IN-Newsletter Vol. 25, No. 44 November 5, 2002 Upcoming Meetings November 9th in St. Louis, MO Volunteer Resources Committee November 15th in Newington, CT Election Ballot Counting January 17-18 in Windsor, CT Board Meeting CEO Once again the ARRL is sponsoring the USTTI course being held this week in the conference room. There are six students in that class visiting us from Ghana, Zambia, Korea, Philippines, Romania and Costa Rica. They will take home with them knowledge of the different aspects of Amateur Radio and information helpful for administering the Amateur Radio Service in their countries. Washington team staff members Walt Ireland and Jon Siverling are teaching this year's class with help from the HQ staff. Lisa Kustosik worked with the Washington Team and the USTTI contact person during the planning and is serving as the HQ coordinator throughout the week. Development Mary Hobart, Dan Miller and LouAnn Campanello represented ARRL at the Homeland Security National Forum hosted by our federal grantor, The Corporation for National and Community Service. We joined the 42 other grantees to celebrate as the "freshman class" of grantees who are working in communities and nationwide to heed the call for volunteers in Homeland Security. Speakers from the Salvation Army, Red Cross, FEMA, Catholic Charities and The White House presented ideas, strategies, directives and inspiration for meeting the goals of our ARECC grant. The new ARRL Diamond Club now numbers 195 contributors, include 3 at the Director level of $5,000 or more. Total receipts are $34,157. The 2003 Defense Fund is beginning to produce results. In the first week, approximately $10,000 has been counted, including two $1000 contributions. On the education front, Jim Haynie took a call on Nov 3 notifying him of a $25,000 contribution to the Education and Technology Fund from Joe Walsh, WB6ACU. In addition, Director Stinson and President Haynie are cultivating an annual $10,000 contribution to our education program from a national radio organization. Production/Editorial The 2003 Handbook CD has been released to the duplicator. Assistant Technical Editor Brennan Price attended the ARRL Georgia Section Convention November 2-3. ICOM, Kenwood and MFJ were among the manufacturers present. ICOM's new IC-2720 dual band FM transceiver debuted at the show. The ARRL Letter has distributed to a record number of subscribers for two weeks in a row. The circulation for October 25 was 64,435, and the November 1 circulation was 64,558, up 0.19%. The weekly e-newsletter goes out to approximately 40% of ARRL members. In addition, more than 110 repeaters or other systems have let us know they're using ARRL Audio News in whole or in part. ARRL Audio News celebrated its fifth anniversary in mid-October. Senior News Editor Rick Lindquist, N1RL, writes, edits and produces both Amateur Radio news vehicles. Congratulations to Senior Assistant Technical Editor Larry Wolfgang, WR1B, who has been presented with the Silver Beaver Award, the highest honor that a local Scout Council can award to its volunteers. Larry's award was presented by the Connecticut Rivers Council. Sales and Marketing Dennis Motschenbacher spent the week in southern California calling on several of our dealers and advertisers. The meetings were generally lengthy and productive with both parties eager to discuss company make-up and planning, state of the hobby, market trends, and in-depth planning for working together in a more cooperative manner. Most reported that the ham radio sales market was quite soft. It was apparent that some were operating in a reduced overhead "survival" mode, desiring to be viable when the market returned to a more robust buying atmosphere. Firms that dealt with commercial markets outside ham radio indicated those markets were not as soft, therefore, ham radio sales as a percentage of their overall business were significantly lower. Interestingly, Dennis was able to find distinct interest in some of the new ARRL advertising attention-getting tools that he presented. Sales Deb Jahnke has been concentrating on reworking sales and other related reports to run in concert with the new Siebel software. Deb has contacted several publishing houses who primarily sell to libraries to drum up some interest in several