IN-Newsletter Vol. 27, No. 50 December 15, 2004 Upcoming Meetings Board Meeting January 21-22, 2005 in Windsor, CT Development With three weeks to go until the end of the fiscal year, Development welcomes every dollar to get closer to the goal for the year. The 2005 Spectrum Defense Fund has topped $187,000 from more than 3500 donors, for a healthy average contribution of $53. The new Year-End campaign is off to a slow start, having raised just under $3000. Diamond Club renewals have been strong. The design for a Diamond Club promotional piece to accompany new membership cards mailed each week is nearly complete. This project is part of a major push to build the Diamond Club in 2005. The Member Awards program glitch has been resolved and new certificates mailed. So far we've taken more than 20 orders for plaques for 50- 60- and 70- year members. A complete list will be sent to Directors who may wish to present plaques in person. Final distribution of funds of $2100 was received from the Marion Evans Trust. The total of this estate gift is approximately $43,000. The ARRL Foundation Board is voting on three grant proposals, due by December 20. Media & Public Relations Toy Drive gifts still coming in - won't stop :-) February QST article on Toy Drive is done as well as McGan Award announcement. Leonard Award candidates' materials were sent to all PR Committee for conference call 12/14. Gary Pearce, KN4AQ, is shooting videotape for upcoming video magazine on ham radio featuring ARRL. BPL issues remain a major topic. Production/Editorial We reviewed printer's proofs of the January/February 2005 issue of QEX. Bob Schetgen turned in The World Above 50 MHz and the Hints & Kinks columns for February QST. Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter, Vol. 23, No. 48, distributed to 67,216 members on December 10. There were a couple of complaints regarding delayed delivery. Rick prepared/edited news stories on a BPL field trial that must work with a local ham club as a stipulation of its experimental license; a Georgia city that has legislated around CC&Rs for ham antennas in new developments; ARISS school group contacts in Quebec and Long Island; the Andaman VU4 DXpedition; FCC proposes another fine for Jack Gerritsen, ex-KG6IRO, for malicious interference; SCAMP digital protocol on-air tests and more. Rick voiced, edited and produced ARRL Audio News for Friday, December 10. Rick also delivered the Happenings column for February QST to Production. Sales & Marketing $102,000 in product sales has been processed in the first eight days of December. The month is off to a good start. Additionally, we've accumulated 300 backorders for the hardcover ARRL Handbook. The printer will have the second printing completed within the week. In order to ensure holiday delivery, arrangements have been made to ship copies directly to customers from the printer. Deb Jahnke has donned her software programmer's hat to extract these orders from the computer for shipping. As the successful fall membership campaign winds up, we've readied the first membership mailings for 2005. Two mailings of 5,000-each will test the appeal of different premiums. The mailing list is made-up of a sampling of expired members from 1990 through present. The results of these mailings will contribute to planning for a larger campaign scheduled in April. Revisions to the fall/winter publications catalog were made to produce a post-holiday edition. A handful of new products make their debut in this catalog, including the 17th edition of Hints & Kinks for the Radio Amateur, The ARRL Emergency Communication Handbook, the 2005 Super Frequency List on CD-ROM and 2005 Shortwave Frequency Guide, The ARRL DXCC List--January 2005 Edition (now shipping), and the ARRL Periodicals on CD-ROM--2004 Edition. Additionally, two new online courses will be introduced: Analog Electronics and Digital Electronics. Lisa Tardette shared some ARRL publications with a writer who produced a review for the December issue of Monitoring Times. The article includes reviews for The ARRL Handbook, The ARRL Repeater Directory, and ARRL's RF Amplifier Classics. A teleconference with Director Jim Weaver this week has set our team off-and-running on planning for the ARRL National Convention 2005, hosted this year by Dayton Hamvention. A report produced by the ad-hoc National Convention Committee has provided a framework from which we've started assembling what will be a memorable event for convention attendees. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 50 WAS Cert. (50 QSLs ES/C) 1 WAS/90th Awards 102 A-1 Op. Noms. 2 LTMA Inquires 7 VUCC Initial Apps. 3 Grids 454 VUCC End. Apps. 6 Grids 408 Replacement Awards 2 Awards Mailed 29 Also compiled the latest VUCC award listing for Feb. QST. Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week-WAC QSL card checking, work on report for Jan. BOD meeting including annual statistics, Extra Class certificates, A-1 Operator awards, and mail out all awards processed this week. Contest Branch We discovered a major problem in the log checking of the IARU results and decided to postpone them from the February to March issue of QST to allow time to ensure the corrections made by the log checking team were done properly. We have received the revised scores and they do appear to be correct. Data entry for paper Sweepstakes CW and Phone logs are up-to-date. Data entry for EME logs has begun. Working with Web Services we have made changes in how affiliated clubs are processed for inclusion and updating and have trained Contest Branch Assistant Kathy Allison, KA1RWY on how to handle this task. We initialized the Sweepstakes Cups and Pins database and have started adding information. These will be ordered in January after the log submission deadline and shipped upon receipt. We are working with the author for the September VHF QSO Party results on some specific data tables for his use. Logbook of the World QSO records entered into the system 57,902,445 QSL records have resulted 2,233,756 Logs Processed 85,340 Active Certificates 12,355 Users registered in the system 9,252 Current Applications 29 Ready Applications 0 Applications Awaiting Mail 29 Jon Bloom installed a new software tool for LoTW administrators that provides for merging of user accounts. He also finished the automated mergers of multiple accounts for over 700 LoTW users. QSL Bureau Processing time is 4 days. This week 143 pounds of cards were received from members. Cards mailed as of 12/12/04: 1,019,860. Cards mailed on 12/10/04: 58,800. The final mailing for 2004 will be on 12/30. Field & Educational Services Rosalie went to Danbury for Bill Barrett's talk to town officials (a practice for his 2005 CEP shows to Citizen Corps Councils). Rosalie thanks Bart for speaking at the F&ES dept meeting. She and Norm sent astronaut Mike Fincke his WAC certificate, thanks to Eileen Sapko and Dave Patton. Rosalie sent info to GW University's Crisis & Emergency Management Newsletter. The Quebec Prime Minister's wife attended Manordale (PQ) ARISS QSO activities, as did students from an Arctic school. Afterwards, Astronaut Chiao made a few general QSOs. A radio station that is part of the National Canadian Broadcasting Network, broadcast the École (PQ) secondary school ARISS QSO. ARISS purchased Kenwood SSTV units to test. Gail Iannone wrote 29 hamfest and 3 convention announcements for the February issue of QST and sent to the managing editor. She also sent 10 hamfest approval letters to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's approval of their events as ARRL-sanctioned. She processed 9 hamfest and convention material orders for upcoming events and coordinated travel for Dan Miller to be the HQ Rep at the Louisiana State Convention on March 11-12 in Rayne. She sent applications for 4 new clubs seeking ARRL affiliation to the Directors and SMs for their approval, in addition to 4 acknowledgement letters to the club officials. CCE Jean Wolfgang printed certificates and ID cards for course graduates, and produced the recognition letters for mentors who assisted students in November. Jean looked into possibly listing our online courses on CourseJunction.com in order to attract more students; currently, the listings are free. Since it isn't necessary for students to be licensed in order to take some of our technical courses, this website is another venue to get the word out. Our Level 1 Emcomm class filled in 12 hours, so Jean replied to many emails and phone calls from hams unable to register for the class. She handled resignations of several students from courses due to family emergencies or mentor illness. Volunteer Instructors/ Clubs/ Mentors Norm Fusaro was the ARRL rep at the West Central Florida Section Convention, and reports good interest in his forum and at the ARRL Forum. This week he helped several members with upgrading items and starting licensing classes. He interviewed a ham in Minnesota in order to write an article for the Web. He reviewed several articles submitted for possible use in QST. Margie Bourgoin processed 25 updates to records for affiliated clubs, 2 SSC renewals and 3 volunteer instructor registrations. She sent 10 Graduation Kits to volunteer instructors at their request. Margie also sent reimbursement checks to graduates for the CNCS grant courses. She compiled the stats for the "Public