AF6AY wrote:
On Mar 24, 3:44�pm, Joerg
wrote:

Full disclosu I am also an IEEE member. However, despite numerous
efforts by myself and others they could not even get the virtual...

You seem frustrated and are Venting about something that isn't even
remotely "homebrew." When you pick up on a signature, that is a sure
sign you are spoiling for some kind of Fight. shrug


Not a pick of a fight, I am not that kind of guy. Has in part to do with
my other affiliation (church). I just found it a bit strange when you
blasted the ARRL and at the end in the sig line listed IEEE as a
professional organization. Which I do not see quite that way.


I've been getting paid for moving electrons around, guiding fields and
waves for 56 years. I've been playing around with a slightly
different
area of electronics for 62 years as a pure hobbyist, not seeking some
kind of fame or notoriety or anything else, just for the fascination
of moving electrons the way I'd like them to move. I don't pretend to
be an "expert" in electronics or radio...just one who has been around
both the electronics industry (in rather different areas, not always
of my own chosing) and hobby electronics for a rather long time. I'd
thought that more people might be interested in some different ways to
do the same circuit tasks, therefore I suggested those from time to
time in places such as forums. Obviously not. Too many have THEIR
"best way" on things and what THEY do is "so much better." Sigh...

My enthusiasm for electronics got the better of me and, after a long
absence of not bothering to post anything in rec.radio.homebrew, I
brought up RELAYS as an ALTERNATE way of switching RF circuits at HF.
I will apologize for that since I can (obviously) see that some have
their "pet" ways of doing things and aren't open to suggestions.


Not a pet way. All I wanted to do is show the pitfalls because newer
hobbysits need to be aware of those. For high-powered stuff I also use
relays, just as you do.


------------------
I became a member of the IEEE late, in 1973. Dues-paying kind. Main
reason was to add to my WORK knowledge...that which paid for my
living.
I did not go into it for any "benefits" package advantages because I
had most such benefits already. I am not one to "fall" for
professional Advertising (I am a "hard sell" for all salespeople).
Under IEEE association bylaws, Life Membership is achieved solely by
tenure, no extra monies involved nor are accepted to achieve that.
On reaching Life Membership, NO dues are required, full membership
is free, and members get the informative membership magazine
"Spectrum" free every month. It is a Professional organization
because it is all about the Profession of electronics. ...


I wish it was professional all the way, not just partly. The last FAP
mailer from them with the "professionality" level of a credit card
solicitation came Friday. Well, at least it was useful to start the wood
stove ;-)


... I regard
myself as a "professional" for the simple reason of getting paid for
work in that field, like that work, like that play (as a hobbyist)
and have been doing it for over a half century. I've been fortunate
(sometimes unfortunate) to work in several varied disciplines within
electronics and got interested in those disciplines. Sometimes the
different techniques could apply themselves to hobby activities and
sometimes hobby experiments were useful in professional work. There
never has been a clear-cut demarkation line of technology between
avocational activies and occupational activities except as forced by
certain groups within the overall activity.



That's a great career, when you can bring hobby experience into
professional work. Same here, but only about 25 years pro work
experience since my degree. Lots of homebrew electronics before that.
However, I don't see this kind of cross-fertilization between hobby and
professional life happen much in the next generation :-(


You will notice a "callsign" in my signature, that of an Amateur
Extra class callsign group assigned by the FCC. I did not bother
with getting my first-ever amateur radio license until some time
in January 2007 and then to pass all test elements on one Sunday
afternoon on 25 February 2007. I did that for two reasons: I was
able to do it (and had the chutzpah to do so); it was a
convenience to have the least restrictions on operation in what
MIGHT have been an enjoyable pasttime in my retirement (I still
work in electronics but only on my terms (therefore not often) and
not in "regular hours." I run into the SAME sort of "I SHOULD have
done it so-and-so" in nearly every field of endeavor where there
are CERTAIN ways that things "MUST be done."

