7 JUL, 2003 - 1730 CDT FWIW (not a whole lot), I did conduct a mini-poll at the Kankakee ARS Hamfest yesterday morning. I have attached an MS Word 97/2000 format file to this message that contains the mini-poll sheet and the tabulated results. Attendance at this hamfest was approximately half (700) compared to the last couple of years. Weather was not a problem, but I think the 4th of July holiday weekend was a very big factor. As I expected, my mini-poll did not create any excitement. I had to draw people's attention to it and in many cases hand them a sheet and ask them to fill it out. A few people took the sheet with them. As there was no return address on it, and I asked for an immediate response, I don't expect much of a mail-in return. Only 35 people responded at this hamfest. Tabulation Notes: 1. All ARRL membership was verified today. One call sign was invalid or I was reading it wrong. After trying 10 permutations of that call sign, I gave up and discarded that (abolish Morse code) response. 2. There were only four non-ARRL member responses. 3. The two "other" responses both wanted the Morse code requirement applied to all license classes. 4. The majority (25) want to keep the current Morse code requirement; keep it for both General and Extra Class licenses; and attach a "high" priority (8) or a "moderate" priority (17) to any effort to retain the Morse code. 5. Approximately 30 of the respondents are active DXers and contesters and are therefore favorably disposed to keep Morse Code as a licensing requirement. 6. A Husband-wife couple (both Extra class DXers) are on opposite sides of this issue... most curious. I suppose some could read a lot into this poll. But it's not anywhere close to a true cross-section sample. The overall feeling I got from the respondents is that whether or not they want it, the abolishment of the remaining Morse code requirement is all but a done deal with the FCC. 73 - Dick, W9GIG