Good morning! This week the ARRL Development Office will mail a total of 140,000 letters to active ARRL members (117,000), lapsed members (10,000) and never members in CT, VA and CA (10,000), seeking financial support for a Spectrum Defense special campaign for Broadband over Power Line. This campaign is being coordinated with the ARRL Circulation Department to raise awareness of the critical BPL issue and to encourage both memberships and contributions to support ARRL's work on this issue. During the course of an A & F conference call last night, one of the committee mentioned that several groups on 20 meters had expressed sentiments that this issue was simply a ploy on the part of ARRL to raise money, and that the Department of Defense (DOD) and Short-wave listening groups has "signed off" on BPL as a non-issue. At the request of the committee I checked with Ed Hare, the staff guru on BPL, this morning to determine whether those comments are valid. While he is not aware of the DOD position, Ed assures me that the short-wave groups are filing comments against BPL. I have sent a message to Chris Imlay to determine any knowledge of a DOD position. As Directors and Officer of ARRL you can play a vital role in boosting awareness and education on the BPL issue, and the filing of comments to the NOI by the July 7 deadline. By using your websites, newsletters, email list serves, and appearances at hamfests and conventions you can be extensions of our Development Office in this effort. If you use the web and email, please encourage your Division constituents to read the article on the ARRL Website at http://www.arrl.org/bpl and the information on how to file comments to the NOI: File Comments Comments are due on or before July 7, 2003. Reply comments are due on or before August 6, 2003. The FCC now is accepting electronically filed comments via its Electronic Comment Filing System (http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/ecfs/). Under ECFS Main Links, click on "Submit a Filing." In the "Proceeding" field, enter "03-104" and complete the required fields. Comments may be typed into a form or you may attach a file containing your comments. Comments also may be submitted via e-mail per instructions on the ECFS page. The FCC has created a Web page that offers more information about filing comments, http://wireless.fcc.gov/csinfo/comments.html. There's also a mailing address for those wishing to file comments by postal mail. Thank you so much for adding your voices to those raising this issue and encouraging support of the Spectrum Defense Fund so that ARRL can fight this latest threat. 73, Mary K1MMH