Is ARRL worth it?

Is the arrl worth joining?

  • No

    Votes: 33 47.1%
  • Yes

    Votes: 38 54.3%

  • Total voters
    70
  • Poll closed .
Status
Not open for further replies.

af5rn

Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2008
Messages
1,060
Location
N. Tex / S. Fla
"Worth it" is subjective. A lot of people gauge "worth it" by the personal benefits they get. Others gauge it by what benefits the organisation provides to the hobby. I know of no other special interest or hobby organisation of the sort, besides the NRA, that provides near the benefit that the ARRL does. They provide a wealth of educational materials to the entire hobby. They administrate the hobby itself pretty much, since the FCC is too busy and/or disinterested in doing it. And they provide professional representation for us to the government, helping to assure our interests -- including the spectrum -- are protected. Well worth it, if you ask me, whether they send me personally anything cool in the mail or not.
 

trace1

Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2006
Messages
776
Location
EM73co
"Worth it" is subjective. A lot of people gauge "worth it" by the personal benefits they get. Others gauge it by what benefits the organisation provides to the hobby. I know of no other special interest or hobby organisation of the sort, besides the NRA, that provides near the benefit that the ARRL does. They provide a wealth of educational materials to the entire hobby. They administrate the hobby itself pretty much, since the FCC is too busy and/or disinterested in doing it. And they provide professional representation for us to the government, helping to assure our interests -- including the spectrum -- are protected. Well worth it, if you ask me, whether they send me personally anything cool in the mail or not.

Very well said!!!
 

af5rn

Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2008
Messages
1,060
Location
N. Tex / S. Fla
that's why they lost the portion of the 220 Band a while back??:)
Quite awhile back. Before the elimination of the CW requirement, when new membership was at it's lowest. Just shows to go you that there is strength in numbers, and if membership falls, so does our power.
 

jon_k

Member
Joined
May 7, 2008
Messages
271
Location
Fort Worth, Republic of Texas
The ARRL fights for our band space. Sometimes they lose, then sometimes they gain.

However, the fact is that they provide the legal support we need and petitions to the FCC to ensure we keep what we've got. Without the ARRL I'm certain we'd be down to a few "channels" worth of privileges by now.

I'm still not getting my QST subscription though after 3 months of being a member. Hmm. Guess it takes a while.
 
Last edited:

AK9R

Lead Wiki Manager and almost an Awesome Moderator
Super Moderator
Joined
Jul 18, 2004
Messages
9,293
Location
Central Indiana
that's why they lost the portion of the 220 Band a while back??:)
Prior to that decision by the FCC, amateur radio was a secondary user on 220-225 MHz. After that decision, amateur radio is primary on 222-225. Yes, amateur radio lost 2 megahertz of spectrum. But amateur radio gained exclusive use of the remaining 3 MHz.
 

TheZach

Completely Banned for the Greater Good
Banned
Joined
Oct 18, 2007
Messages
35
Location
Kalmamazoo, MI
I disagree how the ARRL pushed a technology that frankly sucks (DSTAR) when other good and digital voice things are already developed and well available. I question how much money ICOM 'donated' to the ARRL to get them to adopt and push DSTAR.

I also question some of the manure that the ARRL has been pulling with the state of michigan
 

Cowthief

Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2003
Messages
102
Location
Texas
ARRL and Digital.

Hello.

ARRL is now pushing D-STAR in the simplex portions of 2 meters calling it something other than what it is, a repeater.
I like P-25 mo' better, as this allows for both Analog as well as Digital.
But, that is a regular repeater.
Call a D-Star repeater what it is, a repeater, and stuff it in the same pairs as any other repeater.
 

n2nov

Active Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2002
Messages
832
Location
Staten Island, NYC
The A**L also provides no support from HQ when their local/section people play very heavyhanded politics and all that Mr. Sumner or Mr. Haney can say is "play nice out there".

And yes, I am also a Life Member who has watched ham membership in the A**L slip from 25% in the 1990's to just 15% today!
 

stevolene

Member
Joined
May 5, 2006
Messages
173
Location
chattanooga metro
"Worth it" is subjective. A lot of people gauge "worth it" by the personal benefits they get. Others gauge it by what benefits the organisation provides to the hobby. I know of no other special interest or hobby organisation of the sort, besides the NRA, that provides near the benefit that the ARRL does. They provide a wealth of educational materials to the entire hobby. They administrate the hobby itself pretty much, since the FCC is too busy and/or disinterested in doing it. And they provide professional representation for us to the government, helping to assure our interests -- including the spectrum -- are protected. Well worth it, if you ask me, whether they send me personally anything cool in the mail or not.

