IN-Newsletter Vol. 27, No.9 March 3, 2004 Upcoming Meeting March 13th in Dallas, TX at 8:30am Executive Committee Meeting Development The W1AW Endowment has passed the $70,000 mark with donations from 1046 donors. The average contribution has reached $67.41. The transition of Foundation operations to the Development Office is nearly complete. Our thanks to Mary Lau for her generosity in sharing so much history and information to make this an easy shift. ARRL was notified that $50,000 in funding for year two of the United Technologies Corp. (UTC) Emergency Communications grant will arrive by April 30. A final report on year one activities is due June 30. Six proposals to individuals were mailed seeking funding for a pilot Teachers' Institute as part of the Education and Technology Program. In a survey last fall, teachers expressed keen interest in a special training program with hands-on projects and special curricula to teach them how to use Amateur Radio in their schools. If funding is secured, the pilot Institute will be held for 16 teachers in Newington in August 2004. The budget for the Institute is about $52,000 for a week-long program. A corporate partner, Parallax, will fund interactive robotics projects and staff to assist. Joe Walsh, WB6ACU, and Bob Heil, K9EID, will visit ARRL March 4 - 7. They will tour headquarters on Friday March 5, visit with staff and operate AM at W1AW on Friday. Friday evening they will attend a special donor dinner. On Saturday Joe and Bob will join a multi-op team to operate the DX phone contest. Media Relations Media interest in the "@ sign" as a new Morse code character continued after Rick Lindquist's interview on NPR. The Associated Press out of New York called the PR department and interviewed Dave Sumner. The story was picked up by a number of media outlets nationwide. Jen talked with Monitoring Times Assistant Editor Larry Van Horn, N5FPW, who is working on the magazine's annual Amateur Radio issue. Larry plans to talk to Wayne Mills for an article on Logbook of The World, and is writing and editorial in support of the League's license restructuring proposal. Jennifer wrote the letters on Jim and Dave's behalf for the Annual Report. Those are being reviewed, and Sue has started work on the cover design. The February issue of Contact! has been posted to the PR pages. The January clip reports were sent out to Board members and members of the Public Relations Committee. Production/Editorial We checked printer's proofs for APRS: Moving Hams on Radio and the Internet by Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU. The Third Edition of the HF Digital Handbook by Steve Ford, WB8IMY, has been released to the printer. Dave Hassler pinch-hit for vacationing Rick Lindquist the first part of the week, writing several stories and W1AW bulletins. He also wrote a Web feature story and completed his monthly on-line column on League activities, "ARRL in Action." Bob Schetgen is editing the May QST Hints & Kinks column and material for the May/June issue of QEX. Joel Hallas prepared New Products announcements and edited a technical article for May QST. He also took photos for Short Takes and for the DXCC Web pages. Stu Cohen is preparing technical material for the May and June issues of QST. Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter, Vol 23, No 09, went out to 67,251 ARRL members Feb 27. Rick prepared stories on the NTIA spectrum management Notice of Inquiry and its potential impact on the Amateur Service, enforcement of unlicensed 10-meter operation, a non-radio-related jail term for Jack Gerritsen (ex-KG6IRO), ARRL's testimony supporting the two Hawaii antenna bills and 11 Web news briefs. He also edited "The K7RA Solar Update" and the "FCC Amateur Radio Enforcement Letters" and assisted in the preparation of "FCC Proposes Rules for BPL Systems," drafted by Dave Hassler, K7CCC. Rick also did audio interviews with Dave Sumner and with Peggy Sue Gerron-Rackham, now KE5AKW, for ARRL Audio News, which he voiced, edited and produced with voiceover assistance from Jennifer Hagy. Sales & Marketing Advertising staff is currently working on insertions for the May issue of QST which will contain 8-page color advertising tear-out section. Ads are also being finished up for the new Edition of the ARRL Repeater Directory. All three inside covers will contain paid advertising as well as interior black & white ad pages. The DXCC Yearbook will