selected ARRL titles. Since our business relationship with Ingram Publishing has been so successful, we'd like to add other companies with similar markets to our list of ARRL Dealers. Janet Rocco will be assisting Deb in the search to locate more companies. Fulfillment We are still wrestling with some Siebel computer issues and the Warehouse staff is working out the kinks in our new Starship shipping software. Memberships and publication orders are catching up however, due to the efforts of staff having some one-on-one computer time on Saturday. Participants included Kathy Capodicasa, Danny Sayad, Fatima Lorusso, Cathy Stepina, Janie Foy and Deb Jahnke. Advertising December 2002 QST will contain more paid advertising than we've seen in quite some time. The total number of paid ad pages is 72.25. The last issue to reach this total was the May 2000 (Dayton Hamvention) issue. A new advertiser, GigaParts will display a four color die-cut insertion replica of the new Yaesu FT-897 with two very distinctive facing pages. Bob Inderbitzen and Deb Jahnke were finalizing the technical aspects of this piece right up until press time. Hanan Rayyashi and Joe Bottiglieri were moving at warp speed. Thanks to their efforts you'll also see the following in December QST: A new international advertiser, Skysweep, will debut a half-page 4-color ad. This insertion was negotiated and completed in under four business days. Heil Sound - we are extremely pleased that Bob Heil is again in QST. Mayberry/Honda Generators K7OS Sales/The Pouch (an occasional advertiser) K1CRA Radio Web Store Communications Electronics (a returning occasional advertiser) Expanded Spectrum Systems (returning to QST) Sommer Antennas (an occasional advertiser) Begali (increased from 1/24th to 1/12th page) Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society (a new ad) The ARRL Business Guide Directory pages A very special thanks goes out to Shelly Bloom and her staff for going the extra mile with this issue. We would not have been able to shatter our budgeted page count goal for December (64 pages) without the support of the Production staff. They were also key, as were members of the Graphics staff, in bringing the GigaParts ad to completion. Marketing Janet Rocco continues to take on new responsibilities. She is organizing procedures for ordering third-party publications working within (and around) the idiosyncrasies of our new purchase order business software. Janet is also working with Bob Inderbitzen as she learns how to administer new publications for our product sales effort. Bob and Deb met with the Advertising staff to discuss plans to re-organize the front matter in QST to accommodate a new editorial feature planned for January's issue. The group explored new advertising opportunities and challenges that may result from the re-organization of these pages. The following new items are available for ordering via the ARRLWeb catalog: New ARRL World Maps. Updated with current geographic detailing and call sign prefixes. Available in two projections; azimuthal and Robinson. Azimuthal projection, ARRL Order No. 7717 -- $15; Robinson projection, ARRL Order No. 8804 -- $15. Passport to World Band Radio 2003 Edition, ARRL Order No. 8833 -- $19.95. Communications Quarterly CD-ROM 1990-1999, ARRL Order No. #8780 -- $39.95 (available later this month). Antenna Compendium Volume 7, ARRL Order No. 8608 -- $24.95 (available later this month). Microwave Update 2002 and Eastern VHF/UHF-2002, ARRL Order No. 8764 -- $20. AMSAT 20th Space Symposium-2002, ARRL Order No. 8772 -- $20. The Holiday version of our publication catalog is wrapping up. Thanks to everyone who had a part in the effort. A large catalog mailing is planned to distribute 30,000 copies to customers. The printer expects to deliver catalogs around November 5. A direct mail piece has been produced, soliciting previous TravelPlus CD-ROM customers for the current version. Mailing is planned for mid-November. Deb, Bob and Dennis produced additional reports for upcoming 2003/04 business planning. Bob has investigated some sources for video duplicating, as plans are underway to test a few video titles as product offerings. Changes have been made to product descriptions on the ARRLWeb catalog to update computer system requirements of software