At the recent Hamradio at Friedrichshafen I decided to become a member of ARRL. This is why:
- It’s cheaper than UBA at least if you don’t need the printed QST (this doesn’t mean I will cancel my UBA membership yet)
- QST is way better than CQ-QSO
- My favorite contest is the ARRL RTTY Roundup and now at least I can see my Log Checking Report (more on that in a later post)
- At Friedrichshafen I pretty much had the same feeling when approaching the UBA booth as in previous years (see my post from 2007), still no hugs and kisses 🙂
Message for the UBA: please get rid of the paper CQ-QSO, it is a HUGE waste of valuable money. All of your members have an internet connection so PDF is ok! With the money gained you could lower the membership fees and invest some more in promoting and defending HAM radio in Belgium!
A rather controversial point of view which I support 100%. Not only does the magazine cost a lot of or even too much money, there’s also the ‘human resources’ aspect. Each edition has to be edited and proofread etc by volunteers.
And the content is light and often outdated or irrelevant – for which the UBA hardly can’t be blamed. It’s simple logic: no input = no output.
I don’t think the time has come already for the UBA to abandon CQ-QSO though.
We don’t need lower membership rates, we need an even stronger and more upfront UBA because some politicians have pots boiling on the stove and I’m afraid the stew might be yucky for us hams! Tower permits and radiation bullshit, to name but two… Or that dreaded tower tax! @$#%!!!
Unfortunately we don’t represent an economical or electoral mass, so which politician will serve our cause?
So drop CQ-QSO and hire a pitbull lawyer! ;o)
Thanks for the comment Franki!
We indeed need all available resources to protect amateur radio in our country!
An other huge waste of resources is the forever ongoing fight between the different ‘national’ radioamateur societies in Belgium!