I attended the 56th annual International DX Convention this past weekend in Visalia, CA. Although I was convention chairman the first time we moved the convention from Fresno to Visalia in 1978 and have been a regular attendee for 40 years, this was the first time for me as an elected ARRL official. The convention was attended by 650, plus or minus 100, amateurs. Most are DXers or contesters, but there were plenty of people present who I have have never heard work or even talk about DX or contests. They can be categorized as having some interest in HF, as convention programs often include HF equipment and HF antenna talks. Items of possible interest to the Board follow. 1) Frequency Allocation The gathering provided access to a significantly larger group of HF amateurs than I have seen at any radio club. Consequently I used the opportunity to poll a group of about 300 gathered at the end of the contest forum. I asked how many were in favor of continuing government-regulated amateur-frequency sub-bands, and how many were in favor of having the amateurs use their spectrum without government-enforced sub-bands, as is done in every other country in the world. 6 were in favor of government-regulated sub-bands. Roughly 250 were in favor of US amateurs apportioning our frequencies with tradition and voluntary bandplans. Rest assured that those six are not alone. I have found one additional proponent at a club meeting. 2) Power-Line Interference When asked if anyone had ever experienced radio interference from power-lines, the response was essentially, "Yes," from the entire room. When asked if they had reported it to their power companies, the response was again, essentially, "Yes," from everybody. However, when asked who had their power-line interference problems satisfactorily resolved, only about half responded positively. I have found that Southern California Edison, my local provider, will act only after pressure is put on them at the vice president level. Apparently not all amateurs are willing to go to this trouble. I therefore personally proceed with the rule-of-thumb that half of today's power-line interference problems are satisfactorily resolved with present practices and procedures. 3) Jack Geritsen Repeater Interference In spite of the fact that this was an HF convention, the single topic that members approached me most about was Jack Geritsen. I pointed out that there is nothing I would like to see cleared up more than the Geritsen case, but the ARRL had essentially done all that I reasonably expect that it can. There are rumors afoot that the DOJ and FCC are about to act, but similar rumors have existed for a long time. 4) Two amateurs expressed that they were "appalled" that more QST coverage was not given to the VU2RBI/VU4RBI Andaman Islands disaster story. I thanked them for their opinion, which incidentally, I do not share. 73, Dick Norton, N6AA