On 4/15/2011 7:40 PM, Kenneth Scharf wrote:
On 04/15/2011 08:31 PM, Joe from Kokomo wrote:

On 4-15-2011 12:27, Joe from Kokomo wrote:


tom, just my personal opinion, but too bad you left the ARRL and too
bad
you don't care.

I don't know about your "2 to 5%" figure, but even if it is true, it's
exactly 2 to 5% more than any other organization is spending to go to
bat for ham radio...and IMHO, we NEED (and should support) a national
organization.

73,
Joe

On 4/15/2011 6:41 PM, Scott wrote:

Why? If every ham just wrote to their elected officials (for the cost of
a stamp, or free by email), they would get the message just as well, if
not better than, if they got 1 letter or a personal visit from the ARRL
"lobbyist".

Just my personal opinion, but I believe it is quite naive to think that
if "every ham just wrote". Extremely unlikely...and oh, if not the ARRL,
just who do you think is going to tell the hams to write and what to
write about?

Finally, it's quite naive to think that a national lobbying organization
is not helpful -- just look at how successful the NRA is.
All of you are also forgetting that the ARRL (for better or worse) is
now the 'back bone' of the system that handles testing for ham licenses.
Without them it would be almost impossible to find where you can locally
take the test to apply for or upgrade your ham ticket. The ARRL also
publishes most of the test guide material (though I would be surprised
if it wasn't also available on line). Finally they have a good line of
excellent technical publications on radio and electronics technology.

Also they DO offer membership without QST, for additional members of a
family. Maybe the price of that will give you an idea of what they think
the membership itself is worth.

Yes, and the blind can get a membership without QST for $8, same as a
family member without QST. That was where I got my number from in
another post in this thread.

Again, I am not suggesting anyone give up their membership in the ARRL.