IN-Newsletter Vol. 29, No.11 March 15, 2006 -- Covers the period March 5-March 11. Upcoming Meetings & Events Skywarn Training April 7 in Newington, CT Administrative and Finance Committee April 29 in Newington, CT Development The W1AW Endowment campaign has surpassed its 2006 goal of $50,000 and raised more than $52,000. The 2006 Spectrum Defense campaign will be mailed the week of March 20. The letter and reply form are active on the ARRL website. The goal for this campaign is $180,000. The carryover total from the 2005 fall campaign has topped its goal of $40,000 and attracted more than $44,000 in contributions. The Education & Technology Fund has earned more than $27,323 so far in 2006. We have interest from one donor out of the eleven prospects to fund the 2006 Teachers Institutes. Thanks to the web story prepared by Rick Lindquist, the Ham Aid solicitation has garnered some response. Contributions now total $2,420 for this test campaign. The Member Loyalty letters for 2006 have been mailed to members for 40 years of membership or more. A proposal has been submitted to CNCS for reallocation of Katrina funds for four major emcomm projects by June 30, 2006. No word on when a final decision will be made on the proposal. More than 300 scholarship applications have been reviewed, recorded and copied for the ARRL Foundation Scholarship Committee. Development will attend the Atlantic Division Cabinet Meeting on March 18 in Frederick MD. Development is involved in teaching Technician licensing classes with 13 in-house students and 12 community students. Media & Public Relations At the time of this writing there are less than 24 hours to go before the official launch of the Hello campaign. The website www.hello-radio.org has gone "live" today following the many suggested revisions as people saw the beta draft. Buttons are here. Bumper stickers are here. Brochures are expected any day. 4 audio PSAs are ready for serialization (about one every 6-8 weeks) and 2 more are expected coming soon in Spanish. The video PSA is back on track and I am reviewing clips as we go. Projected date of completion remains April 1. ARRL website changes are already done by Tom Hogerty and just waiting for the "send" command. Rick Lindquist has been given material for his story, and the pr reflector announcements are ready to send. I will also ask for these announcements to go out on the club and SM reflector. Kevin Odell of the PR committee is actively working on the "long video" for Hello and has offers of help from John Webb and Chip Margelli. Prizes and materials have been sent to the NAB and for the booth there. Production/Editorial The May 2006 issue of QST will be released to the printer March 22, a day earlier than had been scheduled, to enable the issue to be mailed earlier. Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter, Vol. 25, No. 10, distributed to 66,284 members on Mar 10. Rick prepared/edited stories on the death of John Hennessee, N1KB; FCC action in Manassas BPL situation; FCC praised as "part of the solution" in FCC post-Katrina hearing; Dayton Hamvention Award winners (and supplied photos of Riley Hollingsworth to Hamvention); computer model predicts next solar cycle will be more intense; ARISS school contacts in Ohio, NC, and several news briefs and announcements. He also began work on The ARRL Letter, Vol. 25, No. 11. Rick voiced, edited and produced ARRL Audio News for Mar 10. Rick also took photos during a visit from several American Red Cross staff members. Sales and Marketing The membership total at the end of February was 148,452; a loss of 62 members over January's count. Membership is ahead of plan, however, attributed to beginning the year with a higher-than-predicted membership level. Our new Membership Manager, Katie Breen started with us this week. Katie comes with plenty of marketing and analytical experience as well as a robust history working with volunteers. She has also "walked the talk" by taking on the challenges of starting her own business - a business that required acute awareness of client needs. Katie is a high energy positive person with plenty of "street" smarts that will fit into the Sales & Marketing management style very nicely. She is currently studying for her license and plans to have it by the end of March. The Business Services group is working on May QST advertising. The tear-out is nearly complete and on target for dollars. May display advertising will feature two 2-page spreads featuring LDG and NCG/Comet. Green Heron Engineering will begin a 6 month ad campaign starting with the May issue. Geochron will advertise in May also. NCJ and QEX advertising solicitation has begun. The May/June issue of QEX has a new advertiser Timewave Technology. Product sales in February were $204,603 meeting 96% of our $213,031 goal. The product categories for the Handbook and other ARRL publications were somewhat soft this month. We saw higher than expected sales of Now You're