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It's Ham Vs.Ham As Radio Amateurs Are In Conflict At ARRL (perens.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the making-radio-waves dept.

Bruce Perens co-founded the Open Source Initiative with Eric Raymond -- and he's also Slashdot reader #3872. But this week he wrote in with some news from the world of amateur (or "ham") radio: ARRL has been the USA's representative organization for Amateur Radio for over a century. More recently, the organization has replaced transparency and democratic representation of its membership with confidentiality, policies to stifle dissent, and punishment of their own leadership when they get out of line. A vote happening this month offers members a chance to get back in control.
The open letter at that link -- signed by several AARL life members (including Perens), argues that "The members are not currently represented as they should be, due to the continued application of a policy meant for a for-profit corporate board," adding that "The only whistle-blower on the board was publicly castigated for informing us."

"The currently-suspended rules that go against the member's interest are temporarily suspended, and could be restored."

28 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Hams have always been fighting each other by Crashmarik · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The community has been divided since the days the really old timers were fighting everyone else over the No Code license (MORSE not programming)
    Then there were the volunteer examiner scandals. Oh wow an 8 year old girl has somehow managed to get an Extra Class license how did that happen.

    Matter of fact the group in general seems to do this on a regular basis. My guess it's the people that can't get genuine technical accomplishments like QRP records or high numbers of CQ contacts, screwing with everyone else.

    1. Re:Hams have always been fighting each other by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 5, Funny

      I have this mental image of today’s hams belting each other with canes and oxygen tanks...

    2. Re: Hams have always been fighting each other by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not far off most of the ones I have met are in their 70s and 80s.

    3. Re:Hams have always been fighting each other by ZorinLynx · · Score: 4, Insightful

      >the really old timers were fighting everyone else over the No Code license (MORSE not programming)

      I remember this fight; it was absolutely absurd because the old timers were basically using morse code (which is a huge pain in the ass to learn) to gatekeep newer hams from getting their licenses. The truth is morse code was rarely used anymore and the code requirement was keeping a lot of otherwise very technically inclined people from bothering to join the hobby and get their licenses.

      It's ironic because these days people complain that the hobby is dying because there's mostly only old timers left; the old timers basically dug their own grave because of their clique-ish nature over morse code requirements, especially during the golden age of ham radio in the 90s before the Internet made a lot of people lose interest in radio. I suspect there would be a LOT more middle aged hams in the hobby right now if it hadn't been for that bullshit, and they could be getting their kids into radio too.

      A huge clusterfuck, it was. All because a bunch of old guys with an "I had to do it, so everyone should!" attitude.

    4. Re:Hams have always been fighting each other by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I don't know, I've been on the other side of that "let's let everyone with a belly button in" attitude before. It doesn't end well. You get a bunch of jerks who don't understand and who don't care what made the community great in the first place. They just want to take, take, take and return nothing. Barriers to entry are a good thing. You don't want the Great Unwashed to spoil your good thing. That's how we ended up with Brexit.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    5. Re:Hams have always been fighting each other by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Pointless squabbles like use of Morse code as a hazing culture have obscured the fact that amateur radio still can play a vital role in disaster management. For the most part, it does not rely on infrastructure. It should be recast as an official adjunct to FEMA and its counterparts in each country to be a fallback means of communication when all else has been destroyed. The service needs a more unified approach to digital communications (lots of experimenting going on right now, but let’s focus the ingenuity) and more focus on maintainable power systems for large rigs during extended loss of grid power.

    6. Re:Hams have always been fighting each other by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't know, I've been on the other side of that "let's let everyone with a belly button in" attitude before. It doesn't end well. You get a bunch of jerks who don't understand and who don't care what made the community great in the first place.

      Exhibit A: The Internet.

      It used to be the domain of people who understood a little about it and cared about its future. Then it was overrun by the Ooh Shiny crowd in the early 90's and it has been downhill ever since.

      Sometimes some degree of gatekeeping is a good thing. Not so exclusive you have nobody left, but exclusive enough that you filter the worst of the riff-raff out.

    7. Re:Hams have always been fighting each other by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      More likely they were trying to have at least a minimal barrier to entry to avoid being crapflooded into CB land.

    8. Re:Hams have always been fighting each other by N7DR · · Score: 2, Informative

      The truth is morse code was rarely used anymore.

