Greetings, SV SM Ron Murdock, W6KJ, wrote some eloquent about ARRL officer and staff participation in Pacificon, our Pacific Division convention in his Section News e-mail. They are so well written, and so totally accurate in my opinion, that I wanted to share them with all of you: "One of the nicest things about this show is the participation by ARRL HQ staffers. This year ARRL first vice president Kay Craigie, N3KN, joined Katie Breen, W1KRB, membership manager, and Dan Henderson, N1ND. Kay gave the banquet keynote speech Saturday evening. Dan used to work in the Contests Dept., but now is ARRL Regulatory Information Manager. Dan gave at least two sessions of PAVE PAWS/440 repeater briefings. He joked that since so many people were unhappy at this situation, he might need a volunteer to start his car. It should be noted that Dan, and ARRL, did not seek the intermediary status in this issue with the Air Force. It was an Air Force request that there be one point of contact, rather than deal with all the 440 repeater owner/trustees, which placed ARRL in this position. Dan let us know that during Pacificon, Air Force personnel were doing a second interference study at Beale AFB, and that the outcome of this study would result in more letters being sent to those owner/trustees still needing to reduce interference. This batch of letters will come from the FCC and owner/trustees should expect to reply with details of how interference mitigation has been accomplished by 15 November 2007, a rather short suspense. Katie is a person ideally suited to her job. She really looks for ways to make ARRL membership work for you. This is a relatively new position at ARRL, even though we have been a membership organization for the entire 93 years. If you are unhappy with some aspect of ARRL membership services, let Katie know, or let me know." 73, Andy Oppel, N6AJO Vice Director, Pacific Division American Radio Relay League (ARRL) The National Association for Amateur Radio n6ajo@arrl.org home: (510) 864-2299 cell: (510) 851-6214