<<030712.doc>> IN-Newsletter <<Microsoft Word Picture>> Vol. 35, No. 10 March 7, 2012 -- Covers the period February 26-March 3. Upcoming Meetings and Events Executive Committee: March 24 @ 8:30am - St. Louis, MO Media & Public Relations Reported by Allen Pitts, W1AGP March CONTACT! was posted, Gary Pearce would like to do a "Ham Radio Now" podcast interview about 60m activities, Peter Miller is working on an article about the recently signed Tax and Jobs Creation Act, Section 6414, which mandates a study of ham radio and its disaster capabilities. Jonathan Marks continues to work on his article about Amateur Radio in underdeveloped countries facing emergencies and the Discovery Channel continues to work on "how we invented the world" and the hams' role in cellphone development. We're also working with Doug Lamb, K4EK, in Hardin County, IN on media coverage of hams in the tornado destruction. We are very happy to see Doug (an ARRL PIO and PR-101 grad) that "gets it" about getting out timely info about the hams response to the media. Development Reported by Lauren Clarke The annual Loyalty mailing consisting of congratulatory letters, certificates and pins is being prepared. This program honors ARRL members who have been members for 40-, 50-, 60-, 70- and 80-years. For 2012, we are honoring more than 1,500 members who have reached one of these milestones! Margie is completing the 2011 listing of major donors (donors who gave $1,000 or more this past year and Maxim Society members) and legacy society members for the annual report. The Diamond Club has reached $44,595 in contributions from 224 donors. The Education & Technology Program has received $8,986 in contributions from 51 donors. The YASME Foundation sent $4,000 to apply towards scholarships. The Spectrum Defense Fund has received $33,056 from 231 donors. Production/Editorial Reported by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE Congratulations to Technical Editor Joel Hallas, W1ZR, who has been named the winner of the Dayton Hamvention 2012 Technical Excellence Award. This past week we released the following to the printer: 2012-2013 Repeater Directories, Hints and Kinks, 18th Edition and The Guide to Antenna Tuners, 2nd printing. Khrystyne Keane wrote and distributed the ARRL Letter and produced and voiced ARRL Audio News for March 1, 2012. Lab Reported by Ed Hare, W1RFI Product Review Bob Allison performed additional tests with the Triplexer/Bandpass Filter combinations using transceivers at the 100 W level to determine the actual band rejection in a real life situation. A data table was created and passed along to the Product Review Editor. All four generator/inverters arrived in the Lab and were inspected for testing the following week. If you see Bob in the side yard with large light bulbs, he's testing generators. Stop by and take a look. QST Bob worked with the 2011 Home Brew Challenge winner, Jim Veatch, WA2EUJ, with testing his winning transceiver as he made corrections in the DSP software. By manipulating coding, Jim managed to dial in on the optimum settings to reduce overall transmitted IMD. Bob made the measurements after each adjustment. This work was done to perfect the transceiver for an upcoming article in QST. RFI Zack Lau investigated and fixed a touch lamp RFI problem. A member asked about using an external ferrite toroid choke as a fix-Zack found that while there was some benefit-it was rather ineffective-it fixed the touch lamp on 20 meters and above, but radiated power levels well under a watt on 40M were sufficient to cause the lamp to turn on and switch power levels. A three section PI wound choke in the sense lead on the control board, as suggested in the existing RFI materials, completely removed the sensitivity of the touch lamp to RF. Museum Bob worked with Mike White, W1RSX with creating a cataloging system for the museum. Mike will be tagging and entering in each item to a new database. This is part of an on-going process to determine the museums assets and what will be useful to the ARRL's second century committee. Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R February ended with 158,075 members-a gain of 223 members over January. 