<<030613.doc>> IN-Newsletter <<Microsoft Word Picture>> Vol. 36, No. 10 March 6, 2013 -- Covers the period February 24-March 2. Upcoming Meetings and Events Executive Committee: March 9 @ 8:30am - Irving, TX Administration & Finance Committee April 13 @ 8:30am in Newington, CT Development Reported by Lauren Clarke, KB1YDD Congratulations to the Development Office staff Margie KB1DCO and Mary K1MMH on capturing the Novice and Intermediate trophies during the FM Sprint last week at HQ! Loyalty congratulatory letters over K1ZZ's signature, certificates and pins were sent to 267 International ARRL members receiving their 40-, 50- and 60-year membership milestones. The balance of the Loyalty mailing will be sent out by the end of March. Save the Date notices have been sent to donors and board members for the Annual Donor Reception in Dayton on May 16, 2013. April QSTs were sent to Maxim Society members. Lab Reported by Ed Hare, W1RFI Product Review Bob Allison continues to test antenna tuners for Product Review. Bob was presenter in two produced Product Review Videos, working with Steve Ford. Radio Frequency Interference Mike Gruber is putting together a fixture to measure arc-fault circuit interrupters. These are required by code in some locations-we have reports of them being tripped by ham radio signals. QST Bob Allison wrote the May Vintage Radio Column. Web Zack Lau uploaded the March 2013 Propagation Forecasts. Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R Diane Petrilli reports that February ended with 160,728 members-growth of 74 members over January. 71% of February 2013 expirees paid on time (vs. 74% last February). President's Day and Valentines themed messages brought in over 100 members. Field recruitment was up this month, bolstered by our attendance at the ARRL-sanctioned conventions in Puerto Rico and Orlando, Florida. Jackie Ferreira reports that February product sales were $219,510-short of the sales forecast of $234,814. Direct sales were $121,701; dealer sales were $97,809. A Presidents' Day sales event generated $8,950 in sales; a Valentine's Day themed email generated sales of $4,118, and an emailing for Super Bowl weekend contributed sales of $3,494. "Happy Birthday" postcards sent to members generated $13,836 in sales throughout the month. Last month's postcard mailing promoting the 2012 ARRL Periodicals DVD has contributed total sales of $7,363. The response rate to this mailing has exceeded 4%. A shipment of materials is being prepared to support the volunteers representing ARRL and Amateur Radio at the annual National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in April, in Las Vegas, Nevada. On Friday, an email was sent to domestic members who are subscribed to receive the digital QST announcement each month, inviting them to consider opting out of the print edition of QST. Over the weekend, another 800 members have made the designation to go digital-only. Now shipping: Ham Radio for Arduino and PICAXE, edited by Leigh Klotz, Jr, WA5ZNU. This new ARRL book is filled with microcontroller projects for ham radio applications designed by Leigh and many other contributors. It also includes an introduction from Dale Dougherty, the editor and publisher of MAKE magazine. Summary of Sales and Marketing Department telephone group (reported by Amy Hurtado): Week of Phone calls Per hour Average wait Complete without transfer 2/25/2013 1,046 23.2 41 seconds 76% Call Summary By Month Month Total Calls December 2012 4,344 January 2013 4,373 February 2013 3,915 Member Service Representatives processed 2,944 orders in February 2013 (3,089 in Feb. 2012). Summary of warehouse fulfillment activity (reported by Steve Capodicasa): Week of Packages fulfilled Member Premiums 2/25/2013 875 498 Membership & Volunteer Programs Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N DXCC DXCC Branch Credits Applications 2012 Carryover 90,316 1,026 2013 Received 192,133 2,000 Cumulative Total 282,449 3,026 2013 Processed 209,777 2,228 Remaining 72,672 798 Paper/Fieldcheck Processing Time 5 Weeks Logbook of the World Category February 2013 QSO Records Entered Into System 484,536,022 QSL Record Matches 68,186,143 Logs Processed 4,043,465 Active Certificates 83,998 Registered Users in System 55,851 Logbook Inquiries February 2013 Emails 858 Phone Calls 67 Total 925 Field Organization/Public Service Team As the March 8th deadline for nominating petitions approaches. Leona Adams received and handled the following petitions for those wishing to run for Section Manager in their respective sections for new terms of office beginning on July 1: New York City-Long Island Section Manager Jim Mezey, W2KFV; Nevada Section Manager Joe Giraudo, N7JEH; West Texas Section Manager Bill Roberts, W5NPR. Utah Section Manager Mel Parkes, N7JEH, has been nominated, and there will be an election in Utah. Matt Anderson, KAØBOJ, has been nominated to run for the SM's position in Nebraska, and there will also be an election there this spring. Jim Lasley, N0JL, of Iowa, has been nominated and elected as the new Chair of the Central Area Staff of the National Traffic System. A few new net managers for the NTS Central and Eastern Areas have also been elected this