IN-Newsletter Vol. 25, No. 52 December 31, 2002 Upcoming Meetings January 16th in Newington, CT at 8:30am A & F Committee January 16th in Newington, CT at 8:30am Volunteer Resources Committee January 16th in Newington, CT at 8:30am Membership Services Committee January 17-18, 2003 in Windsor, CT Board Meeting Sales & Marketing Department Two Media kits were mailed to potential advertisers, both of which are new "garage" companies being started by ARRL members. The February QST issue advertising page count fell short of projection. One noticeable cutback firm was Kenwood who temporarily cut back their advertising after their recent reorganization. They plan to resume normal advertising levels commencing with the March issue. Several other advertisers opted out of February promising to return when their co-op reimbursement started back up in the spring. Based on the recent advertising difficulties, we conducted a few informal telephone surveys to determine what we could do to perk things up. We discovered that several product dealers seem to be struggling; a fact that probably is not a surprise to many of you. The margin on amateur radio products is a slim one. A recent victim of the declining profit margins is Radio Depot of Seattle Washington who is permanently closed the doors. On the other hand, Alpha Delta reported a record year in sales. The President of the company, Don Tyrell, was very enthusiastic about introducing new products in 2003. LDG has moved to a larger facility in order to keep up with the demand for their products. Another winner for us is West Mountain Radio (best known for the RigBlaster) who has decided to concentrate all their ad dollars on QST and doubled their ad space in 2002. We hope this trend will continue into 2003. So, although some our clients are in trouble, several other existing and new companies have kept their business plans full of new innovative ways of staying healthy in the amateur radio marketplace. Alan Cohen, our computer consultant met with the Advertising staff to fine-tune their order entry module of the Siebel Software. He also manually cleared up some lingering insertion orders that could not be entered because of unidentified problems. Alan was still not able to identify the specific source of the problems. He will need to first identify whether this is a software or data issue. He did let us know that if this was a software fix it could take a several weeks before it is corrected due to the programmers scheduling over the Holidays. Deb also met with Alan Cohen for some assistance in creating additional sales reporting tools. Online orders received during the post-Christmas Holiday weekend totaled $9,800 (excluding shipping and taxes). The unusually high volume of activity during the two-day period was the result of an email solicitation composed and distributed by Bob Inderbitzen on Friday evening. The piece highlighted a handful of our annual publication offerings (2003 editions). Sales were distributed across our entire product line. Bob built reports using our new business software to assist Janet with reordering third-party publications that we stock and resell. A noteworthy item learned during our publication reordering: The Radio Amateur Callbook Company has stocked out of the last edition of the Callbook CD-ROM. A limited quantity is still available from ARRL. Customers seeking a comparable product should try out Buckmaster Publishing's HamCall CD-ROM, a comprehensive worldwide Amateur Radio call sign database with over 1,700,000 listings. The product is also available from ARRL. Production/Editorial The February issue of QST has been released to the printer, as has the January/February issue of NCJ and a new printing of Antenna Zoning for the Radio Amateur. Shelly Bloom came into the office for five hours on Saturday, December 21, to get the advertising pages finished and on the way to the printer for February QST. We're receiving a very strong positive response to the January issue of QST, our annual "vintage radio" issue. Field & Educational Services The Adler Planetarium in Chicago hosted a very successful ARISS QSO on the 29th with over 200 in attendance. TV reporters from CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX ran stories that night. The Chicago Sun Times (http://www.suntimes.com) and the Chicago Tribune (http://www.chicagotribune.com requires you to register for free) ran articles. Adler promised that audio and video will be on their Web site by the 1st. Audio was excellent except for the first minute when aiming right into the south edge of downtown Chicago. The setup was difficult -- 450 feet of coaxial cable (7.2 dB loss) had to be run through the basement of the museum (some areas cold, some warm, and one really hot boiler room). A QSO with the World Jamboree wasn't successful (due to a crew conflict) but is being re-scheduled. Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 350 WAS Certificates (Replacements) 3 Extra Class Certificates 14 A-1 Operator Nominations 7 A-1 Operator Certificates 6 WAC Certificates Mailed 23 OTC Certificates Mailed 20 VUCC Initial Apps. 3 Grids 411 VUCC Endorsement Apps. 3 Grids 64 Processing Status: Current or within three weeks. For the coming week-25- and 40-year member awards processing and mailing, WAC QSL card checking, VUCC awards processing and mailing, and mail out Extra Class certificates. DXCC Branch Weekly Report December 29, 2002 Beginning Cards 198,380 Cards Received 2,890 Cards Processed 7,364 Ending Cards 193,906 Applications Pending 1,781 Processing Time 13.3 Weeks Year-to-date Cards Received 740,187 Cards Returned 619,449 QRPs Issued this week 0 QRPs YTD 262 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on September 27, 2002. There are 89 applications received on Sep 27 that are waiting to be mailed. DXCC is currently entering cards received on September 30, 2002. We have had some continuing delays in processing because of hardware problems with the DXCC server. ISD and DXCC staff are working to get the DXCC system running on another server. QSL Branch QSL service status: Current. Cards mailed year to date as of 12/29/2002 - 1,815,115. No cards were mailed this week. Our last shipment of cards for the year will be on Tuesday, December 31, 2002. Heather Dzamba spent 8 hours conducting tours around HQ. W1AW Joe Carcia built an antenna "RF/power switch" to be used for the Kenwood TS-2000 and the 2.4 GHz "Barbecue grill" satellite antenna (for AO-40). This device allows a user to switch the Kenwood between either the regular 2-meter crossed-Yagi satellite antenna or the 2.4 GHz grill, as well as supplying power to the downconverter (attached to the BBQ grill). The RF switch keeps a user from inadvertently transmitting into the downconverter. Joe Carcia got the bugs worked out of the PC networking between the studios. Since WriteLog is used to perform all the station's logging functions, the networking will now allow users the ability to log to one file (if necessary). Joe Carcia also worked the Thursday and Friday night afternoon/night shifts for a vacationing Scott Gee. W1AW telephone sales year to date (2002): $11,247. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List Name Date(s) Reason Joel Kleinman 1/7 Vacation