ARRL: It's not just the bylaws that need changin'

I'm sorry to say that I am a life member. If I had it to do all over again, I'd tell them to SHOVE their organization. They haven't shown me anything in the past 50 years of amateur radio. I liked the awards (WAS, DXCC) but now I am thinking of burning them along with my life membership card. I see no future in the ARRL. If they read this and cancel my membership, then I do hope they have very good lawyers as they will be in for the biggest law suit they have ever seen. I thought the folks in Washington were bad but the ARRL has them hands down. Go ---- yourself ARRL!!!!

 

One of my radio mentors -- who was and probably still is a long-time member -- told me once to never become a life member of anything. His idea was that one of the few ways that people had sway over an organization was to maintain the option to "vote with their feet." At the time, he and I were both big fans of the League, but in retrospect, I see the wisdom of his suggestion.

 

I like both of your wisdom. I had never thought of it that way but what you say is very true.

 

A very short time member so this dust up is an eye opener. I fear that if the situation is not corrected ARRL will end up like the NRA where management only cares about its' self and bringing in money and not the sport/hobby.

 

Has everyone read this?

http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-board-of-directors-agrees-to-review-of-conduct-code-for-directors

 

It looks like the board has has elected for a "do-over" of the last 2 years. What a waste of time and money.

 

The awards mean nothing anymore. The combination of LOTW and FT8 has made it possible to get DXCC and/or WAS in a weekend if you put your mind to it. If they automate WSJT so that it runs unattended, you could potentially earn awards while you're at work or sleeping or on vacation.

One of the reasons I stayed with the league this long has been for the awards. Over the past couple of years, the digital modes have changed the game, at least for me. There are plenty of there free awards that can be chased, and some of them can be really fun. In fact, the OMISS net has an award that makes me a "rare" station...my city and county have the same name. There are other fish in the sea. In retrospect, LOTW was pure genius by the ARRL...what a revenue generator! The awards aren't free, and so many more people are qualifying for them as a result of LOTW that they must be getting quite a financial boost.

 

http://www.arrl.org/dxcc-standings

The ARRL maintains separate standings for Phone and CW DXCC. I have 317 countries confirmed on CW.

Who is QRZ.com's top CW DXer? W1YW is at 327. AA6YQ has 346! K0RS has 347 but has only posted 16 times in 17 years.

Zack W1VT

 

You could easily do that before FT8 came along, over 3 weekends, if you wanted CW, Phone and RTTY. Just had to pick the right contests and go for it, you might not get all of them but pretty darn close.

 

The CQ WW DX and ARRL DX contests are great for getting DXCC in one weekend. I did 10M WAS during the 2014 10M contest. Plus DC.

Zack W1VT

 

So here's the problem with that....

First, I am also a life member.

You and I and others--and all members--ARE the League. WE set initiatives. WE set goals. WE set governance.

It took me a while, myself, to accept that when problems arise at the ARRL , it's up to us--up to the membership--to fix it.

The OUTCOME of the latest events show, in spades, that the power lies WITH the membership.

A displeasure with the 'League' is an invitation to constructively bring about change for the benefit of the membership, and thus amateur radio. We just did that.

So please, OM, stay with us and let's make it better.

73
Chip W1YW

 

Hi Zack,

I am by no means a top CW DXer. I am an adequate but not stellar CW op. I really didn't go to mostly CW until 2010. Before that I was 95% phone. I basically put the mike away because of the nonsense on the phone bands and because of the anonymous , often antisemitic insults I got on phone the last 10 years. Nah. Not fun.

I am at 355 mixed, about 90% of that earned first on phone.

An unexpected benefit of CW is that it , to me, sharpens the brain. Coffee and CW are powerful preventatives for ossified craniums.

Really: when was the last time you saw a CW contester in an Alzheimer's ward? Think about it.

73
Chip W1YW

 

Zack,

Why not reset all DXCC totals every year? (!)

Okay, seriously, keep the accumulated lifetime stats too.

But create a new achievement based on a shorter medium range time period outside of the contest weekends. It might draw more newcomers into the fun.

While I am not a big fan of chasing grids on HF, this concept is a feature of the new International Grid Chase, with its monthly tabulations, leading up to a total for the year. Sort of like baseball with 12 innings. For DXCC, monthly is too short; making the renewed "chase" an annual competition would seem more appropriate.

Getting into the Top Ten for the yearly DXCC run, counting all bands and modes, could be something easily aspired to for a good prolific op of even a smallish peanut-whistle station.

73, John, WØPV

 

How? After the contests you would have to sit and fill out hundereds of QSL cards, address hundreds of envelopes. If you were like me, you'd also fill out SASEs with return postage from from each foreign country, which had to be ordered once the contest was over and you knew what you needed. Then you would drop all of the cards at the post office, and play the waiting game. Some would come back within a week or two, some could take over a year. Some just never come back. That was the fun part. It's a part of the hobby that we've forgotten about...there was something cool about opening an envelope and pulling out a card that you knew the other op put in. It was a physical extension of the contact. But before the online QSL websites, it could take you years to get 100 contacts confirmed on paper. THEN you have to find an official card counter to count them and fill out the proper paperwork. He/she would then send it to Newington where it would be processed, and in a few weeks, you would have your award.

Now, right-click -> Upload to LOTW -> ... FT-8 log gets uploaded, and look, my computer won an award. I don't mean to take anything away from the LOTW awards, they are certainly accomplishments, but it's comparing apples to oranges.

 

I have an old school DXCC, dated May 10, 1982. I did it from Hawaii. I got into the DXCC program 30 years later, from a different DXCC country. VK0TH was leaving and I figured if I didn't work him, I wouldn't get a chance to work that country for many years. Not only did I snag him on 10 CW, but I did the Diamond DXCC, in 2012 a one year award based on the 1937 DXCC list. I ended up with over 200 countries in one year!

My last Clublog upload was on 1/18. I've worked 87 countries on FT8 in a little over two weeks. I'd be surprised if I do not get DXCC in one month on FT8. Despite fussing with a "new" refurbished i7 Win 10 computer all night, I worked five VKs on 40, VU2, and OA4. No beam on a tower, though I will have 4 elements on 6 on 20 feet or so of TV masting when E skip rolls around this summer.

What have you done lately?

Zack W1VT