<<070709.doc>> IN-Newsletter <<Microsoft Word Picture>> Vol. 32, No. 27 July 7, 2009 -- Covers the period June 28-July 4. Upcoming Meetings and Events Administration &Finance Committee July 16 @ 8:30am in Newington, CT Programs & Services Committee July 16 @ 8:30am in Newington, CT Second Board Meeting July 17-18, 2009 @ 9:00am in Windsor, CT Media & Public Relations Reported by Allen Pitts, W1AGP Press releases for the July 11th IARU HF contest have been sent out on the PR reflector, posted to the Web and also sent to major news outlets. While most of the print and Web media hits for field day have already come in, TV and radio station hits which had stories but not post to their Web sites are still being reported in. A sampling (33 pages!) of hyperlinks to FD hits were shared on the PR reflector. A new audio PSA is in the making - this one advocating for women's ability to be a ham too. It should be done before the Board meeting. Development Reported by Mary Hobart, K1MMH Development is preparing materials for the July A &F Committee meeting as well as the report to the Board. The Diamond Club report through June 30 shows $132,409 in gross revenue from 1019 contributions for the first six months of the year. This is a 6% increase over gross revenues for the same period in 2008. The Diamond Club has 163 new donors whose average contribution is nearly $134, and 32 ARRL members have upgraded to Diamond Club status. A solicitation to lapsed Diamond Club donors will be sent out in July. Production/Editorial Reported by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE Week ending June 26: Khrystyne Keane wrote and distributed The ARRL Letter, Vol. 28, No. 25, for June 26, 2009. She was not able to produce ARRL Audio News because of the power failure that resulted from a severe storm that hit Newington in the late afternoon. Our thanks to Hugh Brower and Jon Bloom, who transported Khrystyne's computer upstairs to the emergency powered "hub room" so she could upload and distribute The Letter. Week ending July 3: Khrystyne Keane wrote and distributed The ARRL Letter, Vol. 28, No. 26, for July 2, 2009. There was no ARRL Audio News and the Letter went out a day early, due to the holiday falling on a Friday. The last two chapters (page layouts) of the 2010 ARRL Handbook were sent out for proofreading and editing. Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R Membership update ARRL had 155,639 members by the June month end, exceeding our net growth goal for the month. We are particularly pleased with the continuing growth trend we have enjoyed for the last 12 months. Membership is up 1,012 members the year, 557 short of our YTD goal. During the same period last year (January through June) we had a cumulative net loss of 94 members. The most recent 50,000-piece membership mailing has returned 696 applications so far. The mailing was sent in June to lapsed and 'never' members. Several membership campaigns involving direct mail design and list segmentation are in-the-works. Changes are being completed to the 'new ham' mailings, including planning for an additional (third) follow-up mailing. A large 50,000 piece membership campaign is planned. And, a mailing is being prepared for non-members culled from log entries within LoTW--about 2,700 viable leads. Product sales update. June product sales totaled $243,497, exceeding the sales forecast of $230,930. Direct sales were $131,761; dealer sales were $111,735. YTD, sales are ahead of forecast by over $15,000. The 2009 Field Day Product line (shirts, hats, pins) generated $20k in sales this month, before stocking out completely. The Field Day product line contributed a record breaking $83k this year (peak in May). A summer-themed email campaign conducted in the last part of June helped drive $14k of business to the online store. A 4th of July-themed email solicitation was sent out 7/2 to encourage orders over the holiday weekend. A TravelPlus special offer upgrade mailing was mailed on 7/1. Mailing data and printing was readied for a follow up to our spring publications solicitation-scheduled for mailing on 7/10. The latest edition of the "New Ham 411" was released for printing. The booklet is included in the first mailing sent to all new licensees-and contains advertising gathered by the Business Services team. Contract proposals for QST printing and distribution have been received and are in the process of being reviewed. This next contract will cover the period 2010-2013. The planning team includes staff participants supporting production, advertising and circulation. The Warehouse crew fulfilled 636 packages for publication and product orders, and shipped 876 free book membership premiums and QST mailing supplements. ARRL Conventions Date Name Division City State ARRL HQ Rep. Jul 17-18 Arizona State Southwestern Williams AZ Bob Allison Jul 17-19 Montana State Northwestern Essex MT Jul 18 W0 DXCC/Contest Central Dakota Rochester MN Jul 23-25 Central States VHF Central Elk Grove Village IL Jul 24-25 Oklahoma Section West Gulf Oklahoma City OK Chuck Skolaut Aug 7-8 Texas State West Gulf Austin TX Dennis Dura Aug 7-9 Pacific Northwest DX Northwestern Spokane WA Sean Kutzko Aug 14-15 New Mexico State Rocky Mountain Albuquerque NM Allen Pitts Aug 15-16 Alabama Section Southeastern Huntsville AL Aug 15 Southwestern Division Southwestern Santa Barbara CA Aug 16 Kansas State Midwest Salina KS Aug 22-23 West Virginia State Roanoke Weston WV Aug 23 W. Pennsylvania Section Atlantic New Kensington PA Sep 11-12 Delta Division Delta Mena AR Sep 12 GL Division Symposium Great Lakes Findlay OH Sep 