ARRL Rate Increase

[k6cpo]

Looks like I wont be renewing. Too many ads and old school stuff I could care less about.

And I am no kid newbie at 67 years old

Do you plan to continue in the hobby? Just be prepared to lose all your spectrum because the ARRL has folded. Without support and continuing membership, that's what's going to happen.

The ARRL is so much more than just QST, although you wouldn't know that from reading some of the posts on various forums. We discussed the dues increase at my club meeting yesterday evening. Our Section Manager, who is also a member of the club, made the point that the cost of printing the magazines skyrocketed during the pandemic and it's apparent advertising revenue isn't covering the expenses. I predict that within the next ten years one of two things will happen. The magazines will go completely electronic or the quality will go downhill. I saw this happen with a quality and well respected motorcycle publication years ago. The editors decided they were going stop accepting advertising revenue so they could do unbiased reviews of motorcycling merchandise. Well, the magazine went from a slick, glossy color publication to a black and white newsletter printed on plain paper. And they were gone within five years.

"Citizens, hear me out. This could happen to you."

 

[n2nov]

The magazines will go completely electronic or the quality will go downhill.

In my experience since high school in the mid-70s, this is already happening.
Back then we had QST, CQ and Wayne Green's 73 magazine as the big ones.
Now? The light slowly fades to dark. Long live the internet (until it is shut off).

 

[ladn]

Do you plan to continue in the hobby? Just be prepared to lose all your spectrum because the ARRL has folded. Without support and continuing membership, that's what's going to happen.

The ARRL is so much more than just QST, although you wouldn't know that from reading some of the posts on various forums.

I agree. The ARRL does some good on behalf of the hobby.

But whatever good it does is also mitigated by the League's pomposity as the "National Association for Amateur Radio", their "when all else fails" mentality, and their unrelentless push of EMCOM wackerdom.

I never really cared for QST and found 73 Magazine to be a lot more fun to read and to have more useful information that fit my needs and interests. Publication wise, and maybe in other areas as well, the ARRL seems still to be anchored in the 1950's.

Perhaps the ARRL needs to divest itself of its publishing business and return to its roots as a member-centric organization.

 

[MTS2000des]

The promotion of whackerism, ARES, and "all else fails" is why we now have AUXCOM. Even the Feds/CISA realize that, as was the case with RACES, while radio amateurs can assist, it must be done under the command and control of actual public safety officials, and not Randy Rescues showing up in porcupine laden CVPIs hopping out with a lime green vest, bandolero of Bowelturds, and illicitly programmed trunking radios- with badges and all- asserting some self-importance and misleading the public.

Amateur radio emergency service: what exactly does that mean in 2023? Hams aren't 911. Hams aren't first responders. Hams aren't cops. Would someone please tell the ARRL this?

I just don't see anything $59 a year can do to help "save" ham radio. I'd much rather put that towards supporting my local VEs, getting cheap QUALITY (non Chinaturd) used radios to give new hams, or paying the power bill for a month at one of our repeater sites, than giving it to a top heavy 501.c.3 with paid employees who do not much more than I can by putting in well formed comments in the ECFS when another "threat" or NPRM affecting part 97 comes up.

To call themselves "THE national resource for amateur radio" is a little misleading when only 20 percent of licensed amateurs are members. This should tell them they are doing it wrong with penetration rates that low.

 

[mmckenna]

I just don't see anything $59 a year can do to help "save" ham radio. I'd much rather put that towards supporting my local VEs

I agree. I'd rather spend $59 getting @AK9R liquored up and having him spill the beans.

Or, coffee, if he so preferred.

 

[GlobalNorth]

I agree. I'd rather spend $59 getting @AK9R liquored up and having him spill the beans.

Or, coffee, if he so preferred.

I'll pitch in for his work here,

 

[WA8ZTZ]

...when only 20 percent of licensed amateurs are members. This should tell them they are doing it wrong with penetration rates that low.

If the other 80 percent are alive and active then maybe they are not interested in contests, awards, CW, nets, etc. IOW, they are not "traditional" hams. Then what are they? Maybe preppers, balloon trackers, FPV, off-roaders, or something else. Ham radio has become a lot more than what it was 50 years ago.

 

[wwhitby]

If the other 80 percent are alive and active then maybe they are not interested in contests, awards, CW, nets, etc. IOW, they are not "traditional" hams. Then what are they? Maybe preppers, balloon trackers, FPV, off-roaders, or something else. Ham radio has become a lot more than what it was 50 years ago.

The other 80% may not feel that ARRL membership is worth what you pay for it.

I'm one of the 80%. I'm an active ham, but I let my ARRL membership expire in October. Looking at what I got for my money, I didn't feel that it was a worthwhile expenditure of my almost non-existent discretionary income.

