IN-Newsletter Vol. 27, No.40 October 5, 2004 Upcoming Meetings Executive Committee October 16th in Dallas, TX at 8:30am United States Telecommunications Training Institute Course: Amateur Radio Administration October 18-22 in Newington, CT Ballot Counting, Director/Vice Director Elections November 19th in Newington, CT A & F Committee November 20th in Newington, CT at 8:30am Development The 2005 Defense campaign is seeing first results of more than $9300 from 165 donors. The follow up segments are scheduled to be mailed the week of October 11. With a good draft report from Project Coordinator Dan Miller, the final CNCS report for Year Two has been submitted. Development is reviewing a draft report from CNCS on our data collection protocols for emergency communications volunteer data. Under the leadership of Rosalie White, Development is assisting in the interviewing for the CEP Coordinator for the CNCS-funded pilot project. Preparations are being made to receive and log 2005 ARRL Foundation scholarships. Media & Public Relations Allen Pitts worked with Ed Hare & Dave Patton for USA Today BPL article. Responded to Chicago Sun Times. Interview with Iowa Gazette News. Work with Rebecca Ward of Citizens' Corps (D.C.) relating to an article on their training and ham radio (CERT and CCEP). Work on changes and updates to PR parts of web (more to come) and PR folders. Attended half day class on using Bacon's media database. Review of notes available in preparation for budget meetings. PSA's to PA, FL and WA contacts. Also took part in annual ARES SET drill on 10/2 and with corresponding TV coverage from WTNH. Production/Editorial The November/December 2004 issues of QEX and NCJ have been released to the printer. We ordered Your Introduction to Morse Code and the reprint of the first issue of QST. Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter, Vol 23, No 39 (Oct 1, 2004) distributed to 67,070 members--up slightly from last week. Rick prepared/edited stories on the UPLC BPL conference, Hurricane Jeanne ARES/RACES response, ARISS QSO with Australian school, ARRL member to head radiocommunication relief effort to Haiti, JOTA 2004, federal employees can designate CFC pledges to ARRL, and several news briefs. He also edited the September Youth column by Andrea Hartlage, KG4IUM, and the FCC enforcement letters. Rick voiced, produced and edited ARRL Audio News for October 1. Sales and Marketing Another 1,500 orders for the 2005 Handbook were taken this week, bringing sales to the 6,500-units mark. This far exceeds recent years of first-month sales. A 20,000 piece membership mailing has been turned over to the direct mail production house. The mailing list is concentrated on members who have lapsed over the last couple of years. Creative approaches to planning this mailing have directly influenced the list selection, package, and appeal. A preliminary look at September's publication sales indicates that revenues exceeded the plan by a modest margin. This is fairly significant since it means we overcame a sales month where most of the orders were for new Handbooks--and these sales will not be booked until October. During the past several months, advertising has been focusing on new advertiser recruitment as well as attempts to lure past advertisers back into QST. These efforts are paying off. We have included the following past or new advertisers in at least one of the last three QST issues: A & A Engineering; Bencher, Inc; Command Productions; Davis Instruments; G-Whiz Antenna; Idiom Press; International Antenna Corporation; International Crystal MFG; Maxsell Corporation; Micro Ham; ONV Safety Belt Co; Palstar Inc; Pietro Begali; Redstar Radio and Tashjian Towers Corporation. Barnes & Noble, one of our mainstream book buyers has just experienced a massive turnover in their marketing and purchasing departments. Lisa Tardette has been working closely with the new buyer as well as other Barnes & Noble staff to ensure that they possess up-to-date information on all existing ARRL products as well as ordering information for new products. Dennis traveled to Washington as the League representative for the Eastern Washington Section hamfest in Spokane and the Pacific Northwest VHF Conference in Moses Lake. In between weekend presentations at these gatherings, he called on major advertising and publications dealers in Washington and California. In brief, these sales calls suggest that the clients called on are still in