COMARA News - 4 Jan 2007 Happy New Year to All If you didn't receive the December Newsletter via email, we need your email address. Copies will be mailed to members without an email address on January 5. Two items in today's newsletter 1) Recent problems with email 2) Gary Firtick - December 21, 2006 3) Jack Hannon takes over from Ellen Hoff _____________________________________________________________________ Recent Problems with Email When time permits, the webmaster examines every bounced email from a newsletter mailing. This actually takes far longer than sending the newsletter. There are always a few that are ignored. Email accounts can be over quota or a few "Out of Office" autoresponses. Then, there are the email addresses that are no longer in use. If a member doesn't let us know of the change, we may not be able to send future emails. We have several members who decided to accept a free AOL email address and sent it to us. But, then, they failed to activate the new account. So, now the bounced email asks us to contact the person and let them know they are missing other emails as well. We occasionally have a more difficult problem. Email providers may decide to block emails based on any number of items they find in the mail header. They do this to protect their members from SPAM. The COMARA.org web site is hosted on a shared server (for financial reasons). COMCAST recently decided to block email for some of our members based solely on the IP address used by the web host to send email. Att.net also blocked some members. (The IP address is a set of four numbers separated by periods that is the actual address used for internet communications.) Our web host has informed me that they have taken steps to resolve the problem. This email will be the test to determine if the problem has been solved. At some point, we simply stop trying to send emails to addresses that continue to bounce. If you receive a copy in the mail, it means that we no longer send emails. Mailings are expensive (the biggest item in the budget) and take a long time to address and send. We plan to continue to mail to members without email. But we should be able to reduce the time and expense by at least 50% if all members with email will let us know if their current email address. _____________________________________________________________________ John "Gary" Firtick - December 21, 2006 [This email wasn't found until after the funeral.] Gary was a technician at Southbury for just over 25 years. He retired in 2000 when his health declined from a minor stroke. Gary was one of the original Marisat and Comstar pioneers providing major contributions to the success of these two programs. He was very active with amateur radio and classic automobiles. I have many fond memories working with Gary; he knew his stuff and was always willing to help others with learning the station systems and facilities. Gary often joked about how he was hired even after pressing a lamp test button that triggered the station loose power and switch to generator during his job interview. Gary will be truly missed. ...Guy White, Southbury Station Director. FIRTICK, John "Gary," 63, of Redding, formerly of Watertown and Southbury, Dec. 21, 2006. CH: Today , 6 to 8 p.m. S: Wednesday, 10 a.m., St. Patrick's Church, Redding. (Southbury Funeral Home of Munson-Lovetere) Published in the News Times on 12/26/2006. John Gary Firtick Born: June 06, 1943 Died: December 21, 2006 Services: A mass of Christian Burial will be held Wednesday, December 27 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Patrickâ??s Church, 169 Black Rock Turnpike, Redding. Visitation: Friends may call at the Southbury Funeral Home of Munson-Lovetere, 235 Main St. North on Tuesday, from 6 to 8 p.m. John "Gary" Firtick, 63, of Redding, formerly of Watertown and Southbury, died Thursday, December 21 at Danbury Hospital. Mr. Firtick was born June 6, 1943 in Fairfield, son of the late John and Edna (O'Leary) Firtick. Mr. Firtick was a retired electrical engineer with ComSat General of Southbury. He was a member of the Waterbury Amateur Radio Club and enjoyed working with computers. He served with the Army and the Army National Guard. He is survived by a son Dean Christopher Firtick of Henderson, NC, and his fiancée Kristy Lynne Hope and their son, Taylor Lee Hope; a daughter, Shannon Leah Firtick of Watertown; and his former wife, Mary Firtick-Wilson of Rock Hill, SC. Mr. Firtick was pre-deceased by his brother, Craig Firtick. Memorials: Memorial contributions may be made to the American Lung Association, 45 Ash St., East Hartford, 06108-2372. Cemetery: Cemetery Not Applicable Location: Munson-Lovetere Southbury Church: St. Patrick's Church _____________________________________________________________________ Jack Hannon takes over as President We are nearing the end of the transition of COMARA leadership. Ellen Hoff is hosting the mailing party on January 5. That's real dedication! The next COMARA Board Meeting will be the end of January. So, send any news or suggestions to Jack Hannon.