25 JAN, 2004 - 2055 CST This morning I attended the Wheaton (IL) Radio Club Hamfest that was held in a new venue. They generated a lot of negative comments with the location they used last year and I believe their attendance was down a bit from last year - probably in the range of 800 attendees. However, they sold all 250 of their tables. But a few of things happened this morning that may have been anomalies, or perhaps an early glimmer of reaction to our license restructuring proposal. 1. We sold/renewed 11 ARRL memberships. This is roughly double my experience at a one day hamfest of this size. 2. We had about triple the number of people stop by and talk to us. 3. ICOM Radio had a display with two paid staff people. They were running out of HF equipment literature by around 10:00 AM. 4. The two equipment dealers told me their sales were better at this hamfest compared to the last couple of years. I was assisted by Vice Director Huntington, Illinois SM Sharon Harlan, Assistant Illinois SM Ron Morgan. And we were all kept pretty busy. I attended a similar sized hamfest in the Milwaukee, WI area the first weekend of January and we only sold 4 or 5 memberships and there was not much enthusiasm shown by the attendees. The WX was virtually the same at both hamfests, cloudy, windy, cold, some snow on the ground, but the roads were clear and dry for both events. I will be interested in hearing other hamfest reports from my fellow directors over the next few months - particularly comparisons with recent years. 73 - Dick, W9GIG