12-13 Virginia Section Roanoke Virginia Beach VA Sep 18-19 W9DXCC Central Elk Grove Village IL Sep 19 Ohio Section Great Lakes Reynoldsburg OH Sep 26 Mid-Atlantic VHF Conf. Atlantic Plymouth Meeting PA Sep 26 Washington State Northwestern Spokane Valley WA Membership & Volunteer Programs Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N Contest Branch We have received 916 logs for the June VHF QSO party. Submission deadline is in a week. 846 logs have been submitted for Field Day through the B4H website. The Contest Branch has handled several calls already with common Field Day log questions. Certificates for the 2008 August UHF and 2008 10 GHz contests have been mailed out. Club Competition gavels have been ordered for the 2008 160 Meter Contest, the 2008 10 Meter contest, the 2009 ARRL RTTY Roundup and the 2009 January VHF QSO Party. George Fremin, K5TR has agreed to adjudicate the June VHF QSO Party. George takes over from Ken K1EA, who adjudicates a lot of events and is looking to lighten his load a bit. DXCC Branch Credits Applications 2008 Carryover 104,946 938 2009 Received 321,917 2,771 Cumulative Total 426,863 3,709 2009 Processed 343,515 3,006 Remaining 83,348 703 Processing Time 7 weeks Category June 2009 Year-to-Date Triple Play WAS 11 281 WAS Certificates (Manual) 12 153 WAS Certificates (LoTW) 20 179 A-1 Op Nominations 9 95 A-1 Op Certificates 13 143 Extra Class Certificates 7 52 WAC Certificates 18 187 VUCC New / Grids 7 / 985 61 / 4,980 VUCC Endorsement/Grids 11 / 580 52 / 3,187 Processing Time Current Logbook of the World Category June 2009 % Change Jan-June 09 QSO Records Entered Into System 229,737,821 13% QSL Record Matches 21,843,019 21% Logs Processed 1,011,158 24% Active Certificates 42,008 13% Registered Users in System 27,620 14% Logbook (Email Only) Inquiries June 2009 Initial Setup Inquiries 235 Award Related Concerns 84 Maintenance 79 Customer Usage Issues 69 Total 467 W1AW The W1AW Spring (Summer) Frequency Measuring Test was held on Wednesday, July 1st at 9:45 PM. The object of this test was very similar to the one held last November 2008. Participants had to measure the audio frequency of two tones (separated by less than 500 Hertz and between the frequencies of 2000 and 2500 Hz) that were transmitted on W1AW's 80 and 40 meter "digital" frequencies. As usual, a web page has been set up to allow participants to enter their data. The story about the FMT can be found on the web at http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/06/15/10884/?nc=1 . Thanks to Bob Allison, WB1GCM, for his assistance in coordinating the tone generating equipment. Joe spent most of the week getting the equipment (tone generation, transmitters and measuring equipment) ready for the Summer FMT. He also updated the web code practice files and their archives. He processed regular QSL card requests. He also processed one Qualifying Run certificate and one endorsement. Joe uploaded logs (regular and Field Day) to LoTW. He also worked the late afternoon/night shift on Friday for the vacationing Scott Gee. Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the first part of the month of July. Field Organization/Public Service Team Steve Ewald and Dennis Dura worked on the Public Service column and the 2009 SET announcement article for September QST. These were delivered to the Production Department. We were saddened to learn that Jim Leist, KB5W, longtime NTS Central Area Staff Chair and RN5, Cycle 4, Manager, became a Silent Key on June 22 after a long illness. Chuck Skolaut received several complaints about language heard on 14.275 MHz and 3.910 MHz. A Texas radio amateur has reported hearing Spanish stations on 10 MHz -- the WWV frequency. Two instances were noted of shortwave broadcast stations still on 40 meters when they should have moved away from that portion of the band by now. The Eastern Massachusetts OOC is following up on a report of lack of proper identification on a 2 meter repeater. Two meter interference is being under investigated in Connecticut. Some interesting questions dealt with this week included current amateur frequencies, right of repeater owners to limit use, club call trustee identification, repeater coordination issues, and aeronautical mobile identification. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Staff Absentee List Leona Adams 7/31 Vacation Kathy Allison 7/6-7/10 Vacation `` 7/16-7/21 Vacation `` 9/25-9/28 Vacation Bob Allison 7/6-7/10 Vacation `` 7/16-7/21 ARCA/William AZ Hamfest `` 9/25-9/29 Vacation Joe Carcia 7/6-7/10 Vacation `` 7/17 Vacation `` 7/24 Vacation `` 7/31 Vacation `` 8/7 Vacation `` 8/14 Vacation `` 8/21 Vacation Jackie Cornell 8/6-8/10 Vacation Kim Dotolo 7/15-7/17 Vacation Scott Gee 7/30 Vacation Mike Gruber 8/24-8/28 Vacation Dan Henderson 7/22-7/25 NCVEC Conference, Gettysburg, PA `` 7/27-8/10 Vacation Mary Hobart 7/16-7/18 Committee Meeting/Board Meeting `` t 8/12-8/14 Vacation Berta Hould 7/13-7/24 Vacation Gail Iannone 7/20-7/31 Vacation Bob Inderbitzen 7/27-7/31 Vacation Debra Johnson 7/27-7/31 Vacation Harold Kramer 7/16-7/18 Committee Meeting/Board Meeting Lisa Kustosik 7/8-7/10 Vacation `` 7/16-7/18 Board Meeting Sean Kutzko 8/7-8/9 Pacific NW DX Convention, Spokane Valley, WA Dave Patton 7/16-7/18 Committee Meeting/Board Meeting Brennan Price 7/16-7/18 Board Meeting `` 7/20-7/24 Vacation `` 7/27-7/29 Vacation Barry Shelley 7/16-7/18 Committee Meeting/Board Meeting Chuck Skolaut 7/24-8/3 Oklahoma Section Convention, Oklahoma City, OK/VC Dave Sumner 7/16-7/18 Committee Meeting/Board Meeting Sharon Taratula 7/10 Vacation Maty Weinberg 7/6-7/17 Vacation