IN-Newsletter Vol. 41, No. 10 March 16, 2016 — Covers the period March 6-12. Upcoming In-Person Meetings and Events Administration & Finance Committee May 4 @ 8:30am in Newington, CT Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R Yvette Vinci prepared the bulk email notification for the April 2016 digital edition of QST, distributed to members on Friday, March 11. The distribution list included 122,506 members. Yvette prepared a report for the recent Executive Committee Meeting with a listing of the elected Life Members since the last EC meeting—276 new Life Members. She also completed “reminder letters” to 577 members making quarterly payments toward Life Membership. A handful of ARRL-sponsored presentations have been committed with staff for Dayton Hamvention. Debra Johnson and Bob Inderbitzen are exploring an ARRL-sponsored all-day youth track for Dayton. Bob has also met (by phone) with youth instructor Carole Perry, WB2MGP, to discuss ways ARRL could support Carole’s Youth Forum, which she organizes each year for Hamvention (9 AM to 12 PM on Saturday). Bob Inderbitzen revised the “About ARRL” information which is included in most of our printed publications. The new version includes content consistent with the recently adopted ARRL Strategic Plan. Content for producing a handful of new graphics for the website home page were submitted for design: Upcoming Division Conventions, Rookie Roundup (April 17), and ARRL EXPO at Dayton Hamvention. Promotional information and a cover were committed for our upcoming new book, High Speed Multimedia for Amateur Radio, everything you need to set up and use a high speed microwave network, by Glen Popiel, KW5GP. Summary of Sales and Marketing Department telephone group, reported by Yvette Vinci: Week Ending Calls Answered Calls Per Hour Total Talking Duration Average Speed of Answer 3/11/2016 849 18.9 25:13:34 9 seconds 3/4/2016 1,049 23.3 31:48:04 11 seconds 2/26/2016 1,101 24.4 34:31:47 11 seconds 2/19/2016 812 22.5 22:32:21 9 seconds Summary of warehouse fulfillment activity, reported by Steve Capodicasa: Week Ending Packages fulfilled Member Premiums 3/11/2016 631 510 3/4/2016 1,464 525 2/26/2016 1,051 738 2/19/2016 776 168 Field Services & Radiosport Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N DXCC Paper/Fieldcheck Processing Time 2-3 Weeks Logbook Processing Time 2 Days Number of Centennial applications processed: Centennial Challenge QSO 2840 W1AW/WAS 2019 Field Organization/Public Service Team Complaints were received this past week regarding operations on 7200 kHz, 7258 kHz, and 3840 kHz. These complaints are being checked out. Also, intentional interference to the ECARS Net on 7255 kHz was reported. The Oregon OOC alerted his OOs regarding a possible bootlegger operating locally within the state. A report of threats being made on 7275 kHz were received, and this, too, is being checked out. Chuck Skolaut researched information for a former Technician class licensee. Chuck also made an in-person presentation about the Official Observer Program to a radio club in Manchester, Connecticut and he conducted one morning code practice run as he filled-in for the W1AW staff. Leona Adams has been getting ready for the upcoming Alabama Section Manager election that will be held this spring. In preparation for printing, the two candidates for this election have submitted their candidate statements, and Leona formatted those statements along with the ballots. This election material is scheduled to be mailed to members in the Alabama Section no later than April 1. Mike Corey, Ken Bailey and Steve Ewald hosted an informational webinar about how to fill out ARES related monthly report forms and Public Service Activity Report form. The webinar has now been posted to YouTube for reference. Mike, Ken, and Steve have been handling questions, comments and ideas from interested listeners of the webinar. Education Services Reported by Debra Johnson, K1DMJ • So far, during the first 3 months of 2016 we recorded 153 instructor registrations, 38 teacher registrations, and 181 ham radio license class listings. • Maureen Farmer, ARRL IT programmer, has released the new Instructor Activity Database and Recognition system for beta testing. • We published the winter issue of Radio Waves, sending it to 12,089 subscribers. Education & Technology Program The Executive Committee approved the recommended grant awards for the 2015-2016 school year in December. After receiving the required acceptance confirmations from the recipient schools, we sent the equipment to bid and received