Service" column for February QST. She gave a tour for HQ visitors when Sharon's team wasn't available. Field Organization/Public Service Team With this cycle's SM nomination petition deadline upon us, there are two elections scheduled. In Arkansas, David Norris, K5UZ, and Terry Busby, W5ARS, are candidates. In North Texas, incumbent Roy Rabey, AD5KZ, and Tom Blackwell, N5GAR, will run for the next two-year term beginning in April. Leona is preparing for these elections, and continues to process Section-expense reports. Chuck Skolaut met and discussed several matters with Riley Hollingsworth during his visit to HQ. Chuck took the opportunity to pass along some Official Observer documentation in response to FCC monitoring requests. A new signal with 5-letter code groups has surfaced on 30 meters. Chuck also forwarded a pulsing-type signal report on 75 meters to the FCC's monitoring station; this signal has been heard along the Northeast coast. Steve Ewald turned in the "Public Service" column for February QST, and has been receiving monthly Field Organization activity reports from Section Leaders. He began catching up on correspondence after being out on vacation. He prepared for his trip to Washington DC for the Citizen Corps Affiliate meeting on December 14. Steve may be able to aid the ARESCOM committee by posting an informational page, when it is completed, on our Public Service Web page. Regulatory Information John Hennessee completed a draft FAQ on Part 97 matters related to emergency communications for Rosalie's review. He also assisted amateurs with local government zoning problems in Elk Grove Village, IL (WW9E), Big Bear Lake, CA (W6BBL), and Ordway, CO (WL7KG); and with covenant concerns in Des Plaines, IL (KB9VHI) and Bellingham, WA (W7SMN). Community Education Program (CEP) Bill Barrett crafted two CEP handouts: the first, a set of guidelines for local hams who assist at his 12 talks around the US, and second, a handout on how we hope local hams will interact with Citizen Corps Councils after Bill's talks. He set Jan 26 for his first talk (Saco, Maine), and networked with the SM. Bill and Rosalie reviewed specs for the projector we'll buy. As ARRL DEC, Bill did a talk similar to what he will use in Maine, for the mayor and lesser town officials in Danbury, CT (in his ARES district), and tested his new materials. Afterward, the mayor, who saw hams in action during a recent blackout, said, "anything for you hams!" EmComm Grants Dan Miller's trip to the Chiefs of Police Convention in Los Angeles proved exciting and informative. He networked with emergency communications people during tours of the LA Sheriff's Department and the LA Police Department, and met Ira Bornstein, N6AKI, Deputy, Emergency Operations Bureau at the County of Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. Bornstein coordinates emergency communications operations and manages a team including 900 RACES hams. Dan was visited at ARRL by Paul and Lynn Benyeda, K1PJB and KA2IIW, of the Manchester Emergency Management Office. They presented his graduation certificate from local Community Emergency Response Team training recently completed. Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program Mark Spencer completed the 40-M receiver curriculum and uploaded it to the Web for teacher access; he has already sent two of the receiver kits to requesting schools. He made a presentation at a local ham club meeting on the basic electronics lessons he's developing; feedback was positive. He received reports from a number of Project schools about licensing activity; the numbers look good with high pass/attempt rates. Mark had a rare opportunity to monitor from W1AW an ARISS contact with a Canadian school; Leroy Chiao's audio was crisp, clear and concise. One letter of acceptance has been received from one of the new grant recipients. Sincerely, Dave Patton, NN1N Special Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer DCP: lk Staff Absentee List All Staff 12/24 Holiday `` 12/31 Holiday Mark Dzamba 12/24-12/30 Vacation Pam Dzamba 12/24-12/30 Vacation Gail Iannone 12/20-12/31 Vacation Di Szlachetka 12/27-12/30 Vacation John Hennessee 12/18-12/28 Vacation Wayne Mills 12/20-12/30 Vacation Dan Henderson 12/21-12/30 Vacation Maryann Macdonald 12/27-12/31 Vacation Karen Isakson 12/17-12/24 Vacation Linda Kleinschmidt 12/20-12/24 Vacation Steve Ford 12/24-1/2 Vacation Rick Lindquist 12/27-12/30 Vacation Lisa Tardette 12/27 Vacation Fatima Lorusso 12/27-12/30 Vacation Greg Kwasowski 12/21-1/3 Vacation Mark Spencer 12/15-12/24 Vacation Dan Miller 12/20-12/30 Vacation Joel Hallas 12/23 Vacation Stu Cohen 12/20-12/24 Vacation Deb Jahnke 12/27-12/30 Vacation