In-Newsletter Vol. 25, No. 12 March 25, 2002 Upcoming Meetings April 20th in Ft. Worth, TX at 8:00am A&F Committee Sales/Marketing Dennis Motschenbacher, K7BV, joins the staff as Sales and Marketing Manager on April 1. His extension is 412 (860-594-0412 direct line). Dennis will oversee ARRL's publication sales, advertising sales and membership recruitment activities. He brings 30 years of sales, marketing and business experience, primarily in the fire protection and safety business. Most recently he was president and co-owner of ESG, Inc. of Reno, Nevada, a firm specializing in fire protection systems for the telecommunications industry with national and international accounts. In addition to his professional background, Dennis has been an Amateur Radio operator since 1962. For the past four years, he has been editor of the National Contest Journal and he is active in fundraising and promotion for the 2002 World Radiosport Team Championship. In connection with his international business travel, Dennis is an avid DXpeditioner, and he has written several stories on his travels for QST. Publications A new printing of Wire Antenna Classics is available for sale. The 2002-2003 Repeater Directory and the Proceedings for SETICon 02, the SETI League Technical Symposium, have been released to the printer. Field & Educational Services ARISS sported two more successful school QSOs. The first was with Zeehan Primary School, where 130 people listened, with 3 TV and 3 newspaper reporters on hand. The second was with St. Thomas Episcopal School. Thanks goes to Rick Lindquist, who as usual, wrote fine stories for our Web site. WA4IUM, a big DXer, called to say congrats to ARISS; he said his assistance with a SAREX school QSO a few years back has been the best thing he has ever done during his ham radio days. ARISS may see some scheduling constraints for April because of problems with the ISS robot arm. Rosalie began initial prep on talks she will give at the upcoming ARISS International Meeting in Montreal. Field Organization/Public Service Team Leona Adams will finalize the Oregon Section Manager election preparations (ballots and statements) shortly, for the printer. Ballots are to be mailed by April 1. She continued working on behalf of the new (April) class of SMs, ordering badges for all the newly-elected ones and sending supplies to W6DPD in San Joaquin Valley. 40 packages of supplies were sent to other Field Appointees, and SM expense reports were entered in the computer. Steve Ewald prepared a report summarizing the results of our ARES garment questionnaire sent to ARRL SMs, SECs, DECs, and ECs last month. The report and a recommendation went to the VRC. There was a positive response on the idea to offer identification vests and/or jackets. Steve also contacted Section Leaders to help gather Amateur Radio news related to the flooding in KY, TN, VA and WV. He completed preparations for going to the Nebraska State Convention. Regulatory Team Brennan Price sent materials in two cases to the FCC. In monitoring matters, the long-standing 17-meter problem resulting from the third harmonic of a Cuban jammer of Radio Marti, has abated due to a switch in Marti's frequency to 6060 kHz. Brennan consulted with the editorium regarding the legality of the SWR mapping feature on the Icom 746 Pro; it can be legally used, but requires post-test manual identification on all frequencies. John Hennessee assisted amateurs with zoning problems in Cape Coral, FL (K1KHP), Jefferson County, TN (KG4GVX), West Palm Beach, FL, Monterrey, CA (WB2EQX) and Kingsbury, NJ (WA2EAK) and San Jose, CA (N6KJ). John is hearing more from amateurs who want to make modifications, electronically, to their licenses -- they are appreciative that John helps with their questions. He also updated the reciprocal licensing information for Armenia. The Big Project Jerry Hill finished a Power Point presentation to display on a revolving loop for the National Science Teachers Association national convention. Jerry and volunteer Ken Chaffee, WA1QXR, will staff an exhibit there next week. Packets of applications were sent to the Executive Committee for their selection of a second round of Pilot Schools. Jerry is working with teachers who are designing units for the Radio Lab Handbook for schoolteachers. Field & Educational Support Team Linda Mullally updated 48 affiliated club records, and registered 8 volunteer