also feature paid advertising on Covers 1, 2 and 3. Deb Jahnke provided staff with a publication stock-out estimate and worked with Bob Inderbitzen and other staff members to determine quantities for titles that needed to be re-ordered. Payment reminders have been sent to quarterly paying Life Members and statistics for newly elected Life Members have been created for the upcoming EC meeting. In order to avoid last minute advertising crunches, Joe Bottiglieri has been working with Hamvention staff to ensure that our advertisers will receive their booth numbers in adequate time to insert them into May ads. All booth reservation and furniture rental agreements and drayage paperwork, etc., have been sent to Hamvention staff for processing. February's large membership campaign (81,772 pieces) was delivered to the post office on Thursday, Feb 26. Amateur Electronic Supply's upcoming spring catalog will include an ad insertion from ARRL for the Handbook, Antenna Book and Operating Manual. We're happy to announce that author Lynne Barasch's children's book, Radio Rescue, will soon be added to our resale offerings. The book is based on her father's experiences as a young ham in the 1920s. It's perfect for introducing the ham radio service to youngsters. We hope that parents, grandparents and teachers will enjoy its story telling. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS Certs. (200 QSLs F/C) 4 WAS Certs. (150 QSLs ES/C) 3 WAS End. (50 QSLs F/C) 1 5BWAS Certs. (500 QSLs F/C) 2 5BWAS Certs. (500 QSLs ES/C) 2 WAC Certs. (Replacements) 2 WAC Certs. (144 QSLs ES/C) 19 Friendship Awards 4 LTMA Inquiries 4 VUCC End. Apps. 2 Grids 52 Awards Mailed 11 Processing Status: Current or up to four weeks. For the coming week-WAS QSL card checking, Basic WAS awards for February, VUCC award processing/mailing, mail out awards processed this week, and try once again to get together with JPC to transition the Code Proficiency Program to W1AW. DXCC Branch For the week of: February 29, 2004 Beginning Cards 75,762 Cards Received 11,880 Cards Processed 7,922 Ending Cards 79,720 Applications Pending 617 Processing Time 6.5 Weeks Year-to-date (2004) Cards Received 61,457 Cards Returned 107,182 Note: Last weeks Cards Received was incorrectly reported as 67,385. It should have been 49,577. DXCC is currently mailing applications received on January 14, 2004. DXCC is currently entering cards received on January 15, 2004. Contest Branch Data entry for January VHF QSO Party paper logs continued. Certificates for the 2003 IARU HF World Championships were printed and will be mailed in the coming week. Several special request certificates were printed and mailed. The usual post-contest heavy volume of email for ARRL DX CW was handled. A layout problem with June 2003 VHF QSO Party certificates was handled with the consultant. QSL Bureau QSL Service Status: There is a delay of 2 weeks. This week 170 pounds of cards were received from members. Approximately 188 pounds of cards are waiting to be processed. Cards mailed as of 02/29/04: 147,700. No cards were mailed this week. W1AW Joe created the texts for the March W1AW Qualifying Runs. He processed both regular and W1AW/3 (IARU 2003) QSL cards and also worked the Wednesday through Friday late afternoon/night shifts for a vacationing Scott Gee. Field & Educational Services With sincere thanks for MVP Lisa Kustosik's intense last Friday blitz at the photocopier, Mary Lau was able to wrap-up scholarship processing and shipped the big boxes off to the Foundation Scholarship Committee. She is working on "At the Foundation" for May 2004, her last installment of the column which she originated July 1988 and which will now be carried forward by Mary Hobart. This week Linda Mullally updated 69 clubs with 4 reactivations. She registered 4 Instructors, checked club rosters for 3 clubs, and handled 2 SSC renewals and 1 Club Vanity email request. Linda also ran the New Amateur Report for clubs. Thanks to Tom Hogerty for revising the online auto- response clubs receive when they submit an update. Gail Iannone sent 22 hamfest approval letters and 2 convention approval letters to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's approval of the events to be "ARRL-sanctioned." She also processed 14 door prize orders, 2 label requests, and sent 12 handout packages for upcoming events. Amateur Radio Education and Technology Project The number of schools requesting the activity