Letter to the ARRL... by W6LG - Jim Heath Youtube Elmer

The Amateur Radio Service for many is about some sort of emergency or public service communications and there's nothing wrong with that. For others, the Amateur Radio Service is their hobby and that's not a problem.
§ 97.3 Definitions. (in part)
4) Amateur service. A radiocommunication service for the purpose of self-training, intercommunication and technical investigations carried out by amateurs, that is, duly authorized persons interested in radio technique solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/97.3

"These specific exemptions do not apply to the amateur radio personal licenses. Emergency communications, for example, are voluntary and are not required by our rules.64 Further, there is no indication that most or all amateurs solely use their license for emergency communications; even the section of our rules allowing certain amateur operators to broadcast civil defense communications limit such authorization to periods of local, regional, or national civil emergencies.65 As we have noted previously, “[w]hile the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communications service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications, is one of the underlying principles of the amateur service, the amateur service is not an emergency radio service."
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-184A1.pdf

 

Couldn’t agree more. Way too many Tubers and “save radio” folks out there thinking they need to entice people to engage in a hobby they may or may not be interested in. SMH.

Listen, I’ll keep transmitting as long as someone on the other end answers....if the day comes that there is no one to answer me on the other end....I’ll find something else to do.

Some people just need attention and to feel important I guess.

 

And I actually like this OM....at least he tells it like is. Too many of these other Tubers placate to the League, the manufacturers and whoever else is willing to throw a dime or “attention” their way. At least this guy doesn’t appear to give $&1+ about all that....I can respect that. I find it sad the CEO dismissed him like he did, at the end of the day the man is a Life Member...the League should at least be willing to talk to him about it.

Not cool...

 

I find it interesting that this curmudgeon’s letter/video complaining that the AARL’s video presentation was scattered and disorganized is also pretty scattered, disorganized and poorly produced.

Pot, meet kettle?

The president’s response was appropriate.

 

I wasted several minutes of my life watching this video too.

 

Pro Tip: Fast playback helps with slow thinkers.

Poor Jim Heath seems to have a problem collecting his thoughts, making his complaint video nearly unwatchable. And yet, his approach is like several other HAM radio personalities we all encounter from time to time, who are under the delusion that their opinions carry special weight, and which need to be repeated for emphasis.

In reality, such folks are like anyone else in the hobby, at the same level, and at the same credibility as anyone with an active, concerned philiosophy about Amateur Radio. He took a while to piece together an 11 minute complaint, and probably lost most of any audience in the first few minutes.

Such people typically discount a critique like this as being an attack on the messenger. They remain resolute that their points have merit, and discount any feedback that would encourage a more effective way of resolving the problem they have. SO, enough about Jim Heath; was there anything to consider in what this individual had to say?

Nothing that the leadership of the ARRL has not already heard.

 

Any organization tasked with protecting and advancing the interests of their membership in the face of corporate hostility and regulatory indifference should be grateful that a member with some social media presence is making an effort to expand their ranks. "Why join the ARRL" is a perfectly legitimate question, and one where the answer should be at the collective fingertips of their executive leadership, lobbying, and public relations departments.

If the head of this organization went before the agency which determines amateur radio's privileges with anything less than a cohesive, driven, and compelling standpoint, that's a huge problem. The League's members have every right to raise these concerns, however ham-fisted Jim's presentation may have been--the logo and tchotchkes may have been a bit much to get riled up about. But for them to simply write him off is profoundly disturbing, and the membership's acquiescence will only intensify the adversarial relationship between the League and its lifeblood (e.g. "at least they treat him the way they treat everybody else.") Hold the League to a higher standard. It's literally the point of their existence.

P.S. The production value of Jim's video is irrelevant and skirts the issue at hand.

 

Sending coffee mugs to the "cool" tubers and becoming part of the "new normal" is apparently what the League is wanting to focus on these days. SMH

 

I wondered why the second video that I have seen in less than a day has dropped on YouTube about why you should join the ARRL.
I got sent the first one last night, Youtube suggested the second today. The timing seems a little dodgy to me after seeing this thread.

