[DX-CHAT] thanks for the replies
Most have been constructive, but several have totally misunderstood the meaning of my gripe. I have not said the league was wrong nor have I asked for or expected an apology. My complaint was and is the rather cavalier and anonymous treatment that I, as a league member, got from MY ARRL. I admit that I made a mistake. That is a given. The last problem was when the league messed up on my credit card and sent me a letter that would have made a collection agency proud. I wrote them back and told them to ty again, which they did, and it went through. There was never a reply or acknowledgement that time. At a time when the league is under fire from a lot of folk about their policies, they need all the positive PR they can get, and it looks like they simply don't care anymore. Subject closed Tom N4TJ Subscribe/unsubscribe, feedback, FAQ, problems http://njdxa.org/dx-chat To post a message, DX related items only, dx-chat@njdxa.org This is the DX-CHAT reflector sponsored by the NJDXA http://njdxa.org
Re: [DX-CHAT] thanks for the replies
People say ARRL does this and does that. What you are missing is the ARRL is the members, not a seperate entity. You elect the directors which govern how the league functions, just as the US government does with it's elected representatives. If you don't like the direction the directors are taking, elect some new directors ar at least let them know how you feel about an issue. Have you ever spoken to your director? I bet most of you have never expressed your views to yours. I saw a post on here the other day saying such and such is the reason he no longer belongs to the League. How unfortunate! The League is the only organization standing up for us fighting BPL and other interests who want to own the frequencies we now have. Only a strong voice from a united front will help us keep what we now have. Look at BPL and how moneyed interests has brought the most serious threat we've had to our hobby. Yes it IS money that's doing the talking there. It's big business and lots of money with BPL and the FCC. N4JA Subscribe/unsubscribe, feedback, FAQ, problems http://njdxa.org/dx-chat To post a message, DX related items only, dx-chat@njdxa.org This is the DX-CHAT reflector sponsored by the NJDXA http://njdxa.org
RE: [DX-CHAT] thanks for the replies
Jim is absolutely right. Too many people gripe about the League when they have a specific issue with a staffer or a department in Newington. [And some of those gripes are very legitimate, I'm not trying to put them down]. And then you have the induhviduals like W9WHE and W1WY and a few other trolls on eHam and QRZ and a few other sites who seem to delight in putting down the League and proclaiming all sorts of nasties and half-truths about the organization. While HQ is the staff in Newington, and they do have a big job running the organization and all of it's parts (like DXCC, QST, the QSL bureaus, the web site, the books, and on and on and on), they are NOT the League. WE are the League. Without the members, the League would not exist. Now I can't speak for the other divisions, but in all the years I've lived here in Pittsburgh and been active or semi-active, I have personally met and chatted many times with the various Atlantic Division Directors... including Hugh W3ABC and Kay N3KN (or whatever her call is today! g) back in their days... and just about all of the WPA Section Managers. ALL of them have been willing to talk, LISTEN, and explain. They may have asked someone to keep it brief because of time constraints, or others waiting, etc., but they have ALL spent time to LISTEN and communicate. And that's just what I saw in person, they also have all been very active with correspondence (to this day, I think W3ABC still groans when he gets a note from me, I used to write him on a regular basis and probably drove him half nutz!) I've heard stories about how aloof other Division Directors and SM's were. Can't say, I didnt/don't know them, and outside of seeing some of them at Dayton, haven't interacted with them. So, as they say, YMMV, VWPBL(STn)... and if you have an aloof DD or SM, maybe you should try and do something about that. Now... I do know of stories where some DD's and SM's won't talk, or talk for long, to non-League members. This is understandable to a point, because if you're not in the League, they often feel you're not part of the solution. So, if you're not a League member and this has happened to you, consider joining so that they DO have to listen to you -- and if they don't, so that you're in a position to do something about it. I'm not saying that by joining the League that you have to agree with every position, every policy, for that matter everything, that they've done. (On principle, I'm not too thrilled about the change of direction on Swain's Island, for one thing -- for one example). But if you're not a member, you have no say in modifying or even changing those positions. Consider that. Jim