Hello, gang, A Director letter to GL Division members reached them this morning, apparently (I put it together and sent it to HQ last night). As of 2 PM some 160 or so replies have been received to a 3-question straw vote included in the letter. I have not tabulated the responses yet, but at this moment, the response can be categorized safely as follows: Fight like Hell to keep Morse regulatory requirements: Very few want this. Devote moderate effort to keep these requirements: Somewhat over the majority favor this. This is not their most important issue. BPL, antenna restrictions, frequency protection are among the more important issues. Devote minimal effort (submit a petition to FCC and let it go at this): The second most popular and fairly widely held opinion. Do nothing to maintain Morse requirements: This has what to me is a surprising amount of support. Many who responded along this line favor petitioning FCC to abolish the requirement. I'll get the results tabulated and share them within a few days. I expect there will be a number of more replies when I log on to send this message. Interestingly enough, one (only one) person was aggravated with me for asking. He believes we ought to bite the bullet, move into "today" and petition FCC to drop the requirements. Another fellow thought it ridiculous that Staff cannot do everything at once -- e.g., full-bore fight to maintain Morse, the BPL work, antennas and frequencies, LoTW etc., etc. All with no additional money or staffing being required, of course. The preliminary bottom line seems to be that the intensity of support for maintaining Morse has decreased during recent years. 73, Jim W. Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director, Great Lakes Division k8je@arrl.org - Tel. 513-459-0142 ARRL -- The reason Amateur Radio is! GREAT LAKES DIVISION CONVENTION, September 6, 2003: See http://greatlakes.arrl.org