IN-Newsletter Vol. 27, No.18 May 5, 2004 Upcoming Meetings July 15th in Newington, CT at 8:30am Programs & Services Committee July 16-17, 2004 in Windsor, CT Board Meeting Development The Spring Spectrum Defense campaign has begun to solicit responses. In the first three days of returns the campaign has brought in 668 gifts totaling $29,548 with an average contribution of $44.23 which is consistent with other Defense campaigns. The follow up solicitation will be mailed the week of May 17. The W1AW Endowment campaign responses have slowed down. The total today exceeds $203,000 from more than 1800 donors. A new The Legacy Letter for planned giving is complete and will be mailed the week of May 17 to Legacy Circle members, interested prospects and 4500 targeted members. Extra copies will go to Dayton. This is an important issue of The Legacy Letter since it is completely dedicated to the ARRL Endowment and will be an important planned giving tool moving forward. Arrangements for the Dayton event on May 13 are complete. The second year grant award of $50,000 from United Technologies has been received to fund ARECC training. ARRL received approval to realign the CNCS budget to allow more ARECC training under the federal grant. Media Relations Resources to help ARRL Affiliated Clubs and others promote the League's 90th Anniversary have been posted to the PR pages. Jennifer also wrote up a brief story for the Web and alerted members of the PR reflector. PR Committee Chairman Sherri Brower, W4STB, posted a note to the SM reflector, encouraging the spread of the PR materials to Public Information Coordinators and Officers. A national news release will be distributed shortly. Shortly after reading the text of President Bush's recent speech on broadband technology -- in which he encouraged further development of BPL- - Jennifer drafted a national press release to promote our opposing views. The release was distributed via PR Newswire to thousands of media outlets throughout the country, including Web sites and print and broadcast outlets. We got "hits" with a few on-line, radio-industry news outlets and news services. The release was posted to the PR pages, and to the PR Committee and PR reflectors. Jennifer asked Paul Rinaldo to do another BPL interview, this time with the IEEE publication Internet Computing. Jen passed along Paul's contact information, and the interview should take place within the next week or two. For the second year in a row, ICOM generously donated two handheld radios to be given as door prizes at the PR forum in Dayton. Additional door prizes (ARRL products) for the event have already been shipped out. PRC members have been hyping the forum on the PR and SM reflectors. Jennifer finalized the arrangements for the annual PR Committee breakfast meeting in Dayton, to be held on Saturday, April 15. Production/Editorial We checked printer's proofs for the new Fifth Edition of The ARRL General Class License Manual, as well as for the 2003 DXCC Yearbook. Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter distributed to 67,302 members on Apr 30. Rick prepared articles on ARRL's request to the White House to withdraw its support for BPL, release of NTIA's BPL field study, letter from ham-congressmen urging FCC to adopt ARRL's restructuring plan, FCC's denial of BPL comment filing deadline requests, "Amateur Amateur" feature column for April, ARDF 2004 USA Championships, Logbook of the World opening DXCC credits system, Expedition 8/9 switchover aboard ISS (more than one story), FCC revocation of W5EBC's license, the K7RA Solar Update and a few news briefs. With voiceover assistance from Jennifer Hagy, Rick voiced, edited and produced ARRL Audio News for April 30. Sales & Marketing The 2004-2005 Repeater Directories, the General Class Q & A 2nd edition, and VoIP: Internet Linking were all received into stock. Zoe Belliveau and the Warehouse staff processed all back orders in time to make April sales numbers. Danny Sayad and Fatima Lorusso are keeping extremely busy with the flow of on-line orders qualifying for free shipping. Anticipating interest from attendees about BPL and the ARRL's license restructuring proposal, two additional flyers were produced to handout at our Dayton exhibit. The popular emergency communications vest is now available in a larger, one-size-fits-most, size. The item can be purchased directly from ARRL (www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=9405), or through our vendor that handles other official ARRL merchandise. Online ordering continued to be brisk throughout the week spurred on by a successful email campaign and related promotion that ended April 30. Sales and marketing considerations were offered in discussions for planning the next edition of the ARRL Instructor's Manual. The new spring/summer edition of the ARRL Publications catalog has arrived. New products featured include the 2004/2005 ARRL Repeater Directory, TravelPlus CD-ROM, APRS Moving Hams on Radio and the Internet, VoIP: Internet Linking for Radio Amateurs, new editions of General class license materials, and more. The catalog is a major ARRL direct marketing vehicle, distributed to customers three times each year. It is produced in two versions: one for our publication dealers and a second version for direct marketing. Orders generated by the catalog are primarily received