With the publication of the 2023 Annual Report by the ARRL, we now have two more years of membership and amateur license data since I published my Social Circuits column entitled, “Elvis has left the building.” Indeed, the recent kerfuffle over the membership dues increase and subscription benefits reduction by the League is really Calling Elvis. However, Bob Dylan’s famous ballad that the times are a-changin‘ is the tune being sung by amateurs in the U.S. As a Life Member, I wish it weren’t so but the statistician in me says that engagement, rather than abandonment, will be required to keep the ARRL’s membership from further sinking like a stone in these turbulent waters. Here’s why.
Read MorePRSENTER OPINON : Hurricane Helene has changed my outlook on emergency communications→
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I was never very interested in emergency communications. Perhaps it’s because I live in Michigan, which according to World Atlas, is the second safest state as far as natural disasters go.
With what has gone on lately in North Carolina I’m rethinking my position. I still don’t think that every ham has to go whole hog (pun intended) on emergency communications, but we should have the ability to communicate without grid power and some knowledge of emergency communications techniques and protocols.
Read MorePRESENTER OPINION : The ARRL elections this year are a sham?→
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I’ve always recommended that hams join the ARRL, but recent events have certainly tested my resolve. The ARRL seems to lurch from calamity to calamity. Earlier this year, there was the decision to discontinue sending copies of the print version of QST to members. Then, in May, there was a cyber attack on the ARRL’s shaky IT infrastructure.
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