From the files of the ARRL Automated Mail Server, (info@arrl.org):
file: tours.txt        updated: August 24, 1994


An Electronic Tour of ARRL Headquarters.

This is the electronic tour of ARRL Headquarters.  If you are in 
the area, we would love to have you stop by for an in-person 
visit.  Tours of the Headquarters building are given on the hour, 
from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, Monday through Friday.  In addition, once 
a year we open the building on Saturday for our annual Open House, 
usually held the first full weekend in June. 

Either during our regular business hours, or our annual Open House,
one of our staff will give you a personal, one-hour tour of the main
building, followed by a visit to W1AW.  (Bring a copy of your license
with you; from 1:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon you can operate from
W1AW!)

Tour-Guide Guidelines

1.  Visitors are our customers.  (Without members there would be no ARRL, and
we would not be here.)  Staff will treat visitors with respect and patience. 
Visitor tours are not an interruption to staff activity -- they're part of 
our jobs.  We give tours to our visitors so that they will have a pleasant 
experience, and view us in a positive way.  

2.  Tour guides will introduce themselves to visitors and explain that a
normal tour takes about an hour.  Next, visitors will be asked if this is
okay.  If not, a shorter tour will be given with emphasis on the visitor's
area(s) of special interest.  We will do our best to accommodate visitor's
requests to meet a specific staff member or see a particular area.  

3.  In case a visitor asks a question that the tour guide can't answer, the
tour guide should ask a staff member that knows the answer.  (All staff
members should be prepared to talk with visitors.) 

4.  Tour are given starting between 8:00AM and 5:00PM.  (This includes "lunch
hour." Tours that start after 4:00PM may be shortened so that they conclude
by 5:00PM -- see no.  3.) 

Field Services Department 

The American Radio Relay League was created in large part because of a need
to organize and support volunteers who handle formal message traffic.  Today,
the number of ARRL volunteers has increased to where we need a whole
department at ARRL HQ to support them.  

Field Services provides the services and support that the ARRL Field
Organization requires.  

By the names of the volunteer positions -- Official Relay stations, Technical
Specialists and Official Observers, Emergency Coordinators, State Government
Liaisons, etc.  you can get an idea of the services that are provided by the
volunteers, in addition to the support that we must provide to them.  

Field Services employees produce: many book, position guidelines, memoranda
of understanding and other publications in support of the ARRL Field
Organization, coordinate the activities and provide support to the many
hamfests and amateur radio conventions around the country and throughout the
year, produce QST columns and articles, newsletters in support of the Field
Organization efforts.  

Many amateurs enjoy amateur radio clubs.  There are approximately 1,700 clubs
nationwide that have affiliated themselves with the ARRL, and it's the Field
Services Department that provides support to affiliated and Special Service
clubs.  

Volunteers make up the lifeblood of the American Radio Relay League and Field
Services is proud to be able to support this vibrant and active aspect of the
Amateur Radio Service.  

Additionally, FSD is responsible for editing the top-selling ARRL Repeater
Directory.  The National Repeater Data Base is also housed in FSD.  This
on-line BBS system is for the exclusive use of Frequency Coordinators to
share coordination data with their fellows.  The Repeater Directory Editor is
responsible for SysOp duties.  

Regulatory Information Branch 

RIB is responsible for Part 97 rule interpretations, providing forms for
reciprocal licensing in foreign countries, antenna zoning ordinance
questions, the Volunteer Counsel and Volunteer Consulting Engineer programs,
the ARRL program for the disabled, the ARRL Insurance programs, the
International Travel Host Exchange program, RFI regulatory issues, updating
the PRB-1 package, writing the popular Washington Mailbox column in QST and
updating the FCC Rule Book.  

The Publications Group (Note: The Publications Group consists of the Lab, the
Book Team, the QST Editors, the Production Department, and Educational
Activities.) 

Book Editors 

Book Editors work closely with authors on preparing their material for
publication.  Editors ensure that the material that appears in ARRL books is
technically accurate and easy to read and understand.  ARRL publishes several
new books each year.  New editions of existing books, such as the Handbook,
the Antenna Book and the Operating Manual, are published on a prearranged
schedule.  New printings, with only very minor updates and corrections,
appear when the supply of the book is depleted.  

