two full page, 4-color ads during the course of the year. We also have a healthy head start on May QST, working simultaneously on this issue along with April. We have already collected quite a few regular advertising insertions as filling two pages thus far in the 8-page Dayton theme tear-out. A publication solicitation was emailed to ARRL members on Friday afternoon. The Valentine's Day-themed promotion contributed to a brisk weekend for online ordering. Nearly 300 orders were received by Monday morning. We enjoyed working with Sue Fagan as she produced covers for the new editions of The ARRL Repeater Directory, TravelPlus for Repeaters, and ON4UN's Low Band DXing. We have reached an agreement with RSGB for special terms supporting a "sale" on RSGB publications sold through ARRL. The promotion is planned for the spring or summer months, and will be supported by a cooperative advertising endeavor. ARRL National Convention Update Bob Inderbitzen traveled out to Dayton, Ohio on February 8. He met with Dayton Hamvention General Chairman Gary Des Combes, N8EMO, and Director Jim Weaver. During the visit, Bob toured a portion of the Hara Complex, reviewing the large exhibit space donated to ARRL by Hamvention. ARRL will utilize the space to feature "ARRL EXPO," a primary feature of this year's national convention. He also attended a Hamvention Committee meeting, and was introduced to many volunteers leading Hamvention programs and services. We are delighted with the progress being made on a handful of convention fronts. Rosalie is immersed in activities involving ARRL forums. Many of these are sponsored-by, lead-by, or attended-by ARRL staff and representatives. She has also initiated contact with SM Joe Phillips, seeking his assistance in organizing a Wouff Hong ceremony. We are presently investigating hotels that could host this Saturday night activity. We have achieved a number of objectives for supporting The National Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers (NARTE) as part of our convention planning. The ARRL web includes a NARTE advertising banner. NARTE has produced an ad for April QST. In addition, they have published a press release, further promoting The ARRL National Convention at Dayton Hamvention. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS in the 90th Awards 8 WAS Cert. (50 QSLs ES/C) 1 Extra Class Certs. 6 Replacement Awards 4 VUCC Initial Apps. 3 Grids 376 A-1 Op. Noms. 3 LTMA Inquiries 2 Awards Mailed 21 Also, compiled the latest list of VUCC award recipients for April QST, and worked on some LTMA projects (on-going). Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week-WAS and WAC QSL card checking, 25-year member and VUCC awards, file the WAS applications from 2004, LTMA projects, and mail out all awards processed this week. DXCC Branch For the week of: February 13, 2005 Beginning Cards 52,178 Cards Received 9,955 Cards Processed 22,193 Ending Cards 39,940 Applications Pending 324 Processing Time 5.5 Weeks DXCC is currently mailing applications received on January 3, 2005. DXCC is currently entering cards received on January 3, 2005. Turnaround time for applications with just LoTW credits is 1 working day. Logbook of the World QSO records entered into the system 63,677,458 QSL records have resulted 2,636,928 Logs Processed 98,449 Active Certificates 13,258 Users registered in the system 8,939 Current Applications 38 Ready Applications 0 Applications Awaiting Mail 38 QSL Bureau Processing time is 7 days from receipt. This week 76 pounds of cards were received from members. Cards mailed as of 02/13/05: 123,550. Cards mailed on 02/11/05: 61,950. W1AW Thanks to Mark Spencer, WA8SME for his activity in the FISTS Operating event over the past weekend. W1AW now has access to EchoLink. Firewall protections were keeping the station from accessing the system. Thanks to Don Durand of ISD for working out the details. Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the month of February. He continues with work on assembling modules for the Elecraft K2 QRP transceiver. Scott also handled some evening phone sales calls in the daily 5 PM to 8 PM time slots. Joe printed and mailed the 2004 FMT certificates. Work continues with tallying the results for the web. He began tracking down a problem with the 15-meter Harris amplifier and worked out a few bugs in two Studio PCs used for logging/contesting. Field & Educational Services Rosalie corresponded with volunteers who wrote to us about being on the new ARES emcomm management team. She re-read reports from the previous digital emergency communications committee. She and Bob met to trade thoughts on forums, speakers, some exhibit booths and the Wouff Hong ceremony at the Dayton National Convention. Rosalie and Frank Bauer are composing an agenda for an upcoming meeting at NASA HQ. Fairview Elementary School's (Mt Prospect, IL) successful ARISS QSO was simulcast to the Web and via IRLP, and involved nearly 800 participants and a number of media types. Field-Education Team Jean Wolfgang reports that the first Analog Electronics class has completely filled with 30 students. This class will begin on February 25. Jean emailed welcome messages to students in six new classes. She processed students from a hybrid class, and in February she has registered seven hybrid classes. Because of these student totals, it makes it necessary to adjust student