On Jun 27, 9:33?pm, RDWeaver wrote:

There are many radio amateur organizations in the US with national
scope. AMSAT, TAPR, NCI, and FISTS are a few which immediately come
to mind.

But none of those is the size of ARRL nor has it's financial strength,
and each of them is of narrower focus. So ARRL remains without anyone
to seriously challenge it's tagline of "The national association for
Amateur Radio".

Yep. Other organizations have come and gone, usually centered on a
single issue or a few issues. None since the end of WW1 has ever
really been a contender.

It would be an interesting study to determine why this worldwide model
of a single dominant national radio club has so consistently evolved.

Here's my theory, at least about ARRL:

From at least the WW1 restart, ARRL has aimed to be a "general
purpose" amateur radio organization. ARRL publishes a wide range of
books and periodicals, has the Maxim Memorial station on the air every
day, sponsors a wide variety of contests and operating activities, is
present at most major hamfests, is constantly involved with FCC, has
the QSL bureau, ARRL VEC, and a host of other things, all amateur
radio related.

That doesn't mean ARRL always does the best possible job in every
possible area, or that other organizations don't also do those things.
What it does mean is that ARRL offers something of value to more hams
than any other national organization. And it means ARRL's focus is
amateur radio *only*, which is as it should be.

The result is that more US hams join ARRL than any other amateur radio
organization.

IOW, the real question is "why doesn't a rival organization arise?" I
think the answer is that no other organization wants to take on all
the tasks ARRL does, or even the majority of them. Nor do rival
organizations want to deal with the challenge of balancing all the
various interests and opinions of a general membership organization.
Other organizations focus on a limited number of areas, which
naturally limits the number of hams who will join those organizations.
Narrow focus also avoids having to make the kinds of compromises
needed in a general-purpose organization.

73 de Jim, N2EY