IN-Newsletter Vol. 35, No. 44 October 31, 2012 -- Covers the period October 21-27. Upcoming Meetings and Events Director/Vice Director Elections November 16 Administration and Finance Committee: November 17 @ 8:30am - Newington CT Membership & Volunteer Programs Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N DXCC Branch Applications Paper/Fieldcheck Processing Time 4 Weeks W1AW On Wednesday October 24, Matt Strelow, KC1XX, and Andrew Toth, of XX Towers <http://www.xxtowers.com/> Inc., were on hand for the autumn antenna and tower inspections. In addition to the annual autumn inspections, they also repaired some of the antennas at W1AW. Strelow and Toth replaced the 160-meter dipole located atop the Rohn 65 (120') tower. The antenna - used for both station broadcasts and visitor operations - was damaged in a windstorm a few weeks ago. The center insulator on the station's 80-meter cage also required replacement. The old insulator shorted internally when one of the choke's ferrite beads inside the insulator became saturated. A donated quadrifilar antenna for 137 MHz was installed on the North tower. This antenna replaced the 137 MHz turnstile antenna used for NOAA satellite reception. The station's 70 cm crossed-yagi satellite antenna - a Cushcraft 416TB - also required attention. Specifically, the coaxial baluns and phasing lines had to be replaced. Since these parts are no longer readily available, Joe contacted Cushcraft and was supplied with the lines' technical data. From this data, he constructed new baluns and lines. In addition to constructing new balun/phasing lines for the Cushcraft 416TB antenna and readying materials for the antenna installations, he also constructed a simple 10-meter groundplane antenna and 80-meter dipole for use at HQ station W1HQ. Joe worked the early afternoon/night shifts on Monday and Tuesday for the vacationing Scott Gee. Field Organization/Public Service Team During the past week, SKYWARN and ARRL Field Organization members and ARES teams (among many others) including Emergency Coordinators, Section Managers and Section Emergency Coordinators across the U.S. East Coast heeded warnings to get ready for Hurricane Sandy. Several Headquarters Staff members were also involved in storm preparation activities and relayed information related to storm preparations to our News Editor. An Amateur Radio operator from the East Bay Section completed requirements to become an Official Observer this past week. Harassment was reported on a 20 meter net, and another case was noted on 75 meters. More investigation is underway. Interference to a 2 meter repeater near Kansas City, MO, was reported. This is being checked out by local OOs. Regional OOs were also alerted. Complaints regarding 14313 kHz and interference to a 20 meter DX net were forwarded to Laura Smith at the FCC. We learned that jamming has been occurring on 2 meter repeater in Alabama. More monitoring is underway. So far, reports seem to indicate that a case of interference on 7245 kHz has been mutually resolved. Chuck Skolaut answered questions dealing with the Novice class license, operating overseas and antenna restrictions were handled. Chuck also handled one morning code practice run at W1AW and conducted one tour of headquarters. Education Services Reported by Debra Johnson, K1DMJ Education & Technology Program Nathan McCray K9CPO and Mark Spencer WA8SME represented Education Services at Pacificon. They reported a constant stream of visitors at the booth and plenty of engaging discussions about new ETP curriculum. Forums on Getting Started with PIC Programming, Exploring Our World through Remote Sensing and Ham Radio, and Wireless Technology Literacy in the Classroom were very well attended. We are receiving quite a few requests to be added to our notification list for the 2013 Teachers Institute schedule. Since these are coming from teachers who are not hams we are assuming the recent article about the ETP in the National Science Teachers Association journal have generated at least some of this interest. Continuing Education Program We announced changes to qualifications and requirements of Field Instructors and Online Mentors serving our Amateur Radio Emergency Communications training program. We also announced changes to the pre-requisites for the Public Service and Emergency Communications Management course (EC-016). We edited all website materials to reflect these changes and developed the administrative tools we'll need to support the new requirements. In addition we completed an editing overhaul of the EC-016 course and re-published it on the ARRL website. ARISS The story about the ARISS contact at Northland Preparatory school in Flagstaff, AZ in November QST (p. 75) has attracted a lot of attention. We will be reprinting the article to use a promotional piece for the program. October contacts have included contacts in Turkey, Malaysia, Italy, Spain, and Luxembourg. Contacts with US schools/organizations were the following: Oct 13: Pacificon, Santa Clara, CA via telebridge with Akihiko Hoshide, KE5DNI. Oct. 19: Wattsburg Area School District, Erie, PA via telebridge with Sunita Williams, KD5PLB Oct. 20: National Scouting Museum, Irving, TX via telebridge with Sunita Williams, KD5PLB Oct. 26: East Falmouth Elementary School, East Falmouth, MA, direct with Sunita Williams KD5PLB. Oct. 30 South Florida Science Museum, West Palm Beach, FL, direct with Akihiko Hoshide, KE5DNI. Oct. 30: Southern Tier Catholic and Archbishop Walsh Academy, Olean, NY via telebridge with Sunita Williams, KD5PLB. Oct. 30 Cumberland Elementary School, West Lafayette, IN direct with Kevin Ford KF5GPP. Activity Counts: August Sept. New License Class Listings 41 29 New License Instructor Registrations 23 31 New Teacher Registrations 5 2 EC-001 Field Exam Sessions 3 1 EC-001 Online Student Enrollments 31 28 Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Hamfest/Member Contact/ARRL Representative/Meetings/Vacations Holiday 11/22-11/23 Holiday Holiday 12/24-12/25 Holiday Leona Adams 11/2 Vacation Steve Ford 11/26 Vacation Scott Gee 11/9-11/15 Vacation `` 12/21-12/26 Vacation Joel Hallas 10/31 Vacation Dan Henderson 11/16-11/21 Indiana Section Convention, Ft. Wayne, IN / Vacation Amy Hurtado 11/1-11/2 Vacation `` 12/17-12/21 Vacation Gail Iannone 11/2-11/6 Sick leave `` 12/21-12/31 Vacation Bob Inderbitzen 11/21 Vacation Harold Kramer 11/5 Vacation Barry Shelley 11/20-11/21 Vacation `` 12/17-12/19 Vacation Dave Sumner 10/30-11/10 IARU Region 3 Conference & Administrative Council meeting. Larry Wolfgang 11/7-11/21 Sick leave