registration numbers for March. Jean reviewed information about the Analog Electronics course, and made minor changes to course descriptions. Gail Iannone wrote 47 hamfest announcements and five convention announcements for the April issue of QST. She sent 9 hamfest approval letters and two convention approval letters to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's approval of their events as ARRL-sanctioned, processed 11 handout and door prize orders and 3 label requests for upcoming events. Norm Fusaro wrote an article for the web about a newly formed club in the Southern Florida Section. The club is a direct result of population growth in Palm County where the number of hams has grown as quickly as the population has. Norm is developing a new tool for clubs and volunteer instructors who have asked about others who have held successful intensive courses with pre-study. He reviewed some Power Point programs for possible inclusion in our multimedia library. Margie Bourgoin processed 105 updates to affiliated club records, and handled the renewals of six Special Service Clubs. She registered six new Volunteer Instructors and one schoolteacher. She deactivated two clubs because the clubs no longer had 51% of the membership as ARRL members. Margie compiled all of the materials from the Field Service reports for the April issue of QST. Field Organization/Public Service Team Chuck Skolaut brought back 22 new or renewed ARRL memberships from the successful Mississippi State Convention! Thanks goes to Mississippi SM Malcolm, W5XX, and others for their help. The "Yosemite Sam" signal was heard once again on 3700 and three other frequencies outside the ham bands; investigation continues. Documentation was received and forwarded to the FCC concerning a case on 3945 kHz. Official Observers were requested to monitor for interference on 20 and 40 meters. Leona Adams prepared and sent nearly 40 initial supply packages for Field Organization appointees. Three more Official Observer-test packages were sent to operators recommended by their respective Section Leaders. Leona received and processed several Section Manager expense forms and is keeping track of the Section 2005 budgets. Steve Ewald prepared the Public Service column for April QST, and has been receiving January Field Organization activity reports. He met with Allen Pitts and Wayne Mills to discuss further ideas on how to organize and promote a public awareness-type activity that may be tied in with the Field Day time frame. Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program Mark Spencer learned that the FBI has additional handheld radios, and Mark will distribute the radios to schools. This will help keep better track of the radios, and give ARRL a little exposure. The purchase of grant equipment was executed with HRO who had the lowest bid. Much of the equipment has been shipped already. The latest project kit, a CD-ROM based course in Basic Electronics, was released for schools and posted on the web for hams who ask. The kit for schools includes the text, a VOM, proto-board and parts to do the activities in the course. An article announcing the June and August teacher's institutes was drafted and submitted for QST, and sent to teacher organizations to consider distributing -- ITEA will use the material. EmComm Grants Dan Miller represented ARRL, with the help of the CNCS grant funding, at the National Emergency Management Association national conference in Washington, DC. He set up a booth to display information about Amateur Radio emergency communications and our training courses that the grant is funding. Regulatory Information John Hennessee finished an FAQ on club station licenses for the regulatory pages. This is a topic he receives many questions on, and an FAQ makes answering these much quicker and more complete. Regulatory FAQs can be found at http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/faq.html. John also updated the zoning presentation at http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/PRB-1_Pkg/prb1pres.html. This helps amateurs provide local government officials and others with instances, by region, in which amateurs have provided emergency communications. Community Education Program Bill Barrett coordinated with hams and Citizen Corps Council members in two more of the 12 locales that he will visit. The Web story about his trip to Maine resulted in the receipt of a batch of emails from interested hams and also Citizen Corps folks in other parts of the US. Sincerely, Dave Patton, NN1N Special Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer DCP: lk Staff Absentee List All Staff 2/21 Holiday Mary Hobart 3/2-3/4 CNCS Meeting, Washington, DC Rick Lindquist 2/22 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 2/16-2/22 Vacation `` 3/4-3/5 Icom meeting, Miami, FL Bob Inderbitzen 3/21-3/23 National Postal Forum `` 3/24 & 3/28 Vacation `` 3/31-4/1 AES Superfest Roseanne Lawrence 2/7-2/18 Vacation Fatima Lorusso 3/7-3/11 Vacation Kathy Capodicasa 3/21-3/23 National Postal Forum `` 4/14-4/18 Vacation Penny Harts 2/24-2/25 Vacation Steve Ewald 2/25-3/8 Vacation Steve Ford 2/18 Vacation `` 2/25 Vermont Section Convention Stu Cohen 2/11±2/18 Leave of absence Rosalie White 3/1-3/4 CNCS Conference, NASA HQ `` 3/7-3/8 Vacation Jean Wolfgang 3/4-3/7 Vacation Dan Miller 3/28-3/30 Vacation Debra Jahnke 2/22 Vacation