[amsat-bb] Re: ARRL VUCC

[Sebastian]

Very well said Steve.  This reflector, and I guess the world in  
general, has a lot of people who seek to only create barriers and like  
to play the blame game.  You are so right that the ARRL is all that we  
have.  They aren't perfect, they can and should be better.  One of the  
best ways of changing things that you may not be happy with, is to get  
involved.

The ARRL exists only for amateur radio.  And for many years they have  
been the words and eyes of the amateur community in our government,  
and in the international stage.  I'm sure that without them, we would  
probably have a very small amount of frequencies that we could use;  
most of them would have been auctioned off a long time ago.  PRB-1 is  
an extremely important victory that was won, and many people seem to  
have forgotten that.

What's funny to me is that many times there is more activity on these  
reflectors than on the air.  All of those complaining about multiple  
things especially about satellites, I never hear on the birds.  To me,  
that's the same as someone who complains about their elected official,  
yet never bothers to vote.

My elevation rotor is being repaired, so my satellite antennas are  
down.  In the meantime, I just worked 3 stations on AO-16 using my  
dual band vertical.

73 de W4AS
Sebastian

On Oct 7, 2008, at 6:03 PM, STeve Andre' wrote:

>> I think thats unfair, Dave.  The ARRL has a ton of interests and  
>> tries to do
> a tremendous amount of stuff with a fairly small budget.   They try  
> (and,
> are sometimes trying), and they do a lot of good.
>
> If you aren't satisifed with their talk of staellites, and I can  
> understand
> why, it would be best if you worked on teaching them and getting them
> to really understand.
>
> Don't say that you've tried and failed.  I'll believe you, but  
> failures simply
> mean that it hasn't been brought up enough.  This goes for any of the
> speciality modes that ham radio has.  I've heard plenty of groussing  
> on
> other mailing lists too, for perceived slights by the ARRL from other
> smaller speciality communities.
>
> The ARRL is all we have.  There is no point to try and create  
> something
> else because I don't think enough people could/would ever step up to
> do anything, not that I think it would be reasonable to do that.   
> Instead,
> I think it is encumbant upon ALL amateurs to step up and help the  
> ARRL,
> to reshape it in such a way as to accurately reflect the wishes and  
> desires
> of the groups that make up all the interests in our hobby.
>
> What this means is Politics meets Ham Radio.
>
> Politics is the interaction between people, say about three of more of
> them.  An entity like the ARRL has internal politics, and deals with
> *real world* politics, like BPL.  Sometimes, they make some pretty
> stunning wins, like the recent crabbing they did with regard to the
> FCC's proceedural moves with BPL.  That helped ham radio hugely, for
> it reminded the FCC that the little puny ham community can create
> legal muster that has to be reckoned with, not to mention the actual
> problems with BPL itself.
>
> The ARRL is hardly perfect.  They've come a long way however, and
> with our help they will improve.  If anyone reading this has given up
> on them in disgust, please remember that first (or even fifth) efforts
> at things might not work, and one needs to plug away at the cause...
>
> Sending reasoned discourse to them--and getting your friends to do
> that as well--is a start to changing the VUCC regs, or whatever.
>
> But let us not give up on the entity that is us.  Instead let us  
> work on
> changing the parts that need it.
>
> --STeve Andre'
> wb8wsf  en82