Your last paragraph is so true❗️
ARRL Elections
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Which other nationwide group is?
Like the Boy Scouts, the ARRL has lost its purpose. It no longer fulfills a meaningful role. The best vote you can make is with your wallet. Keep your money in your wallet. No better way to punish a person, group, organization, or government than to take their money away and bankrupt them.
You have an answer for post #42?
alcahuete
Member
I do. Perhaps we don't need one. There are countless hobbies in the US that get by just fine without a national advocacy group.
Do we really need advocacy groups? The NRA was turned into a piggy bank for 'Friends of Wayne' [LaPierre]. Susan G. Komen for the Cure was turned into an ATM by her sister. Black Lives Matter became a fund for luxury housing for the leadership. Academy of Model Aeronautics? They exist, but at a low profile and without the lavish offices that the ARRL demands in one of the most expensive States.
I'm with alcahuete on this. Work with the FCC on areas of interest, but stop funding professional CEO/COO/CFO positions in hobby interest organizations. Non-profit means non-profit.
If anyone loves Minster's job performance, write him a check out of your personal bank accounts and send it to his residence. He did nothing for me as a League member.
I'm with alcahuete on this. Work with the FCC on areas of interest, but stop funding professional CEO/COO/CFO positions in hobby interest organizations. Non-profit means non-profit.
If anyone loves Minster's job performance, write him a check out of your personal bank accounts and send it to his residence. He did nothing for me as a League member.
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So what? How many do you have? It is time to eliminate ARRL; they serve no purpose. The way to get rid of them permanently is to bankrupt them.
While I question many of the business practices and direction of today’s arrl, I do see a place for a volunteer group(s) to help advance the hobby. The major issue is that they, like other organizations, have grown too big and into areas not needed and not using money wisely.
There are really only a handful of areas that might use some help and since there are many volunteers already, they could continue doing some of their work without the extreme expense of arrl.
This year I will not be renewing my membership which in a strange way makes me sad.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
That's debatable.
They are the only real unified voice of amateur radio in the United States. They do represent some part of the hobby.
I'm not convinced they are doing it as well as they should be, and absolutely not as well as I'd like them to. But I'm not a member anymore, so I've got no say in it.
They do play some role in organizing some part of the disaster response capabilities of the hobby. Losing ARRL might reduce the effectiveness of that. And while a lot of hams love to toot their "emergency communications" horns, I'm not sure that the idea that ham radio can support disasters is going to survive without a unified voice.
They've also shown us a few things that should not be happening, like the "when all else fails" marketing thing.
So, really two options:
Support ARRL if you want to.
Don't support ARRL if you don't want to.
I doubt the are going away. Maybe scaled back as the income shrinks.
Or, maybe it's time for someone with the desire/energy/money to spin up a replacement representative group. ARRL isn't the only one that can play this role.
Just wondering - are you an ARRL member?
I agree, but as I stated, there actually is a “group” now..the current field volunteers who could be coordinated at little cost without the big overhead.
I should mention one more item that they do that can be helpful…the magazines. However, these days there is so much information available on line if one takes the time to look. An example, the equipment reviews. They do test equipment, but again multiple other resources out there.
As you stated, it is up to the individual to see if the cost provides the benefits they are looking for and either support or not.
alcahuete
Member
I'm going to double down on my original comment...why do we, as a hobby, need a national advocacy group? Imagine knitters or such having a national advocacy group. SMH... ARRL lost their way, with $300k+ CEOs, investments, financial advisors, attorneys. BS. Drop it all. Go bankrupt, and let's just go back to being a hobby.
Disaster relief? We already have those organizations: Red Cross is one. My HOBBY doesn't need a national advocacy group to coordinate or support disaster relief. We operate radios as a hobby. We are not (most of us, anyway) yellow-vested pseudo-first responder whackers.
Spectrum protection? If the government wants to give away our spectrum, they are going to regardless of whether the ARRL exists or not. There are 325 million people in the US. If a chunk of bandwidth is going to provide better cell phone service to 325 million people, an advocacy group representing 0.2% of that number isn't going to do a thing to stop it. Public service? Same thing. If public service needs the 2m band just because, they're going to get it.