instructors and 1 schoolteacher. She compiled this month's Field Organization (statistics) report for the Public Service column in QST. She performed duties related to 29 students who graduated from C-CE on-line courses. Linda also assisted Leona with data entry and materials fulfillment for Field appointees. Gail Iannone sent 18 hamfest approval letters to the sponsoring committees, processed 16 door prize orders and 6 label requests, and sent 8 hamfest handout packages for upcoming events. Jean Wolfgang received questions from 3 people who will be teaching Boy Scouts in earning their Radio Merit Badges. She noted an increase in correspondence about F&ES annual awards, and responded to these members. She assisted Margie and Leona in troubleshooting computer and document-formatting problems. Margie Bourgoin helped several volunteer instructors in deciding which ARRL publications to order for teaching Spring classes. She reports an upturn in instructor inquiries once again this week. Mary Lau added new files to the QST binaries library available via the ARRLWeb. She assisted Margie with reactivation paperwork for a Massachusetts club that had been unaffiliated for three decades. Mary began weekly informational sessions with her team's members. C-CE Team Steve Blair processed results from successful C-CE classroom and exam sessions in Massachusetts and Oregon. He gathered results from beta-testers on the HF Digital Course, and worked with our Web host to get the next course formatted so beta-testing can begin. Dan Miller drafted a survey for the ARRL Web to determine interest in topics for future on-line courses, and methods for development of courses. For the following recent classes, registrants totaled: Level I emergency communications = 148 Level II emergency communications = 29 Level III emergency communications = 16 Antenna Modeling = 41 Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSLs 700 WAS Endorsements 7 WAC QSLs 162 Extra Class Certificates 24 OTC Awards 8 RCC Awards 8 Friendship Awards 7 A-1 Operator Nominations 4 Long Term Member Inquiries 3 VUCC Initial Awards 2 VUCC Grids (Data Entry) 153 VUCC Endorsements 8 VUCC Grids (Data Entry) 1106 VUCC Awards Mailed 39 For the coming week-WAS Specialty and U.S. WAC awards, research for long term member award eligibility, and VUCC data entry. DXCC Branch Weekly Report March 24, 2002 Beginning Cards 38,894 Cards Received 11,898 Cards Processed 10,313 Ending Cards 40,479 Applications Pending 277 Backlog Time 1 Week Year-to-date Cards Received 118,344 Cards Returned 197,350 QRP Issued this week 6 QRP YTD 176 Card Return: DXCC is currently mailing applications received on March 14, 2002. Card Processing: We are entering cards received on March 19, 2002. One new DXCC card checker was appointed in Brazil bringing the total number of foreign societies with card checkers to 11. Three Millennium awards were issued this week bringing the total issued to 2981. QSL Branch QSL service status: Current. Cards mailed year to date as of 03/24/2002 - 530,475. Cards mailed on 03/22/2002 - 102,725. Janet Rocco spent 4 hours conducting tours around HQ. W1AW Joe Carcia worked on regular W1AW QSL card requests and W1AW Qualifying Run texts for the month of April. He also worked the Friday night shift for a vacationing Scott Gee. Scott Gee worked on fast and slow code practice runs for the latter part of the month of March and early April. He handled evening phone sales calls in the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot. W1AW telephone sales year to date: $2,704. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW:lk Staff Absentee List Name Date(s) Reason All Staff 3/29 Holiday Dave Sumner 3/21-3/27 Vacation Dave Patton 4/5-4/11 Vacation Carol Patton 4/5-4/11 Vacation Mary Hobart 4/6-4/7 MD State Convention, Timonium Mark Wilson 4/1-4/3 Vacation Rick Lindquist 4/1 Vacation Dan Miller 3/28-4/1 Vacation Jerry Hill 3/26-3/31 National Science Teacher Assoc. Conference, San Diego Scott Gee 3/25-3/26 Vacation Judy Miller 3/28-4/1 Vacation Ann Figat 3/28 Vacation Mahjabeen Kabir 3/28 Vacation Rosalie White 4/4-4/7 ARISS International Meeting, Montreal Steve Ewald 4/1-4/4 National Hurricane Conference, Orlando John Bee 4/3-4/5 AES SuperFest, Milwaukee, WI Bob Inderbitzen 4/4-4/5 AES SuperFest, Milwaukee, WI Dennis Motschenbacher 4/3-4/5 AES SuperFest, Milwaukee, WI Al Alvareztorres 4/22-4/26 Vacation