ARRL EXPO at the Dayton Hamvention was bigger and better than ever. Unveiled at Hamvention: The new fifth "Technology" pillar and the related Technology Public Relations Campaign. The annual Donor Reception honored five new members of the Maxim Society and others who have made substantial contributions to the ARRL.

On May 27, the ARRL filed electronic comments concerning two matters that the FCC has under consideration.

The Field Day Site Locator at www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/ fd/locator.php is proving to be extremely popular: Groups in all 50 states, several Canadian provinces and Puerto Rico have registered.

Amateur Radio operators in Brevard County, Florida responded in a support role during a spate of wildfires that ravaged the towns of Palm Bay and Malabar.

ARES groups responded May 22 when a large tornado touched down in northern Colorado near the town of Windsor.

The July 2008 issue of QST was released to the printer.

The June issue of CONTACT! for public relations volunteers, focusing on Field Day, has been posted.

W1AW conducted a spring Frequency Measuring Test May 21.

DXCC Manager Bill Moore reports that the 2008 TI9KK DXpedition to Cocos Island has been approved for DXCC credit.

In a letter dated May 8, the American Red Cross (ARC) reported to President Joel Harrison that a new ARC consent form for volunteers from partner organizations (such as the ARRL) eliminates the comprehensive parts of the background check that had caused some volunteers to complain.

These online course sessions begin June 20: Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Level 2 (EC-002); Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Level 3 (EC-003R2); Antenna Modeling (EC-004); HF Digital Communications (EC-005); VHF/UHF--Life Beyond the Repeater (EC-008), and Radio Frequency Propagation (EC-011).

XX Towers personnel provided spring maintenance on the W1AW and W1HQ towers and antennas.

The first of several ARRL books has been translated and published by Posts and Telecommunications Press (PTPress) of Beijing, People's Republic of China.

Official Observers investigated several interference complaints and passed several on to the FCC.

Paul Eakin, KJ4G, was elected Section Manager for the Northern Florida section; ballots were counted at ARRL HQ May 20. Richard Krohn, N2SMV, did not face opposition and will begin his first term as Northern New Jersey SM on July 1.  In addition, several SM nomination petitions were processed at ARRL HQ.

Steve Ewald represented ARRL on the National Citizen Corps teleconference with its affiliates.

Hands-On Radio Experiments, by H. Ward Silver, N0AX, is being offered with an optional parts kit produced by Kanga.

In a recent week, warehouse staff sent out 598 publications/product orders.

The ARRL Contest Rate Sheet, now known as the ARRL Contest Update -- News and Techniques for the Active Operator, is now distributed in a combined HTML and text-only format.

Jon Bloom and Sean Kutzko have set up a contest branch blog, Notes from the Contest Branch.

The ARRL Foundation Board of Directors voted unanimously to award the William R. Goldfarb Memorial Scholarship to Austin Evans Wilmot, KD5QKS, of Dallas, Texas. Other 2008 scholarship recipients were named as well.

On the air: The 2008 W1AW Frequency Measuring Test took place May 21. The June VHF QSO Party will be June 14-16, and Field Day will be June 28-29.

Staff travel: Aside from those who presented talks and assisted with sales at Hamvention, Dennis Dura attended the Florida Hurricane Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Ed Hare took part in an IEEE SDCom meeting in Salt Lake City and Katie Breen took part in the Atlantic Division Convention in Rochester, New York.

Compiled by Joel Kleinman, N1BKE
Managing Editor