a wait-and-see mode, looking for clarity on the amount of market stimulation license restructuring will bring to the industry. These clients indicated that we can expect to see stagnant advertising activity in the coming year. Membership Services Awards Branch WAC QSL Cards Checked 54 WAC Certs. (72 QSLs F/C) 12 WAS End. (7 QSLs F/C) 1 LTMA Inquiries 2 A-1 Op. Noms. 7 A-1 Op. Cert. 4 WAS in the 90th Awards 31 VUCC Initial Apps. 5 Grids 612 VUCC End. Apps. 7 Grids 538 Awards Mailed 12 Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week- WAS QSL card checking, Basic WAS awards for September, VUCC awards processing/mailing, LTMAs processing and plaque order, plus mail out the awards processed this week. Contest Branch The August UHF contest checked results were received from the log checker, processed into the master database and sent to the author. The annual update of General Rules for All ARRL Contests, Rules for ARRL Events on Bands Below 30 MHz, and Rules for ARRL Contests on Bands Above 50 MHz was prepared and is ready for posting to the web. QST Announcements and Web Rules for the 2005 January VHF Sweepstakes, RTTY Roundup, International DX, and Straight Key Night contests were prepared and sent to Production. Work continued on data entry for the 2004 September VHF paper submissions. The 2004 ARRL Field Day article for QST was finalized and sent to Production. Work on the expanded FD article for the ARRL Web continued. DXCC Branch For the week of: October 3, 2004 Beginning Cards 66,848 Cards Received 7,309 Cards Processed 13,777 Ending Cards 60,380 Applications Pending 696 Processing Time 5.5 Weeks Year-to-date (2004) Cards Received 427,246 Cards Returned 424,950 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on August 25, 2004. DXCC is currently entering cards received on September 2, 2004. LoTW fees collected via DXCC this week: $169.98. Logbook of the World QSO records entered into the system 51,489,497 QSL records have resulted 1,809,500 Logs Processed 70,714 Active Certificates 11,306 Users registered in the system 8,187 Current Applications 173 Ready Applications 60 Applications Awaiting Mail 113 QSL Bureau Processing time is approximately 4 days from receipt. This week 76 pounds of cards were received from members. Approximately 80 pounds of cards are waiting to be processed. Cards mailed as of 10/03/04: 801,460. No cards were mailed this week. W1AW Thanks to Mark Spencer, WA8SME and Ron Cady, K1RKD (of the Newington Amateur Radio League) for operating W1AW in the ARES State Drill this past Saturday. They made 104 QSOs, on 80, 20, 17 and 15 meters using CW, SSB and some PSK31. Earlier in the week, W1AW also hosted the Icom IC-7800 demonstration put on by folks from Icom. Joe uploaded W1AW/90 logs to LoTW and also updated the web code practice files. He also began processing HPM/135 log entries. Scott worked on slow and fast code practice files for the month of October. He worked the early afternoon shift on Friday for a vacationing Joe Carcia and also handled some evening phone sales calls in the daily 5 PM to 8 PM time slots. Field & Educational Services Field Education Team Linda Mullally updated 37 club records, and registered 5 Volunteer Instructors. She sent 400 assorted brochures, 6 Exhibit Kits and 7 JOTA Kits. She renewed 2 SSC clubs. She merged 2 clubs and handled 1 Vanity E-mail request. She sent 167 ARISS QSL cards, and assisted Leona with field appointments. She completed the F&ES Monthly Revenue Report (we brought in $1127), the F&ES Monthly Inventory Report, the EAD Video Inventory Report. Gail Iannone sent 6 hamfest approval letters and 1 convention approval letter to sponsoring committees confirming Division Director's approval of the events as ARRL-sanctioned, processed 11 hamfest/convention material orders and sent a Wouff Hong supply package for the ceremony to be performed at Pacificon in October. She sent paperwork for 2 new clubs applying for ARRL-affiliation to the Division Directors and SMs for their approval in addition to acknowledgement letters to the club officials. Rosalie reviewed over 40 resumes for the new 1-year job position coordinating the Community Education Program. She prepared a matrix of skills needed, and filled it out for each candidate, and then interviewed the first candidate, who lives in Connecticut. She finalized the budget expense report and plan words. CCE Jean Wolfgang emailed a solicitation to mentors, assigned mentors to students, and