Talking! (up $10k over plan). Prospective Ham Packages this week: 17 Online Courses 4 Field tests took place in February. A news release was prepared for 2 online Technician license classes beginning in April. A special invitation is being sent to students that have achieved EmComm Honor Roll, soliciting enrollments into the online technical classes at a special price. Already, the offer is prompting additional registrations (5 this week). ON-LINE COURSES Registrations During this week Graduations Antenna Modeling (EC-004) 1 0 HF Digital (EC-005) 3 1 RFI (EC-006) 0 0 VHF/UHF (EC-008) 1 0 Antenna Design and Construction (EC-009) 3 1 Technician Licensing (EC-010) 4 2 Propagation (EC-011) 0 0 Analog Electronics (EC-012) 2 1 Digital Electronics (EC-013) 0 0 Emergency Comm. Level 1 (EC-001) 15 25 Emergency Comm. Level 2 (EC-002) 17 9 Emergency Comm. Level 3 (EC-003) 1 12 Membership Services Contest Branch We edited proofs of the 2006 Field Day announcement and the QST version of the 2005 CW Sweepstakes article. Data entry for the January VHF Sweepstakes was completed and the combined List of Logs Received was posted to the ARRL web. The cancellation of the change in the W1AW 160-meter frequency required that the 2006 Field Day packets and web information be changed, so these edits were done. The 2006 FD packet was also prepared and sent to the Mailroom staff which handles distribution of incoming requests via the regular mail. Logbook of the Worl QSO records entered into the system 94,173,926 QSL records have resulted 5,065,424 Logs Processed 198,444 Active Certificates 17,905 Users registered in the system 11,854 Hybrids Pending Mail 90 QSL Branch There is a 4 day processing time delay. This week, 150 pounds of cards were received from members. The next mailing is scheduled for Friday, March 17, 2006. W1AW On Monday, Joe was visited by two Harris Corporation reps from the Broadcast Division. They spent about an hour talking about the signal noise issues with the Harris RF-3200 exciters used for the broadcast transmissions. On Tuesday, Joe spoke briefly with Gary Barbour, AC4DL of Ten-Tec Incorporated about modifying the Omni VI+ series of transceivers to improve on some CW keying issues. Also, Joe met briefly with Ray Novak, N9JA of Icom to talk about the D-Star 23cm repeater located at W1AW. Joe also processed a new Qualifying Run certificate and two endorsements. He also worked the early afternoon/night shifts on Monday and Tuesday for Scott Gee, who was on vacation. Joe also began working on interfacing an Icom HF transceiver to work with one of the Harris amplifiers. Field & Educational Services Field Organization/Public Service Team Representatives of the American National Red Cross and Alabama Section Manager Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, visited HQ this week. Dave Patton, Harold Kramer and other staff members met and discussed operational relationships between ARRL and the Red Cross -- especially in light of the 2005 hurricane season. Steve Ewald has been working on May QST and is receiving monthly Field Organization reports. He will participate with other member organizations of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster when they are expected to vote soon to add a "provisional membership" category to their present by-laws. Chuck Skolaut researched antenna zoning questions from Florida and Massachusetts. The FCC requested information on two separate cases, and we were able to gather and forward it. In addition, FCC asked for assistance in identifying a radar type signal on 40 meters. Several other interference reports on 2 meters are being investigated by Official Observers. With the Spring Section Manager election cycle nomination deadline upon us, Leona Adams received a petition from incumbent Vermont SM Paul Gayet, AA1SU, to continue for another term. She also received and handled two additional nominations from Oregon. Kevin Hunt, WA7VTD, of Oregon City, and Bonnie Altus, AB7ZQ, of Sheridan, will run against incumbent Randy Stimson, KZ7T. Leona is receiving statements and photographs from candidates in all four Section Manager Elections. ARISS PR: Rosalie networked with an Ohio PIO who will do a story on an upcoming ARISS school. ABC News did another SuitSat story for their Web site. (see second page of http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/Technology/story?id=1684714&page=1). The Cincinnati Country Day School QSO was webcast by Verizon Conferencing, and writers from four newspapers wrote about the QSO. The Hallyburton (NC) school QSO was covered in a story done by the News Herald, and the school superintendent was impressed with the students' excitement. The National Building Museum's web site has posted audio of the QSO from Discover Engineering Family Day. ARISS' Effect on Schools/Students: N8PK, an ARISS volunteer did a hands-on ham demo and ran a lively Q&A on ARISS with 100 fifth graders at a Maryland school. Florida ARISS