IN-Newsletter Vol. 29, No. 4 January 25, 2006 -- Covers the period January 15-21. CEO staff is working on wrapping-up another successful and smooth-functioning Board meeting. A special thank you to Greg Kwasowski for driving the van; to Maty Weinberg for helping with the Board books; to Penny Harts for helping with the goodie table in the lobby; to Debra Johnson for helping Thursday at the hotel, to Rick Lindquist for taking pictures at the hotel and to those who made hotel runs during the day on Friday. Special acknowledgement and thanks to Andy Shefrin for working with the Marriott technicians in making all presentation and computer equipment run like a charm. Development The beginning of 2006 has brought some healthy carryover revenue for fund raising campaigns in Defense, Education and Year End. ARRL received a wonderfully generous gift of $50,000 in early January for Spectrum Defense and Education, bringing 2006 revenue in those two funds to $37,800 and 26,800 respectively. The Year End campaign returns in 2006 are over $7900. The 2006 version of the W1AW Endowment campaign is in final production and will mail to 60,000 members next week. The test campaign for 10,000 members for Ham Aid is awaiting final letter copy and will mail as soon as possible after that. The next project is the spring Defense campaign which will mail to all ARRL members. The thrust of the message will be a call for each radio amateur to play a personal role in ARRL's efforts to defeat BPL's harmful interference by getting involved and filing interference complaints. Plans for the Dayton Donor Reception on May 18th to kick off Hamvention are underway and a postcard will be mailed to major donors in February along with the annual letter of permission sent to secure information for the Annual Report listing. The ARRL Foundation held its Annual Meeting via conference Bridge on January 24. New Directors Jim Fenstermaker, K8JF and Marty Green, K2PLF participated for the first time and the Board welcomed President Emeritus Metzger W9PRN and ARRL CEO Sumner, K1ZZ. The ARRL Foundation Scholarship process for 2006 to award more than 48 scholarships is well underway. The application period closes February 1. Media & Public Relations The Hello campaign is off to a running start with members of the PRC joining Allen in writing an introductory article for QST and other media. A website developer has been contacted and negotiations are well underway. The first audio PSA has been created and we are talking to video producers about the PSA for TV and cable. A draft release for Pres. Harrison has been submitted, new members of the PRC recommended, and the Swiss Army Knife 06 sent for duplication. Presentation of the Leonard award has been finalized with the National Hurricane Center - which is fitting for this year's award and offers good PR options. On the BPL front, interviews have been done with reporters for AP, WMNF radio, Red Herring Magazine and Communications Daily. Production/Editorial The March issue of QST will be released to the printer January 26. Rick Lindquist reports The ARRL Letter, Vol. 25, No. 03, distributed to 65,712 members Fri, Jan 20. Rick compiled and submitted the "Happenings" column for Mar QST. He also prepared/edited these stories: Joel Harrison, W5ZN, elected ARRL president; Virginia BPL system shutdown "imperative," ARRL tells FCC; North Carolina, Ohio kids enjoy ham radio chat with ISS commander; Feb 3 is new "SuitSat" launch target date; Injured miner Randy McCloy, KC8VKZ, improving, and several announcements and news briefs. Rick voiced, edited and produced ARRL Audio News for Jan 20 with soundbite help from Joel Harrison, W5ZN. Sales & Marketing The winter edition of the ARRL Publications Catalog arrived. A mailing is in process to members and other individual buyers. Catalogs have been mailed to dealers along with the latest edition of Dealer Newsline, featuring the three "Dummies" books we now stock. The discount and resale agreement we re-negotiated with the publisher will now allow us to supply these books to ARRL dealers. The 2005 edition of the ARRL Periodicals CD-ROM has arrived. Copies have been shipped to customers that pre-ordered the product, and to international members that subscribe to this annual compilation. We have also taken delivery of a new title produced by the United States Power Squadrons: Marine Amateur Radio. We have contributed to some decision making involving a handful of ARRL publication reprints-some of which include moderate retail price increases which support our 2006 planning. Radio Daze, a QST advertiser since March 2004, has become an ARRL publications dealer. Works continues on March 2006 QST and March/April QEX and NCJ advertising. Kenwood has purchased the back cover of NCJ. Prospective Ham Packages this week: 11. Heavy winds during the week contributed to a power outage at the warehouse. Initially, the