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It's Ham Vs.Ham As Radio Amateurs Are In Conflict At ARRL (perens.com)
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."
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."
I have this mental image of today’s hams belting each other with canes and oxygen tanks...
>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.
...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.
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!
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.
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.
These guys are arguing over the placement of the deck chairs on the Titanic. --KZ7B AE
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
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.
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.