74% of February 2012 expirees paid on time (vs. 72% last February). The gains were due in large part to greater than predicted acquisition, particularly direct mail. Field-based acquisition was up a bit due to good membership results at Orlando Hamcation. February product sales ended the month at $262,772, exceeding the sales forecast of $225,680. Direct sales were $147,621; dealer sales were $115,151. This is the highest reported sales figure for the month of February since 2004. A handful of new titles contributed the following sales: The ABCs of Software Defined Radio ($5,615), Get on the Air with HF Digital ($8,716) and Emergency Power for Radio Communications 2nd Edition ($6,088). During the last week, the warehouse crew fulfilled 1,084 packages for publication and product orders, plus QST mailing supplements. The mailroom assisted with fulfilling 1,582 membership premiums. Bob Inderbitzen attended Radiofest Monterey Bay in California, sponsored by the Naval Post Graduate School Amateur Radio Club. The event was sanctioned as the ARRL Santa Clara Section Convention, and was attended by Pacific Division Director Bob Vallio, W6RGG, and ARRL Section Managers Phil Steffora, K6TT (SCV) and Dan Pruitt, AE6SX (SJV). The event was also attended by many other SCV Section field appointees. Bob gave a presentation, touting ARRL's DIY campaign and related recruitment resources. The event was attended by many ARRL volunteers who support Amateur Radio exhibits and demonstrations at Maker Faire. Bob returned with 20 membership applications, including one new commitment toward ARRL Life Membership made by Donald Walters, W9DKI. A demonstration of the upcoming digital edition of QST was a hit with members visiting the ARRL booth-demonstrated on an iPad. Bob posted a photo blog from the event on ARRL's Facebook page <https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150591109857408.392049.20069212407&type=3&l=265de21a5a> . While traveling, Bob visited with members of the Pacificon planning committee, preparing for the 2012 ARRL National Convention in Santa Clara in October. He also visited with the site hotel, reviewing exhibit space and audio visual planning. Membership & Volunteer Programs Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N Field Organization/Public Service Team Leona Adams reports that Michigan Section Manager Larry Camp, WB8R, has been nominated to continue as Section Manager for the 18 month term of office that had been re-solicited in January and February QST. This term begins July 1. In Santa Clara Valley, Brandon Bianchi, NI6C, of Salinas, California, has been nominated to run for the next two-year term of office starting in July. Brian Jenks, W9BGJ, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, has been nominated to run for the Indiana Section Manager's position starting in July. Nominations for this Section Manager election cycle are open until Friday, March 9. One amateur from South Florida completed requirements to become an Official Observer this week. Chuck Skolaut received a number of complaints regarding 14.313 MHz as well as the 147.435 MHz repeater in California. Interference to a net on 14.320 MHz was reported, and this is being investigated. A report of interference to 40 meter operation was received from the Sacramento Valley Official Observer Coordinator (OOC). This interference was determined to be originating from a neighbor's grow light installation, and the matter was referred to the Technical Department's lab for follow up. The Michigan OOC reported some good feedback regarding an advisory sent for out of band operation after explaining the current band edges and privileges. Other questions this past week dealt with overseas operation, determining beam headings, rotator calibration, and antenna restrictions. Education Services Reported by Debra Johnson, K1DMJ Continuing Education Program Los Angeles County Disaster Corps registered a block of 15 students in the February session of the Intro to EmComm course. Our staff and IT staff have been working through some challenges with our website interface to the Moodle platform encountered enrolling this block of students, many of whom are not members or who have never been active on our website. Two new online mentors were activated to support this session. Amy Strickland and I met with Mike Corey KI1U and Ken Bailey K1FUG to outline the specifications for a new feature of the emcomm training program, which will track and acknowledge various training endorsements ARRL wants to promote among radio amateur emergency responders. The next step will be to take this project to the ARRL IT department for development of the needed database and website interfaces. License Instruction Amy Strickland has been busy approving license class listings this past month. 