[QCWA] arrl

[William M. Pasternak]

Sorry to tell you, but -- sadly -- about 75% of all licensed hams are not 
ARRL members.  Most appear to be codefree Tech's who are content to live 
out their ham radio career on a single 2 meter repeater and see noting in 
the structure of ARRL that interests them.  As I have written in my 
Worldradio column and in a special article I did a few years back for CQ 
VHF, to this new majority, ham radio is not a long term commitment but 
rather an inexpensive method of personal and/or inter-family communications.

I believe that the number of codefree Tech's is now close to 60% of all 
whom hold U.S. Amateur Service licenses.  The other 15% are simply inactive 
and - in some cases "SK" but still on the FCC rolls.  This 15% will slowly 
fall away as they fail to renew their tickets.

That leaves about 25% -- or 160,000 (aprox) as committed or potential ARRL 
members.  That seems to line up pretty closely with the membership stats 
that ARRL claims.

The big challange, as I see it, is to (A) convince ARRL that it needs to 
have the 60% of codefree Tech's as members and (B) the far harder task of 
convincing the codefree Tech ham community to join ARRL.  That entails 
convincing the majority of these operators to join the mainstream of ham 
radio rather than continuing to view the hobby as an adjunct to a cellular 
telephone.


At 01:58 PM 1/2/05, you wrote:
>Can it be that there are hams who do not belong to the ARRL?   For the 
>cost of a stamp I renewed my ticket.  This is just one of the ARRL's 
>services. Also can anyone comprehend what might happen to our hobby if the 
>ARRL was not speaking for us in Washington.  Join now!    73   Dick  W2GAS
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