<<042810.doc>> IN-Newsletter <<Microsoft Word Picture>> Vol. 33, No. 17 April 28, 2010 -- Covers the period April 18-24. Upcoming Meetings and Events Programs & Services Committee: May 1, 2010 @ 8:30am - ARRL HQ Administration &Finance Committee: May 5, 2010 @ 8:30am - ARRL HQ COO We continue to work our way through the bugs and issues in the new Web site. Many items have been fixed, including allowing users a longer log-in time and displaying Section News link on the home page. Hundreds of items have been tweaked or fixed since launch by our internal team and Fathom. We are focused on correcting the data problems in Field Organization and Clubs. Technical Relations Reported by Brennan Price, N4QX Brennan Price is in final preparations for the May meetings of Working Party 5A, where CPM text for WRC-12 Agenda Item 1.23 (potential secondary allocation near 500 kHz) will be finalized. Jon Siverling, among other duties, is preparing for the June meeting of the Study Group 1 Working Parties, where the United States appears poised not to make a PLT contribution for the first time in some time (this is a good thing). Regulatory Information Reported by Dan Henderson, N1ND We became aware of several errors/corrections to items in Part 97 that had previously been brought to the FCC's attention but were not included in the recent FCC action making certain corrections. A list was compiled and sent to Bill Cross at the FCC. Since these are changes to the Federal Register that previously had been approved by the FCC, they are not new actions and will be "cleaned-up" in a future FCC order. There is a new Wisconsin tower case involving a young ham who (along with his parents, both of whom are licensed) has been notified by the town that the tower was not properly permitted and must be removed. Unfortunately, it indeed appears that the tower (erected before the youngster was licensed) was erected without the required permits. The licensees have been told by their retained attorney (and the ARRL Regulatory Information office) that they need to do what is necessary to comply with the town ordinances. The town has given the family a 60-day extension to complete the process. The issue here is not over height - it is over the proper installation, safety documents, and permits for the tower base. Work on fixing items on the new website continued during the week. There are problems with the Field Day locator that are requiring manual intervention until the applet can be fixed. These include the inability for a user to edit information they have previously input and the need to manually approve every item for publication. These will be addressed as the IT staff works their way through the known problems. In the meantime, the general framework of the locator is working with over 250 sites listed on the applet by week's end. There are also problems with databases for the Grassroots portions of the website that are being addressed. The RIB Manager, in his role as Field Day Manager, participated in an Atlantic Division Webinar on Field Day Public Relations and is also preparing to be the lead presenter in a "How to Maximize Field Day Fun" webinar, also sponsored by the Atlantic Division, scheduled for Wednesday May 19th. Finally, regular routine queries on reciprocal licensing and travel were handled as well as several queries related to expired licenses and vanity callsigns. Media & Public Relations Reported by Allen Pitts, W1AGP The past week has been a rollercoaster of a week in PR activities. The PRC's monthly conference call on 4/21 looked at the potentials for a 75th anniversary promotion for ARES, Field Day, the coming webinar, Dayton, and a very full plate of activities coming up soon. Thursday evening, 4/22, was the high of the Field Day promotion webinar done jointly with members of the PR Committee and the Atlantic Division's Bill Edgar. The webinar was well attended and has received many compliments for being informative and useful. It also resulted in many more requests to join in the PR email reflector. Then came the lows of the tornado in Mississippi. Unfortunately, once again no one seems to have taken action pictures or worked with the press despite excellent responses by the ARES folks there. Another dip was at the Ashville, NC airport. This event was not a "ham radio story" unless we ourselves injected hams into it. The issue was the pistol and question of impersonating law enforcement, not being a ham. The only connection to the story was the number of antennas on his car - and the more we stayed OUT of it, the better. Any comments would only have linked Amateur Radio and the event more closely. In between these actions, the www.arrl.org/field-day-pr page has been packed with downloadable materials for PIOs including the logo, banner, audio and video clips, release template, social networking information and more. Development Reported by Mary Hobart, K1MMH Diamond Club revenues continue to be strong. Through April gross revenues total $105,393 from 752 donations and the average contribution is a healthy $140. Reports through the end of April will be available next week, but these 2010 results for the first four month indicate a 7.5% increase in the number of contributions, a $16,000 increase in gross revenue and a 10% increase in the average contribution. The W1AW campaign continues to log strong results. The first ten days of returns show contributions totaling $47,843 from 743 contributions. These results put the campaign 73.6% of the way to the $65,000 goal. Special note: the management of this campaign, notably with the assistance of Amy Hurtado, has enabled Development to reduce the solicitation expense of printing the mail package by $4200. Plans for the 2010 Spectrum Defense Fund are underway. Production/Editorial Reported by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE Khrystyne Keane wrote and distributed The ARRL Letter for April 22, 2010. Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R The entire department responded to hundreds of email messages and phone calls involving the new web site. We have answered over 600 messages coming into the generic "Contact ARRL" form and another 150-200 messages per day into the membership and publication sales links. Many telephone inquiries involve password resets and helping members re-navigate to previously familiar information or resources. The marketing team continues to test and relay feedback as additional functionality is introduced to the site. A membership mailing is being finalized, testing national vs. local messaging. During the last week, the warehouse crew fulfilled 904 packages for publication and product orders, 64 membership premiums, and QST mailing supplements. Now Shipping: ARRL backpack, stainless steel ARRL tumbler, and The ARRL Field Day Handbook. Coming Soon: Storm Spotting and Amateur Radio Dayton Hamvention Update: --Diane distributed and mailed badges, shirts and accompanying information to the big ARRL Dayton team-our largest team yet! --Our bulk shipment to Dayton leaves next week! Membership & Volunteer Programs Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N Contest Branch The debut Rookie Roundup on April 18 had mixed results. From a technological standpoint, it was a complete failure. The Getscores site( a volunteer effort unconnected with the ARRL Web site) was not functional for the event, and there was a lot of confusion on how to submit logs as a result. As a stop-gap, we were able to accept score summaries via email for two days. We received 65 Rookie logs and QSO info from 26 non-rookies. These numbers seem low, but there are other numbers that indicate a lot of interest; there were over 225 stations that registered to use the online scoring system. Had it been working correctly, we would have certainly seen more submitted logs. In addition, the Rookie Roundup blog received almost 5,000 hits in the four days before the event. In terms of impact, I think we have a solid winner with the event. The bands had a remarkable amount of activity, and several "Big Guns" reported having "Rookie Runs" on 20m during the event. Nearly all of the stations that submitted a log said they had a great time despite the technical issues and looked forward to doing it again. The majority of non-rookies that submitted QSO data are supportive of the event as well. An official post-contest analysis will occur this week, when Ward Silver, NØAX visits HQ. Work continues on the Contest area of the web site. The big project now is to transfer all the archived contest results data. I am developing architecture for that this week and hope to begin uploading results data shortly. WS7I has provided results articles for the 2010 RTTY Roundup. Plaques have been ordered for the 2009 June VHF QSO Party. Certificates for the event will be processed shortly. Next on the agenda is the 2009 IARU HF Championships. W1AW Joe updated the web code practice files. He spent some time finishing edits to the W1AW web pages. Joe also spent some time experimenting with Satellite AO-51. For one week, the satellite was active in V/S mode (2 meters up/12 cm down). Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the latter part of the month of April. Field Organization/Public Service Team Chuck Skolaut reports that radio amateurs from Kansas and Montana completed certification to become an Official Observers. Several complaints were received regarding 20 and 75 meter frequencies. Questions this week dealt with operating overseas, procedures for documenting infractions and a number regarding the new web site. Chuck also filled in at W1AW for two morning code practice runs. He compiled and sent the monthly Official Observer Summary to all OOs, OOCs, and Section Managers. The ARRL Monitoring System/Intruder Watch report was completed and forwarded to the IARU Region 2 Coordinator. A successful resolution was reported by the IARU Region 1 monitoring group; Radio Kuwait had begun transmissions on 7150 and 7190. With prompt action by the group, the transmissions were suspended resulting in clear frequencies once again. Leona Adams notes that many Illinois Section Manager ballots have been arriving at ARRL Headquarters this past week. The ballot counting for this section election is scheduled for Tuesday, May 18. Leona continues to work with Section Managers on updating their Field Organization appointment data bases. Steve Ewald attended the April 17th Delaware State Convention in Georgetown where he conducted a forum on ARES, NTS, and the ARRL Field Organization. He spent some quality meeting time with Delaware Section Manager Frank Filipkowski, AD3M, Maryland-DC Section Manager Jim Cross, WI3N, Atlantic Division Director Bill Edgar, N3LLR, and several other Section Leaders as well as many convention attendees and members of the sponsoring Sussex Amateur Radio Association. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Staff Absentee List All Staff 5/31 Holiday Margie Bourgoin 5/31-6/8 Vacation Joe Carcia 5/28 Vacation `` 7/2-7/9 Vacation `` 7/16 Vacation `` 7/23 Vacation `` 7/30 Vacation Jackie Cornell 5/12-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Steve Ewald 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Norm Fusaro 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Scott Gee 5/13-5/14 Vacation Katie Glass 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Mike Gruber 6/1-6/4 Vacation Joel Hallas 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Dan Henderson 4/30-5/5 SC Section Convention, Spartanburg, SC/Vacation `` 6/22-7/5 Friedrichshafen/Vacation Mary Hobart 5/12-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton OH `` 5/21 Vacation `` 6/10-6/13 HamCom, Dallas, TX Amy Hurtado 5/12-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Bob Inderbitzen 5/12-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Khrystyne Keane 5/13-5/16 Contest University/Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Joel Kleinman 5/4 Vacation Harold Kramer 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Lisa Kustosik 5/17 Vacation Sean Kutzko 5/12-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Rose-Ann Lawrence 5/12 Vacation Amy Leary 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH `` 5/17 Vacation Maryann Macdonald 5/12-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Bill Moore 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Diane Petrilli 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Kim Piatek 5/12-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Allen Pitts 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Brennan Price 4/30 Vacation `` 5/8-5/21 ITU-R Working Party 5A&5B, Geneva Chuck Skolaut 5/12-5/18 Vacation Dave Sumner 4/30-5/3 Emcomm West, Reno, NV `` 5/13-5/16 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH `` 6/23-6/28 Friedrichshafen, Germany `` 6/29-7/13 Vacation