electric supplier estimated that it would take a few days to restore service. A plan to return the warehouse to order-processing was formulated by a quick thinking interdepartmental team. In a matter of a couple of hours, the warehouse had a generator in place to help run its computer shipping system and other equipment (including Internet access linking data back to HQ). However, the power was restored during the overnight-precluding the need to operate under these backup measures. The exercise prepared us with some steps to help overcome a future occurrence. Thanks to everyone involved, including Steve Capodicasa, Andy Shefrin, Greg Kwasowski, Joe Bottiglieri and John Proctor. Online Courses Several course announcements have posted to the web newscrawl. Additional course advertising is being prepared for our periodicals. Sample course content has been compiled to help provide prospective students with a "course preview" of each of the technical courses and Technician License course. A survey is being conducted of students that have completed the digital and analog electronics courses. ON-LINE COURSES Registrations During this week Graduations Antenna Modeling (EC-004) 0 1 HF Digital (EC-005) 0 0 RFI (EC-006) 0 0 VHF/UHF (EC-008) 0 0 Antenna Design and Construction (EC-009) 0 0 Technician Licensing (EC-010) 6 5 Propagation (EC-011) 0 0 Analog Electronics (EC-012) 1 0 Digital Electronics (EC-013) 1 1 Emergency Comm. Level 1 (EC-001) 21 15 Emergency Comm. Level 2 (EC-002) 4 5 Emergency Comm. Level 3 (EC-003) 1 2 Membership Services Awards Branch Category Processed WAS Cards Checked 250 WAS Endorsements 4 WAS Certificates 8 Extra Class Certificates 0 Replacement Awards 2 A-1 Operator Nominations 14 LTMA Inquiries 1 Awards Mailed 5 VUCC Initial Applications 4 VUCC Endorsements 6 Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. Two (2) HF/VHF Awards Managers were appointed this period. DXCC Branch For the Week of: January 22, 2006 Beginning Credits 35,924 Credits Received 5,761 Credits Processed 12,261 Ending Credits 29,261 Applications Pending 404 Processing time 5.7 Weeks Year-to-date (2005) Credits Received 15,718 Credits Returned 669,478 DXCC is currently entering credits received on December 20, 2005. DXCC is currently mailing applications received on December 13, 2005. Contest Branch Editing for the 2005 September VHF QSO Party and 10 GHZ and Up results continued. The Web version of the 2005 10 GHz and Up Results was opened to the membership. Data entry for the 2005 160-Meter contest continued and was begun for the 2005 10-Meter contest. Because of the short turn-around time to meet the April QST deadline, data entry for the 2006 Straight Key Night was done and brought current-to-date. Certificates for the 2005 June VHF QSO Party were printed and mailing should begin in the next week. Databases and scores for the 2005 EME Competition were finalized and sent to the authors. Logbook of the World QSO records entered into the system 89,506,985 QSL records have resulted 4,645,663 Logs Processed 179,172 Active Certificates 17,212 Users registered in the system 11,403 Hybrids Pending Mail 86 QSL Branch There is a 5 day processing time delay. This week, 139 pounds of cards were received from members. This week, 59,325 cards were shipped. W1AW Thanks To Dan Henderson, N1ND for operating W1AW in the North American QSO Party and ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes. Some technical issues kept Dan from operating much in both events. However, in NAQP, he made 80 QSOs on 40 and 20 meters, for a claimed score of 2400. Scott worked on slow and fast code practice files for the latter part of the month of January. He also handled some evening phone sales calls in the daily 5 PM to 8 PM time slots. Joe updated the web code practice files. He processed five Qualifying Run certificates and one endorsement. Joe also reorganized some of the visitor operating equipment in Studios One and Three. He also worked the Monday late afternoon/night shift for a vacationing Scott Gee. And in collaboration with some of the ARRL Lab staff, Joe began construction of another 23cm antenna to use with D-Star experimentation. Field & Educational Services Field Organization/Public Service Team ARRL Section Leaders added over 30 new appointments to their Field appointment rosters, and Leona Adams updated the data base. Fifty six initial supply packages of information were also sent out from HQ to appointees. Thomas Ciciora, KA9QPN, has been nominated to run for Section Manager of Illinois. The next term is scheduled to begin July 1. Steve Ewald continued to work on the Public Service column for March QST, and checked into the now weekly National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) teleconference. FEMA is represented in this group along with many other public service organizations, and they have been discussing long-term