mentioned the BPL situation. Remember that the BPL lobbyists are very anti-League because the League has had the audacity to question the technical aspects... that is, ARRL has managed to remind everyone that to do it right costs a lot more money that to do it quick, dirty cheap, and so what if some hams CB'ers cops firemen have some noise on their radios? Every time some troll writes the FCC with a put-down of the League (justified or not -- and most aren't) it chips away at the League's credibility. We have GOT to fight the monied interests behind BPL, the ones who are intent in pushing a flawed technology in the interests of recouping their investments (and making a ton of money off the poor slobs who buy the systems off of their hands). We have GOT to get the FCC to acknowledge that in those areas that really want BPL (with WiMax coming, how many?) it has to be done RIGHT. Establishing this attitude -- which is not anti-BPL, it's anti-bad technology or anti-bad applilcation -- is what the League is best at. Even if you don't care for a lot of other things the League is doing or has done (and after 40+ years, can we give the Incentive Licensing war a rest? please?), the BPL fight alone is reason alone to join. (You can always leave when it's over) It's time to be a part of the solution. End soapbox. You can start throwing the tomatoes now. 73, ron w3wn Subscribe/unsubscribe, feedback, FAQ, problems http://njdxa.org/dx-chat To post a message, DX related items only, dx-chat@njdxa.org This is the DX-CHAT reflector sponsored by the NJDXA http://njdxa.org
On ARRL, BPL, Advocacy Re: [DX-CHAT] thanks for the replies
At 1:49 AM + 19/10/06, Jim Abercrombie wrote: People say ARRL does this and does that. What you are missing is the ARRL is the members, not a separate entity. You elect the directors which govern how the league functions, just as the US government does with it's elected representatives. If you don't like the direction the directors are taking, elect some new directors ar at least let them know how you feel about an issue. Have you ever spoken to your director? I bet most of you have never expressed your views to yours. I saw a post on here the other day saying such and such is the reason he no longer belongs to the League. How unfortunate! The League is the only organization standing up for us fighting BPL and other interests who want to own the frequencies we now have. Only a strong voice from a united front will help us keep what we now have. Look at BPL and how moneyed interests has brought the most serious threat we've had to our hobby. Yes it IS money that's doing the talking there. It's big business and lots of money with BPL and the FCC. N4JA Boy, Jim, I'll agree with you 100% and then some! I seriously doubt there isn't a single organization of one type or another which hasn't done something to alienate a few of its members at one time or another. However, that's really no reason to leave the organization. If one doesn't like the way one's group does business, especially if that group is the only one of its kind within one's field of interest, it is all the more important to stay inside the organization and fight for change instead of leaving it and complaining about it with absolutely no way to change it from the outside. Change in any bureaucracy comes from within, not from without. There's a few things about the Boy Scouts of America I don't like (I'm a very active and very dedicated volunteer), but I'm not going to quit BSA for those reasons. I'm gonna sit down and continue to write letters, speak up at meetings, send emails, and otherwise voice my sentiments to change the BSA system, not quit and badmouth it without doing anything to improve it while rationalizing the reasons why I left. BPL is a good example of ham's need to support the ARRL. The League is the ONLY organized opposition to BPL in the US. Almost all other organizations don't have the technical expertise to oppose it (good example: American Red Cross doesn't know AC from DC, yet could be profoundly and negatively affected if BPL becomes widespread). Those non-government organizations with technical expertise have been almost completely suppressed by government agencies with whom they have contracts while all concerned government agencies have been issued gag orders or forced to become BPL advocates (FCC, NTIA, FEMA, military, for example). In no small sense, the ARRL represents all these organizations which for whatever reason are not able to defend their own spectrum against BPL. For an in-depth series of articles on BPL and how the BPL advocates failed to overcome the ARRL and other opposition, see http://www.computingunplugged.com/tocs/issue200608.html . -- 73 de Fred Stevens K2FRD, VO2FS http://homepage.mac.com/k2frd/K2FRD.html Subscribe/unsubscribe, feedback, FAQ, problems http://njdxa.org/dx-chat To post a message, DX related items only, dx-chat@njdxa.org This is the DX-CHAT reflector sponsored by the NJDXA http://njdxa.org
