IN-Newsletter Vol. 28, No. 3 January 19, 2005 Upcoming Meetings A&F Committee January 20 in Newington, CT Programs & Services Committee January 20 in Newington, CT Board Meeting January 21-22 in Windsor, CT Development Development is preparing for the 2005 Annual meeting by finalizing Development financial reports for 2004. Gross revenue from fund raising activities for 2004 topped $1.5 million (including ARRL Endowment revenue) to produce net revenue of more than $1.11 million. The largest revenue fund for the year was Spectrum Defense, raising a total of more than $542,000 from combined campaigns. The Diamond Club raised $144,000 for 2004, and set the stage for dramatic growth in 2005. Contributions to the Education & Technology Fund fell just short of the 2004 goal, raising nearly $97,000, plus a grant for the first Teachers Institute. Development held expenses for 2004 under plan. The annual meeting of the ARRL Foundation will take place by conference call on Monday, January 24. Four new scholarships were added in 2004, and 5 grants were awarded to support amateur radio activities. Media & Public Relations The PR Committee met the night of Jan 11. I gave aid to WB2AHK in preparation for an interview by the NY Times. Media Hits was completed and an article about ARRL in Hartford Magazine came out. I also interviewed with Hap Holly for the Rain Report. I made a 30 second audio PSA which was improved by Johnny Donovan at WABC. The audio was then syndicated on Rush Limbaugh as well as picked up by many stations nationwide. It was promoted heavily by PIOs and is in the national Small Market Radio Newsletter , the Webcasters' Live365.com Radionet, and the national collegiate broadcasters newsletter. I have begun work on a corresponding video with volunteer help. The Leonard Award votes are in and a report was sent to the President. My work on projects including the NAB conference, initial Field Day promotional activities, IARU promotion, and the annual report continues. The November clip reports have been mailed to Board members and to members of the PR Committee. Production/Editorial Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter, Vol. 24, No. 02, distributed to 65,748 members on January 14. Rick prepared/edited news stories on the League's response regarding persistent interference from a NY BPL field trial, ARES/RACES response in Ventura County, California, ARISS contact with school in Japan, introduction of PRB-1 bills in CT and NJ, release of the enhanced ARRL PSA and several news briefs and announcements. He also covered an ARISS school QSO in California (via teleconference), submitted "Happenings" for March QST and edited Andrea Hartlage's Youth column for the Web site, and he voiced, edited and produced ARRL Audio News for January 14. Sales & Marketing The first handful of returns from January's membership mailings has been received. We are studiously tracking the responses, which will help determine the appeal of different premium offers. Winter-edition catalogs have been mailed to 5,000 customers. By January 13, publication sales reached $117,000. The month's sales to-date is tracking well with the budget forecast. The additional advertising attention given to the online courses in the second half of 2004 appears to be contributing to higher enrollments. Jean Wolfgang reported that enrollment in the technical courses for 2004 increased by 53%, with the largest increase during the third and fourth quarters. The courses receive advertising attention in QST, the publications catalog, and within the online e-store. Rose-Ann Lawrence, who fields many prospective ham questions and administrates our prospective ham information package program, has been appointed as committee member of the 2005 Hebron CT annual fair (one of the largest annual fairs in the Northeast). This year, the amateur radio booth will focus will be on emergency communications. Plans include the design of an educational and interactive booth with more visuals and hands-on that will attract the general public--especially the youth crowd. Once inside the booth area visitors will be introduced to amateur radio and its role in emergency communications. It should be noted that there is always a very heavy emphasis on ARRL at this booth and the Lion's club has been so pleased with the booth appearance, etc. that a second booth has been provided free of charge. February QST advertising sales exceeded targets and it appears that March QST will also exceed targets by a very small margin. Several advertisers downsized their ads for March QST, citing inclement weather, and slow sales. However, we have been able to compensate by persuading several lapsed advertisers to return and several others to increase their ad size for the month. In addition, several one-time advertisers were enticed to give us a try. Hopefully, their advertising results will lead to a commitment for future issues. A full summary report will appear in In-News after the issue goes to press. Repeater Directory solicitations are proceeding well and we are close to reaching our objectives, with still over two weeks to continue our efforts. Obviously, our goal is to exceed revenue expectations. Membership Services Awards Branch 5-Band WAS Plaques 4 WAS in the 90th Awards 50 A-1 Op. Noms. 8 LTMA Inquiries 1 VUCC Backfill Apps. 1 Grids 151 VUCC Initial Apps. 4 Grids 72 VUCC End. Apps. 10 Grids 476 Awards Mailed 27 Also completed some LTMA projects. Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week-WAS and WAC QSL card checking, WAS Specialty and VUCC awards, Extra Class certificates, foreign WAC awards, and mail out all awards processed this week. Contest Branch We continued data entry for the early winter contests. We received finalized results for the 2004 November CW Sweepstakes from the log checker and prepared and merged them into the master database. Tables were then run and sent to the author for the QST and Web write-ups. The EME database was revised to reflect the expanded categories and is set to run reports for the results articles. The 2004 September VHF QSO Party, 10 GHz and Up, and IARU HF articles were received from Production, edited and are waiting changes from the authors. Orders for various supplies (certificates, plaques, and envelopes) were completed. Work continued on the 2005 Field Day packet and mailing of certificates as time permits. DXCC Branch For the week of: January 16, 2005 Beginning Credits 57,069 Credits Received 566 Credits Processed 16,421 Ending Credits 41,214 Applications Pending 466 Processing Time (Conventional) 6.2 Weeks Processing Time (LoTW) 1 Working Day DXCC is currently mailing applications received on December 3, 2004. DXCC is currently entering credits received on December 4, 2004. Logbook of the World QSO records entered into the system 61,136,841 Resulting QSL records 2,461,637 Logs Processed 92,649 Active Certificates 12,866 Users registered in the system 8,731 Current Applications 82 Ready Applications 0 Applications Awaiting Mail 82 QSL Bureau Processing time is 7 days from receipt. This week 82 pounds of cards were received from members. No cards were mailed this week. W1AW Thanks to Dan Henderson, N1ND for operating W1AW in the North American Phone QSO Party. Despite radio conditions, he made 703 QSOs, on 80 through 10 meters, for a claimed score of 104,044. Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the month of January. He performed some software changes to the station's bulletin generation software. He also handled some evening phone sales calls in the daily 5 PM to 8 PM time slots. Joe processed reply letters to the participants of the 2004 Frequency Measuring Test. (Certificates will soon follow.) He replaced cooling fans on both Ten-Tec Omni VI+ exciters (used for the bulletin transmitters). He also assisted Dan Miller with some software/hardware issues related to Winlink 2000. Field & Educational Services Rosalie shared Allen's new PSA with the editor of the New York Disaster Interfaith Services e-newsletter. She set up a department meeting with Wayne Mills as presenter; thanks, Wayne! She made arrangements for a NASA HQ meeting -- we've tried to schedule it for a year. She moderated an ARISS education committee telecon, and took minutes. Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide has earned KE5DNI -- the 8th licensee out of the 14 in the NASA 2004 new astronaut class! Gail Iannone wrote 42 hamfest and 8 convention announcements for the March issue of QST. She also sent 14 hamfest approval letters and 6 convention approval letters to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Director's approval of their events as ARRL-sanctioned. She processed 2 label requests for upcoming events, and coordinated travel for Steve Ford to be the HQ Rep at the Vermont State Convention on February 26 in Milton. Certification-Continuing Education In the last few weeks Jean Wolfgang has noticed a nice increase in on-line technical registrations; 14 have been from just this past week. She thanks Jon Bloom for setting up the CCE database with a comment box for each student. This allows for keeping notes about mentor changes, problems or other updates. Jean set up two hybrid classes, sent out 2 field test kits and sent email to 1200 Level 1 graduates suggesting that they register for the level 2 EmComm course. Clubs/Volunteer Instructors/Mentors Norm Fusaro put the finishing touches on his Power Point presentation for clubs on HF Operating. He worked on a class flyer template for Volunteer Instructors to use to advertise upcoming classes. He wrote a Web story about a ham and his mentors, highlighting the use of e-mail reflectors to enhance the more traditional method of mentoring. Norm prepared material for Rosalie's P-SC report. He reviewed study materials used by instructors Thanks goes to Tom Hogerty for posting to the SM webpage PowerPoint show Norm used at the SM Workshop about clubs and Affiliated Club Coordinators; Steve sent a notice to SMs about it. Norm worked with a new club president trying to rejuvenate his club in St. Louis. Margie Bourgoin reports she updated 62 club records this week, and renewed 2 Special Service Clubs. Margie registered 6 new ARRL Volunteer Instructors. She compiled statistics from the DCTI surveys we have received. Margie readied the Field Service Reports for the March issue of QST. She worked with Norm to come up with an online flyer for Instructors. She sent out the certificates and reimbursement checks for UTC/CNCS recent graduates. Margie received several compliments from SMs about her