Greetings. There is bad news today. I received a call from our friend at NTIA, Russ Slye, who told me that NTIA had filed comments in the Amateur allocation proceeeding, Docket 02-98; that I needed to read them and then "we need to talk". The comments are attached. They support the LF allocation, but oppose in no uncertain terms the 5 MHz allocation, due to concerns about interference to government operations, including Coast Guard search and rescue, and etc. You can read the comments for yourself. After conferring with Paul Rinaldo and President Haynie, I set up a meeting with Slye for September 17 at 9:30 AM. However, Russ urged us to meet with the entire IRAC at the earliest opportunity, and see what coordination procedures could be proposed to minimize potential interaction with Government stations. We discussed some options, including power limits, discrete channelized operation by Amateurs, or emission mode limitations. I am attempting to set up a presentation with the IRAC now, with Paul's assistance. Karl Nebbia at NTIA is the chairman of the IRAC, and is closely acquainted with Paul. As we discussed at the Board meeting, we were well aware of the concerns that NTIA had. It was difficult to determine how serious their opposition was at the time. Now, it appears extremely serious. We work well with NTIA, and a non-confrontational approach is clearly the only workable plan. FCC will have NO incentive to override NTIA here. Slye said that this would have panned out differently had the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks not occurred. Now, however, NTIA is entrenched. We have some other specific plans in the works. We will keep you up to speed. 73, Chris W3KD