processed 5 classes for next week. On Friday (10/08) almost 100 students will begin an online course of some type. Since the Mailroom was busy with sending election ballots, Jean handled the shipping of the graduation packets, including certificates, checks, surveys, cover letters and ID cards. Howard Robbins is now looking for beta testers for the next on-line course, Analog Electronics. Club/Mentor Program Norm Fusaro interviewed a club mentor from the Anchorage ARC, and wrote a story on the club activities; he received some nice compliments on the story. Norm reviewed feature article submissions for QST and met with the review committee to discuss the articles. He continued work on his club/mentor workshop program. Regulatory Information John Hennessee spent the majority of the week working on corrections to the FCC Rule Book for the upcoming 13th edition, third printing of the publication. He also assisted amateurs with local government zoning problems in Los Gatos Hills, CA (W6EB) and Cross Village, MI (WA8BDA). Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program Mark Spencer was the ARRL representative at the ARRL Nebraska Convention; though it was sparsely attended, those in attendance took full advantage of forums offered. The ARRL Forum was particularly well attended. There has been additional media exposure of the upcoming JOTA event, and queries continue to come in about it. A Big Project school was dropped from our list when the teacher left, but another school was added when the SM worked to find a new teacher to transfer the equipment to -- it appears this will be successful. EmComm Grants Dan Miller drafted the final report for the CNCS Year 2 grant. Word about our Year 3 CNCS grant goal of 75% senior grads is spreading -- this week an 89-year-young senior sent a check for enrollment in the next Level I online class! Dan sends sincere appreciation to Dick Mondro, W8FQT, who graciously donated a digital camera to ensure adequate photos of seminars and conferences are obtained. Dan made arrangements to speak at the SSCA Recreational Vehicle and Yachters convention; Dick Mondro will also be in attendance. Year 2 UTC graduates now total 663. Field Organization/Public Service Team Chuck Skolaut received more information and then coordinated efforts concerning unlicensed use of 2 meters by hunters in Michigan. Documentation was received concerning problems to 2-meter repeaters in California, and interference on 20 meters in the northwest that's thought to be caused by over-the-horizon radar. Chuck prepared a Web-page and QST article announcing that nominations are open for the International Humanitarian Award. This news was also sent to ARRL officials including SMs and to Dave Patton for distribution to IARU member societies. With the focal-point weekend for ARRL's Simulated Emergency Test (October 2 -3) just now past, Steve Ewald has been hearing from many Sections Leaders and Emergency Coordinators across the country about their plans to conduct a test. Steve continued to be in touch with Section Leaders in all three Florida sections and others sections across the eastern US who dealt with the onslaught of Hurricane Jeanne the previous weekend or its flooding aftermath. Thanks to the Mailroom and others, Leona Adams reports the SM ballots and statements were sent to members in Nebraska, New York City/Long Island, and West Central Florida. Ballots are due at HQ by Nov 19, and will be counted on Nov 23. Roy Rabey, AD5KZ, was nominated for another term as North Texas SM (starts April, 2005). Leona coordinated the initial-supply package mailings to 40 new field appointees. 73, Sincerely, Dave Patton, NN1N Special Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer DCP: lk Staff Absentee List Dave Sumner 10/15pm Executive Committee Meeting, Dallas, TX Dave Patton 10/20-10/25 FMRE Convention, Queretaro, Mexico Rick Lindquist 10/8-10/14 AMSAT Symposium/ARISS Int'l Meeting Robert Inderbitzen 10/15 Vacation `` 12/2-12/3 Vacation Joe Carcia 10/15pm Vacation `` 10/20pm Vacation Dan Miller 10/7-10/8 Vacation `` 10/14-10/17 Pacificon 2004, San Ramon, CA Joel Kleinman 10/7-10/12 Vacation Scott Gee 10/8 Vacation Rosalie White 10/11-10/13 ARISS Meeting Heather Dzamba 10/11 Vacation Kathy Allison 10/20-10/22 Vacation Wayne Mills 10/21-10/27 Vacation Bob Schetgen 10/4-10/6 Vacation Mark Dzamba 10/11 Vacation Pam Dzamba 10/11 Vacation Danny Sayad 10/15 Vacation Kathy Capodicasa 11/11-11/15 Vacation