I agree they provide alot of educational material, but they charge for it........ham radio is a dying art, i wish i would have got to it earlier in life. the average age of the hams in my area is 70 yrs old, membership in the local ham club are few. I couldnt say whether its worth it to be a member of ARRL or not, especially when one will spend 100 bucks on a scanner antenna. I just dont personally see what the benefit is other than the fact you can say "Im a member"
 

af5rn

Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2008
Messages
1,060
Location
N. Tex / S. Fla
I just dont personally see what the benefit is other than the fact you can say "Im a member"
Back to my original point, can you define "benefit"? What do you need to see to call it a benefit? Do you want them to send you a cheque every month, or what?
 

jon_k

Member
Joined
May 7, 2008
Messages
271
Location
Fort Worth, Republic of Texas
Hello.

ARRL is now pushing D-STAR in the simplex portions of 2 meters calling it something other than what it is, a repeater.
I like P-25 mo' better, as this allows for both Analog as well as Digital.
But, that is a regular repeater.
Call a D-Star repeater what it is, a repeater, and stuff it in the same pairs as any other repeater.

ARRL shouldn't have any authority with frequency coordination anyway. They can make band plan guidelines but I've seen variations of the adoption dependent on the coordination body.

The Texas VHF FM society does 2 meter, 220 and 70cm coordination here and they've already got allocations in place for DSTAR systems. It's not in the simplex assignment AFAIK.

I couldnt say whether its worth it to be a member of ARRL or not, especially when one will spend 100 bucks on a scanner antenna. I just dont personally see what the benefit is other than the fact you can say "Im a member"

The benefits are something you get weather your a member or not. Unless the ARRL has money though, the benefits will not be as much. You've got to factor in the VE's and the events they coordinate and the CW training bulletins and lots of other things they provide all amateurs. I don't know, perhaps nothing they do is of interest to you, and in that case don't waste your money.

But then again it's like becoming a premium member at radio reference. What are the benefits? Some say they're endless and to others the benefits are useless. Some people just become a premium member to support what's happening. To me, I don't take advantage of most of the premium benefits at RR.

I agree they provide alot of educational material, but they charge for it........ham radio is a dying art, i wish i would have got to it earlier in life. the average age of the hams in my area is 70 yrs old, membership in the local ham club are few.
About it being a dying art -- it may be. Then again someone will always want to experiment with RF -- so unless America goes down the last tube of corporatism and they auction off the last piece of band... we'll still have something. Further, most amateurs don't get involved with radio until they're old farts anyhow. As it stands, I'm young at 23 years old. I'll likely outlive many of you older operators. If the hobby does die, at least I'll have the honor of operating until they shut the doors -- which would be fun to do. Keep operating until someone tells me to get off their frequency!

For now, all the clubs here have an abundance of members. There's tons of activity all over the globe.

If you think it's dead at this moment and time then you obviously don't operate too often. It also means you didn't make it out to field day.
 
Last edited:

stevolene

Member
Joined
May 5, 2006
Messages
173
Location
chattanooga metro
I guess its what you make it, Im certainly not looking for a check in the mail as af5rn so eloquently put it, and I did make it out to field day for awhile, there were about 4 operators there under a tent, Im sure theres much more out there on the HF frequencies to explore, and one day I hope to earn the general class, I attempting to learn morse code now, I know you dont need it anymore, but its much easier to make those long distance contacts with CW with low power. One other thing, about being a premium subscriber here on RR, its my opinion that the benefits are indeed very useful, if nothing else the database was extremely helpful when it came to programming, and with the constant upgrades it will continue to be.
 

jon_k

Member
Joined
May 7, 2008
Messages
271
Location
Fort Worth, Republic of Texas
there were about 4 operators there under a tent, Im sure theres much more out there on the HF frequencies to explore, and one day I hope to earn the general class,

Man, there were about 50 on site at all times. I came out in middle of the night from 1-3am and there were many many.

About 3000 showed up throughout the event to our club site.

This was just 1 field day site. There were at least 10 others within a 5 mile radius. About 80 within a 30 mile radius.

Your location says "metro" but from the turnout it seems more rural couldn't believe it was just 4 guys in a tent.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top