"N2EY" wrote


What, exactly, should we hams be doing to renew that reputation?


If I knew "what exactly" it would already have been done.

And I'm not talking about individual hams here, but how the ARRL focuses
its (our) resources.

If ARRL redirected half of the millions (yes, millions) it spends in
Washington towards fostering a renewal of the technical reputation which
we have lost, we'd have both credibility at the regulatory level, and
respect in industry.

ARRL (as the "national organization of amateur radio" which they bill
themselves) is the only one with the resources to bring "tinkering and
inventing" back into the forefront.

Encouraging innovation isn't tough --- in my engineering group I ask
each engineer to spend 10% of their time (4 hours per week) as "PBI"
time ("Partially Baked Idea"). This is time to pursue personally
selected pet projects unrelated to their primary tasking, even unrelated
to our groups tasking. Once a quarter we hold a one day "off site in
blue jeans" meeting where individuals can grab the spotlight and "show
and tell" their PBI to the rest of the group. The effect on creativity
is marvelous, and also a great tool for identifying "up and comers"
whose creativity might be otherwise masked by the day-to-day drudge of
assigned tasking.

Can you imagine what might happen if ARRL spent perhaps $500,000/annum
on "PBI" conferences, and made some "folk heroes" out of some tinkerers
and expermenters. Hey, they do it for DXers and contesters!

73, de Hans, K0HB