[TWIAR] TWIAR Support

[kxkvi]

Hello to all of our affiliates.

Just thougt I would drop you a line, and let you know how we sit 
financially with This Week
in Amateur Radio and hit on a few other topics.

Right now, the remainder of our broadcasts for April are paid for, and the 
entire month
of May, has been covered by Gene Wicklund, W0ZOK, from Horace, North Dakota.
Thanks Gene!

As most you know, This Week in Amateur Radio is the only national amateur 
radio bulletin/
magazine on-the-air service that, in an effort to cut expenses, went to an 
all digital production
system four years ago. This has help us cut our production costs, and has 
saved us a lot
of expense that would have had to go to the phone company and for audio 
tape.  Our primary
expenses have been drastically trimmed to where about $25 bucks a week 
covers the production
and distribution of the service.

Our current on-going expenses, continue to be, of course, our internet 
service, (dial up - no dsl/cable available)
and we just changed our long distance telephone provider in an effort to 
save. We now have flat rate service for
local, and for US/Canada long distance.

Computer equipment repair, web hosting, domain registration,  and  FTP are 
also on the expense report.
Our satellite feed is as of now, is still provided free. Audio to the 
uplink is no longer done via expensive long
distance telephone, we are digital on the net to the satellite uplink. The 
satellite time is provided by W0KIE
to TWIAR free. TWIAR has had a long history of being the ONLY national 
amateur radio bulletin service
with a C-Band satellite feed. We hope to continue the feed for a long time 
to come.

No one involved with This Week in Amateur Radio derives any income from the 
service. Everyone involved
with the service, both currently and in the past, are volunteers. I think I 
can speak for the entire staff of
This Week in Amateur Radio when I say that it is a labor of love. It is our 
way to give back to a hobby
that has given us so much. And, in our view, what a better way, than with a 
weekly news service to
keep those in hobby up-to-date with all the latest news, and special 
features that are exclusive to
This Week in Amateur Radio.  Edition 523 is coming up this 
Saturday.  That's a little over 10 years
that none of us have had a Friday night out because of our dedication to 
bring you all the latest news
by have a late week deadline.

So, I guess what I am trying to say is, please help keep This Week in 
Amateur Radio in production and
on the air. $25 bucks a week! What other national bulletin service can 
claim that? If all of our affiliates
were to donate each year, I wouldn't have to write this.  $1300. dollars 
would keep the service alive and
well for an entire year.

And of course, Community Video Associates, the non-profit group that 
produces TWIAR, is a New York
State 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.

  As I wrap this up, please stop by our web site and check your affiliation 
status, making sure the information
we have is correct.  One other thing, TWIAR's production facilities is 
located here at my QTH, and it is in
the country where power failures due to winter ice storms, summer 
lightening strikes, and squirrels across the
mains is a common occurance. This is why the program a few weeks ago was 
not delivered till Sunday.

If anyone out there has a Pentium laptop of any vintage, that has sound 
capability, a modem, and at least a gig of
hard drive space, and would like to donate it to the service for emergency 
production situations during power outages,
(why do thay always happen on a Friday?) please let me know. It would help 
out greatly in keeping the service up to date.

As I said, April and May 2003 are covered. The summer is normally a slow 
time for the TWIAR support fund,
so please help cover these months ahead.

TWIAR is now ten years old. Here is hoping we can be here for the next ten.

Best 73

George Bowen
W2XBS
Technical Director
This Week in Amateur Radio