In-Newsletter Vol. 25, No. 28 July 18, 2002 Media Relations Jennifer was interviewed further by the Connecticut Post reporter who is doing a story on the UTC grant for emergency communications preparedness in the state. The reporter also talked to our UTC grant contact Jacqueline Strayer and Mary Hobart. Jennifer prepared the media relations department report for the Board meeting and coordinated efforts with our PRC chairman on her report. The McGan Award recommendation has been prepared for the VRC and the complete nomination package was sent out to VRC members for their review prior to the meeting. The Field Day media hits continue to roll in! Sales and Marketing Marketing Bob Inderbitzen's e-mail 4th of July Holiday solicitation, offering individuals who purchased $50 or more in products a free Repeater Directory was extremely successful. There were 230 orders eligible to receive the Directory and the gross revenue from these orders was $21,009.80. Sales Deb Jahnke produced monthly and year-to-date analysis reports on membership mailings, renewal return percentages and publication source returns. Also provided were monthly continuity break listings sent to Directors, royalty title breakdown analysis reports to authors, and a status report of publication quantities. Documents summarizing our business terms for publication dealers and advertisers were completed and circulated to Comptroller and Sales staff for comments/additions. The Advertising document has also been checked with the lab, since our product review policy is incorporated into that particular document. All parties feel that the documents meet our needs and will make our policies much clearer to our customers, lessening the chances of confusion or misunderstanding. In addition, a new insertion order sheet has been completed. We have begun making changes to our advertising rate card, giving more explicit information about what files types and formats are acceptable. We will also be reinforcing the fact that we can provide production services to those customers who want to place advertisements but do not have the capabilities. Meetings were held with Comptrollers to discuss outstanding accounts and with Sales staff to discuss strategies to meet our advertising target for the September issue. Advertising Advance copies of August QST have been delivered to HQ. Invoices and tear sheets have been mailed. We are pleased to announce that several new advertisers have been recruited for the September issue of QST: New Communications Solutions, Palstar and RBD Consulting. Additionally, West Mountain Engineering doubled their ad size in QST and DX Engineering has switched over from NCJ to QST. ZRG has become a new advertiser in QEX. The latest edition of Advertising Matters is nearing completion. This issue defines the role of the new Marketing and Sales team, and focuses on the importance of advertising in the upcoming Fall and Holiday issues of QST. Lab The Lab continues preparation to test the interference potential of 5.8 GHz wireless LAN devices. We have received a built, 2-watt 5760 GHz transverter from Down East Microwave, plus a kit that can be used to build up local-oscillator chains, mixers, etc. At this time, we could not locate any 5.8 GHz LAN equipment in our price class, so we have obtained widely available 5.2 GHz wireless LAN cards, which will be measured on 5.2 GHz and heterodyned to 5.8 GHz for testing purposes. John Phillips reports 6 new power line cases last week. He wrote 3 letters to the CEOs of utility cases and sent two older cases to Riley Hollingsworth. Seven other miscellaneous RFI cases and ongoing support for RFI Services for the upcoming power-line seminar at ARRL HQ rounded out the week. Al Alvareztorres updated the emergency-power technical information web page. The Laird Campbell Memorial Headquarters Operators Club has applied for the call W1HQ. Bart Jahnke expects that this will be issued near the end of the month. We will retain W1INF (the ARRL HQ Operators Club call sign) but will encourage use of the W1HQ call sign by headquarters staff. Field & Educational Services Rosalie finished the ARISS Board report, and drafted the minutes for the last ARISS International school group meeting. The July APCO (Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials) magazine carried an article by N3MFT and KB3FIH about ham radio response to a four-alarm fire to help evacuate over 500 residents of a housing unit. Field Organization/Public Service Team Leona received three SM nominating petitions this week for terms beginning January 1, 2003. From West Central Florida, Gerald Dee Turner, N2MNC; from New York City-Long Island, incumbent George Tranos, N2GA; and from Missouri, incumbent Dale Bagley, K0KY. Leona handled questions from SMs about their quarterly budget reports, and remained busy with many Field Appointment changes or cancellations. ARRL Hq kept in touch with STX SM Ray Taylor regarding the Amateur Radio response to floods in Texas. At the request of the VRC, Steve sent a VRC questionnaire to the SMs (via the SM Reflector) about their opinion on the Section News in QST vs the Web. The VRC has been receiving and compiling results. This week, Steve followed-up with 10 SMs who had not been active or too active on their ARRL-sponsored Web pages. Encouraging comments were received from six SMs, and Web page usage should pick up soon from those sections, such as IL, IN, NTX, VT. Steve is working on September QST, the Public Service column, 2002 SET promotional article, and Section News. Field & Educational Support Team Mary Lau is working with Jane Bieberman De Nuzzo, W3OVV, to help in revisions to the Terms of Reference for the Jesse Bieberman Meritorious Membership Program. Mary also reports that ARRL Sections with relay e-messages this week included: KY = 3; ID=2, and