IN-Newsletter Vol. 26, No. 43 October 29, 2003 Upcoming Meetings November 8th in Dallas, TX at 8:30am Volunteer Resources Committee November 9th in Dallas, TX at 8:30am Executive Committee November 21st in Newington, CT Division Election Ballot Counting Development The special Spectrum Defense campaign against BPL has exceeded its goal by reaching $301,488 from 5,505 donors. More than 140 clubs and organizations have contributed nearly $30,000 in this effort. The 2004 Spectrum Defense mail is complete and should reach homes the week of November 3. The goal of this campaign is $225,000. The fourth quarter report for CNCS is complete. Development is preparing documents for submission to Citizen Corps in support of the Statement of Affiliation signed at the National Convention in Dallas in June 2003. The documents requested by the Citizen Corps national office include a plan for supporting Citizen Corps goals at the national, state and local level. Media Relations Dave Sumner submitted a letter to the editor of the Raleigh, North Carolina News & Observer in response to an article on BPL and offered a lot of information on the negative effects it would have on the Amateur Radio Service. Also on the subject of ham radio and BPL, Dave was interviewed by a reporter in Manassas, Virginia. The story, which turned out well, ran in the Manassas Journal Messenger and its sister paper the Potomac News. Jennifer worked with a reporter from the Journal Inquirer (Manchester, CT) who is interested in pursuing a story on ham radio emergency communications, including the homeland security angle. Thanks to help from Dan Miller and Steve Ewald, she offered contact information for local interviewees, the press release on the CNCS year-two grant, and other background materials. A reporter (also a ham) with Washington, D.C.'s NBC affiliate has expressed interest in doing a story on BPL. He'd like to present all sides of the issue, and include Amateur Radio's position. Jennifer has talked with Maryland/DC Section Manager Tom Abernathy, and is working on getting an interviewee from the Manassas area. She e-mailed the reporter with much of the BPL information on the ARRL Web site, including the videos. This media relations effort is ongoing. Jennifer submitted the PR Committee's proposal for instituting section-wide speakers' bureaus to VRC chairman Director Walstrom. Jen and the committee members will stand by for further direction on this project. Jennifer assisted a life member who is putting together an Amateur Radio presentation for use during talks with non-ham groups. He was looking for statistical information, background on the history of Amateur Radio and a lead on famous hams, among other subject areas. Production/Editorial Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter, Vol. 22, No. 42, circulated to 67,088 members on Oct 24. That's up by 166 subscribers from the previous week and by 503 subscribers for October. After wrapping up work on "Happenings" for the December issue of QST, Rick wrote news stories on ARRL's response to the Manassas (VA) BPL rollout; Hamvention's contract with Hara Arena for the 2004 show; the changeover from one two-ham crew aboard the ISS to another; "In Brief" (15 items); and a successful PRB-1 case in Texas. He edited and shot/edited additional photos for a report on the USTTI Class of 2003 and handled a couple of Web news briefs. He also worked with Tad Cook, K7RA, to update the propagation report that appears on the Web site. Rick voiced, produced and edited ARRL Audio News, with voiceover assistance from Jennifer Hagy, N1TDY. On Friday, October 24, trucks arrived to pick up both of the Linotronic imagesetting systems we had auctioned on eBay. The imagesetters weight 400 pounds each and require delicate handling, so getting everything into the individual trucks was an adventure. Everything went smoothly thanks to the team of Greg Kwasowski, Joe Shea, Paul Lappen, Shelly Bloom and Dave Pingree. One unit is bound for the Philippines, the other for Ohio. A special thanks to Jodi Morin for her thorough cleaning of the equipment prior to shipment. Sales & Marketing Kathy Capodicasa and Ann Marie Pinto participated in a conference call with computer consultant Alan Cohen on Thursday. This was to discuss dealer backorder fulfillment needs. Dealer backorders are still processed manually by creating a separate order or they are not processed until the item comes into stock. A system has been set in place to officially process dealer back orders in conjunction with the Controller's Department. We hope to implement this system once additional testing has been completed. Deb Jahnke is finishing up a promo to a select group of new hams offering the current edition of the ARRL Operating Manual as a premium item. Although we have tried several variations on our "sign up letter", we have not significantly changed our promotion offerings. This mailing will attempt to determine the emphasis that the recipients put on the premium. Life Member Statistics and other reports are under way for the EC meeting. December QST just left for the printer and we are already commencing work on the January 2004 advertising section. Our page count goal was exceeded for the December issue