      I haven't looked at the data for 2017, but in the 2016 CQ Worldwide CW contest -- a Morse-only contest held at the end of November annually -- about 2.4 million distinct contacts were made over the course of two days. That doesn't seem to be compatible with the quoted assertion. I also note that that number is roughly 400,000 higher than the number of contacts made over the equivalent weekend dedicated to voice operation.

    9. Re:Hams have always been fighting each other by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      True, but the government would have taken our spectrum by now if not for the ARRL.

    10. Re:Hams have always been fighting each other by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

      Barriers to entry are a good thing.

      Barriers to entry are good if they involve a relevant and useful skill.

      For instance, handling emergency braking in a turn would be a useful skill to require of car drivers. Requiring them to calculate a square root is not, since that has nothing to do with driving.

      Morse code is useless. How do I know? Because I know Morse code. Haven't used it in decades.

    11. Re: Hams have always been fighting each other by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      ...State emphatically that [antenna design 1] is superior to [antenna design 2].

    12. Re:Hams have always been fighting each other by postbigbang · · Score: 2

      No, we use microwaves to cook pigeons in flight. Enjoy that melted plastic drone of yours.

      100% of the hams I know are well under 65, most under 30. And they are plentiful.

      No "get of my lawn" shit here. Learn how to have fun without your cellphone. Or use APRSDroid with your cellphone to amuse yourself and friends.

      Or not.

      --
      ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
    13. Re:Hams have always been fighting each other by postbigbang · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I used it last night to make a contact in Poland, known in ham language as a QSO. A week ago, it was Hawaii. Morse is plainly stupid, and it also plainly cuts through the RFI/EMI/Nutzo blabbing done in other modes.

      And I'm a no-code Extra Class. Is there other fun in amateur radio? Yep.

      --
      ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
    14. Re:Hams have always been fighting each other by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      Not true... I'm a member of the Dutch radio amateur association, VERON. Most I see are around 55-65, not 70-80. There are quite a few 40-ish and at the main (national) level there is an active youth commission.

      The basic demographics have changed. As in many other hobbies or avocations, people are waiting before licensing and activitiy.

      The stereotype Olde farte Ham who got his license when he was ten years old is a vanishing breed.

      The more modern version is a ham who waited until his or her children have been largely raised to become involved. This is also true of my other hobby of Amateur Astronomy. I was 46 when I was first licensed, and 47 when I earned my Extra.

      And what does this mean? Just that the average age of active Amateurs is older.

      As for the hobby, it is only something to joke about. Amateurs in general are a diverse group with diverse outlooks and diverse technical acumen.

      Some folks like to point at one group and if that group amuses them, try to apply the meme to everyone.

      We have our wanna-be first responders, the whackers. We have our olde fartes on 80 meters, lamenting that the south lost the civil war. We have our Appliance Operators, who have nice equipment but haven't a clue how it works. We have our Morse Code uber alles operators

      We also have experimenters and weak signal fans, and our own maker branch.

      My own interests are in making devices, digital communication, and weak signal work. Although I have a lot of radios, my flagship is a Flex Radio running SmartSDR software. It is a server with an RF front end.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    15. Re: Hams have always been fighting each other by LVSlushdat · · Score: 2

      You sound like me.. I got my license in 1976, and was a loyal ARRL member for about two years. I discovered all the benefits of membership were available elsewhere at little or no cost, and fast forward to today, I'd NEVER join that organization again, after seeing the kind of crap they pull on people who are members.. Just ain't happening...

      Dave K7DGF

      --
      THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
  2. It's the same issue everywhere in the world... by MindPrison · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...I've lived in 3 countries in Europe, they all fight over the same thing.

    Old timers remember they heydays and how "hard" it was to take the license, it was earned, not given etc...
    They tend to forget that there's a "maker" community today, that does at least as much technical stuff if not more than they ever did, and it's very hard to make the two meet. Old times despise the social media chat, because they see it too easy to just connect to the internet, and presto - you instantly chat with people all over the world.

    To them - being a radio amateur means working hard to get some old school electronics theory, plus the mastery of morse code (which is actually pretty hard, it's easy to read on a piece of paper, but VERY hard to train the ear to listen to at 120 characters per minute), it was for me... I'm an "old timer" radio amateur myself, and I hardly use the radio anymore, I'm on the net like the rest of you - but I like to dabble in electronics, building robotics etc, and I feel it's sad that my fellow old timers have such a hard time adapting to the new times, especially when you can easily consider they where the pioneers of your "taken for granted" communications technology we enjoy today in such small formats.

