On Mar 22, 10:02�am, "David Stinson" wrote:
ARRL's "Diamond Terrace" Memorial

I do NOT understand this "fad" of placing bricks on the GROUND
to memorialize someone. *I am not about to memorialize anyone
about whom I care or whom I respect by placing their name on
the ground where thoughtless people wipe dog-poop off their shoes
and spit their gum. *I don't know who first thought of this fad
(and Lord, I hope it's a "passing fad"),
but it's a bad idea and I would never, ever do it.
Build a wall with the bricks, or anything else
other than a "walk on you daddy" place.
73 David S.

"The Diamond Terrace" scheme appears to be nothing more than just
another big money grab for the ARRL. I guess if you stop your $250.00
annual contribution they just rip out your call sign brick and toss it
in the trash. It seems that the ARRL is becoming more and more self-
serving as time goes along. Its gotten to the point that I just throw
those ARRL envelopes that come in the mail in the trash because I know
they are just hounding me for a donation. I can't believe the
ridiculously inflated saleries that are paid to some of the staffers,
I heard that some are making in excess of 100K+ a year. The only
reason I am still a member of the ARRL is for QST. I believe that the
ARRL is slowly evolving to a pay for service organization. IMO even
the LOTW is big rip off, you get to pay the ARRL to have the privledge
of doing all of the work inputing all of your past QSO's into their
system, so the ARRL can give out its awards. Recently, the ARRL sent
me a notice that they wanted to renew my license as a "service to the
members", but they wanted to charge me a fee. I did it myself on-line,
it took a whole two minutes, what a rip-off.

Dloyd