IN-Newsletter Vol. 40, No. 26 August 5, 2015 - Covers the period July 26-August 1. Upcoming In-Person Meetings and Events Executive Committee October 3 @ 8:30am in Bloomington, MN Production/Editorial Reported by Becky Schoenfeld, W1BXY We are wrapping up work on the 2016 ARRL Handbook and the 23rd edition of The ARRL Antenna Book. Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R July ended with 167,313 members (167,276 in June). Additional details will be reported next week. Jackie Ferriera reports that July product sales were $259,960, exceeding the sales forecast of $239,618. Direct sales were $124,862; dealer sales were $135,098 (up 21% from July 2014). Most sales categories exceeded forecast this month including license manuals, Repeater Directory publications, and general operating and technical titles. Revenue exceeding $6K was earned in July from royalties of Kindle-format ARRL e-books. A news release was produced, announcing plans to significantly increase the availability of ARRL publications as e-books. The news was posted with the introduction of 6 more ARRL titles for Kindle. We conducted an emailing promoting discounted auto and home insurance to members--serviced by Liberty Mutual Insurance, an ARRL affinity benefit provider since February. The "upcoming events" graphic on the ARRL home page is currently promoting the following Division-level conventions: New England Aug 21-23, Roanoke Sep 5-6, Southwestern Sep 11-13, and Pacific Oct 16-18. Summary of warehouse fulfillment activity, reported by Steve Capodicasa: Week ending Packages fulfilled Member Premiums 7/31/2015 992 424 7/24/2015 954 453 7/17/2015 749 255 7/10/2015 955 780 Lab Reported by Ed Hare, W1RFI RFI Mike Gruber wrote some proposed changes to the FCC rules and forwarded them to Ed Hare. Most of these proposed changed involved improved labeling requirements for Class A devices. He also proposed reducing the limits for Part 15 lighting devices to Part 18 levels. Mike Gruber made some final changes to the EMVC Committee report for Chairman Kermit Carlson. Mike Gruber worked on forming the recommended practice committee with Jerry Ramie. As previously reported in June, Mike Gruber helped investigate the noise from the new HVAC system that has been plaguing W1HQ. The noise was determined to be associated with the fan motors. At the time, representatives from the contractor and manufacturer looked at the problem, and some suggestions were made as to how the problem might be further investigated and corrected. Greg Kwasowski now reports that they will be back next week in order to try a proposed cure. TravelPlus Mobile GPS There are no longer any good options for downloading the TravelPlus GPS for the Garmin. Garmin has announced that "Firefox no longer supports this plugin." Chrome no longer allows plugins. The Garmin security setting changes for IE doesn't seem to work. You may be able to use plugins previously installed, but this doesn't help new customers. Field Services & Radiosport Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N DXCC Paper/Fieldcheck Processing Time 3 Weeks Logbook Processing Time 2-4 Business Days Number of Centennial applications processed: Centennial Challenge QSO 1992 W1AW/WAS 1582 Field Organization/Public Service Team Several cases of interference taking place were received this week, one involving 3952 kHz reported by a Nevada station, one in South Dakota occurring on a 2 meter repeater, and an update on continuing interference on 3990 kHz in the Pennsylvania area. Lack of identification on the 446.000 MHz calling frequency was observed in Louisiana by individuals speaking in what sounded like Arabic. Obscene language and alleged threats were heard on 7200 kHz. These cases were forwarded to the appropriate OOs to check out. Questions handled included the Parity Act, operating in Canada, 60 meters, 440 MHz license requirements, operation in parks and near historic sites, and proper identification while taking part in a public service event. Chuck conducted one morning code practice at W1AW and hosted 2 guest operators. Education Services Reported by Debra Johnson, K1DMJ During June and July we recorded 89 instructor registrations, 10 teacher registrations, and 74 ham radio license class listings. Education & Technology Program We completed 2 sessions of the Introduction to Wireless Technology, TI-1 with 22 participants form 16 states. Ten participants were licensed entering the TI and 9 indicated an interest in getting licensed afterwards. The TI-2 on Remote Sensing and Data Gathering was completed with 10 participants from 8 states. Teachers continue to express their appreciation for the resources and training, and to donors for making the training possible by providing for travel and accommodation expenses. ARISS Scheduled school contacts resumed in late June. In a unique collaboration, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, RN3DT supported contacts with 3 US schools/events: on July 1 with Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on July 8 with Kopernik Observatory and Science Center in Vestal, New York and on July 18 with Frontiers of Flight Museum Moon Day celebration in Dallas, Texas. Astronauts Kjell Lindgren, KO5MOS and Kimiya Yui KG5BPH arrived on the ISS on July 24, and Yui immediately took up the reigns for scheduled contacts speaking with students at United Space School in Seabrook, TX on July 28. Watch a video<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZVWkPPLCEM&feature=youtu.be> of the Tulsa contact and local news coverage<http://www.dallasnews.com/photos/20150718-from-dallas-to-orbit-children-in-dallas-talk-directly-with-crew-onboard-the-international-space-station.ece> of the contact with the Frontiers of Flight Museum Moon Day event. International contacts during June-July included one in Chile, one in Australia, one in Russia, and on July 31, one at the World Scouting Jamboree in Japan. A particularly fine video<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGhQ8OamfTY&feature=player_embedded> of that contact with astronaut Lindgren reflects the truly international flavor of that event and of the ARISS program. Scouts asking questions represented countries around the world. The ARISS program launched a public fundraising campaign with ad in the August issue of QST. Read more in the ARRL news story<http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter?issue=2015-07-16>. Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, ARISS Chairman, attended ISS R&D conference held in Boston, July 9 and made some promising industry contacts that may lead to funding support. The Russian ARISS team sponsored another SSTV event on July 17-19 in celebration of 40th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz mission. Hams around the world posted some very nice images on the ARISS SSTV web page<http://spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/index.php>. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Hamfest/Member Contact/ARRL Representative/Meetings/Vacations All Staff 9/7 Holiday Bob Allison 8/6-8/9 Duke City Convention, Albuquerque, NM `` 8/14-8/16 Alabama State Convention, Huntsville, AL `` 10/18 Connecticut State Convention, Meriden, CT Steve Capodicasa 8/12 PTO `` 8/24-8/28 PTO `` 9/21-9/25 PTO Mike Corey 8/21-8/23 West Virginia State Convention, Weston, WV `` 11/13-11/15 HamJam, Alpharetta, GA Steve Ewald 7/28-8/7 PTO Steve Ford 8/14-8/17 PTO `` 8/24-8/28 PTO `` 9/3-9/4 PTO Mike Gruber 8/24-8/28 PTO `` 9/28-10/2 PTO `` 10/16 NEAR-Fest, NH Ed Hare 9/11-9/13 Southwestern Division Convention, Torrance, CA Dan Henderson 9/5-9/6 Roanoke Division Convention, Shelby, NC Gail Iannone 8/27-9/4 PTO Bob Inderbitzen 8/6-8/9 Summerfest, Austin, TX `` 8/21-8/23 New England Division Convention, Boxborough, MA `` 10/16-10/18 Pacific Division Convention, San Ramon, CA Debra Johnson 8/14 PTO `` 8/31-9/4 PTO `` 9/10-9/14 PTO Sean Kutzko 8/15-8/24 PTO Diane Petrilli 8/3-8/7 PTO Dave Pingree 8/19-9/22 PTO Brennan Price 10/16-10/18 Microwave Update, San Diego, CA Barry Shelley 8/10-8/14 PTO Chuck Skolaut 8/16 Kansas State Convention, Salina, KS Dave Sumner 8/14 PTO `` 8/24 PTO