AF6AY wrote:

I might caution you that reading that 75 percent figure that a person
can get a distorted perspective. Are all those Hams active? Are they
from the group of Hams who came in during the so called "honeydo era"
when repeaters functioned as a sort of public cell phone for a lot of
folks? They started dropping off a few years ago, and will likely
continue for several more years.

I would caution you not to ask unanswerable questions. :-(

Perhaps. The point is that even if 75 percent of Amateurs are not
members of the ARRL, they should be in a different organization if they
are inclined to be in any organization at all.

We can speculate on the reasons, but it is educated guesses.


It is just about a sure thing that most members of the ARRL are a group
that is actively involved in amateur radio. So they pay their dues,
vote, and get something for their money (in their opinion)

The "sure thing" cannot be proven and is merely subjective. There are
many fraternal orders active in the USA with active dues income,
voting, and so forth but most members do not really concern themselves with
the actions of those fraternal orders.

Just personal experience from my area. The active hams "round here" are
almost all members, and the inactive ones aren't.


You are alienating the users of the mode - who are also more likely to
be Active Hams, IMO. As well as those of us who are presumably at least
somewhat satisfied with the ARRL's performance, witness our continued
writing of dues checks.

"Users of the [CW] mode are the most active hams?!? Just how do you
go about proving that? There are still over 300 thousand US amateur
radio licensees in the no-code-test Technician Class as of 24 June
2007.

More personal experience here. Everyone else's mileage may vary.



As a start,an outline statement about what your organization is going
to do for us would be helpful.

Would a Formal Business Plan with Attachments of Monetary Support for
initial start-up be sufficient help? Or have you considered that
"Klystron's"
remarks might be irritation at what the ARRL has NOT done for many or
that their 'support' for certain activities of amateur radio is NOT
there in the abundance claimed by the League?

As I wrote to another, if he is irritated enough, he might think of
doing something about it.

That's what I do. Seems to work too.


The ARRL is the *ONLY* national organization for US amateur radio.
Only in that sense is it logical to belong. Let me know when the ARRL has
any national competition for US amateur radio "representation."

Let me ask the question a different way, one in which I'm not the
discussion stompin' bad guy.


Given that 75 percent of Amateurs are not members of the ARRL, why is
there not another organization that represents this majority of Hams?


I have my opinion, and it is that with the exception of a small
percentage, those Hams don't care to be part of any group.

But my advice is the same as when an amateur wants to build an antenna
that obviously won't work. "Give it a try, and tell us how it works
out". 8^)


- 73 de Mike KB3EIA -