Hello, And what would the global picture be if a similar evaluation is made per country?
Will there be a time to let it stop (the national ham societies as such) and think of the future IARU successor as a confederation, working possibly on a healthier democratic basis? Just a wish... 73 de Jose' Silva / ct1axg --- Howard Aspinall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I follow the bandplan debate with great interest, > albeit from > the UK perspective. > > Perhaps you are lucky that your national society > does sometimes > respond to grass root pressure. Here in the UK, > those running > our national society are not really accountable to > the grass > roots, largely ignore them, and get away with it > > As for experimenting, diy and AM, these do not > figure > high up in management's list of priorities. There > are > salaried staff to pay, publication deadlines to > meet, > and advertisers to keep happy. > > Granted there remain some volunteers who do good > work > within UK's national society, but mainly it is run > as a > business, or as one insider described it, it is now, > first and foremost, a trade association, looking > after > the interests of the big dealers and advertisers. > > It seems though that membership of UK's national > society is flagging, and gimmicks like one year's > new > membership for 10 gbp, provided you sign a bank > direct debit form for the full amount next time, are > now the fashion, and as everyone here knows, the > management hopes people forget to cancel the direct > debits. > > When we had new licensing rules forced on us a bit > back, > thus opening up the bands to every tom, dick and > harry, > unsuccessful attempts were made to change the > official > name of the hobby from amateur radio to hobby > radio....a > sort of amalgam between ham radio and CB. People who > enjoyed experimenting, diy or antiquities like AM > were > regarded as dinosaurs. > > What shows is that so many of the new people, having > licenses given on a plate or with their cereal > packets, > don't retain interest in radio very long. What we > see > here is an exercise to broaden interest in the > dumbed > down hobby, and poach computer addicts in order to > sell > more riceboxes. In doing that, it has alienated many > one time keen mature hams. Our bands are quiet, if > not > almost deserted much of the time, unless there's a > contest > on. > > So I wish you all good luck in seeing off your > national > society management's bandplan machinations along > with > the IARU's attempt at self glorification. > > > 73..Howard/G3RXH > ______________________________________________________________ > Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net > AMRadio mailing list > List Rules (must read!): > http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html > List Home: > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html > Post: mailto:[email protected] > To unsubscribe, send an email to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] with > the word unsubscribe in the message body. > ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ______________________________________________________________ Our Main Website: http://www.amfone.net AMRadio mailing list List Rules (must read!): http://w5ami.net/amradiofaq.html List Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/amradio Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.html Post: mailto:[email protected] To unsubscribe, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word unsubscribe in the message body.