and we hope to do the same for January. Backorders for all versions of The ARRL Handbook (soft cover, hardcover, CD Rom) and The ARRL Antenna Book have been released. This includes all dealer and individual customers. Individual customers will start receiving their shipments on the worldwide release date of October 20, 2003. Orders of the new editions of these titles have most likely exceeded sales targets planned for their debut month. The aggressive roll-out of these titles began in early September with announcements and sales calls to publication dealers. Individual orders have been brisk, amplified by display advertising and direct marketing promotions. The new publications also garnered attention in ARRL news outlets. Substantial orders have been placed by the Ingram Book Group, a wholesale distributor of publications to booksellers, librarians and specialty retailers. The Sales and Marketing team have been pulling together details to support another ARRL membership recruitment program with ICOM. Our experience from the cooperative membership promotion launched in Dayton and continuing through August helped shape this new initiative. The first initiative resulted in 139 new members, many of them newer hams, Technicians and others that we do not reach well through traditional offers. Rather than depend on dealers handing out special coupons, the new program calls for a special ARRL membership promotion sticker to be attached to the outside of the box for radios sold by ICOM dealers for a limited time. The stickers will direct customers to an ARRL web page to join using a $15 membership voucher issued by ICOM. Remaining program details are still being defined, but ICOM is featuring the new initiative in December advertising. Di produced her first web banner this week. The banner advertises the Tropical Hamboree, and is now included in the ad rotation on the ARRLWeb. The money saving "ARRL Library Book Set" has been updated to include the latest editions of popular ARRL publications. The set is intended for clubs or individuals that wish to make a gift to a local library or school. Details can be found online at http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/club/libookset.html We will soon carry the new book, Instruments of Amplification, by Peter Friedrichs. The book was suggested for resale consideration by Steve Ford. It includes instructions on how to build amplifying components including homebrew tubes and point-contact transistors. Watch for it as it soon becomes available on the ARRLWeb Catalog, http://www.arrl.org/shop A handful of requests for the new membership brochures have been received, prompted by the recent attention the flyer received in November's issue of QST (page 12). Volunteers are handing them out at classes and exams. One respondent requested copies to distribute at a waterway and cruising club event. A publication email solicitation was distributed to over 46,000 members on Friday afternoon. A current promotion offers a free ARRL Repeater Directory for online orders of $50 or more, placed through October 31. Over 200 Web orders were placed over the weekend following the emailing. Membership Services We wish to express our condolences on the passing of DXCC's Ann Figat's mother last week. Our thoughts and prayers are with Ann and her family at this time. Awards Branch WAS Ends. (50 QSLs ES/C) 1 WAS Ends. (100 QSLs F/C) 2 Extra Class Certs. 48 LTMA Inquiries 2 A-1 Op. Noms. 1 VUCC Initial Apps. 8 Grids 561 VUCC End. Apps. 10 Grids 545 Awards Mailed 17 HF Awards Manager Appt.: Bill Barr, N4NX, Atlanta, GA. Ordered the 5BWAS engraved plates for the plaques. Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week-WAS and WAC QSL card checking, (foreign) WAC awards, process and mail VUCC certificates and endorsements, mail out the Extra Class certificates, and try again to complete the filing chores associated with the LTMAs issued earlier this year. Contest Branch The On-Line Field Day write-up was finalized and opened to the Member's Only Section. Corrections and problems for the Field Day results were handled. The June VHF QSO Party results were sent to Production and the web version was begun. Data entry for the 10 GHz and Up Contest and September VHF QSO party continued. Scores for the August UHF event were received and work began on the QST and web write-ups. We are pleased to add K2TXB to our list of authors. Russ will be doing the 2003 EME Contest write-up. DXCC Branch For the week of: October 26, 2003 Beginning Cards 186,961 Cards Received 3,733 Cards Processed 14,007 Ending Cards 176,687 Applications Pending 1,596 Processing Time 7.7 Weeks Year-to-date (2003) Cards Received 548,894 Cards Returned 586,676 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on September 2, 2003. DXCC is currently entering cards received on September 16, 2003. Heather Dzamba conducted six tours through HQ this week. W1AW Thanks to Dan Henderson, N1ND for his operating W1AW in the CQ World Wide DX SSB Contest. Despite the less-than-stellar operating conditions during the time he was on (due to solar activity), he managed to make 267 QSOs on 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters, for a claimed score of 129,592. The Elecraft K2 