HamRadioNow: Angry Radio Relay League This week we're talking with Ria Jairam N2RJ. Ria is the ARRL Hudson Division Director, a YouTube host, podcaster and radio host on WRMI (Shortwave). She was elected to the ARRL Board in a push for more openness a few years ago, and on this show we discuss how the Board is falling back to a more 'closed' stance with regard to transparency with members. Ria's positions on diversity, and her professional (IT background) criticism of the ARRL's website and member e-mail system, brought her pushback from League management. She was also criticized by the Board's Ethics Committee for writing a Technician Study book outside the ARRL system while on the Board. At this point, she's not sure about her future on the ARRL Board, though she says she has strong support among her Hudson Division constituents. This is a long, multifaceted discussion with some important topics. I've taken the time to make timecode links to discussion points in the YouTube description of the show. Those should show up in the timeline as well, depending on what medium you use to view YouTube. Somewhat paralleling this show is a talk presented at the Quartzite hamfest by ARRL Southwestern Division Director Dick Norton N6AA. Dick also covered many topics, and toward the end got specific on the division on the Board between those advocating transparency and those wanting more secrecy. Look for 'Radio Politics' at about 51:48 into the video. He notes that the 'transparency' faction is now a small minority. Dick's full talk is part of this HamRadioNow special coverage: These programs are also available on our audio podcast feed. Ask your podcast app for HamRadioNow. 73, Gary K4AAQ https://HamRadioNow.tv
@K4AAQ This is all being hashed out in the “Discussions” forum on here. Come join the fun! https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/conflict-of-interest.846946/
It may be intentional or not. But the effect is the same, here and there: societies dominated by older white men that amounts, in practice, to exclusion of others. It's a particularly sad day when we see someone who is neither old, white nor a man apparently being pushed out, either deliberately or by the effect of who the larger group is. There are reasons to explore as to why ham radio is so lacking in ethnic and gender diversity. The sad fact is, nobody in a position to do so seems inclined to act. If it looks like a closed clique, it probably is a closed clique. *Ts and Cs apply: this is a comment about a group in general, not any individual. There are plenty of good older white men, many of whom want to change things, but also find resistance.
In Ukraine, a bunch of unknown old men choose other unknown old men as leaders. Except for the QSL bureau, which functions thanks to volunteers, I did not see any external signs of activity of the Ukrainian Amateur Radio League (UARL) at all. The Ukrainian DX Contest is held by an independent Ukrainian Contest Club http://urdxc.org/about.php. There is strange information on their website http://uarl.org.ua/, and no one responds to letters at all. Once I tried to propose to change something, but I was mixed up with shit and I was chased away with curses.
You're right. Amateur radio does not need to be regulated and commercialized. And I haven't heard for a long time that any of the radio amateurs needed any league at all...
Certainly don't need the ARRL and I'm pretty certain Hams would want it a lot more if these organizations didn't always seem to degrade into a political morass. This is the kind of mess that almost ended the RSGB.
Do you know what caused the greatest rage? I did not even criticize their endless cursing and bickering among themselves. I just asked them - what have you done for radio amateurs in the last year? They reminded me of our government, which thinks that the citizens of the country should serve it, not the other way around...
A service committee I've been blessed with serving on opens each meeting with this: "We open this meeting with a moment of silence to get in touch with why we're here and who we serve."
When I was in a position to carry new Eimac tubes to the National Broadcast Conventions in Vegas as door prizes, the ARRL division DIRECTOR tried not once but twice to get me to give him free tubes. Wearing his big engraved ARRL badge like it was going to make one bow down and salute! Sorry, I gave up on the league in the 80's when I saw the politics involved. W6MTF
