The Arrl Is a money organization. How do you think they build the new building. They should give the senior citizens a discount on the magazine. They do a good job as far as looking out for us hams. but enoff is enoff $49.00 a year. watch in the next couple of years it will go up another $1 or $2 the reason someone up there needed a raise in pay.
I am under 40. Newer to the hobby. Mindful of my money. And an ARRL member. $49 a year is a drop in the bucket compared to what we get out of the membership. I am always excited to get my physical magazine, and love the idea of have digital copies that I can read otherwise. I may not like every article in the magazine, but then again I don't want to do every aspect of the hobby either. The ads are not over-powering, and sometimes I see things I haven't come across through the internet, so it doesn't hurt me to see some ads. The contesting details are sometimes of interest to me, and other times not. It just depends on my mood. I think the magazine does a great job of trying to represent a broad cross section of people interested in the hobby. I have a hard time believing that going from $20 to $49 will really impact anyone's life that much. I see the same thing in other organizations I'm apart of. We have tons of people who are willing to come to meetings and complain about things, but when dues time comes around they are no where to be found. Yet the next week, I see of Facebook that they have purchased a new $600 winch for their Jeep, or a $200 tattoo for their arm. If you don't find value in the organization you are a part of, then why are you there?
This is near & dear to me. I WAS a member of ARRL, until my retirement from the Sheriff's office. My retirement "plans" were greatly changed when my wife of 14 years said it was time for a divorce-AND she got the WHOLE house (which I owned free & clear when I married her,) and 1/2 my pension. I should tell you that she is now a sergeant with my old department, making $55G's a year (with NO overtime,) plus $1,500 a month from me (for life.) I told you all this so you would know that it's "rough" trying to live on $1,500 a month! I just qualified for early SS (so I get $1,400 of it "back.") Still, rounded off to $3,000 a month-really isn't all that much to live on & pay the bills. SO, I tried to get the ARRL to offer a full membership WITHOUT QST for $35-40 a month. You know how far that went. Yes, they are a monopoly in the business of ham radio. But they need to think of the lower 25% (income wise,) of the hams out here that $49 IS a hardship to. I still have my 2002 Subaru Forester, am using ham gear from the late 70's & 80's, and most likely will never buy a new car OR a new rig in the rest of my life. I'm not CRYING...just letting you know not every ham has big bucks. FYI-my medical cost went from ZERO when I retired, to over $200 a month (my cost) in 8 years, (That is a medical, dental, and eye policy.) That doesn't include A $30 co-pay to doctors, $50 to visit an emergency room, and $25 for the eye doctor. The dental insurance covers about 70% of any bill-not bad. What will it be in another 8 years? But everyone has "problems." Could be worse! Keep smiling...and hope to see you "down the log."
QST is great if your an engineer or electronic wiz-bang. Circuits on building a tester for blind people? What? Old guys with $3000 radios with a buddy pole and a canoe. QST is a money maker and the ARRL IS A BIG BUSINESS! Consider it a holy place for ham radio operators, EXCEPT the preachers there make a GOOD LIVING from QST sales. What would the OLD MAN say if he saw your palace today? I think he would take the Wou-Fong off the wall and use it! The FCC put the ARRL in business. They write the test, sell test study guides,give the tests. They even charge their voulenteer VEC''s. Fifty bucks a year, your kidding.
Good post Mr. Miller. Pity you have to muddle through the debris field of arrogance and sarcasm from the likes of those void of a life. I assure you, they collectively wouldn't step out from behind the safety and comfort of the internet and say the same to your face. But, like elbows and funny bones, and other things, everyone has a vile opinion these days. Really wish the likes of their maturity would kick in within their pea brains every now and again and cease their cowardly nonsense...before they even engage it in the first place.
Exactly how do you figure Dave? And, spare us further cliches in your explanation. And, I'm telling flat out at the onset, WE owe ZILCH to the ARRL!
You claim to be a DEC...and accuse a ham of drug use Sparky?!? Pretty damn pathetic pony boy! Exactly how long have you been DYING to get that phrase into a post OR, and likely more appropriately, exactly how many times have you used THE SAME accusation in the past? Either way and again, DAMN pathetic pony boy!
Like several others, I'm not particularly enamored with the ARRL. My membership is for the magazine, period. Please note the period. I'm old enough and been a ham long enough that I well remember (and will never forget) "incentive licensing". So now that many of us have worked to get the higher class licenses to regain those lost privileges, the ARRL has the monumental gall to come back around and try to take those precious earned privileges away from us again and re-award that spectrum to digital modes. I have nothing against the digital modes, but do they really need (or deserve to have) exclusive use of spectrum that rightfully belongs to Extra and Advanced class licensees who actually put forth the effort to upgrade their tickets? That spectrum was our carrot in return for the stick of incentive licensing. Insofar as the magazine QST is concerned, I enjoy reading it, but primarily via the digital online edition. My hardcopy editions eventually wind up in the recycle bin, often never opened. I would gladly give up the print edition, but I'm afraid that sword cuts both ways. If there was a reasonable $$ incentive to forego the print edition, count me in, but it better be more than a token $5 discount. It's not the money, it's the principle.