43 new listings were submitted. She's also been confirming a similar number of new instructor registrations. Scouting I've been having some exploratory discussions with hams in the field who are interested in creating an ARRL program and patch on radio for Girl Scouts. ARISS NASA received 100 inquiries about the proposal process for ARISS contacts during the recent proposal window that resulted in 23 submitted proposals. I will be reviewing the proposals along with other members of the ARISS US education group to decide upon a slate of US ARISS contacts during the July 2012 - January 2013 time period. Working with Dave Taylor W8AAS, US ARISS mentor coordinator, we completed development of a job description for ARISS Mentors that will facilitate recruiting new mentors to support the program. February contacts included one more of the US contacts scheduled through the new proposal process implemented last July. This was with Academy at Shawnee in Louisville, KY. The QSO between students and astronaut Dan Burbank, KC5ZSX on February 14 was via telebridge station ON4ISS in Belgium. The contact took place at the Challenger Learning Center in Louisville, Kentucky with the assistance of the Louisville Astronomical Society. Burbank chatted with students about experiments onboard the ISS and the effect space has on the human body, among other topics. The Academy, an inner city high school of 500 students, has been designated as the Aerospace Magnet School for Jefferson County Public Schools. The contact was part of a comprehensive education plan to pique students' interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. A news story <file:///C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\lkustosik\Local%20Settings\Temporary%20Internet%20Files\Content.Outlook\Z4HI049U\Here's%20the%20YouTube%20link%20http:\www.youtube.com\watch%3fv=L1QADg_avwU> about the event is available on YouTube. Other ARISS contacts in February with schools in Canada, Italy, Japan, and Belgium were supported internationally. Students from three schools, the American School of the Hague, the International School of Amsterdam and the British School in the Netherlands, took part in an ARISS contact on Monday, February 27 via station IK1SLD in Italy. This ARISS contact with astronaut André Kuipers was offered as a prize by the European Space Agency (ESA) to those schools who submitted the best suggestions for experiments or demonstrations that could be performed in microgravity on board the ISS using common everyday items. The youth were given lessons on radio signals and communications, which involved local radio ham experts. Education & Technology Program The teleconferences for the Amateur Radio Education Partnership (ARRL/AMSAT/ARISS) education group continue and have been stimulating some actionable ideas on ways to make better educational connections between the ETP, ARISS and AMSAT activities. Mark and I continue to dedicate a significant amount of time to prepare and react to these conference calls. Mark has been taking the lead in conversations with Bob Twiggs and others in the CubeSat community to promote the idea of a standard communications protocol for the CubeSat program. that the amateur radio community might take the lead to develop. Amateur Radio in the Classroom forum topics have been set up on the ARRL website, and links from internal web pages created. This forum is intended for teachers who are interested in teaching amateur radio and wireless technology topics in their school. We'll be ready to start promoting the forum soon. Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA) confirmed that they will provide financial support for the TI-2 Space in the Classroom to be held this summer. Yaesu and HRO will continue their support, providing discounts on equipment resources. Mark and I met with Karen Jarmon of CT Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT) to discuss local efforts to improve education in the Science, Math, Engineering and Technology areas and better prepare students for manufacturing and technology careers. We will be continuing the conversation to see if there might be some ways what we do with the ETP can be productive with CCAT's local efforts. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Hamfest/Member Contact/ARRL Representative/Meetings/Vacations All Staff 4/6 Holiday Margie Bourgoin 3/2-3/9 Vacation Joe Carcia 4/27 Vacation `` 5/25 Vacation Jackie Ferreira 3/23-3/27 Vacation `` 4/20 Vacation Scott Gee 3/21-3/23 Vacation `` 5/17-5/18 Vacation Mike Gruber 3/1-3/7 Greater Houston Convention, Houston, TX `` 5/4 NEARfest `` 5/16-5/20 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH `` 6/4-6/8 Vacation Dan Henderson 4/19-4/29 Idaho State Convention, Boise, ID/Vacation Mary Hobart 2/22 Medical Leave Bob Inderbitzen 3/29-4/1 AES Superfest, Milwaukee, WI `` 4/5-4/9 Vacation Joel Kleinman 3/13 Vacation Harold Kramer 5/17-5/20 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Zack Lau 3/22-3/23 Vacation `` 5/4-5/7 Vacation Monique Levesque 3/9-3/26 Vacation Diane Petrilli 3/26-3/28 Vacation/ASAE Conference, Colorado Springs, CO Allen Pitts 5/17-5/20 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Dave Sumner 3/23-3/25 Executive Committee Meeting, St. Louis, MO `` 5/16-5/20 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Larry Wolfgang 3/9-3/10 Oklahoma Section Convention, Claremore, OK