Get Ready for Another ARRL Dues Increase

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Get Ready for Another ARRL Dues Increase

In his editorial in the April issue of QST, David Minster, NA2AA, ARRL CEO pointedly said that we’re in for another ARRL dues increase. This is being followed up by a membership survey on what these dues increase will look like.

Now, personally, I don’t have a problem paying a little more. Costs increase, meaning that prices generally have to be raised. I can pay an extra $5 or $10 per year for my ARRL membership. A lot of hams, however, are going to view this as another reason to quit the ARRL, and the ARRL is going to take another membership hit.

I’ve been writing about ARRL membership issues for years. I may not be an expert in this field, but I can tell you that declining membership is not a good thing. I can also tell you that raising dues—while it may be a good, short-term financial strategy—is not a good, long-term membership strategy.

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Indian Amateurs Reunite Family after nearly 10 years

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Indian Amateurs Reunite Family after nearly 10 years

Not all of the crises that hams respond to are weather-related or natural disasters. Sometimes they are of a deeply human and personal nature. This sort of emergency response is the apparent expertise that has been developed by the West Bengal Radio Club which takes its mission of public service seriously in this regard. Acting once again as a quasi-social service agency, they came to the aid of one woman who was taken from Bengal to Jammu and Kashmir at an early age for a marriage at 14 that separated her from her family.

The National Commission for Women, a government entity that advocates for women, had been trying to assist her in tracing the family she had lost touch with after marrying into a Kashmiri family. The media reports said that the woman, who is now 24 years old, was originally brought to the Baramulla sector in Jammu and Kashmir to be married because her father was unable to bear the expense of raising four children at home.

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ARRL Offers Assistance to Hams for RF Compliance

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The ARRL has reminded amateurs in the United States that it is making its resources available to help licensees comply with FCC rules on RF exposure limits. Those limits went into effect in 2021 and a two-year transition period was granted to permit hams to conduct evaluations and make necessary changes for stations that do not conform to the exposure rules.

The ARRL issued its reminder to hams just as the transition period ended on May 3rd. Hams are not exempt from conducting such evaluations even if they transmit at very low power.

The league's resources include a video about RF exposure and evaluation; an RF exposure calculator and an RF safety section excerpted from the ARRL Handbook.

Perhaps most importantly, the league is encouraging all hams to make use of these resources whether or not they belong to the ARRL or have established a website account.