In a burst of enthusiasm, I joined the ARRL immediately after
getting my federal amateur radio license grant (one cannot be a
voting member without that grant according to League rules). That
was another mistake I made. That AMATEUR organization membership is
expiring at the end of March and I am not renewing. As a hobbyist,
that AMATEUR membership has offered me almost NOTHING in return.


Ok, can't speak to that because I was a member in the German club
(DARC). But ARRL did one great thing for me: Very low cost books, full
of very useful technical information. Lots of stuff and antennas were
built with the help of ARRL books.


I have voiced my opinion on that AMATEUR organization in OTHER
forums, to the FCC on amateur radio regulations, and enought that
I don't wish to go into it here. Despite having started in big time
HF communications 56 years ago, long-time amateurs consider me a
"newbie," a "beginner in radio" and that is disheartening, taking
away much of my interest in ALL electronics.


I remember that, in Germany call signs were issued in alphanumeric order
(like non-vanity license plates in most states here) and some hams had
the tendency of prejudice. Newer call sign ... aha, rookie. Which just
wasn't true in many cases.


In other forums NOT on amateur radio, I have been negatively
criticized for being a member of certain organizations that the
"expert" critics champion or dislike. For example, the ACM.
the first professional association about computing worldwide.
NOW, I see complaints about BENEFITS packages of the IEEE not
meeting with certain individual's approval. I am not a follower
nor an approver of Benefits Packages, nor a spokesperson of any
kind for of those. ...


Just my humble opinion: If an organization can't get commercial products
like FAP straight they ought to dump them and not keep them to make a
penny. It's unprofessional, no matter what organization. And PL
insurance is not a benefit, it's a paid commercial product that numerous
members direly need in this case. Note the other thing I mentioned, much
more important: Member forums, has to do with learning, helping others,
exactly what also happens in a hobby. It ain't rocket science to set
that up yet they blew it. Like you were with ARRL I was twice just about
to ditch my IEEE membership but didn't at the last minute. Haven't given
up hope yet, but I've learned that one has to be rather loud in the IEEE
to be heard. It seems there are strict hierarchies that slow things down
a lot. It should not be that way.


... There is very little in ANY Benefits Package
that is of "benefit" in ANY homebrew electronics hobby activity.
I will emphasize HOMEBREW. Radio. Electronics.


Right. Once you are retired, or mostly retired in your case, and insured
by Medicare none of that insurance stuff matters anymore. But it does
matter to the majority of members who aren't there yet. My advice to
them would be: If you can't offer it as a decent product, don't offer it
at all. Just like I (and probably you) would not want to be engaged in
an engineering project we didn't believe in.


For all my time spent working with, or being hobbyist in, electronics,
many and varied "experts" have TOLD me in no uncertain terms that
"This is the way 'we' do it in activity." I MUST do it as those
"experts" say. Sorry, but having been IN the activity for a long
time and watching the technology CHANGE, to have NEW ways and
components introduced since 1947, I have to throw that didactic
insistence (indeed a polemical philosophy) in the dumpster. If
someone finds/discovers/innovates something while engaged in
hombrewing some radio or other electronics, something NOT normally
done but still follows established laws of physics, then it should
be, in my viewpoint, be presented for other hobbyists. In the
spirit of that being a possible useful thing that others might be
able to use in their hobby activity. It should NOT be given in
terms of "look what *I* did" as some claim to "expertise." It
might be USEFUL to others in their hobby work. I feel that anyone
who wants to discuss matters totally different than a forum's
intended sphere of interest go find the appropriate forum to vent.

I've learned one more thing in Life here. Do not indicate one's
affiliation or pride or other personal feelings in a
"signature" of a posting...others do not like that. ...


Should be ok to do that. But people will see it and might react to it ;-)


... No matter,
my amateur radio license callsign can get my legal address.


Mine's DK9JK. Not active at all right now though. Once I retire I plan
to sit for the US license exam just like you did. Probably will start
back out on 15m and 40m, CW and SSB, and maybe some of the newer modes.

--
73, Joerg