back on staff. EmComm Grants Dan Miller gathered materials for February presentations to the Hurricane Watch Net Conference in Miami, and an Amateur Radio exhibit at the NEMA conference. People who drop by the exhibit and complete a questionnaire will receive a ticket for a door prize. The number of graduates for the last UTC-grant sponsored 2004 class is 1046. We are in the 3rd and final year of both CNCS and UTC grants. All Level I online course seats for January were filled in just over 33 hours. For 2004, we sold 1570 Level I course manuals at $19,959; 990 Level II manuals at $12,552; and 618 Level III manuals at $7,818, for a total annual income for from ARECC manual sales of $40,329. Biggest month for Level I manual sales was March, for Level II -- February, and for Level III -- May. Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program Mark Spencer got an inquiry about his program, generated from last week's full-page article in two local papers. He has yet to hear from one of the schools awarded our grants; if it doesn't respond, their award will be delayed. Mark completed presentation materials for a presentation at the Indiana science teacher's conference in February. He planned logistics for attending the National Science Teacher's Association (NSTA) national conference, and proposed speech topics for two regional NSTA conferences. He did so after we learned that NASA cut their budget for the national math and technology teacher conferences, and won't be able to support us. Regulatory Information John Hennessee reports some increased activity after he posted some information to the SGL Reflector, which is available to SGLs, LGLs and ODV. Currently, there are already 100 subscribers. Anyone who is not a subscriber but who wishes to be should contact John at n1kb@arrl.org. HQ must have all of the addresses from which subscribers wish to post messages. Subscribers can post messages at sgl@arrl.org. John also assisted amateurs with covenant problems in Los Angeles, CA (K6IRA), Bakersfield, CA (KA6LXM) and Martinsville, IN (AA9RZ). Community Education Program After many phone calls and emails, Bill Barrett has half of his 12 Citizen Corps Council presentations scheduled as follows: Saco, Maine -- January 26; Phoenix, Arizona -- February 16; Silver City, New Mexico -- April 6; Humboldt County, Iowa -- May 4; Oak Grove, Oregon -- June 8; Galesburg, Illinois -- July 6. He tested the new projector, and worked with Allen Pitts who created two press releases to use for each locale. Bill created a checklist and spreadsheet to keep track of travel arrangements made, plus what is shipped to locales. Field Organization/Public Service Team Steve Ewald was in touch with ARRL Connecticut Section Leaders who've started making plans with ARES members to take part in the third congressionally-mandated Top Officials (TOPOFF3) exercise. The exercise is April 4-10 in New London. Last week, Connecticut Governor Rell said, "State and local responders will be joined by officials from New Jersey, federal agencies and the government of the United Kingdom in demonstrating a coordinated response to a weapons of mass destruction attack." Steve turned in an article about the 2004 hurricanes for March QST, plus the Public Service column. He took part in an ARESCOM telecon; the discussion was on its report to the Board. Leona Adams has been updating the Field appointment database, and is generating the Field Appointment reports for SMs. Over 40 packages of supplies were sent to new appointees. Section Manager election ballots have begun to arrive in the mail from North Texas and Arkansas Section ARRL members. Chuck Skolaut is reviewing tapes received as a result of a recent FCC monitoring request concerning a 75-meter frequency. He forwarded additional FCC-monitoring requests to Official Observers to cover portions of 75 and 20 meters. ARRL Monitoring Stations are tracking down intruding and unidentified signals -- one on 29.000 MHz consists of 6 letter/numbers code groups, and the other is a wobble-type jammer on 1.808 MHz. Sincerely, Dave Patton, NN1N Special Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer DCP: lk Staff Absentee List All Staff 2/21 Holiday Dave Sumner 1/20-1/22 Committee & Board Meeting `` 2/3-2/11 Vacation Mary Hobart 1/20-1/22 Committee & Board Meeting `` 2/11-2/13 Hamcation Orlando, FL `` 3/2-3/4 CNCS Meeting, Washington, DC Barry Shelley 1/20-1/22 Committee & Board Meeting Lisa Kustosik 1/20-1/22 Board Meeting Rick Lindquist 2/22 Vacation Stu Cohen 1/4-±1/28 Leave of absence Heather Cirigliano 2/1 Vacation Dave Patton 1/20-1/22 Board Meeting Rosalie White 1/20-1/22 Committee & Board Meeting Wayne Mills 1/20-1/22 Committee & Board Meeting `` 2/4 South Florida Section Convention Dennis Motschenbacher 1/20-1/22 Board Meeting Bob Inderbitzen 3/21-3/23 National Postal Forum `` 3/24 & 3/28 Vacation `` 3/31-4/1 AES Superfest Roseanne Lawrence 2/7-2/18 Vacation Fatima Lorusso 3/7-3/11 Vacation Bill Moore 2/11-2/15 North Florida Section Convention/Vacation Mark Spencer 2/3-2/4 Indiana state science teacher's conference, Indianapolis Dan Miller 2/4-2/5 Hurricane Watch Net Conference, FL Kathy Capodicasa 3/21-3/23 National Postal Forum `` 4/14-4/18 Vacation Mark Dzamba 2/14-2/16 Vacation Pam Dzamba 2/14-2/16 Vacation