rjr@mgweed.UUCP (Bob Roehrig) (11/15/85)
I see where the for/against ARRL debate has surfaced again. Ralph, WA1ZCH is quite correct in that the ARRL is our only lobby. I'd hate to think where we would be today (if even on the air at all) without them. Sure, I get upset with the League. They have pulled some real boners in the past, but nobody's perfect. I still think "incentive licensing" was the biggest fiasco in years (at least the way it was done). The League has given opinions and promoted ideas without surveying the membership for their feelings many times (remember no code?). BUT the FCC does listen to them and many great rules changes have occured because of the League. I am a life member but there are times I have thrown QST on the floor! As far as magazines go, I think the ham magazines today are enough different to satisfy most everyone. It is too expensive to get them all (at least for me) but I do get QST and 73. We get HR at the club station here, and I occasionally grab a CQ off the newsstand. At least with Wayne Green more or less gone, the editorial page battles have ceased. Getting back to the League, If there are things you like/dislike about things, have you ever written to the ARRL or your division representative? Just like government, It's pretty hard for a representative to represent you if they don't know how you feel on a topic. Another service to league members is that you can get copies of the NPRM's and stuff. I once wrote to the ARRL asking why they did not print all the dockets verbatum. Their answer was that there are not enough people that are interested. So they make all this stuff available on request. This is the sad case - that a very minor percentage of us hams are interested in the FCC happenings, until something undesirable happens and we sit back and bitch about it. How would most of us find out about these happenings if it were not for W1AW! Ralph also mentioned that some hams are technically oriented and some are operators. I am more like Ralph. I seldom turn on the rig and just call "CQ". I am mostly at the bench working on a project of some kind. Our local club has about 200 members. I would say that maybe 5 to 10 percent of the membership are technically oriented. (What really makes my day is when I hear a couple of the 75-80 year old hams who have been licensed for over 50 years compare notes on their latest gadget using 555 timers and such when they probably have trouble seeing the devices let alone understand all the state-of-the-art circuits today). Bob, K9EUI