And my I add that Dan Henderson did a superb job handing the forum on Pave Paws at Pacificon (the Pacific Division Convention), which was so popular that we scheduled a repeat performance the next day. The interest was understandable since Beale AFB is less than 90 miles from the location of the convention. It was especially fun to see him professionally handle a few who showed up with inaccurate information (or interpretations) that they had obtained from non-ARRL sources. He was able to say things like (paraphrasing) "You may have read that somewhere, but I was in the room during the meeting and here are the facts." The members were delighted that they had such an authoritative source at the convention. Katie Breen was also very helpful as well and sold an incredible number of renewals and new memberships (could be a record for us, in fact). At 09:25 AM 10/30/2007, Kustosik, Lisa, KA1UFZ wrote:

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Vol. 30, No. 43

October 24, 2007 -- Covers the period October 14-20.

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Ballot Counting for Director/Vice Director Elections

November 16 in Newington, CT

Administration &Finance Committee

November 17 in Newington, CT

Programs & Services Committee

December 8 in Newington, CT

Administration &Finance Committee

January 17 in Houston, TX

Programs & Services Committee

January 17 in Houston, TX

Annual Board Meeting

January 18-19, 2008 in Houston, TX

Regulatory Information

Reported by Dan Henderson, N1ND

The week of October 15 was a short one in the office. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent answering a variety of emails and telephone queries queued up from being gone the previous week on vacation and preparing a presentation on PAVE PAWS for Pacificon, where I traveled from Thursday through Monday as a replacement for Chris Imlay, who was unable to attend due to final preparations for the BPL appellate hearing. Over 200 persons attended the two PAVE PAWS forums on Saturday and Sunday at Pacificon.

Media & Public Relations

Reported by Allen Pitts, W1AGP

The new Section manager orientation went well, as did meeting with physicians interested in growing hospital networks in PA. National PR Committee call on Oct. 17 included discussion on 2008 plans plus ways to promote ARRL through clubs to increase awareness of the value of membership. Seven new professionally done audio PSA’s were released as a trial of having a suite of coordinated PSAs which can be rotated and promote Amateur Radio itself rather than any particular club or group. These can be heard from links on <http://www.arrl.org/pio>www.arrl.org/pio . The PIO page itself has been reformatted to make it easier for reporters to find immediate information and releases. In-house discussions have been held in preparation for the meet with WalMart while the higher than anticipated level of requests for the emergency brochure in display kits, even this late in the year, has required a third printing and steps being taken to make sure that they are being used well and as intended to maximize results.

Development

Reported by Mary Hobart, K1MMH

First returns from the 2008 Spectrum Defense mail campaign are coming in with nearly $20,000 in from 430 donors and a healthy average contribution of more than $44. Follow up letters will be mailed this week to more than 30,000 prior donors. Personalized follow up letters will be mailed to major donors and major prospects next week.

2008 ARRL Calendars have been mailed to approximately 500 major donors. In addition, Diamond Club donors of $250 or more between now and December 31 will receive an ARRL Calendar.

A $5000 commitment under the Pension Protection Act guidelines has been received.

The final group of bricks to be laid in the Diamond Terrace this fall is 75% full. Plans call for this group to be laid on or about Nov. 15. Brick requests received after November 9 will be held for installation in the spring.

The first handful of scholarship applications for the 2008 awards have been received in the ARRL Foundation office.

Production/Editorial

Reported by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE

The new 9th edition of The ARRL Operating Manual has been released to the printer.

The December issue of QST will be released to the printer October 25.

Khrystyne Keane wrote and prepared The ARRL Letter, Vol. 26, No. 42, for Friday, October 19. It distributed to 65,134 subscribers. She also voiced and produced ARRL Audio News for October 19.

Business Services

Reported by Deb Jahnke, K1DAJ

Midway through preview week of the ARRL On-Line Auction, over 1,621 prospective bidders have registered. Page views indicated that the following items are the top ten viewed items:

THE COTTAGE ON MOUNTAIN BREEZE - ST. CROIX TROPICAL GET-AWAY

ICOM IC-7800 HF and 6 Meter Transceiver

TUNED-GRID TUNED-PLATE 75 WATT TRANSMITTER

SUPER ANTENNAS MP-1 Portable HF Antenna

BILAL COMPANY 40 METER ISOTRON ANTENNA

EMERGENCY STARTER GO KIT

EAGLES AUTOGRAPHED NEW STUDIO ALBUM – 2 CD SET

KENWOOD TM-D710AMulti Communicator 144/440MHz FM Dual Bander

DAYTON HAMVENTION TRIP PACKAGE 2008

SteppIR 80 METER VERTICAL ROTARY LOADING COIL

At present, we have 177 items up for bid, and will continue to add several more items before the Auction goes live for bidding on October 24th at 10AM ET.

Sales staff members Jahnke, Rocco and Tardette are finishing up advertising insertions for December QST. Preliminary reports show that regular insertions for this issue will bill out at $205,000. Our original display advertising goal for this had been $198,000. In addition to robust display advertising, our QST Holiday Tear-Out is also full, leaving just 1/6 of a page for an ARRL Family Membership house advertisement. A number of donors to the ARRL On-Line Auction decided to try QST advertising in this issue.

Diane Szlachetka is finishing up with designs for several advertisers debuting in December and making some ad corrections, as one major manufacturer changed their coupon offers unexpectedly.

Membership & Volunteer Programs

Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N

QSL Branch

There is no delay in opening mail and a 1day delay in slotting of cards. This week, 102 pounds of cards were received from members.