products. Thanks go to Dan Wolfgang for providing the revisions. A handful of requests from publication dealers for electronic images of new ARRL products have been fulfilled. Among these dealers was the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) which routinely updates its online catalog with new ARRL product offerings. Bob produced a publication email solicitation and follow-up e-mailing offering a free Repeater Directory for ARRLWeb orders of $50 or more placed through Halloween. The mailing touted a number of new ARRL product offerings. The electronic solicitations, conducted approximately once per month, regularly contribute to driving activity to our online catalog. Bob has contributed some creative design considerations to Dave Patton and Sue Fagan as the "ARRL Headquarters Gang" QSL card is undergoing a re-design. He is also participating in intra-department efforts to enhance QST magazine's presentation on the ARRLWeb. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 400 WAS Certificates (100 qsl's, field checked) 2 WAS Endorsement (50 qsl's above) 1 Long Term Member Inquiries 3 A-1 Operator Nominations 3 Extra Class Certificates mailed 66 VUCC Backfill Application 1 Grids (Data Entry) 183 VUCC Initial Applications 4 Grids (Data Entry) 480 VUCC Endorsement Applications 3 Grids (Data Entry) 195 VUCC Certificates Processed 10 VUCC Initial Awards Mailed 10 VUCC Endorsements Mailed 11 Processing Status: Current or within three weeks. For the coming week-WAS QSL card checking, Basic WAS awards for October, Extra Class certificates, and VUCC awards processing. DXCC Branch Weekly Report November 2 Beginning Cards 236,945 Cards Received 8,645 Cards Processed 14,309 Ending Cards 231,821 Applications Pending 2,358 Processing Time 8.7 Weeks Year-to-date Cards Received 684,561 Cards Returned 533,216 QRPs Issued this week 3 QRPs YTD 249 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on September 5, 2002. DXCC is currently entering cards received on September 12, 2002. One new DXCC card checker was appointed this week that brings the total to 153 volunteers. QSL Branch QSL service status: Current. Cards mailed year to date as of 11/03/2002 - 1,684,215. Cards mailed on 11/01/2002 - 63,700. Heather Dzamba spent 4 hours conducting tours around HQ. W1AW Joe Carcia repaired two audio boards located in the Harris Audio Matrix. He also began design (and testing) of a simple power supply to replace the aged switching power supplies currently powering the Harris Matrixes. He also processed regular QSL card requests. He assisted Mike Tracy, KC1SX with setting up the equipment for the upcoming W1AW Frequency Measuring test. Scott Gee worked on slow and fast code practice runs for the month of November. He also handled some evening phone sales calls in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. W1AW telephone sales year to date (2002): $10,023. Field & Educational Services Rosalie and Frank Bauer composed a report defending the request for ARISS money from NASA for 2003; the new head of NASA required the report. European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne, ON1DWN, successfully QSOed a Belgian technical school (250 people attended) while 4 TV stations and ATV repeaters broadcast it to Belgium, Netherlands and Germany. Field & Educational Support Team Mary Lau is coordinating the final elements of a $10,000 Foundation grant to the African Telecommunications Union. She also processed contribution acknowledgments, and relayed messages for the following Sections: ID =3; WCF, NLI, IL, SDG, SD, AR = 1. Linda Mullally registered one schoolteacher and 10 volunteer instructors. She also updated 18 club records and 1 reactivation. Jean Wolfgang has been responding to 130 JOTA surveys received to date, as they arrive. These show: Scouts that participated totalled 9079, visitors were 2855, and hams helping were 657. She will share the surveys and results with Ray Moyer from the BSA Hq in TX, who will write and turn in the summary to the World Scout Bureau. From the surveys, Jean is finding activities for youth that may be included on the future ARRL youth page. Margie Bourgoin will be doing a club presentation at next week's Amateur Radio Administration Course to be held at HQ. She worked with Mary Lau to fine-tune her