via the ARRLWeb e-store. A supply is maintained by the Sales & Marketing Department. Please contact us for additional copies. The next edition will follow in October. Two product sales mailings are being readied: 25,000 publication catalogs are mailing to members and customers. A solicitation featuring Experimental Methods in RF Design and a couple of our flagship titles will mail to 30,000 leads. Dennis Motschenbacher traveled to Atlanta, GA at the invitation of the Southeastern VHF Society. He gave a technical presentation related to increasing activity by introducing new VHF operators to digital mode QSOs via meteor scatter as a means of easily making long distance contacts -- even when the bands are "dead." Dennis was also the evening Banquet Speaker, entertaining the 100+ attendees with stories of his DXpeditions adventures and follies. During his talk, he paused to pass out Moon Pies to the spouses of operators present who had managed to make at least one EME QSO sometime in their Amateur Radio career. Dennis also traveled to the West Coast to meet with Mr. Yasu Hara, the Amateur Radio Director for Vertex Standard (Yaesu) in Cypress, CA and with Ray Novak, ICOM America's Division Director for Amateur Radio Products in Seattle, WA to discuss advertising strategies for the remainder of the year. He anticipates a stimulating competition will unfold as these two companies introduce their new top-end Amateur Radio rigs and vie for a major share of that relatively narrow but healthy portion of the market. The following items are available for ordering via the ARRL e-store: Ham Radio for Dummies #9392 www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=9392 Practical Digital Signal Processing #9331 http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=9331 Pen - ARRL #9386 http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=9386 DXpeditions of the Year (video) #9342 Shipping Soon! http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=9342 Kingman Reef K5K (video) #9349 Shipping Soon! http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=9349 South Sandwich/South Georgia (VP8THU/VP8GEO) (video) #9367 Shipping Soon! http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=9367 Voodudes--Burkina Faso (video) #9375 Shipping Soon! http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=9375 Membership Services Awards Branch 5BWAS Cert. 1 A-1 Op. Noms. 31 LTMA Inquiries 1 LTMA Records to Siebel 58 VUCC Plaque (1st on 241 GHz) 1 Awards Mailed 20 Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week-Basic WAS awards for April, U.S. WAC, A-1 Operator, and VUCC awards, plus filing chores associated with the latest batch of LTMAs issued. DXCC Branch For the week of: April 25, 2004 Beginning Cards 39,938 Cards Received 17,090 Cards Processed 8,608 Ending Cards 48,420 Applications Pending 335 Processing Time 1.8 Weeks Year-to-date (2004) Cards Received 150,020 Cards Returned 231,059 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on April 19, 2004. DXCC is currently entering cards received on April 26, 2004. Three conventions were attended this past weekend. Wayne Mills in Missouri, Dan Henderson in South Carolina and Bill Moore attended the Birmingham Hamfest. In Birmingham, Bill checked 10 DXCC apps and 1 WAS application. Judy Miller has been promoted to the position of Senior DXCC Awards Technician. QSL Bureau There is a delay of 6 days. This week 107 pounds of cards were received from members. Approximately 150 pounds of cards are waiting to be processed. Cards mailed as of 05/02/04: 381,675. No cards were mailed this week. W1AW Thanks to members of the Candlewood ARA for their participation Sunday, May 2, in the New England QSO Party. (And thanks also to Mark Spencer, WA8SME for his participation on Saturday, May 1.) All total, 347 CW/SSB QSOs were made, on 40 and 20 meters, for a claimed score of 20,592. When not active in the contest, CARA members were also QRV on other bands handing out QSOs with W1AW/90. Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the month of May. He hosted the Candlewood ARA members during their NE QSO Party activity. Scott also handled some evening phone sales calls in the daily 5 PM to 8 PM time slot and worked the early afternoon shift on Friday for a vacationing Joe Carcia. Joe updated the web code practice files. He created the texts for the May W1AW Qualifying Runs. He also processed a few Qualifying Run endorsements and one certificate. Joe uploaded W1AW/90 logs to LoTW and prepared the station's visitor op stations for the NEQP activity. Field & Educational Services Rosalie updated ARRL information for NVOAD (National Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters), at their request. She worked some PSC issues with Wade Walstrom. She reviewed two of NASA's education policies, at their request, in preparation for planning future ARISS objectives. She provided material for the new Educator Astronauts per NASA request. She worked with Gail on the ways to process clubs for ARRL's Executive Committee. Thanks to Linda for assisting with special club paperwork. Gail Iannone finished up things for the Dayton Hamvention, including the packing of all handouts. She sent 7 hamfest and 2 convention approval letters to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's approval of the events as ARRL-sanctioned, and processed 