To be honest, they haven't done the greatest job of advocating for hams or ham radio spectrum. With the ARRL "lobbying on our behalf", we've lost spectrum and they seemed to have been asleep when Ray Baum was being crafted in Congress.

I've felt for a while that the ARRL is trying to figure out the direction it should go.

 

[N4KVE]

Back in the 70’s my Dad sent them $100 to get QST magazine forever. Guess he won on that one.

 

[MTS2000des]

What he said. I am in that 80 percent. Been a ham since age 9...I'm 48. In those decades, all I have seen from the ARRL in the last two is a focus on whackerism and trying to sell amateur radio as some sort of "public safety" service which it is not.

The organization form 990 shows top paid people who make more than my county manager, CFO, 911 director and county commission chair. What exactly do they do but help themselves to a fat salary off the backs of ham members? I can account for what the folks I work for do to earn their money, but $258 grand a year to do what exactly? These high paid folks don't want to cut their beefy salaries but want to shakedown their members for more money. No thanks. I'll pass.

 

[mtindor]

I'm in. I don't have the greatest eyesight, eve with cheater glasses. I currently get QST by mail but always read it [and the other digital ARRL stuff] online. I have no problem paying $59/yr, or even $89/yr. If I don't believe in anything else the ARRL is currently doing, I'm at the very least in it to support LOTW. But i still have faith that some people at the ARRL HQ still have our best interests in mind and are fighting for us.

Am I naive? Maybe. But I pay $100+/mo for internet, $170/mo for cell, $370/mo for electric, etc, etc. $89/yr is nothing. I'll stop supporting the ARRL if/when I can't afford to pay for more important things. Til then they have my support.

 

[n2nov]

I pay $100+/mo for internet, $170/mo for cell, $370/mo for electric

Wow, Mike. Here in NYC I pay less than these figures ($70 internet, $120 cell 2 lines, $100-160 electric based on AC usage).

 

[GlobalNorth]

Do you plan to continue in the hobby? Just be prepared to lose all your spectrum because the ARRL has folded. Without support and continuing membership, that's what's going to happen.

Who is going to take over in HF? There aren't enough stockbrokerages on Earth and the propagation angels aren't going to allow 90% connectivity. SW radio is on life support, commercial aviation has ACARS, military aviation has SHF and EHF satellites now, Maritime is less and less a prime user of it.

What about 30-50 MHz? There is the Army, the USMC, and the CHP; but what major transnational corporation wants the band? As much as I like listening to DX on VHF-Low, there are only so many outlaw taxis, quaint New England volunteer fire departments, American Red Cross, etc. to occupy that space. It's becoming dead space and the FCC won't issue many new licenses for it.

2 meter? 1.25 meter? 70cm? Of these three, 70cm has the most potential - but with narrow-banding and trunking for public safety, manufacturing, and business users we are far from running out of frequencies.

How many amateurs are on LF [2200 meters] and MF [630 meters]? They are new, but not many on it and I've tried to work some.
Icom came out with a GHz capable transceiver and lots of Hams griped about spectrum 'no one uses' and why is Icom wasting R&D money on something other than another HF radio that has a couple of more gimmicks or knobs on it.

ARRL needs to abandon the Connecticut HQ and move to a lower cost State. The cost of living in Stamford is only 17% less than Manhattan! Of course, one can't claim being a NE blue blood in Texas.

The ARRL is like the NRA - justifying why things can't be considered or explored, much less changed because it would upset the order of privilege that the executives now enjoy. If the ARRL went bankrupt tomorrow, I predict that twenty years from now, we'd still have a vast majority of the spectrum we have now and perhaps even more.

The outcome is not binary, no matter what the doomsayers predict.

 

[mmckenna]

Of these three, 70cm has the most potential - but with narrow-banding and trunking for public safety, manufacturing, and business users we are far from running out of frequencies.

Amateur radio on 70cm is a secondary allocation. Military radar has primary and the military isn't going to give it up.

ITU also has a say in some of this, so losing the ham bands isn't as easy as the FCC selling them off.

The ARRL is like the NRA - justifying why things can't be considered or explored, much less changed because it would upset the order of privilege that the executives now enjoy. If the ARRL went bankrupt tomorrow, I predict that twenty years from now, we'd still have a vast majority of the spectrum we have now and perhaps even more.

The outcome is not binary, no matter what the doomsayers predict.

Agreed.