We also produce code tapes and a variety of computer programs.  Everything
the League sells is presented in a catalog in each month's QST.  

We rely on readers to help us improve our books, so we ask for corrections
and comments on a Feedback form in the back of most ARRL books.  

An Author's Guide is available free of charge to anyone interested in writing
for the League.  Book authors are compensated either as a percentage of each
book sold or by the published page.  Technical LAB 

[NOTE: Tour guides should feel free to ask Lab staff to tell about current
projects.] 

INTRODUCTION 

The Lab, which is part of the Technical Department, is responsible for
providing technical support to the ARRL Headquarters staff, Field
Organization and ARRL members.  Currently, the Lab staff consists of the Lab
Supervisor, two Lab Engineers and the Technical Information Service
Coordinator.  Each of these staff has a workbench and an office.  Zack Lau,
KH6CP, has a bench that has become almost legendary in Amateur Radio circles.
His bench is usually littered with small projects he is in the midst of
designing.  We are not even sure what they all are, but have collectively
called them "Zacklets." 

PUBLICATIONS 

The Lab staff helps work on ARRL publications.  One of the best-known
functions of the Lab is that of testing commercial amateur equipment.  

Equipment testing is done for two reasons: first, for ad acceptance -- all
ads appearing in a League publication must receive Technical Department
approval.  Not all products that are advertised have to be tested first, but
any new advertiser, or a company advertising a class of products they haven't
sold before, will be asked to send a sample of their product for testing.  

The other type of testing of commercial equipment done by the Lab is for the
"Product Review" column in QST.  Items to be reviewed are bought on the open
market.  The Lab then performs a complete battery of tests to determine the
performance of the product.  The most critical results of these tests appear
in the "Product Review" column in a side-by-side comparison with the
manufacturer's claimed performance.  The on-the-air review is done by a HQ
staffer (not necessarily a Lab person) or one of the League's Technical
Advisors.  

The Lab also writes a number of articles each year, for QST, QEX, the ARRL
Handbook or other publications as needed.  They also participate in the
review of incoming articles and offer the editors their technical comments on
articles and books.  

SPECIAL STUDIES 

The Lab also supports our overall organizational objectives, performing
engineering studies and writing special reports to help our work before the
FCC and other regulatory agencies, representing Amateur Radio in professional
societies and standards bodies and maintaining regular contact with amateur
and consumer-equipment manufacturers.  

The Technical Information Service, TIS, is a valuable membership benefit. 
The TIS staff supports the Technical Coordinators and Technical Specialists
in the Field Organization, prepares TIS information packages to answer most
common technical questions and is available by telephone, letter or
electronic mail to research individual technical questions.  

MACHINE SHOP and CHEMICAL ROOM 

Our machine shop gives us basic sheet-metal working capabilities.  The Lab
staff uses the equipment in this room for prototypes and special fabrications
but prefer to use commercially available cabinets for published projects.  We
can produce single-sided printed-circuit boards using the system in the
chemical room.  The display on the wall next to the door shows the process,
which takes only about an hour from the time an engineer enters the room with
a circuit transparency until he walks out with a circuit board ready to be
drilled.  

SCREEN ROOM 

The bulk of our testing of radio receivers and transmitters is done in this
room.  In here, we are shielded from radio signals by the metal walls, floor
and ceiling of the room.  With over 110 decibels of isolation, you wouldn't
be able to hear a single station on a transistor radio in here if the door
was closed.  We need this capability so that we may test sensitive equipment
at the same time that W1AW is transmitting strong signals from just a few
hundred feet away.  Some of the test equipment you see here was donated to
ARRL by the Hewlett Packard Corporation.  The custom-made test benches were
supplied by our good friend Fred Hammond, VE3HC, who also supplied the new
equipment racks and console at W1AW.  

W1INF 

W1INF is the HQ "club" station, available to licensed staff members who want
to get on the air.  (W1AW isn't available -- even to staff -- most of the
time.) The call sign dates from the 1930's when ARRL HQ wasn't on the same
property as W1AW so a separate callsign was needed.  Most of the antennas
atop the HQ building itself are connected to W1INF, which has HF and VHF
capability, including operation through most of the amateur radio satellites.
We also use this area for testing.  The staff has dubbed the phonetics
"Whiskey One It's Never Finished", because the HQ staff is always adding new
equipment or operating ability.  We recently added fast-scan television
capability, through a local ATV repeater.  