recovery issues in the Gulf Coast states since Hurricane Katrina. The ARRL Section Emergency Coordinators, on their reflector, have been talking about the National Incident Management System in their states and how it might affect ARES. Official Observers continue their investigation of interference to traffic nets in Indiana and Montana. An updated status report of unlicensed 2-meter activity was received from West Virginia. Chuck Skolaut received and forwarded to the FCC more documentation regarding interference on 75 meters. Intruder reports reveal a fishnet beacon on 160 meters and what sounds like an "idling motor" signal on a number of 40-meter frequencies. Combined efforts of the FCC and the German PTT have resulted in a digital signal in the CW portion of 40 meters to cease operation. ARISS PR: Frank Bauer was interviewed for Aviation Week (the premier weekly magazine read by thousands of aerospace engineers and their managers); the reporter says a SuitSat story will run soon. The ARISS Team provided a DVD on SuitSat to Allen Pitts as backgrounder material to share with CBS. The Fayetteville Observer newspaper ran an ARISS story on its Web site about the Peterson School (NC) ARISS QSO. Over 800 students sat in on the St. Albert the Great (OH) QSO with media coverage including a TV station and several newspaper reporters. ARISS News Update: Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, completed his WAC on VHF, and has worked 68 entities toward DXCC. His QSO count is at 825! Astronaut Gary Reisman passed his ham test, and now sports the callsign KE5HAE, thanks to the ARISS Teams. Several ARISS schedules were postponed due to the Russians changing the date of their space walk. Member Aid: SM Swiderski sent info to all Ga. hams about the Ga. Tech QSO; she asked them to inform area teachers about the simulcast on radio station WREK or via their Web site for live streaming audio. ARISS' Effect on Schools: Rosalie networked with Norm about materials support for two educational activities being planned by ARISS volunteers, this spring. One group is putting on presentations to 100 teachers from across the US at a teacher's conference at the Space Center Houston museum. Second, AMSAT is once again sponsoring a big demonstration at the Air & Space Museum in Virginia. ARISS-International: Brazilian ARISS volunteers have added a huge amount of information about ARISS to their Web site (at http://www.amrase.org/ariss/index.htm <http://mymail.arrl.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.amrase.org/ ariss/index.htm> )because Marcos Pontes, PY0AEB, has had his taxi flight scheduled. Rosalie prepared a report for the next ARISS-International telecon on the FCC rules changes made (because of earlier ITU rule changes), regarding 3rd party traffic - of great importance to our ARISS international team. Field & Education Team Hamfest & Conventions Hamfests Hamfest Applications sent to Division Director for Approval 21 Hamfest Approval Letters sent to event sponsor 23 Handouts and Door Prize Material Orders Processed 14 Label Requests for upcoming events 2 Conventions Convention Applications sent to Division Director for Approval 1 Convention Approval Letters sent to event sponsor 1 QST Hamfest announcements for QST Convention announcements for QST Clubs & Mentors Clubs Approval Letters for Newly-Affiliated Clubs sent to Club Officials Charter of Affiliation Cert. sent for Presentation to New Clubs 3 New club applications reviewed New clubs sent to Director & SM for approval by Director 1 Acknowledgement letters sent to club officials 1 SSC sent to ACC 3 SSC Certificates 7 letters sent Instructors Instructor Reg 16 Teachers Teacher Reg 1 Materials & Brochures Class Materials Graduation Kits 8 Exhibit Kits 2 Jota Kits Label Requests Filled 1 Sales Orders Processed 6 Public Service Reports Amateur Radio Education & Technology Program-Mark Spencer This week I have been fielding questions from and giving guidance to recent grant recipients on their equipment choices. The anticipated ARISS contact with a Reno area school that I have been helping the local ham with the coordination has been cancelled due to schedule conflicts on the ISS. In any event the station at the school was ready for the contact. There is no word yet if the contact will be rescheduled. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Staff Absentee List Ed Hare 3/12-3/17 ANSI Committee Meeting, Piscataway, NJ Kathy Capodicasa 2/8-2/17 Vacation Bob Inderbitzen 2/6-2/10 Vacation Steve Capodicasa 2/13 Vacation `` 3/3 Vacation Dennis Motschenbacher 2/14-2/21 Vacation Rick Lindquist 1/30-1/31 Vacation `` 2/21 Vacation Eileen Sapko 1/27 Vacation Wayne Mills 2/3 Miami Tropical Hamboree Joe Carcia 4/21 Vacation Scott Gee 4/24-4/28 Vacation Norm Fusaro 2/4-2/5 SE Division Convention, Miami, FL Harold Kramer 2/10-2/12 N. Florida Section Convention, Orlando, FL