volunteers got a scout troop on the air for a hands-on demo, and the first QSO was with NA1SS. Nearly 200 students, teachers and parents took part in Cincinnati Country Day School's QSO, and students from Hallyburton Elementary School listened in to prepare for their own upcoming QSO. For ARRL Members: On March 6. three astronauts earned their ham licenses: KE5HOC - Thomas Marshburn, KE5HOC; Robert Kimbrough, KE5HOD; and James Dutton, KE3HOE. ARISS News Update: ARISS School Mentor Tony Hutchison, VK5ZAI, received a message from astronaut Bill McArthur, relayed by Johnson Space Center, saying that Tony excelled at moderating a recent QSO. The message made JSC more aware of ARISS, and what it does for kids. International Aspects: Rosalie assisted a German ham with a news release for the media about the Lippstadt ARISS QSO. Field & Education Team Hamfest & Conventions Hamfests Hamfest Applications sent to Division Director for Approval 9 Hamfest Approval Letters sent to event sponsor 7 Handouts and Door Prize Material Orders Processed Label Requests for upcoming events 1 Conventions Convention Apps. sent to Division Director for Approval 1 Convention Approval Letters sent to event sponsor 2 Convention Apps. sent to Executive Committee for Approval 11 Clubs Approval Letters for Newly-Affiliated Clubs sent to Club Officials 0 Charter of Affiliation Certs. sent for Presentation to New Clubs 0 New Club Applications reviewed 0 New Clubs sent to Director & SM for Approval by Director 0 New Club Apps. Sent to Executive Committee for Approval 11 New SSC Application sent to Director, SM, & ACC for Approval 0 SSC Approval Letter sent to Club Official 0 SSC Certificate sent to newly-designated SSC Club 0 Acknowledgement Letters sent to Club Officials 0 QST Hamfest announcements for May QST 26 Convention announcements for May QST 7 Gail sent out room reservations forms to all ARRL Officers, Division Directors, and staff to be returned to her by March. Clubs & Mentors Clubs Club Updates 40 Club affil. assistance 1 Below 51% notification SSC SSC sent to ACC SSC Certificates 7 letters sent Instructors Instructor Reg 8 Teachers Teacher Reg Materials & Brochures Hello Assist. 1 Class Materials Graduation Kits Exhibit Kits/ brochure requests 5 Jota Kits 3 Label Requests Filled Sales Orders Processed 1 Public Service Reports Rose-Anne wrote, copied and mailed out letters to the Directors, SM and ACC about Mark Spencer's '06 Teachers Institute. She also assisted at a VE session, completed February inventory and assisted a ham with materials for his EmComm fair to promote Emergency Communications in the community. Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program-Mark Spencer I participated in a telephone interview with the LA Times this week. The focus of the interview was on an ETP School program being developed at Moorpark HS. My site visit to the school to discuss this program is scheduled for April 4th. Obviously the program is getting some attention. The article is supposed to be published Sunday. Some minor issues with the procurement of grant equipment were resolved, the majority of the equipment is in the hands of the schools with a few backorder antennas left outstanding. The lesson plans to support the ohms law exploration board are complete. The production boards have been delivered and meet specifications (they look really good). The board requires the mounting of two surface mount components, which I will do as part of kit production. I engineered a jig to check the surface mount components before the boards are packaged in the kits. Parts to populate the boards and to produce the kits will be ordered when some outstanding invoices are cleared. I am scheduled to give a speech/presentation on using space in the classroom next Thursday. A few additional teachers institute applications were received this week. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Staff Absentee List Dave Sumner 3/14-3/16 San Jose, CA VON `` 3/16-3/21 Frankfurt Germany IARU Region 1 EC Meeting Ed Hare 3/12-3/17 ANSI Committee Meeting, Piscataway, NJ `` 3/30-4/1 IEEE EMC Meeting, Orlando FL Joe Carcia 4/21 Vacation Scott Gee 3/29 Vacation `` 4/24-4/28 Vacation Wayne Mills 4/20-4/21 International DX Convention, Visalia, CA `` 4/26-5/5 Vacation Mary Hobart 3/17-3/19 Atlantic Division Cabinet meeting `` 4/21-4/23 International DX Convention, Visalia, CA `` 5/17-5/21 Dayton Hamvention `` 6/9-6/11 Ham Comm, Dallas, TX Dave Patton 3/16-3/19 Nebraska State Convention, Norfolk, NE Cathy Stepina 3/13-3/17 Vacation Sharon Taratula 3/20 Vacation Bob Inderbitzen 3/30-3/31 AES SuperFest 2006, Milwaukee, WI Dennis Motschenbacher 3/16-3/17 Vacation Steve Ford 4/15-4/22 Vacation Steve Capodicasa 3/16-17 Vacation `` 3/24 Vacation `` 4/7 Vacation `` 4/21 Vacation Jean Wolfgang 4/13-4/17 Vacation Steve Ewald 3/29 Jury Duty Mike Tracy 3/17 Vacation Debra Johnson 3/17-3/18 Atlantic Division Cabinet Meeting `` 5/17-5/21 Dayton Hamvention