Production Department 

The Production Department is one of the most visible departments at ARRL HQ,
as all members receive QST and many hams read our license manuals, the ARRL
Handbook, the ARRL Operating Manual, and many other books.  This department
includes the Graphics and Typesetting/Layout staff.  All ARRL printed matter
is prepared by our editors and then sent here for final preparation for
publication by our graphic artists, typesetters, and layout specialists.  The
Production staff is responsible for production of all League printed matter,
including QST, QEX, NCJ, books, brochures, pamphlets, and handouts.  

Graphics 

The Graphics staff prepares artwork for all ARRL publications.  They put
together covers for our periodicals and books, as well as schematics and
other illustrations.  In addition, they design brochures, certificates,
awards, pins, plaques, the ARRL Publications Catalog, and other items. 
Schematics and technical illustrations are done using autoCAD.  Much of the
design work is done with Macintosh computers running Adobe Illustrator,
Pagemaker and other programs.  

Typesetting/Layout 

The Typesetting staff operates the machines that generate the finished
layouts used to assemble QST and League books.  Virtually all of our pages
are assembled on Macintosh computers using Pagemaker software.  We assemble
pages using text files generated by the editors and illustration files
generated by the Graphics staff.  Proofs of these pages are reviewed by the
editors and authors, corrected and then sent to the printers who manufacture
the publications offsite.  For example, QST is printed by the R.  R. 
Donnelley Company in Glasgow, Kentucky, one of the largest magazine printers
in the country.  Donnelley's Glasgow plant turns out more than q00 major
magazines each month (including PC Magazine, Parents, etc).  QST is mailed to
members directly from Donnelley.  We use other printing firms to make up
other League books and publications.  

Educational Activities Department 

Educational Activities Department handles 4 programs which include: 

1.  Recruitment - We send out responses to 12,000 people per year who write
to us or call, wanting information about Amateur Radio.  We keep a list of
approximately 2,000 registered instructors to refer these people to.  We send
quantities of brochures and posters to people and clubs who want to do
displays or demonstrations to nonhams.  

2.  Instructor and School Teacher Support - We have materials for volunteer
evening instructors and school teachers who want to use Amateur Radio in the
classroom.  We print quarterly newsletters for both sets of hams.  We
coordinate the school contacts for the Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment, and
provide teacher lesson plans , sample news releases, student activity sheets,
and resource materials for the missions.  

3.  Audiovisual Library - We ship videotapes to schools, people who will do
presentations about Amateur Radio, and to affiliated clubs for club programs.
We also have public service announcements about Amateur Radio for TV
stations.  

4.  Elmer program - We coordinate new hams who need assistance to people who
want to help them.  Whether it be with their first QSO or their first dipole,
their CW or anything else they may have trouble with.  

We now have a 1-800 number for unlicensed folks to use in order to call to
get free material on how to proceed in getting started.  1-800-32-NEW-HAM.  

The ARRL Foundation, Inc.  

Although a distinct organization legally separate from the League but
nonetheless associated, the ARRL Foundation, located here in the Business
Manager's office area maintains an active scholarships program for licensed
student-Amateurs and grants program for clubs and other Amateur Radio groups.
Information and applications can be picked up here should you know of an
interested student or group.  

Editorium 

The Editorium is a suite of offices where the QST editors work.  These
editors edit and prepare manuscripts for Production, then proof-read the
typeset pages and the graphics that are prepared by Graphics personnel and,
finally, check corrections to the text and figures for accuracy and
completeness.  The editors also coordinate technical reviews of their
articles by ARRL Lab personnel and by volunteer Technical Advisors.  The aim
of the editorial process is to produce finished QST articles that are
informative, interesting, and technically accurate.  

The manuscripts handled by the QST editors include both technical articles
and general-interest articles, as well as the regular special-interest
columns that appear in QST.  

In addition to acting as handling editors for articles written by others, the
editors often write articles for QST.  

The editors communicate with authors, columnists, and reviewers via mail,
FAX, and telephone during the editorial process.  

