Rich wrote, "The American Radio Relay League's membership may have fallen sharply in the past decade, but that has more to do with how the organization is perceived by many hams than with the number or licensed or even active hams." He could have left that out. It's a cheap shot. However, think of the letter as tossing one small rock at the ARRL but aiming an artillery barrage at the WSJ's reportage. Dennis Silage K3DS, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Temple University, wrote the WSJ to set them straight on the idea that ham radio is all old-timey stuff practiced by aging kooks. Among his comments: "I use amateur radio to teach 'cutting edge' communication technology to undergraduate electrical and computer engineers. Last year's capstone senior project (by a group of female undergraduates) was a digital voice compression system for amateur radio." Dennis serves on our HSMM working group, I believe. I also saw a cc: of an e-mail from Ed Hare to a ham who didn't like the article, indicating that the reporter was indeed given a "comprehensive overview" of ham radio today. Apparently the reporter selected only the information that made hams seem like the Amishmen of the technological world. Read over your e-mails from the past six months and tell me we don't have some of that in the family! The guy wasn't lying ... he just wasn't telling the truth. I guess when you work for the big media, you may learn how to do that. 73 - Kay N3KN