QRP transceiver has been returned from its trip to an Elecraft service tech. (It was sent out for some Elecraft TLC.) The radio now resides in the station's main room. Joe updated the web code practice files. He also spent some time repairing two PCs with faulty network cards and problems with Windows 98. He also upgraded the PC used for local station printing/scanning to a Pentium-class machine. Scott worked on slow and fast code practice files for the latter part of the month of October and early November. He also handled some evening phone sales calls in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. W1AW Telephone Sales year to date (2003): $28,557. Field & Educational Services Rosalie worked with ARISS school mentors on finishing NASA's required school evaluations. The result: all but 2 (a Russian and a Canadian school) of the 43 schools that had ARISS QSOs the past year, submitted evaluations. Rosalie worked with Johnson Space Center to plan a training QSO for astronaut Barb Morgan, with a school. ESA Astronaut Pedro Duque had a good QSO with Colegio Ceip Seixalvo in Spain. Field & Education Support Team Margie Bourgoin reports one set of new club affiliation papers sent for Director approval, and one SSC renewal. She notified the next schools in line for an ARISS contact by the Expedition 8 crew about lesson plans and support material. She is helping Jean Wolfgang with JOTA survey results. Jean Wolfgang has received 46 JOTA survey/logs. In one week, we have recorded that 2,098 scouts and 410 visitors have participated in JOTA 2003. Jean is also reviewing the awards she handles in an effort to make them more streamlined and possibly "Web friendly." Linda Mullally updated 66 club records with 2 reactivations. She registered 11 Instructors and 3 Teachers and sent 1 Exhibit kit. Linda compiled results of the Club Gazette Survey/comments and put together a findings report. She continued with edits to the beta -Online Instructors Primer, checking spelling and hyperlink functions, with revisions sent to Tom Hogerty. Gail Iannone sent 8 hamfest approval letters and 2 convention approval letters to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's approval of the events as ARRL-sanctioned, processed 6 door prize orders, and sent 12 handout packages for upcoming events. She also coordinated travel for Dan Miller to be the HQ rep at the Florida State Convention, February 7-8, 2004 in Miami. Mary Lau related how, with the help of Merrill Lynch personnel and Foundation Treasurer Roger Franke, K9AYK, we were able to help a Rensellaer Polytechnic Institute student complete his class registration after RPI misplaced his Foundation scholarship check. The student was ecstatic we could get this resolved so quickly! Regulatory Information John Hennessee assisted an amateur with local government zoning problem in Bristol, VA (WE4T), and with covenant problems in Alma, KS (W0MAF) and Williamsburg, VA (N4ARI). He processed the appointment of a new Volunteer Counsel (Richard Goldman, KG4NBS). He also created a regulatory Web page on commonly asked licensing questions for the FAQ page. Field Organization/Public Service Team The ARRL's ad-hoc committee on emergency communications held its introductory teleconference. Vice Director Dick Mondro chairs the committee and Vice Director Andy Oppel is on it also, with Steve Ewald as HQ liaison. A reflector was set up for the committee, and the group is organizing ways to address tasks defined in Minute 25 of the July 2003 Board Meeting minutes. Chuck Skolaut received and forwarded a 75-meter FCC monitoring request to SMs and OOCs in two ARRL Sections. He compiled and also sent the monthly ARRL Monitoring System Report to the IARU Region 2 Coordinator. Chuck forwarded to the FCC a report of illegal operation on 10 meters with truck-trailer identification. Leona prepared next year's SM Election Cycle calendar and shared it with pertinent HQ staff. EmComm Grants Dan Miller prepared materials for his seminar he was to lead at Hamfest Minnesota, this weekend. He has a new PowerPoint presentation to debut. He's doing planning for seminars to be held in 2004. The Level II updated manual went to the printer. Amateur Radio Education and Technology Project Mark Spencer reports that the two QST items on Big Project activities are receiving additional press on the Parallax Inc Web page that teachers peruse. He continues to receive applications for school grants. He worked on a survey of how Big Project schools are doing thus far. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List All Staff 11/27-11/28 Holiday Mark Wilson 10/31 Vacation Mary Hobart 10/31-11/3 Vacation Jennifer Hagy 11/3 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 11/6-11/7 Training Rick Lindquist 10/30-11/7 Vacation Mark Spencer 10/30-10/31 ARRL GA Section Convention/Big Project School visit Rosalie White 10/28-10/31 Vacation/ARRL Michigan State convention Wayne Mills 10/29-11/04 RSGB Margie Bourgoin 11/14 ARRL Louisiana State Convention Fatima LoRusso 11/3 Jury Duty Zoe Belliveau 11/7 Vacation `` 12/29-12/31 Vacation Danny Sayad 11/7 Vacation Kathy Capodicasa 12/2 Jury Duty Mark Dzamba 12/1-12/5 Vacation Pam Dzamba 12/1-12/5 Vacation Lisa Tardette 12/29-12/31 Vacation