I am still having trouble believing this at times, but we are a third of the way there and it is the most difficult of the thirds. But this is one great Field Day present! Here is the text of a message I had J.P. (our division webmaster) put up last night. Bernie and I will be sending essentially this same text as a bulletin to all New York State ARRL members in WNY, NNY, ENY and NLI. New York is in two divisions - Atlantic and Hudson. =================================================== GREAT NEWS!!!! S. 2893 passes in the Senate In a series of e-mails and teleconference calls over the last two days we have had some VERY good news. On Monday, June 17th the Senate Rules Committee met in the afternoon and S. 2893 was on the agenda. The bill was approved by the Rules Committee and sent to the Senate floor and assigned calendar number 1372. At a few minutes after seven PM that same evening Senator Vokler brought the bill to the floor for a vote. At this point some Democratic senators asked for time to debate the bill. The bill was then put on the active list for the next day, Tuesday. Many phone calls, e-mails and faxes were sent to our sponsors. The Senate went into session shortly after noon. Shortly after three PM the bill was brought up for a vote. There was some debate and discussion. During the process Senator Volker mentioned "Jimmy the Newsagent," our man in Albany. When the vote way taken it was 58 ayes and 2 nays. (ThatÂ’s a pretty good majority.) We still have to get the bill voted in the Assembly and get the governor to sign it. Governor Pataki has already promised to do that. The good news here is that the Assembly will be in session into next week. So we have more time here. The Senate finishes up this Thursday. We will be working behind the scenes with the Assembly sponsors and will probably make another trip to Albany on Thursday the 20th of June. But it appears that the really hard part is over. While we certainly don't want to count any chickens or eggs at this point; we have always felt that it was going to be much more difficult get the bill approved in the Senate where they pay more attention to the concerns of local government. It really is amazing that we were able to get passage in the Senate first. A great deal of the credit goes to all of you who sent letters, faxes and made phone calls. The interest shown by hams all across New York in both the Atlantic and Hudson Division was very important. But equally important were the five lobbying visits we made this year and the three we made last year. We spoke to a lot of people and gently twisted many arms. We also developed a number of position papers that were sent to key committee and staff people. Very important were the pieces sent last year by Chris Imlay to the Governor and the two pieces this year answering statements made by the local government lobby. This was high quality stuff, which really helped our sponsors answer the opposition we had. So hang in there for a few more days. Unless you have a direct line to Silver there is really nothing to be done but keep your fingers crossed. Please do NOT fax or phone his office. It will be counter productive. At this point I want to thank everyone who played their important part in getting us to this place. It looks like we have collectively accomplished something for which we can be really very proud. Should we put the rest of the pieces together, and I think we will shortly, New York will be state number 17. This will mean that more than a third of the states in the US will have a PRB-1 law on the books. I do not think that I have to tell any of you that the rest of the country frequently looks to New York as a trendsetter. Passage of this bill is going to make it easier for other states to have similar bills enacted. That is something of which we really very proud. What remains to be done is to keep our fingers crossed and let our sponsors carry the ball the rest of the way. It's up to them now. Letters, faxes, and phone calls are no longer necessary and may actually hurt our efforts. They should have the message by now: this bill is important to New York State Amateur Radio operators. The folks in Albany are very busy at the moment and we do not want to distract them from doing the right thing for us. Please keep your fingers crossed and thanks for your help.