    I remember experimenting with my own BBS (Bulletin board system) which I set up with the help of a few transistors and a commodore 64 back in the early 80's when internet was relatively unknown. Then my fellow enthusiasts could leave messages to me or each other when I was at school. We even digitized images from scanning or video cameras, to send binaries or slow scan via the airwaves, that was our "instagram" back then.

    But we did it - way before anyone else did. And fun times it was. But old timers (particularly way older than me) they just don't see it, and they don't "need" to see it, they will take their memories with them to the grave, good times were theirs, and they lived them to the fullest.

    A pity really - because they have so much to give, so much to share, and yet - still - so much to learn.

    --
    What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
    1. Re: It's the same issue everywhere in the world... by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 2

      The important barrier that needs to be maintained is the rules and regs part of the testing. If a HAM license doesn't enforce some education about operating the gear, nobody would follow the common sense rules, and 'the commons' would quickly be destroyed.

      Operators need to know and understand the equipment, how to control radiated power, prevent a distorted signal, etc. It isn't a hobby where you just buy a rig and turn it on, or at least not one where you are restricted to that.

    2. Re: It's the same issue everywhere in the world... by iCEBaLM · · Score: 2

      Because radio is a shared resource, and at some point someone has to be responsible for the signals they send, or it all turns to shit. Is the software developer going to be responsible when the bugs cause some transmitter to jam a frequency when the operator thinks the radio is off? Or worse yet, transmit on a frequency allocated for someone else like broadcast radio or emergency services? Ultimately it has to come down to the operator of the equipment, so they're the ones who have to be licensed.

  3. ARRL by DaMattster · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I am an Amateur Extra and I refuse to be a part of ARRL. They've lost their direction as an advocacy group for amateur radio. They have moved in a direction that is not conducive to promoting the hobby.

    1. Re:ARRL by Lije+Baley · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Same here - Extra and have been licensed for over 35 years, and I have always seen the ARRL as just like every other dominant hobby organization -- corrupted by money, self-preservation, and leaders who enjoy political role-playing. But then I'm just a lowly experimenter who rarely transmits and not a whacker https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Whacker/, so I'm probably in the minority.

      --
      Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
  4. Re:Politics by alvinrod · · Score: 2

    Slamming too many Hamms will give you a bad case of the Schlitz.

  5. I REALLY hate to say this, but.... by mschuyler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    These guys are arguing over the placement of the deck chairs on the Titanic. --KZ7B AE

    --
    How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
    1. Re:I REALLY hate to say this, but.... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      These guys are arguing over the placement of the deck chairs on the Titanic.

      The deck chairs should face forward, so approaching icebergs get noticed.

    2. Re:I REALLY hate to say this, but.... by hey! · · Score: 2

      If your'e a ham you set them up in the radio room, to send and receive warnings about ice and distress signals.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  6. It's illegal to do anything worthwhile by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If I wanted to do health checks on old farts I would go to an old folks home. Repeaters are all dead because nobody wants to offend anyone and lose their license. Pirate radio is truly where its at.

  7. HAM is important by mlwmohawk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I am a HAM and I do a lot of volunteer work with my license. In large events, like the Boston Marathon, cell phones bandwidth gets limited and making calls can be difficult. Like the time of the bombing, they turned off cell phones. I have volunteered at the Boston Marathon a few times and the HAMs play a major role in coordination of medical attention for runners, getting supplies to various stops, and observing runners looking for ones that may be in trouble.

    When people say amateur radio is dead or dying, it really isn't. Its kind of growing. You can get a great rig for about $200 these days (Beofung), and you can make a very good antenna for 2M and 70cm out of some wire and PVC pipe. A lot of the preppers and survivalists are also becoming HAMs.

    There is a test, you need to pass it, but its about half technical and half rules and crap. You don't need to be a genius, but you will need to study a bit.

  8. Hiram Percy Maxim by jtara · · Score: 2

    What do you expect, from an organization started by the inventor of the Maxim Silencer, and whose dad invented the Maxim Machine Gun?

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Gotta say, though, "cool do', bro!". Very Tesla-ish!

    I "retired" from ham radio many years ago, but got my Novice license in junior high in the late 60's, and then got the General and Advanced while in high school.

    As I recall, the ARRL didn't have much of a different reputation back in the 70's. They've always presumed to speak for the majority of American hams, even though the majority of American hams have never been members.

    I think the apple does not fall far from the tree.