In addition to their basic editing duties, most of the editors serve on
committees that review incoming manuscripts to be either accepted or returned
to the author, with thanks.  

One of the editors in the Editorium is also the editor of the ARRL Letter.  

Advertising Department 

The ARRL advertising department accepts advertising for QST, NCJ, QEX,
Repeater Directory and a few specialized publications.  At the present time,
advertising accounts for approximately 3.2 million dollars in revenue.  

In addition to gathering all advertising film for placement in the
advertising sections of our publications, the department also enforces the
Advertising Acceptance Policy.  When a new or existing advertiser wants to
advertise a new product, they must first supply us with specifications or a
product sample for testing.  Products are reviewed for safety, quality and
adherence to advertised claims.  Transceivers and amplifiers must meet FCC
specifications.  This Policy also has provisions for assisting our members
with complaints against advertiser.  The Advertising Acceptance Policy has
been in place since the mid 1930's.  

After the product and ad film has been reviewed, it is pasted and positioned
by the advertising staff.  QST ads are then sent to our printer, R.  R.
Donnelley, in Glasgow, Kentucky.  

EVP Offices 

Dave Sumner is employed by the Board of Directors to manage the Amateur Radio
side of Headquarters.  Staff members in the major membership services
departments report to him.  

Several other managers also work in this suite of offices.  Steve Mansfield,
N1MZA, handles legislative relations in Washington, and oversees the League's
public relations effort on behalf of Amateur Radio with the help of Jennifer
Hagy, Media Relations Assistant.  Steve spends approximately a third of his
time in Washington.  The League has another office in Washington, staffed by
Paul Rinaldo, W4RI, to handle our relations with the executive branch of the
federal government, including the FCC.  Nao Akiyama, NX1L, is International
Programs Manager.  Nao is responsible for ARRL's relations with sister
societies in other nations.  He also works with the International Amateur
Radio Union, a federation of Amateur Radio societies, like ARRL, from about
140 countries.  ARRL serves as International Secretariat for IARU, through
which Amateur Radio is represented at international frequency allocation
conferences.  

Administrative Services 

Building Manager's Department 

The Building Manager is responsible for all building and grounds maintenance
and supervision of the cleaning staff.  Climate control and other equipment
maintenance is also his responsibility.  The HQ Building is 40,000 sq.  feet,
sits on 7 acres and has a staff of approximately 120 employees.  

The Outgoing Mailroom 

The Outgoing Mailroom handles all outgoing correspondence mailings,
newsletters, renewal notices and other misc.  mailings.  In 1991, the
Outgoing Mailroom processed over 1,000,000 pieces of mail.  The Special
Request desk is located here as well as the Printing Department which allows
for in-house, economical printing of ARRL forms, etc.  The Printing
Department printed over 3,000,000 impressions in 1991.  

ARRL Outgoing QSL Service 

The ARRL Outgoing Overseas QSL Service is a Membership Service which forwards
Members' QSL cards to Foreign Incoming QSL Bureaus.  The fee is $2.00 per
pound (a pound of cards is about 150 QSL cards), or $1.00 for 10 cards or
less.  

When Members send their cards, they should include the White Address Label
from their QST plastic wrapper.  The label is for proof of Membership.  

Their QSL cards should also be sorted alphabetically by Country Prefix.  The
DXCC Countries List can be used as a reference for the sorting.  

When the Members' QSL cards are received at ARRL HQ, they are sorted into the
sections.  Each section has bins which hold cards going to particular Foreign
countries.  

Once the country bin is filled with QSL cards, the cards are then boxed up
and addressed to that particular Foreign country.  Every week (on Friday),
the Service will have a mailing of QSL cards going to these Foreign
countries.  

The Service forwards over two million cards to Foreign countries every year.  

Business Manager 

The Position of Business Manager/Chief Financial Officer is relatively new to
the League having been created in 1990.  He's responsible for most
business/administrative functions of the League and reports to the Board of
Directors in his role of Chief Financial Officer.  Responsibilities include
all financial matters, sales of advertising and publications, membership
solicitation, and overseeing Comptroller's, data processing, personnel and
other building administrative functions.  