WV, EBA, MS, MN, AR, SFL, CO, SCV, NE, ND = 1. Since Jean Wolfgang is already receiving emails and calls about JOTA 2002, she reviewed the ARRL Scout Web pages and email address. She submitted both the SCR article and results and the JOTA article for QST. She also reviewed several youth web sites that may give us ideas. Gail Iannone wrote 34 hamfest and 5 convention announcements for the September issue of QST; co-ordinated travel for Brennan Price, N4QX, to be the HQ rep at the WNY Section Convention to be held on August 4th in Williamsville. She also sent 2 hamfest and 2 convention approval letters to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's approval of the events as ARRL-sanctioned, processed 2 label requests and sent 7 handout packages for upcoming events. Margie Bourgoin reports that all ARRL affiliated clubs delinquent in updating their records or renewing their SSC status have now been notified, per our twice yearly reminder process. ARRL officials were notified of the clubs' status by email. She sent 3 new affiliated club applications to the appropriate Directors/SMs. Jo-Ann Arel conducted the monthly departmental inventory and revenue report; F&ES brought in $1320 of revenue during June. Jo-Ann gave a hand to Controller's, updated records for 18 affiliated club, 2 teachers, and I instructor, plus shipped 4 exhibit kits, 325 Archies, 1 video, and 25 graduation kits. Regulatory Information John Hennessee assisted amateurs with local government zoning problems in Loveland, OH (N8RHY); Lake County, IN (W8IFN) and Allendale, MN (KA0PQW). In the zoning matter in Ohio, the town refuses to comply with PRB-1 and there is talk of local court action -- interestingly, it is only 35 miles form Lakeside Park, KY, where Chris Imlay successfully argued the landmark PRB-1 case in Thernes v. Lakeside Park, KY. John also reviewed and made corrections to the partially completed new Marsh Equipment and Club Liability Insurance Plan Web page which will make it much easier for ARRL members to report problems to Marsh. He is also coordinating a visit by Gail Farrett from Marsh, to Hq; she oversees the ARRL member insurance plans. CCE Jerry Ellis did an excellent job answering CCE email and phone calls during Dan's vacation last week. Jerry continues to learn and assume more duties related to course management, recruitment of mentors, registration openings and closings, and answering CCE-related questions. According to Dan Miller, all 50 seats in the first-ever Satellite course were filled and students are moving ahead. For the Level l Emcomm course, 61 students enrolled this month; for Level II, 12 students enrolled this month, and registration remains open through the weekend. HF Digital course registration opens next week. The Big Project Jerry set up his remote e-mail system in Hawaii, and continues to get e-mail from teachers offering help with curriculum work. Jerry sent Unit 1, containing text, lesson plans and activity sheets to the curriculum team for review, and began work on the text for Unit 2. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 350 WAS Endorsements 1 WAC Certificates 30 WAC Endorsements 16 5BWAC Certificates 2 Long Term Member Inquiries 10 A-1 Operator Nominations 7 A-1 Operator Certificates 5 Extra Class Certificates 9 OTC Awards 7 VUCC Backfill Applications 1 Grids (Data Entry) 140 VUCC Initial Applications 3 Grids (Data Entry) 135 VUCC Endorsement Applications 3 Grids (Data Entry) 144 VUCC Awards Mailed 4 WAS Awards Mailed 30 VHF awards manager appt.: Carl Steckler, W2SJX, Dryden, NY. Processing Status: Current or within two weeks. For the coming week-Long term member, Friendship, and VUCC awards processing and mailing. DXCC Branch Weekly Report July 14, 2002 Beginning Cards 73,080 Cards Received 11,332 Cards Processed 5,468 Ending Cards 78,944 Applications Pending 585 Processing Time 2 Weeks Year-to-date Cards Received 344,914 Cards Returned 375,027 QRP Issued this week 2 QRP YTD 215 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on June 28, 2002. DXCC is currently entering cards received on June 29, 2002. DXCC is currently auditing 2 applications. 3 new DXCC card checkers were appointed this week. Contest Branch Work continued on the 10 Meter contest results, with the final checked scores being merged into the master database. The article for the Web and QST was prepared.. The boxes and line scores for QST were prepared and sent to production. Associated materials for the Web (sidebars, photos and captions, web database) were sent to Web Services for preparation. Several photos for possible use for the new June VHF plaques were discussed with Graphics and follow-up was done with the submitters. June VHF paper entries and Field Day entries are coming in and being sorted for later data entry. Plaque plates for the 2001 November SS were received and preparations were made to ship early the week of July 15. QSL Branch QSL service status: Current. Cards mailed year to date as of 07/14/2002 - 1,178,875. Cards mailed on 07/12/2002 - 83,475. Janet Rocco spent 5 hours conducting tours around HQ. W1AW Joe Carcia processed regular QSL card requests. He also worked the late afternoon/evening night shift on Friday for a vacationing Scott Gee. Scott Gee worked on fast and slow code practice runs for the latter part of the month of July. He also handled some evening phone sales in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. W1AW telephone sales year to date : $5,762. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List Name Date(s) Reason Dave Sumner 7/25-8/1 RAC National Convention & vacation Mark Wilson 7/29-8/2 Vacation Ed Hare 7/25-7/28 Arizona Section Convention 7/24, 7/29-8/2 Vacation Janet Rocco 7/22-7/26 Vacation Joe Carcia 7/26 Vacation Rosalie White 7/22-7/24 Vacation LouAnn Campanello 7/22-7/26 Vacation