Interesting point on the ARRL. I'm towards the belief that the ARRL's
membership decline is a mirror to the radio hobby in general. I'm
lumping Amateur Radio, CB, SWL and Scanner listeners together. Our main
compitition seems to fall into the ever growing technologies on the
home PC and the internet. As a new and more inviting technology that
doesn't bother neighbors and still accomplishes the fun of talking with
others, it poses as a major competitor to radio.
As we become more and more a plug and play society, the technologies of
past will slowly disappear. Look at our selection of "Legal" CB's. They
are becoming few and fall between compared to 15, 20, 25 years ago. I
see Amateur Radio following in the same path. We see far less inovative
approaches to communications as things are handed to us from a major
manufacturer.
I personally don't buy into the Ham is better than CB routine often
seen and heard about. Each has it's own value and contributes towards
hobby enjoyment and public service. But since we really haven't changed
much as an active community for the last couple of decades, we are
slowly marching towards the way of the dinosaours.