[Milsurplus] What was the ARRL thinking ?

[Bob kb8tq]

HI

Times change and we’re sitting here looking at 50+ years ago. Do that in 1976 and you are looking at 1926. Head back to the 60’s (when many of us first got our licenses) you are looking at WWI and earlier. Very much a different era to look at. 

How many things have changed in the last 50 years? LOTS. None of them have been “kind” to Ham Radio. They also have not been kind to an enormous number of things folks used to do “back then”. 

Internet came along and zap pow … kids are doing things there and not “in town”. 

Cell phones can connect you to any place from any place.

Put up a wire antenna and “work the world”? Back then … .sure. Today for a LOT of folks? Nope, no can do.(for multiple reasons). VHF handheld?  sure. 

Big beams on a tall tower? Good luck with that … (Hi, I’m here from the HOA and want to talk to you ….).

Could a few thousand more lines be written about all the changes? Sure they could ….

It’s not just the ARRL that is a bit “not what it was”.

Bob



> On Sep 28, 2026, at 12:28 PM, ac2eu--- via Milsurplus <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
> 
> I also remember looking at those projects and realizing how much skill and resources it would takr to build it as shown.
> However, it was more of an inspiration for me to hack available electronics  to repurpose it  into a working HF device.
> 
> ARRL has dumbed  QST down significantly , so I too,prefer QEX.
> I don't think taking away the print version with membership was a good one. At least I would give it read when it showed up.
> Now , I haven't read QST or QEX in a year or so  because it's "out of sight, out of mind".
> 
> The new ham operators are mostly of the appliance operator variety these days, so QST has adapted to that audience.
> However, it's like a fad for them , which fades out in a few months. I seem them come and go at club meetings all the time. Very few stick to it, probably because their interest doesn't extend beyond taking a new toy out of the box.
> Intellectual curiosity seems to be dead in the country.
> On Monday, September 28, 2026 at 11:27:17 AM EDT, Robert Nickels via Milsurplus <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> On 9/28/2026 9:05 AM, Bill Cotter via Milsurplus wrote:
>> Or, they could move The League to KY, TN, NC, or SC, and not have so many business & personal expenses to worry about! That might give them some relief from having to make so much money as a non-profit. And, they might be better able to serve the amateur radio community with less overhead.
> Hi Bill,
> 
> Your comment triggered a LONG-ago memory!   I lived in western Nebraska in the 1970s and repeaters and remote base stations were my primary interest.  Once guy who had a big antenna system used to get into my repeater from about 75 miles away - Dan, W0UFZ.   He'd been a ham for many years and as most of us have discovered,  along with age comes a bit of attitude ;-)   He felt the ARRL was losing it's way back then, and made them an offer:   Move ARRL HQ to Alliance, Nebraska where he lived - a small city of 8,000 (now) on the edge of the Nebraska Sandhills.    He would donate a number of acres of land and had a whole list of reasons which he would happily expound upon.   They included lower costs of operation, reduced payroll cost,  a central US location that could provide better signals from coast to coast,  plenty of space for large directional antenna arrays (like SW BC stations used), and of course "midwestern values".   
> 
> Naturally, nothing ever came of it.     But he was dead serious and it's hard to argue with his claims even today - especially in the age of the internet.
> 
> 73, Bob W9RAN
> 
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