board has increased this past week due to coverage of the offer in eham.com and World Radio. The exposure in these media has touched an audience apparently not served by QST or the web site. This year's School Club Round up activities have generated a lot of questions from participants. Mark Spencer will be reviewing our support for School Club Round up to see if the activity is meeting needs and expectations. The parts for the remote-controller decoder kit arrived, and the circuit boards are due in early March. CCE Jean Wolfgang recorded 12 field exams, printed Certificates and ID cards for about 30 people who successfully passed the examination. She has posted 2 new sections. On March 1, registration will begin on those sections. Jean assigned 10 mentors to the EmComm classes that will begin on the first of the month and put out the next mentor call. Jean also graduated 50 students form various courses. Emcomm Grants Dan Miller tells us the SATERN conference in Oklahoma City went extremely well. 73 people attended and 78% (57) surveys were completed and returned. West Gulf Division Director Coy Day, N5OK, took time away from his busy weekend and paid a visit. 60% of the survey respondents were ARRL members, 23% had Citizens Corps involvement. Among field appointments were: 13 ECs, 6 AECs, 3 DECs and 2 NMs. By license class: T-14, T+-2, G-12, A-3 and E-25. The average number of volunteer hours spent per month equated to 13.4. 30 respondents totaled 402.5 hours. Not included, however, is one person who reported an average of 500 volunteer hours per month. All in all, this proved to be an extremely active audience! Dan was contacted by a reporter from the News Journal in Wilmington, DE. Go to www.delawareonline.com after February 28 to see the article by Sean O'Sullivan. Field Organization/Public Service Team The San Diego SM election ballots were counted this past week, and Patrick Bunsold, WA6MHZ, was declared elected in a race against Stephen Early, AD6VI. Patrick's term of office starts April 1, and Leona Adams has sent his initial-supply package. Leona also received SM nomination petitions for terms beginning on July 1 from incumbents Sharon Harlan, N9SH (Illinois) James Sellers, K9ZBM (Indiana); and Rudy Hubbard, WA4PUP (Northern Florida). Chuck Skolaut prepared and sent ARRL's monthly monitoring report to Martin Potter, VE3OAT, the IARU Region 2 coordinator. He also received and reviewed three separate tapes in response to the recent FCC monitoring request about 14360 kHz. Chuck received word via a local Official Observer about a tentative location of one source of the slow dashes (heard on 14.318 MHz) in Ohio. The interference may be generated by medical equipment. Steve Ewald helped to host a visit to HQ by Eastern Pennsylvania SM Eric Olena, WB3FPL, and his Assistant SM, Pete De Volpi, K3PD. Thanks to several HQ staff members who were interviewed on videotape so that these Section Leaders may share their visit with clubs and groups in Pennsylvania. Ed Hare's presentation on Broadband Over Power Line was also videotaped. Steve also worked with West Virginia Section Leaders as they submitted their news story for ARRL Web publication about the Kanawha County Emergency Operations Center. WV State funds were allocated to equip the center with Amateur Radio gear and the governor's late father's call sign (WA8AYP) is assigned to the station. Regulatory Information John Hennessee noticed an above normal number of amateurs who have been out of Amateur Radio for some time who wanted to get active in Amateur Radio again. He answered triple the usual amount of phone calls and a significant increase in e-mails sent, many of which were on the ARRL restructuring proposal. He submitted 46 changes for the SGL Reflector which were a combination of new subscribers and e-mail address changes. Thanks to Andy Shefrin for his help getting these implemented. The SGL Reflector is a mechanism for discussion of state legislative actions and other matters of interest to ODV, SMs, SGLs and LGLs. John also assisted an amateur with a local government zoning ordinance in Crystal River, FL (AL7HG). 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List Mark Wilson 3/24-3/29 Vacation Wayne Mills 3/12 Charlotte Hamfest Fatima Lorusso 3/19 Vacation Chuck Skolaut 3/8-3/12 Vacation Mark Spencer 3/17-3/20 ITEA conference `` 3/30-4/5 NSTA conference Rick Lindquist 3/26 Vacation Lisa Tardette 3/5 Vacation