The logo thing? a stretch.
License fee issue? I think asking the leage what they did there is a fair question if that information isn't already out there. I haven't looked.
Amateur radio being a service and calling it a "hobby" instead of a "service" is interesting and probably should be discussed.
He argues that calling it a "hobby" insted of a "service" might give the commissioners the wrong idea.
My take, I think there is a fair point on both sides and I think we should emphasise the importance of Amateur radio so when the FCC wants to juggle spectrum they don't look at us first.

In my opinion, this is the sort of thing the league does to shoot itself in the foot.

 

One opinion: An "Open Letter" to anyone should be just that. A written, edited, and hopefully cogent letter that concisely gets your point across in a short time.

Eleven minutes of a rambling old man complaining? Heck if I wanted to hear that, I'd look in the mirror!

Just for the record, I listened to some of it. I really did not want to waste my time after the first bit. I suspect that I'm not alone, based on the comments here...

 

Lots of holier than thou comments in this thread, sheesh.

Jim is 100% right. We need a lobbying organization that looks out for US, just like the NRA USED to look out for gun owners. BOTH organizations have lost their way and have become money collection agencies for zero gain to the communities they support!

Instead of complaining about "but I want muh 11 min back!" how about this - don't watch the video!

The funny thing is - the 20 some odd folks who complain on the zed are nothing compared to the 100k+ viewiers that watched his video. THAT's why it matters - because if the ARRL actually responded with a civilized response other than pound sand, they could have potentially had 100k+ more subscribers and donations - now they essentially lost it all due to their stupidity and arrogance.

 

I listened to the video while doing something routine.

I want to ask W6LG one question:

"Is that the best you can do?"

As pointed out by @W5UAA, almost everything he wanted is already on the ARRL website, free for the download, W6LG just doesn't want to bother to look for it.

As for Amateur Radio being a "service", that's just a regulatory word used for ALL types of radio. It does not mean what he thinks it means.

Touting the "service" provided by radio amateurs as a reason to avoid license fees is a fool's errand. All the FCC has to do to shoot it down is to say "There are well over 750,000 US licensed radio amateurs today. How many of them have actually provided "service" to the public in the past year? How much "service" have they provided? How much spectrum did they need to provide the service?"

This doesn't mean Amateur Radio doesn't provide valuable public service! But to try to justify the entire ARS on it just won't fly. Worse, it damages our credibility because FCC already knows the answers to the above questions.

The plain and simple fact is that, for most of today's radio amateurs, it's a hobby. That's NOT a bad thing - it's a GOOD thing! Hobbies ARE valuable and important! How many campers, hikers, hunters and fishermen do those things strictly as a "hobby", using the public parks and wilderness areas? Does the "hobby" nature of their activities mean they don't deserve the use of public lands?

As for license fees, the FCC had no choice; the imposition of fees for ALL licenses was mandated by Congress - go whine to them. ARRL negotiated a 30% discount ($50 to $35), which was pretty good IMHO.

$35 for a 10 year license is less than a penny a day. If you can't afford that, how can you afford to operate?

I'd wager that W6LG has a bit of a history with ARRL HQ staff, too.

One more:

As for selling an antenna and being in competition with advertisers - oh puh-leeze.

ARRL has sold publications since forever - in direct competition with some of their advertisers.

W1AW code practice sessions are in direct competition with those selling code training stuff - in direct competition with some of their advertisers.

ARRL Product Reviews are the most-comprehensive in Amateur Radio, with actual lab testing of the actual product (not selected samples). Such Product Reviews aren't just publicity for their.....advertisers....products.

And now the big one:

Many if not most of the home-brew projects in QST and other ARRL publications are in direct competition with advertisers' products. Why buy when you can build? Yet ARRL continues to publish them and the advertisers continue to advertise.

---

73 de Jim, N2EY

Licensed since October 1967 - 54 years on the air. 51 of them as an Extra.

 

Oh, please. One look at the comments section of the video tells you all you need to know. This was just a grumpy old man rabble-rousing. Everyone engaging in histrionics in the comment thread were never going to join no matter what.

 

How would you have the ARRL "lobby" for Amateur Radio?

There are fewer than 800,000 US radio amateurs - that's a drop in the bucket when you consider the US population of over 328 million.

 

Perhaps W6LG could learn from Jebediah Atkinson:



NEXT!