Office Manager's Department 

Located here in the Comptroller's area, the Office Manager is responsible for
purchasing, personnel and management of the outgoing mailroom, printing,
building maintenance and lobby/receptionist functions.  Review bids from QST
are also handled through the Office Manager's Department.  

Comptroller's Department 

The Comptroller's Department is where all the League's daily
accounting/reporting functions are performed including accounts payable and
receivable, billing, payroll and other financial reports.  Also, all incoming
mail to HQs is opened, processed and distributed from this point as much of
the mail contains moneys for membership, QST ad sales, booksales, DXCC/QSL
fees, etc.  All money received here is deposited daily.  

Information Services Department 

Information Services is located in two areas.  The Administration and
Programming office and the Computer Room.  

The Information Services staff are responsible for maintaining the software
and hardware that provides access to the League's on-line databases.  The
on-line databases include: Accounting, DXCC, Educational Activities, FCC,
Field Services, Membership, Publications Sales, and Volunteer Examiners. 
These systems reside on an IBM System/38 midrange computer.  Currently disk
storage capacity is 5 gigabytes (5 billion bytes).  We have five staff
members of whom two are programmers.  The department prints about 56,000
pages of reports, labels, renewal notices and membership certificates each
month.  

We recently installed a Novell local area network.  There are about 80 people
connected.  Via the network, we are able to share a suite of Microsoft
software programs, including Word for Windows.  We are also able to share
printers between many users.  

Circulation Department 

The Circulation Department maintains the ARRL membership database and
processes all membership transactions (renewals, new memberships, address
changes, etc).  We also handle data processing for the National Contest
Journal, QEX, and the ARRL Letter.  In the course of a routine day, we will
receive over 200 inquiry telephone calls and process over 600 pieces of
written correspondence.  It is also the duty of this department to administer
the Silent Key column.  

All sales orders from individuals and radio stores for our numerous
publications are processed in Circulation and shipped from our Shipping and
Receiving branch.  In 1990, 375,530 units (including publications and
membership supply items) were processed and shipped.  

ARRL / VEC (Volunteer Examiner Coordinator - Office) 

Novice Testing - We provide valid exams, 610s and instructions for giving
exams to qualified Novice examiners.  We also match up those people who are
ready to take exams to those who can give them.  

The ARRL/VEC is one of the 18 current VECs.  (Other highly active VECs
include the W5YI-VEC in Texas and the Great Lakes (formerly DeVry) VEC in
Illinois, the Western Carolina VEC in Tennessee and the Central Alabama VEC.)
The ARRL/VEC coordinates over one half of all VEC exams.  VECs oversee the
activities of volunteer examiners or VEs; perhaps you used the services of a
VEC to upgrade to the class of license you now hold (if licensed).  

The ARRL/VEC began its operations in July of 1984.  This July is/was our
tenth anniversary.  

Prior to 1983-84 the FCC did all the testing, however, due to budget cutbacks
the FCC reduced their services to Amateur Radio--so as a result the ARRL
sought the appropriate Legislation to permit the FCC to use volunteers in
conducting the examinations.  

Since that time, the ARRL/VEC has: 

Accredited over 30,000 VEs; Served more than 330,000 individuals at more than
30,000 test sessions; We have submitted more than 190,000 applications to the
FCC for initial licenses or upgrades; 

The ARRL/VEC has a staff of 9 individuals who accredit VEs, register and
coordinate test sessions providing any materials needed by the VEs, process
the results of test sessions and submit them to the FCC and respond to the
many inquiries of VEs and examinees.  The ARRL/VEC fields hundreds of
inquiries each month from prospective examinees who wish to know where our
sessions are being held; with many of them being sent printouts of tests in
their area.  Some others with limited time prior to the session choose to
receive similar information directly over the telephone.  

The room off to the side with its Chinese wall sign is our secure materials
area.  Only VEC staff have authorized access to this room.  

As required by the FCC, VECs are required to maintain test session files,
including the actual exams (or exam designs - which specifies the questions
asked), for 15 months.  Also, summary information regarding each test session
must be kept by the VEC in perpetuity (forever).  