I'd also point out that the amateur radio hobby has lost a small amount of spectrum. While hams love to whine about it, it was justified. There's a lot of spectrum that amateur radio has that is severely under utilized, and saving it for a bunch of old guys that want to use it as a playground isn't a responsible use of the resource. I know I'll get flamed for that, but it is true. Amateur radio hasn't been very efficient with their use of spectrum. Hams could learn a thing or two if they paid better attention. But if you look at some of the allocations, it's not something that would lend itself well to some of the more modern uses. 2 meter band with 4MHz isn't enough to do any useable broadband on. 6 meters isn't of much value. The HF bands don't have much value as they are small segments with minimal use. There's larger chunks of spectrum that can be used.

 

[GlobalNorth]

The .gov types are far more dangerous to spectrum allocations than corporate interests are. As the 'big boy' in ITU 1, the US tends to get what it wants and to heck with the NGOs and Trinidad & Tobago.

As far as 420 to 450 MHz goes, not everyone is affected by PAVE PAWS / SSPARS systems equally. That would be more useful to the government and parts of it could be allocated to PS agencies below a certain latitude, with no appreciable degradation to inbound missile detection systems, assuming the government reassigned/realigned the bands.

 

[GlobalNorth]

I just got another questionnaire from ARRL about membership costs and what they offer. I decided to do some digging.

In my State, there is one Section Manager and five Assistant Section Managers? Why so many?

There is a State newsletter - it hasn't been issued since January of 2020. If you click on the link to the most recent past issue, it is dead.

There is a link to the State ARRL page - all it advertises for in the year are hamfests and deceased hams that worked/once worked in the ARRL State organization.

Back to the national organization...

Why do they still maintain a QSL bureau? With the dearth of QSL cards crawling through the mail, is it time to close down this declining function?

What is the percentage of members who chase awards and contests?

POTA has an entire section devoted to the activity and how many median aged hams can get to a National Park and set up a shack without .gov interference or assistance? I suspect they are very tardy now, Keep in mind that this was for 2016 to commemorate Teddy Roosevelt's actions to the NPS and they haven't updated it.

End the nostalgia craze! How many Hams would prefer to learn how to get a surplus 7550E working with a good codeplug or learn to successfully program a surplus XTS2500, instead of learning what tubes a given Hallicrafters boat anchor used in the final. Enough with the gallons of black ink bleeding on and on about keeping a 70 year old anchor working. Publish a book about rebuilding the old timers and make some profit on that.

That's why I am likely done with ARRL.

 

[Thunderknight]

I just got another questionnaire from ARRL about membership costs and what they offer. I decided to do some digging.

In my State, there is one Section Manager and five Assistant Section Managers? Why so many?

Just to note, the ARRL field organization (section managers, etc.) are volunteers. So no membership fees going to salaries there.

 

[mtindor]

Wow, Mike. Here in NYC I pay less than these figures ($70 internet, $120 cell 2 lines, $100-160 electric based on AC usage).

Sounds extreme, I know. Sort of is. AEP just raised the generation part of the bill 28% in June. I'm 2 miles from the village. If I were in the village, I'd pay for cheap natural gas rather than expensive propane, about half for electric. Of course, high cell costs is because one family member needed unlimited data and so I got it for both phones. Fortunately, work pays for the Internet/home landline (bundled Spectrum). But yeah, as soon as I moved to the more rural location a couple minutes away, the cost of living increased. Go figure

Anyway, at this point subscribing to the ARRL is one of the least costly things

M

 

[AK9R]

Not sure where the $89/year number is coming from, but I've seen it mentioned several places, not just here.

The dues will increase to $59/year starting January 1, 2024. Your dues include online access to all four ARRL periodicals: QST, On the Air, QEX, and National Contest Journal.

Subscriptions to paper copies of QST or On The Air delivered through the mail, which were previously included in the membership dues, will be an additional $25/year starting January 1, 2024. That would be $84/year total.

American Radio Relay League | Ham Radio Association and Resources

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national association for amateur radio, connecting hams around the U.S. with news, information and resources.

www.arrl.org

 

[AK9R]

I just got another questionnaire from ARRL about membership costs and what they offer. I decided to do some digging.

In my State, there is one Section Manager and five Assistant Section Managers? Why so many?

As mentioned above, Section Managers (I am one), their assistants, and other appointees at the section level of the ARRL Field Organization are unpaid volunteers. Section Managers are elected by the membership in the section every two years. If you feel that your Section Manager is ineffective, vote them out of office and vote in someone who will do better. But, you must be an ARRL member to vote in the election. The full list of Section Manager responsibilities can be found here: Section Manager

There is a State newsletter - it hasn't been issued since January of 2020. If you click on the link to the most recent past issue, it is dead.

That's truly sad. If I don't publish a section newsletter once a month, there are a few members in the section who will contact me to ask where it is.