19 material orders for upcoming events. She sent 10 sets of club paperwork on ARRL affiliation to the Executive Committee for their approval -- she started handling this after the Mailroom and Stockroom staffs began handling hand-out packaging for events. She coordinated travel for the following HQ staff: Chuck Skolaut, Iowa State, June 11-12 in Sioux City; Mark Spencer, West Gulf Division, June 18-19 in Arlington, TX; and Bill Moore, Northern Florida Section, Feb. 11-13, 2005 in Orlando. Linda Mullally updated 28 club records and handled one club reactivation. She registered 6 volunteer instructors. She checked membership rosters for 2 clubs, handled 1 SSC renewal, 1 club vanity email request, and 3 label requests from clubs. She dealt with numerous emails regarding an email spoofer. Field Organization/Public Service Team Steve Ewald has been collecting comments from Field Organization and NTS Leaders about a progress report from the Ad-Hoc Committee on ARES Communications, and he took part in an ARESCOM telecon. ARRL SMs were sent the package about BPL grassroots campaigning; some spread the word to their members via ARRL's Section Web and e-mail services. Steve provided ARES information to FEMA Region X, at their request. Ohio SM Phillips visited Steve, Leona, Chuck, John and Rosalie. At Connecticut SM Doane's request, he attended the Section Cabinet Meeting. Steve prepped for his trip to the ARRL Louisiana State Convention. Leona Adams reports that Kent Olson, KA0LDG, SM of North Dakota, has been nominated for a new term of office. She sent over 40 initial supply packages for new Field Organization appointees and handled a steady flow of appointment changes, cancellations and section expenses. Chuck Skolaut learned that a 12-meter intrusion problem was resolved with help of an ARRL Monitoring System volunteer in San Diego. The intruding signals identified by the radio amateur, had occupied 24.800 - 24.900 kHz, overlapping the first 10 kHz of the 12-meter amateur band. The signals were caused by a Coastal Ocean Dynamics Applications Radar (CODAR), an ocean current-mapping technology used to monitor currents in the San Diego and Baja California areas. Chuck contacted SMs, OOCs and OOs to ask for help to document unlicensed radio operations on 10 meters on behalf of the FCC. CCE Jean Wolfgang reports that 20 students are taking the Technician on-line license course, and 8 of them, or about 37%, became members. She learned a little more about the CTDLC site (the organization that hosts our on-line courses). This helps her with finding the answers to some of our students' and mentors' questions. Jean assisted in setting up a hybrid course and designing a new form to help the mentors and ARRL with the administration of the hybrid courses. She prepared reimbursement checks, certificates and ID cards for 58 students. Regulatory Information John Hennessee has received a number of comments from amateurs on the regulatory aspects of the Amateur Radio response to BPL this week. He also updated the ARRL presentation designed to be used in local government presentations at http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/PRB-1_Pkg/prb1pres.html, which lists specific instances in which amateurs have provided public service communications. John assisted amateurs with local government zoning problems in Pomfret, CT (KE1LI) and Washoe County, NV (KA7Q). Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program Mark Spencer reports the OPTAScopes finally were delivered; they have been on backorder since November. The scopes have been sent, completing the delivery of the activity board kits for the schools. He also delivered the kits to Joe Walsh and Bob Heil, who requested them during their recent visit. The shipments included a request for funding of the next kit, a DSP/L/C/Resonance Exploration board. Mark has now completed exhibiting at the series of 3 teacher's conferences; over 42,000 teachers attended the series -- good exposure for the Program. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List All Staff 5/31 Holiday Dave Sumner 4/27-5/6 Geneva, ITU working party 6E Meeting `` 5/12-5/16 Vacation Mark Wilson 5/10 Vacation Jennifer Hagy 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention `` 5/17 Vacation `` 5/18 Training Seminar `` 5/28-6/1 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 5/13-5/17 Vacation `` 6/4-6/5 Georgia Section Convention `` 6/19-6/20 HamCom - Dallas `` 7/23-7/25 Central States VHF - Toronto `` 8/27-8/29 SW Division Convention - Phoenix Kathy Capodicasa 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention 5/24-5/28 Vacation Danny Sayad 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention Dan Miller 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention Wayne Mills 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention Robert Inderbitzen 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention `` 7/19-7/30 Vacation Roseanne Lawrence 5/13-5/16 Vacation Fatima Lorusso 5/17-5/19 Vacation `` 6/14 Vacation Bill Moore 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention Joel Hallas 5/13pm-5/16 Dayton Hamvention `` 5/17 Vacation Dean Straw 5/14-5/16 Dayton Hamvention Janet Rocco 6/29 Jury duty Cathy Stepina 6/3-6/13 Vacation Zoe Belliveau 6/21-6/21 Vacation Scott Gee 5/13-5/14 Vacation Joe Carcia 5/28pm-6/4 Vacation