the winning bid from HRO. The equipment was ordered and shipped in February. Working with the ETP instructors, we finalized the agendas and the schedule for the 2016 sessions of the Teachers Institute. We will be offering 3 sessions of the TI-1, Introduction to Wireless Technology, to include an onsite session hosted by Douglas County STEM School and Academy in Highlands Ranch, CO. This session was funded by a local donor. One session of the TI-2 Remote Sensing and Data Gathering will also be offered this summer. I wrote an article announcing our plans for 2016 for March QST, updated the website, published a new brochure, and sent email announcements about our plans to various mailing lists. We also submitted an ad and an article for publication in an educational journal, Tech Directions, to advertise the opportunity to educators beyond the ham radio community. Instructor Matt Severin, N8MS has completed the necessary application to have the course considered for graduate credit from Fresno Pacific University’s Continuing Education Program. ARISS The ARISS program has had a very exciting spring quarter. Contacts included several firsts, one in Vermont, and in North Dakota, as well as the first ever in Nepal. In addition to the great exposure the ARISS program is receiving with Tim Peake’s Principia mission on the ISS, which is receiving great news coverage by the BBC, Peake has been instrumental in implementing the first educational contacts that utilize the new HamTV capabilities in the Columbus module. As if that wasn’t big enough news, the program accomplished its 1000th contact in March 10. The NASA Public Affairs Office published several outstanding videos involving interviews with astronauts who have participated in the program. The first features astronaut Suni Williams, KD5PLB talking about the impact of the program to her personally. The second features astronaut Tim Peake, KG5VBI recorded on board the ISS explaining how the amateur radio contacts are conducted from space. Here are links to the first two: • https://youtu.be/Z-yHD9lVbH8 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTOiiBd2dCo The third NASA produced video is longer, featuring comments from several astronauts reflecting on the impact of the program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwtLkTpgNMM In addition to the NASA videos celebrating the 1000th contact, a number of other videos and terrific news stories featuring recent contacts and including HamTV images have been recently published. You’ll find a recap of first quarter 2016 activities and links to new stories on the news page of the ariss.org website at www.ariss.org/news<http://www.ariss.org/news>. A summary of first quarter contact activity in the US follows: • A telebridge contact via K6DUE with students at Frederick W. Hartnett Middle School, Blackstone Massachusetts on Tue 2016-01-05. • A telebridge contact via VK4KHZ with students at Christ The King School, Rutland Vermont on Thu 2016-02-04. • A direct contact with local middle school students and home schooled students host by University of Alabama, Huntsville Space Hardware Club, Huntsville Alabama on Fri 2016-02-19. • ​A telebridge contact with students at PS97 Harvey Austin School in the Buffalo New York, USA, sponsored by the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education (NUA), Syosset New York on Tue 2016-03-01. • A telebridge contact with visitors at the Atlanta Science Festival, Atlanta Georgia, on Tue 2016-03-08. • A telebridge contact with students hosted by North Dakota Space Grant Consortium (NDSGC), Grand Forks North Dakota, on Thu 2016-03-10. • A direct contact with students at Booker T. Washington High School in Miami FL on 3016-03-14. Fourteen international contacts have also been successfully completed so far this quarter with students in the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, the Czech Republic, Thailand, Italy and Nepal. In mid-February we opened the spring proposal window for schools/ organizations desiring to host an ARISS contact during the January–June 2017 time period and hosted two online Information Sessions. The current proposal window will close April 15. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Hamfest/Member Contact/ARRL Representative/Meetings/Vacations All Staff 3/25 Holiday Leona Adams 3/17-3/18 PTO Alli Barbieri 4/25-4/29 PTO `` 5/18-5/22 Dayton Hamvention, Dayton, OH Lauren Clarke 3/21-3/24 PTO Steve Ewald 3/28-4/5 PTO Steve Ford 3/28 PTO Debra Johnson 4/8-4/11 PTO `` 4/15-4/17 Science & Engineering Festival, Washington DC