Once a test has been conducted, VE Teams have 10 days to process the test
session prior to mailing it to the VECit must be place into the mail by the
10th day.  Once received by the ARRL/VEC, the VEC also has up to 10 days to
process the session and place it in the mail to the FCC.  Feel free to ask me
any questions you may have about the ARRL/VEC program.  [Feel free to field
any questions you cannot answer through a VEC staff member.] 

[General, Advanced and Extra class licensees (older than 18) may be eligible
to be VEs.  If any of your tour'ees would like to become a volunteer
examiner, ask a staff member for a Prospective VE Package and a VEC Brochure
for each interested individual.] 

Membership Services Department 

Contest Branch 

The Contest Branch administers the ARRL Contest Program from publishing the
contest rules in QST, receiving the entries and checking them for accuracy
and writing the results of the individual contest which appear in QST.  We
also print and send hundreds of contest certificates and contest plaques to
the winners of the contests.  The Contest Branch processes about 16,000
contest logs from 16 different ARRL sponsored contests a year.  A large
number of these contest entries are received on computer disks, via the
Internet, or via the ARRL telephone BBS.  The Contest Branch is totally
computerized.  The storing of data, processing and checking entries for
accuracy are all done on computers within the Contest Branch.  Our log
checking software was written here at HQ by staff members.  We also use large
databases to store, manipulate and number crunch the contest data.  The
Contest Branch is also responsible for the Contest Corral and Special Events
columns in QST.  

DX Century Club (DXCC) 

DXCC is the premier operating award in Amateur Radio.  The DXCC certificate
is available to ARRL and RAC members and all amateurs in the rest of the
world.  

There are several separate DXCC awards available, the most popular being the
Mixed, Phone and CW awards.  Since the award program's beginning in 1945,
over 65,000 certificates have been issued.  

Confirmations (QSL cards) are usually submitted directly to ARRL HQ for all
countries claimed.  Confirmations for a total of 100 or more countries must
be included with the first application.  Contacts may be made on all amateur
bands.  

Endorsements to most of the DXCC awards are made in multiples of 25, 10, and
5 countries as the DXer's country counts rise.  Those DXers reaching between
1 and 9 countries from the highest DXCC country count are qualified for the
DXCC Honor Roll.  Those DXers who have all of the current DXCC countries are
qualified for the DXCC Top of the Honor Roll or #1 Honor Roll.  These DXers
are specially noted in the Monthly, Annual and Honor Roll Listings in QST.  

During the course of more than 45 years of DXCC administration, standards
have evolved in the acceptance of confirmations for DXCC credit.  The intent
is to assure that DXCC credit is given only for contacts with operations that
are conducted appropriately in two respects: (1) properly licensed, and (2)
physically and legally present in the country to be credited.  

The purpose of these accreditation requirements is to: preserve the program's
continued integrity; and ensure that the DXCC program does not encouraged
amateurs "to bend the rules" in their enthusiasm, thus jeopardizing the
future development of Amateur Radio.  Every effort is made in the DXCC branch
to apply these criteria in a uniform manner in conformity with these
objectives.  

Awards Branch 

The ARRL Awards Program includes 31 different awards and endorsements.  Some
of the more popular awards are WAS with nearly 58,000 issued to date, WAC., 
Rag Chewers Club, Old Timers Club, and VUCC.  Also, the one-time awards (We
the people WAS, Diamond Jubilee, and the Samuel F.  B.  Morse certificates)
proved to be very popular with many thousands issued.  

The Awards Branch also issues the long-term ARRL membership awards for 25,
40, 50, 60, and 70 year memberships.  

In 1993, a total of nearly 6,000 awards and endorsements were issued.  

W1AW 

Please have all visitors in your group sign the guest register in the station
lobby.  

The Maxim Memorial Station is the on-the-air voice of the Membership Services
Department of ARRL HQ.  Seven days a week W1AW transmits Morse code practice
as well as news bulletins in Morse code, radioteletype, and voice.  A packet
radio "bulletin forwarding robot" gets the bulletins out on AX.25 packet, and
a tcp/ip set-up does the same on the ip circuit.  Visting amateurs have the
opportunity to operate and sign W1AW between 1 and 4 p.m.  Monday through
Saturday.  

The station is a living tribute to the founding father of ARRL, Hiram Percy
Maxim, the real W1AW.  

940823 

