Tom Gallagher, NY2RF CEO ARRL featured guest on HAM NATION

Tom Gallagher, the new CEO at the ARRL will be the featured guest on this week's Ham Nation broadcast on Leo Laport's TWIT network at 8 pm CST Wednesday. Tom will be talking about the special event this Saturday, commemorating the 95th Anniversary of the first Transatlantic transmission from Greenwich, Ct to Scotland which ushered in the age of global communications. Saturday, Dec 10th N1BCG will once again be activated on all on the AM windows of 3870 - 3890, 7290 - 7295 and 14.268. Join in the AM fun!
BOB HEIL, K9EID

 

The 95th anniversary event will be held this Sunday, December 11...

 

Give them more details, OM

 

A very valid point! Here's the published info (subject to conditions du jour of course):

http://www.arrl.org/news/transatlantic-reception-anniversary-special-event-set-for-december-11

 

I strongly suggest that the community tune in and listen to what Tom has to say. He is an experienced, energetic and successful businessman who brings a great deal of practical knowledge on these critical topics to the ARRL. Tom listens, too. Hear what he has to say. And if you have questions or suggestions for improvements - write him. He needs to hear from all facets of the amateur community, not just the vocal few, to develop a balanced vision for the future of ARRL.

P.S. This means YOU Carl (and Stan and Jerry and...). Time to tell Tom your issues and what he could help improve - in a constructive way.

Best Regards,

Brian - K6BRN

 

Brian,

He has my feedback. Constructively posed. What I got back was:" Who is this officious ####-###?"

I enjoy giving money where I am wanted, a natural reaction don't you think?

I understand the ARRL had a substantial deficit and has ambitious IT plans. Time to make nice, one would think.

Just providing you a data point from a Life Member.....

The 1BCG operation is, BTW, a great activity.
73
Chip W1YW

 

Chip:

I'm very sorry to hear that, and hopefully Tom will take note. (Tom - take note!) I had a very different experience with Tom at ARRL and he has my full support.

IMHO, you are spot-on that ARRL needs to stabilize their financial position and fix their aging and obsolete IT products that support the community. Past business practices and some complacency/arrogance have left a great deal to be desired, and the competition is eating ARRL's lunch. That said, I don't know Tom as a man to take a challenge like this sitting down. He will try to fix the problems, and could really use support in doing so. And the majority of the ARRL team are standup people that need support as well. Over the past few years, I've been visiting ARRL headquarters when I'm in CT, and I've always enjoyed discussing issues with each and every staff person I've met there. They've never failed to take time to talk to me, courteously and intelligently. But I have had exceptions in the more distant past, which lead to me dropping my membership, for a time.

Not many companies make it past the century mark. ARRL is 102 years old and counting. It is an old and honorable institution that has done a lot of good and has major potential to do so in the future - if it adapts to survive. Tom is the new mechanic working on this problem, with a new perspective, and with a will. The entire amateur community, the ARRL staff and board needs him to succeed to preserve the richness ARRL beings to our surprisingly useful hobby.

Regarding 1BCG - a great activity commemorating a landmark event by a landmark station. From spark gap to smartphones and DSP in less than a century. We live in incredible times.

Best Regards,

Brian - K6BRN

 

Nicely written, Brian!

 

As I have publicly stated elsewhere, Brian, I think the potential is there.

73
Chip W1YW

 

Optimism has played an important role throughout the history of amateur radio, whether it was for success of a transatlantic crossing in 1921 or seeing signs of good things to come for the hobby in 2016.

 

Whats the arrl?

 

Well, there are major problems. The biggest is the vastly aging demographic, exacerbated by the majority of US Part 97 on VHF/UHF only--and even then, rarely. IOW the majority of ham radio in the US is now infrequent, and oriented to occasional EMCOMMS and prepper stuff. That is a fact, not a 'diss' in any way.

Further issue remains by the concurrent death of the HF bands from the abysmal , future, sunspot cycle, and you have dead bands with no hams on them, to speak of.

The ARRL is very much into pushing new operating activities, which is an excellent way of fighting these trends--at least from the paucity of expected future HF use.

The major issue for the League is their donors are old (65+ on average from a $$$ standpoint)and HF oriented, and the US hams --as a whole-- are far younger (if, say, 45-50 is 'young') and, when they operate, use HT's. Each has different agendas. Money to the League won't force the younger ones to operate on HF. It CAN open that window, but there is little proof they 'young' hams want to join in. Yep, I certainly wish they would.

Tough problem, not caused by the ARRL. If you have new ideas to foster HF operation, we should all push it forward. NPOTA was one good idea, unfortunately with less activity at the non-park end than one would have hoped. LOTW was probably a big issue thwarting that: not everyone has LOTW. In fact, I did not put my 2016 ops at Zion NP as 'NPOTA' because of the requirement of LOTW. No way I was going to bring a computer on my hikes. That's exactly what I was 'hiking' away from...can you imagine SOTA requiring LOTW? Most NP ops are more like SOTA...

 

Its the national association of amateur radio.

 

Maybe also 2017

 

Well, I meant that 2016 is the year that the signs of good things were seen.

I can tell you've had a QSO with a headscarf-wearing XYL staring into a crystal ball while PCB laden potions boil over in a nearby pot heated by some overworked 833s.

My AP Stylebook suggested this rewrite: "... seeing signs in 2016 of good things to come for the hobby".

Better? ;-)