Disaster relief? We already have those organizations: Red Cross is one. My HOBBY doesn't need a national advocacy group to coordinate or support disaster relief. We operate radios as a hobby. We are not (most of us, anyway) yellow-vested pseudo-first responder whackers.
Spectrum protection? If the government wants to give away our spectrum, they are going to regardless of whether the ARRL exists or not. There are 325 million people in the US. If a chunk of bandwidth is going to provide better cell phone service to 325 million people, an advocacy group representing 0.2% of that number isn't going to do a thing to stop it. Public service? Same thing. If public service needs the 2m band just because, they're going to get it.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
That's a good point. I think it's a money making venture, hiding behind advocacy. I'm not sure it's really necessary, but there are those that think it's necessary, more below….
I had a drafting teacher in high school that used to put "words of wisdom" up on the board every day. One of them was "The stomach will expand to absorb the amount of junk food, and then some" (remember, high school).
I think organizations like the ARRL, NRA, etc, will continue to grow as long as people keep sending in money. They'll find a way to spend it, stash it away, or give it to politicians.
True, however there are nationally oriented groups that are separate from the NGO's like Red Cross. I think the NGO's should find their own way….
Yeah, as long as I've been a ham, the "Oh EM GEeE! ThEY's ArE gOinGs toO TaKes AWay OuR SPekTrUmS!1!1!" has been the rally cry used by the ARRL as well as many others. It's a great way to get frightened hams to send in their checks. Any perceived threat to their stash of radios is going to incite panic. For the simple minded, fear is a great tool. Make them afraid and then convince them the only recourse they have is to keep sending money in to the only ones that are capable of saving them.
There's not any real threat to the amateur radio spectrum. There's not enough of it in the right places to do any good. A lot of it is secondary allocations, and isn't going anywhere. Not to mention the ITU….
But the ARRL cannot let their donors know about that. They might stop sending in their money.
This is so true. And the only reason I have not canceled my NRA membership is because my life membership has been paid for many years ago. But I have not given them a single penny since then.
And from what I see, ARRL is on the same destructive path as the NRA.
I think back to the 2022 rallying call the League led to save the 3.3 to 3.5 GHz amateur satellite band. Back then I remember looking at AMSAT's directory. They didn't show a single bird anywhere in the world using the band.
Today I received an email saying “The ARRL Board of Directors met in Windsor, Connecticut, for its Annual Meeting, January 17 - 18, 2025”
Not much seemed useful, but what struck me again as an example of the excesses involved is that they approved
“additional $200,000 for Washington advocacy.”
Didn’t they have enough in their operating plan to begin with⁉️
Not much seemed useful, but what struck me again as an example of the excesses involved is that they approved
“additional $200,000 for Washington advocacy.”
Didn’t they have enough in their operating plan to begin with⁉️
That's money from the ARRL budget to be used for lobbying efforts in Washington on behalf of amateur radio.
Thanks. Yes, I know exactly what it is, but my real question is why do they need an additional 200k when I assume they already had money budgeted for this. I have mixed feelings as to whether this lobbying is actually needed, but even if we assume it is useful, why and what do they need so much more money, and why was this not budgeted in their original operating plan? If I was off 200K when I was doing a budgeting exercise at my former company, I would have been either replaced or fired and my area was larger than all of ARRL. I know I am assuming a lot and I do not have all the facts, but on the surface this just looks sloppy.
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alcahuete
Member
Shhhhhh. Don't tell them. Maybe they'll just keep doing this and go bankrupt.
From the bulletin that was sent to the members, the Board approved "an additional $200,000 for Washington advocacy". So, this is in addition to what was already allocated in the budget.
My opinion: Maybe the ARRL's lobbyist has suggested that, with the new administration that took office this week and with "friendly" majorities in Congress, maybe with some additional lobbying efforts, the long-outstanding amateur radio proposals before the FCC and legislation pre-empting antenna restrictions could finally get some traction. This is just my opinion and it doesn't mean I agree with it.
My opinion: Maybe the ARRL's lobbyist has suggested that, with the new administration that took office this week and with "friendly" majorities in Congress, maybe with some additional lobbying efforts, the long-outstanding amateur radio proposals before the FCC and legislation pre-empting antenna restrictions could finally get some traction. This is just my opinion and it doesn't mean I agree with it.
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