W1AW

Thanks to NARL members Steve Ewald, WV1X, Penny Harts, N1NAG (and her grandson) and Rose-Anne Lawrence, KB1DMW for their hosting a number of Scouts at W1AW during the Jamboree-On-The-Air event. They were joined by Ron Cady, K1RKD, Rich Lawrence, KB1DMX and Lisa Kustosik’s son Evron. Activity was centered on 40 and 20 meters. They made a number of contacts with European Scout stations.

Joe modified two (2) Kenwood TS-480SAT HF transceivers for MARS use. One is located in HQ station W1HQ, while the other is located at the digital station in W1AW. He also had to replace the network hub (located in the main console). In moving all the CAT5 lines, he also had to replace two (2) RJ-45 connectors. Joe also made updates to the W1AW FMT web page to reflect the latest details on the 2007 FMT.

Scott worked on slow and fast code practice files for the latter part of the month of October and early November.

Field Organization/Public Service Team

Documentation regarding an interference problem to a 220 repeater in Arizona was received and reviewed at Headquarters by Chuck Skolaut. He forwarded it to the FCC. Several reports were also noted concerning a Spanish language shortwave station that is on 18.106 MHz. An investigation so far indicates this is caused by a spur from a station in Costa Rica. Another unidentified shortwave station was heard on 14.142 MHz. Several new complaints arrived concerning an operation on 3.910 MHz. We learned that CHU is continuing operation on 7.335 MHz. The digital interference on 160 meters that was reported earlier was verified by the FCC direction finding station, and it has been resolved.

Tennessee Section and Alaska Section ballots for the Section Manager elections are still arriving. Members in those sections have until November 16 to return the filled-in ballot to HQ. Leona Adams continued to work with Section Managers and the accounting office on their section budget records, and she also handled and sent out Field Organization supplies for new appointees.

With TOPOFF 4 underway this week, Dennis Dura contacted the Section Leaders of the few sections where TOPOFF was scheduled to see if the Amateur Radio operators had a role and were taking part. We heard that radio amateurs from Oregon and Arizona have been involved.

On behalf of the HQ staff, Steve Ewald received the following comment from Kentucky Section Manager Jim Brooks, KY4Z, who was attended the SM Workshop the previous week.

“I want to thank you for your work in making the Section Manager's Workshop such a wonderful learning experience," Jim wrote. “It really makes the ARRL ‘come to life’ to meet you and all the other staff who make all the ARRL programs and efforts happen.”

Emergency Preparedness & Response

Dennis Dura presented a session on Amateur Radio Emergency Communications at the International Association of Emergency Managers Region I Conference in Fairlee Vermont (on October 22).

He also presented a session on Amateur Radio Emergency Communications issues, updates and future plans at the Florida State ARRL Convention in Melbourne, Florida on October 13th and participated in the National Top-Off 4 Exercise with Arizona Section in providing Ham Aid equipment to support evacuations of the citizens after the detonation of a dirty bomb in Phoenix.

Volunteer Examiner Coordinator

Reported by Maria Somma, AB1FM

The NCVEC Question Pool Committee (QPC) continues their work on the Extra Class Question Pool. The revised pool is due for release December 2007 and goes into effective July 1, 2008. Any suggestions, deletions or additions should be submitted to Perry Green, the ARRL representative on the QPC.

The September 2007 exam fee revenue of $25,064 was slightly higher than previous years (September 2006 $18,926 and September 2005 $20,308). VE test session registrations have leveled off and seem to be in line with previous years. Over 1,300 test sessions are already registered through the end of the year.

The year to date exam fee revenue total through September is close to $432,972. We are well over the 2006 year end total of $324,000 and have already met the 2007 year end forecast of $430,000.

The below stats show our accomplishments so far this year. I included information from the same period last year for a comparison. In most sections of our program, we have seen a considerable increase in activity.

ARRL VEC ACTIVITY Jan 1 to Sept 30, 2007 Jan 1 to Sept 30, 2006 Test Sessions Held 4,983 4,094 Candidates Served 36,494 20,707 Exam Elements Taken 43,298 25,277 New VEs Accredited 1,577 905 New & Upgrade License application forms transmitted to FCC 31,591 15,408 License Renewals and Changes transmitted to FCC 6086

(697 were Vanity license renewals) 4427

(968 were Vanity license renewals) Club License applications

transmitted to FCC 1013

(141 were Club Vanity license renewals) (392 new clubs) 764

(81 were Club Vanity license renewals) (307 new clubs) VE Newsletter Subscribers 5,745 4,875 Donations collected by VEC 33 n/a

Sincerely Compiled by,

Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ

Assistant to the CEO

Staff Absentee List

Steve Capodicasa 10/26 Vacation

`` 11/9 Vacation

`` 11/19-11/21 Vacation

Steve Ewald 10/31 Jury Duty

Steve Ford 11/5-11/6 Vacation

`` 11/11-11/12 MDC/FAR Digital Conference, Washington, DC

Scott Gee 10-/26 Vacation

`` 11/12-11/13 Vacation

`` 11/29-11/30 Vacation

`` 12/10-12/12 Vacation

`` 12/26 Vacation

Ed Hare 10/22-10/25 ANSI asc C63 meeting for EMC Committee

`` 11/8-11/10 IEEE EMC Society SDCom meeting Ft Lauderdale, FL

Dan Henderson 11/19-11/21 Vacation

`` 12/20-1/3 Vacation

Khrystyne Keane 10/26-10/29 Vacation

Lisa Kustosik 11/30-12/4 Vacation

Dave Sumner 10/23-11/8 Washington/Geneva

Mike Tracy 10/26 Vacation

Larry Wolfgang 10/26-10/29am AMSAT Satellite Symposium, Pittsburgh, PA

Andy Oppel andy@andyoppel.com andy_oppel@alamedanet.net