past week. Steve Ewald has started to receive nominations and inquiries about the various ARRL educational, technical and service awards after new announcements were distributed. Two radio amateurs from Indiana and one from Ohio completed requirements to become Official Observers this past week. A radio amateur from North Texas was approved to become a member of the ARRL Monitoring System/Intruder Watch. Chuck Skolaut received a number of complaints regarding language used on a 75 meter frequency, and this is being investigated. Jamming was reported on a New Hampshire repeater, and this, too, was being followed up on. Information was received regarding FCC action taken on interference occurring on 14.312 MHz. Chuck also filled in as the morning code practice operator at W1AW. Education Services Reported by Debra Johnson, K1DMJ ARISS NASA has re-instated a full-time position to provide operation support for the ARISS program. They have also committed to designating and training a back-up. The recent loss of support in this position while a new contract was being put in place contributed to some havoc we experienced during February while at the same time we were dealing with equipment failures of the Kenwood D700 ISS station located in the Service Module. The failure of that station required a cut over to the newly re-installed Ericcson station in the Columbus module. As a result, there were a few failed and compromised school contacts while the international team of ARISS volunteers stepped up to work through the host of challenges presented by the situation. In spite of the confusion, a number of successful contacts were completed. Lessons learned will be addressed over the next few months. Reasons for the failure of the D700 station in the ISS service module are as yet unknown. In the US, a successful contact between students at Soleado Elementary School in Rancho Palos Verde, CA and Chris Hadfield KC5RNJ/VA3OOG occurred on February 25. Click here <http://www.pvnews.com/news/article_83a6da70-7fae-11e2-bada-001a4bcf887a.html> to read a local news story. On February 28, Talcott Mountain Science Center, in Avon, CT hosted the first ARISS contact in the state of CT. Several local media outlets covered the story. The staff from ARRL was pleased to be able to witness the event which was supported by members of the Bloomfield Amateur Radio Club. Successful contacts were also held with schools in Israel, Japan, United Kingdom, Canada and Greece during February. Education & Technology Program Dayton Amateur Radio Association has confirmed that they will provide funding for the advanced TI-2 on Remote Sensing and Data Gathering. The website has been updated with the final schedule and application forms are posted. Ham Radio Outlet won the bid to provide equipment for the grants awarded under the ETP grant program. Equipment has been shipped and received by the schools. One of the schools, Mill Springs Academy, reports that they have recently licensed students who are ready to get on the air. They've also asked for a class in Morse code. Mark Spencer WA8SME and Matt Severin N8MS will be representing Education Services at Dayton Hamvention this year. They will each provide a presentation as part of DARA's forum schedule and are also developing several presentations that they will offer in a small forum area located at the Education booth within ARRL Expo. The theme will be Amateur Radio: Gateway to Discovery. License Instruction Nathan McCray K9CPO is tackling a very large project that involves developing new lessons and updating and revising lesson content that supports instruction of basic electronics and radio science concepts. This lesson library can be utilized by classroom teachers, scout and youth group leaders as well as license instructors. He is also leading a Morse code class for ARRL staff. Continuing Education Program Plans are underway with CTDLC, our Moodle host and our internal IT department staff to begin beta testing a more current release of the Moodle online learning platform, since support for the version we currently use will be ending. We plan to migrate the Introduction to Emergency Communication (EC-001) course to the new platform by the end of April. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Hamfest/Member Contact/ARRL Representative/Meetings/Vacations All staff 3/29 Holiday Leona Adams 3/14-3/15 PTO Steve Ewald 3/28-4/5 PTO Mike Gruber 5/3 PTO Dan Henderson 3/28-3/30 NC State Convention, Raleigh, NC `` 4/5 PTO Amy Hurtado 5/15-5/19 Hamvention, Dayton, OH Bob Inderbitzen 3/20-3/21 MAKE Media, Sebastopol, CA `` 3/22-3/24 RadioFest, Monterey, CA `` 3/25-3/26 PTO `` 4/4-4/6 AES Superfest, Milwaukee, WI Bob Inderbitzen 5/15-5/19 Hamvention, Dayton, OH Debra Johnson 3/7-3/11 PTO Harold Kramer 5/15-5/19 Hamvention, Dayton, OH Sean Kutzko 3/4-3/12 PTO Zack Lau 3/7-3/12 PTO `` 3/22 PTO Kim McNeill 5/15-5/19 Hamvention, Dayton, OH Diane Petrilli 3/9-3/13 ASAE Conference, Colorado Springs, CO `` 5/15-5/19 Hamvention, Dayton, OH Michael Scharr 5/15-5/19 Hamvention, Dayton, OH Chuck Skolaut 3/7-3/14 Oklahoma Section Convention, Claremore, OK / PTO Dave Sumner 3/8 Executive Committee Meeting, Irving, TX `` 3/21 Washington, DC