From: "Dee Flint" on Wed,May 4 2005 8:00 pm

"Robert L. Giggles (Mrs.)" wrote in
message
sgroups.com...

"K=D8=88B" wrote in message
ink.net...
The growth in numbers of Amateurs over the past decade has been
overwhelmingly
via the Technician license. This segment of the Amateur population
does not seem
highly attracted to ARRL membership, nor affiliate with the
"national
association" nature of ARRL.

That's because most new hams can recognize a garden
variety classic New England "mutual admiration society"
of wannabe blue-bloods who's only reason for existence
is to maintain their monuments to the past which nobody
cares about anymore and to keep a magazine going
which is composed of 80% advertising.

The ARRL has fought and continues to fight to protect our spectrum,
hardly
the action of a "mutual admiration society".

Tsk, tsk, tsk..."protecting [your] spectrum"...

The 40 meter issue then sounds like the "24 years war"
in "fighting to protect" since it went UNresolved from
1979 to 2003...

Look at 60 meters...ARRL "fought" to get FIVE
CHANNELS?

Dee, you did NOT address the main point: ARRL is NOT
"representative" of the MAJORITY of licensed U.S.
radio amateurs...by anyone's count, including the
demographics published by the ARRL itself.

They might be able to do a
better job if some of you non-members would get off YOUR high horses,
join
the group, and start working towards what you would like to see them
doing.

Oh, my, the LECTURE on How To Behave again. Tsk.

So long as you stay on the outside, they have no reason to represent
you or your views.

As long as the ARRL does LITTLE to attract Technician
class licensees, it will REMAIN the "mutual admiration
society" seen by SO many others.

You obviously have not investigated their various classes for all
levels of
interest in areas of ham radio activity such as the many emergency
courses,
etc.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. YOU "obviously" have not investigated
what the ARRL is NOT doing for the largest group of
licensed U.S. radio amateurs. Why else would there be
such enmity by so many?

Marie, are you saying that eating cake is BETTER for
all than bread? [don't lose your head about that]

It is all too apparent that you speak from preconceived notions and
haven't bothered to get involved.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. My "preconceived notions" are the
result of about 55 years of observation, talking to
many other radio amateurs, seeing/hearing what others
have to say, etc., etc.

There's NOTHING "preconceived" about the MASS opinion
that EXISTS.

You simply sit there on the outside and whine and complain.

Shut them out if it disturbs your royalness. Can't
have you Elitists getting all hot and huffy about
the masses out there.

You want it to be different? Get in there and do the work to change
it.
Oh, that's too hard you say.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Now you are getting a mite hostile.

ARRL is IN CONTROL of what the ARRL DOES...and, by
all the possible objective observation, the BoD acts
like they are the Elite who Know What Is Good For All
...because that is what the BoD likes.

Then you are just a parasite waiting for some
one else to do the work so you can benefit without having contributed.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Now you ARE getting hostile!

Ooops, I forgot...the Elite KNOW What Is Good For
Everyone! All should OBEY the Elite...

How does the Elitist position of the ARRL "encourage"
anyone to enter amateur radio? Learn morse code?!?

Dee...I was WORKING IN HF 52 years ago and NEVER had
to know any morse code then, nor in all the years
that followed in my engineering career. In EVERY
other radio service in the USA, government included,
morse code is GOING or was NEVER CONSIDERED for ANY
communications. The ARRL still champions morse code
as the "requirement" for "working below 30 MHz" as
a radio amateur.

Hello? Can you NOT recognize how OUTMODED the notion
of "requiring" morse code testing as a "qualification"
is?

If you can't, then you have NO business of being so
Elitist and Knowing What Is Good For All.

Face it boys. the ARRL blew it BIG TIME when they had
the chance to eliminate the dammed Code for HF way
back in the early 1980's with the "Plain Language" rewrite
of the amateur rules. Today most of the ham fossils who
opposed this are either in their graves or waiting to expire
and we're stuck with an obsolete hobby as a result.

Do a better job of reading up on history.

Dee, YOU "read up on history" and be sure to include
all the recent documents from WRC-03. :-)

The ARRL had NO chance of
eliminating the code in the 1980s as the US was signatory to an
international treaty that mandated code for HF privileges.

That is SUCH crude nonsense that I almost want to use
Hans' method of dealing with it...i.e., "hurling it aside
with great force!"

Hello, Dee, are you with the sentient beings again?
Did you think the revision of S25 (almost entire) was
"done by the ARRL" at Geneva in 2003?!?

Dee, the ARRL got aced out in 2003 because of pressure
mainly from their "buddies" at the IARU and the largely-
extra-class-movers-and-shakers at No Code International.
The ARRL OPPOSED almost ALL the revisions that made S25
MORE modern for the international community of radio
amateurs. The revisions were done by VOTE...of the
INTERNATIONAL radio community.

Back two decades, the ARRL was OPPOSED to CHANGE. They
did LITTLE if anything to effect change. WARCs didn't
bring it up because the ARRL was "fighting" to preserve
the status quo...to stop change anathema to the elders
at the Newington admiration society.

The International Amateur Radio Union finally got tired
of that stick-in-the-mud, stick-it-up-somewhere attitude
of the ARRL and began their OWN lobbying for changes in
S25 about the year 2000. ARRL could have joined with the
IARU to be a part of PROGRESSIVE LEADERSHIP. It did not.
The ARRL continued its opposition for at least three
years into this new millennium. They still can't take
a positive position, remain in the ineffective We Know
What Is Best For All vacillating state.

The ARRL could have taken a position of MODERN LEADER-
SHIP a decade ago. They could have pressured the
administrations to change S25 THEN. They didn't do that.
They haven't done that since. They've only promoted
themselves, their products, and their olde-tyme members.
The olde-tymers are pleased. THEY "know what is good
for all" yet they don't. They don't understand that
such Elitist tunnel-vision viewpoints do NOT attract
newcomers, nor does it do any good for all but the
olde-tymer minority.