Power Point presentation and has been making notes in preparation for her speech. She sent one club to the Director and SM for approval, and notes that SSC applications are picking up again. Gail Iannone sent 6 hamfest approval letters and 1 convention approval letter to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's approval for the events to be ARRL-sanctioned, and 1 initial hamfest application packet to a club requesting ARRL-sanctioning for their event. She also processed 4 door prize orders and 1 label request for upcoming events. Field Organization/Public Service Team Chuck Skolaut corresponded with Riley Hollingsworth about interference cases in the East Bay Section, Missouri (2-meter simplex) and on a 40-meter net. He investigated an intruder to the 20-meter band. He received a call from an OOC who had monitored hams are using "hi-fi audio" on 20 meters; this is a popular topic on the Internet. Chuck and John conferred on how FCC rules address this type of operation. Leona Adams received an SM petition from incumbent Malcolm Keown (Mississippi), and an inquiry from a Montana ham interested in running for SM next time. She compiled and shared the calendar of next year's SM Election Cycle Dates. She handled 20 Field Organization appointments and initial supply packages and kept up with SM expense reports. Steve Ewald reports 80% of SMs have been active on their ARRL Section Web Pages in recent weeks. Now that the transition to total electronic Section News (away from QST) begins gaining greater visibility in the coming months, Steve continues to stay in touch with SMs and will assist those that need a hand. Steve is compiling responses to the NTS questionnaire for the VRC. Regulatory Information John Hennessee assisted amateurs with local government zoning problems in Brownstown Township, MI (AD8NZ) and Anderson, IN (K9TZJ). He helped with a covenant question in Eugene, OR (AI7W). He continues work on the next edition of the FCC Rule Book. As an aside, he is taking the ARECC Level l course. Amateur Radio Education Initiative Jerry Hill has 14 new Pilot School applications and 2 for Progress Grants. He is reviewing the applications and will begin interviewing (by phone) each teacher. Jerry hosted Dick Bingham, W7WRK and yl; Dick is trustee for Stehekin (WA) School ARC, our very remote pilot school, only accessible by float plane or boat. Jerry added his curriculum reviewers to the teacher reflector, and seeded the reflector with pictures from W9CJS, who works with schools. EmComm Grants Dan Miller spent three days in Washington DC at meetings held by our federal grantor, CNCS. He also prepped for this weekend's Level l review course at ARRL Hq. CCE Jerry Ellis processed and opened HF Digital and AREC Level III classes. A Satellite Communications class was set up and mentors solicited. Special mentor/student packages including reimbursement checks continued to be prepared and mailed. Student-only certificates and reimbursement checks were also printed and mailed. Our on-line survey is complete; members prefer courses on Antennas 101, Radio Propagation, VHF/UHF Beyond the Repeater, and Troubleshooting. Howard Robins reviewed the draft posting of the RFI course by our Web host, and began noting errors to fix. He has 30 volunteers (including Ed Hare and Mike Gruber) to beta-test the course; many are existing mentors of our other tech courses. Thanks to Sue Fagan and Bob Boucher for help with certificates and ID cards. Howard is creating a mail merge process to drive the printing of grads' names for certs, ID cards, checks and mailing labels. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List Name Date(s) Reason All Staff 11/28-11/29 Holiday Dave Sumner 11/5pm-11/30 IARU R1 Conference & Admin. Council Meeting, San Marino Jennifer Hagy 11/25-11/27 Vacation Stu Cohen 11/8-11/9 AMSAT Annual Meeting, Dallas, TX Dennis Motschenbacher 11/18-11/22 No.Cal Sales Trip Ed Hare 11/10-11/16 IEEE C63 "RFI" committee meeting, Baltimore, MD 11/18-11/19 TIA T1E1 "VDSL" standards committee meeting, Atlanta, GA Bob Inderbitzen 12/6 Vacation Rosalie White 11/9 VRC Meeting, St Louis, MO Joel Kleinman 11/8-11/12 Vacation Eileen Sapko 11/5 & 11/15 Vacation Brennan Price 11/12 Jury Duty Jan Carman 11/25-11/27 Vacation Rick Lindquist 11/25-11/27 Vacation