MEMORANDUM To: Officers, Directors and Vice Directors; Ed Hare, W1RFI From: Chris Imlay, W3KD Re: ARRL v. FCC; Status of Case Date: November 13, 2006 Greetings. The following is a short update on the BPL appeal in the United States Court of Appeals. As you recall, our appeal (called a Petition for Review) was filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on October 10. We filed early, both to nail down the D.C. Circuit as the venue, in case any BPL entity or other appellant decided to file in some other circuit, and to make sure that ARRL was the lead Petitioner for Review. Our appellate counsel, Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr, LLP was of the view that this appeal required the expertise of the D.C. Circuit, which hears probably 95% of all agency appeals. We have actively lobbied public safety entities and broadcasters to file appeals as well, or intervene, or file at least “friend of the court” (amicus curiae) briefs, on our side. We didn’t want to be perceived as being all alone in opposing BPL interference, because that creates a difficult perception (hobby group versus nationwide broadband rollout, etc. etc.). We were not successful in getting others to file petitions for review of their own, but November 9, 2006 was the deadline for intervenors on either FCC’s side or ours, and the broadcasters came out on our side. Here is the list of intervenors, which I believe is now complete: For ARRL: For FCC: National Association of Broadcasters Current Technologies, LLC Association of Maximum Service Television United Telecom Council Duke Energy It is unclear whether NAB and MSTV will file their own brief(s) or adopt ours. It doesn’t matter in any case, as their appearance in this case is an indication that they are concerned about the root issue: FCC’s willingness to elevate the status of Part 15 devices and systems and change the interference metric that has been in place for a long time, without a reasoned justification for doing so, or even an admission that FCC is doing so. The broadcasters' intervention is indeed good news for us. The list of intervenors for FCC is not overly long, and that is good news also. We may have some additional support from APCO or NPSTC as well. Dave Sumner has been in contact with APCO’s senior staff, and Paul Rinaldo will attend the NPSTC Board meeting this week in New York to see about the interest of the public safety community in joining with us, at least as amicus curiae. Today, we filed a non-binding statement of issues to be raised, and as well some preliminary documents of no real importance. The briefing schedule is not yet set. However, now that the parties are firmed up, we will start to see our brief take shape. Ed Hare and I are working on helping WilmerHale with the 40 dB/decade extrapolation factor argument. More when I know it. 73, Chris W3KD ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.