Tom, There was no written memo to the EC. The memo that was sent to the board contains, in its entirety, what was verbally presented to the EC. The EC members each asked questions; mostly what has been asked by you and Jay, and my response is in line with what I told the EC. As always, the EC members are free to speak up if they want to add anything. As I said in my response to Jay, yes there will be those that will want to talk negatively about ARRL if we withdraw the petition, but again how do we lose if continue to be responsive to concerns? Granted, there comes a time when you have addressed all of the concerns you can and you can no longer be productive so you just have to move forward. The board could decide in July to urge the FCC to issue an NOI if they want, but I'm not sure the FCC would do that. I have nothing to base that on, just a feeling. This is already a digital -vs- analog war. That unfortunately started with our original petition and I don't know, right now, how to further address it. We can't get around that, it is something we will just have to deal with and manage. The resistance to change gang is always difficult to deal with. I believe we will have to get these two points across to the FCC when we meet with the Mobility Division after July. 73 Joel W5ZN -----Original Message----- From: Tom Frenaye [mailto:frenaye@pcnet.com] Sent: Friday, April 13, 2007 9:57 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:15423] Re:RM-11306 At 11:35 AM 4/13/2007, John Bellows wrote:

In ODV 15416 we are asked to review the attached Memorandum and EC Resolution and provide input. While the Memo notes there is some urgency in this matter it appears the request is for input rather than an immediate vote.

Jay's lengthy comments parallel most of my own thinking and questions, and he said it better than I would have. Can we have a copy of whatever memo might have been sent to the EC prior to their action (from Chris, Dave or Joel?)? I also think we will take a very big PR hit if we withdraw the petition. It still might be worth doing but I'd like to hear more. Is there a bit more information about the EC discussions pro/con available? Thinking about it last night I was ready to vote "no" but if that will cause the FCC to deny the petition it would take several years before the issue could reasonably be brought to them again. Why couldn't we urge them to come out with a NPRM based on our "drop back and punt" presentation to have regulation by bandwidth from 28 Mhz and up? Or, why couldn't the FCC be asked to issue a Notice of Inquiry, based on the questions raised by the various comments. They must also understand that regulation by bandwidth is getting somewhat mixed up in a "digital vs analog" war, and a "resistance to change" attitude in general. I'd like to hear more discussion. -- Tom ===== e-mail: k1ki@arrl.org ARRL New England Division Director http://www.arrl.org/ Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444