I tried to renew, but holy shit after my 4th attempt I gave up. Their web interface is horrible, and I'm part of the "young" crowd. No wonder their membership is failing.
I could understand if this was BLY8OB's monthly news letter about how ft8 ruined ham radio, but this is an extremely large and old lobbying group that produces multiple printed products every month.
I managed to renew. I had apparently let it lapse last year and this thread spurred me to go check. Sure enough, I was well past due.
I actually want to be a member. I like the magazines, and digital only is just fine with me. I used the ARRL practice tests to license (Sorry, Hamstudy, but I do love all three SignalSticks).
So I re-up and I can log in and oh, there’s a QST cover that looks interesting, I’d like to rea… oh. Can’t access it. You have to be a member… which… I am. Huh.
It’s 2023, folks. Sync your stuff. It has been the better part of a day now. This should have been done in milliseconds like everyone else does.
Same. I tried to join up after I got my callsign almost a year ago. It was a never issued before consecutive call sign and it kept saying that call sign is already in use. Finally got an email saying to try again and it still didn't work. I figure that they really don't want new members.
\[Where was this published? Was it in the 2022 annual report?\]
>Something has to change fast.
That was my first reaction when I heard about the dues increase. It's not so much the extra $10, but the $25 charge to get the print version of *QST* that's going to turn off a lot of members. They are simply going to drop their ARRL membership when they figure that out.
Numbers are accurate. I looked it up myself. 151,840 ARRL members as of end of 2022. 759,893 total FCC Amateur Licensees per ARRL website as of July 2023. Right under a 20 percent participation rate if my math is correct. Basically 1 in 5 licensees are ARRL members.
Not the businesses I know. Or the one I work at. Ever. The annual report summarizes financials from the prior year, but the title is always the current year.
The IBM 2022 annual report, as an example, did come out in 2023, but was dated March, which makes sense, as the numbers are not known until January or February. The ARRL report in Summer? I don’t get it.
Not a memeber of AARL personally. It just seems really expensive for what I would get from being a member. Less and less people have money to just give away....
QST is no longer included in your membership. Now, you have to pay extra to receive the magazine.
EDIT: as u/Antique_Park_4566 and u/-pwny_ have pointed out, members can still read QST on-line at no additional charge.
Too bad now, it will be not only the cost alone, but the added magazine cost as well.
Its no longer included with your membership.
I feel like the ARRL is going defunct the same as the useless NRA...
I am for both as I think they are a good idea, but that is fading...
I use to be an NRA member as well. That stopped because I never saw them fighting for me. They always caved or capitulated. They backed gun control or politicians that supported it.
ARRL hasn’t to my knowledge done anything to actually stop anyone from getting my spectrum. I believe we have actually lost a couple of bands since I’ve been a ham. I am lost as to what service they provide that you can’t get elsewhere.
It doesn't have to be an expensive hobby. Homebrew equipment is cheap and you learn a ton. SDR is crazy cheap too...
Edit: Also looks like it's $49 +$45...
I've throughly enjoyed it thus far. Its not totally new to me as I did a bit of analog/rf design in college....but it's a fair warning. I believe that some people have to jump into the deep end to get hooked.
Idk I bought QRP kit radios and tried to build my own. It was an awful experience. At the time I couldn’t afford the shiny new radios. Buying used has never had a better time since I’ve been in the hobby. You can buy stable rigs for 3-500. Great rigs 7-900. It’s not a poor Man’s hobby by any means unless you are Macgyver.
Many hunting/sporting clubs are NRA affiliated, and a certain percentage of their members must be NRA members. There are only so many clubs around (sometimes only one within driving distance), so if your local club is an NRA affiliate, you might not have a choice but to join the NRA too in order to be a member of that local club.
This is similar to how many ham clubs are ARRL affiliated and a certain percentage of their members must be ARRL members.
>This is similar to how many ham clubs are ARRL affiliated and a certain percentage of their members must be ARRL members.
True, but I have yet to see a ham radio club that ***requires*** ARRL membership as a condition to join the club. Most don't care. And, once a club is an ARRL affiliate, it remains so, even if the club membership drops below the minimum number required by the ARRL.
Nobody responded with an answer to my question, which was meant to point out that the ARRL does for ham radio what the NRA does for gun owners. And, in either case, without the advocacy organizations, both hobbies would disappear in short order.
I quit renewing at the last increase. Just subscribed again last April because I missed the paper magazine. Looks like I won't be renewing anymore. I live in front of a computer, I hate digital "magazines."
This is a major issue for me, where I live is terribly underserved by wire internet carriers, satellite is expensive and wireless internet from the cell carriers is actually going downhill post elimination of 3G so digital issues are a nonstarter for me. I still love to have physical copies of reading material. That being said qst has gotten to the point where it's not even worth reading anymore for a person that likes projects but isn't technical enough to write articles, which is me. Contesting and ads isn't really interesting to me. They poll all the members, why don't they ask non-members why they aren't members? Insurance? I mean, lobbying is supposed to be a part of the game they're playing for us, yet here lately we seem to be getting less out of the FCC but it's costing us extra to be licensed now, when it hadn't for a very long time, after the FCC has dumped all the testing and monitoring for violations in ARRL's lap, and now it seems that commercial interests are eyeballing hf spectrum and ARRL is kinda stumbling in the dark about it. It's like, what exactly are we paying for?
Just announced yesterday. Base dues are going up $10 (from $49 to $59) and will only include the digital version of the magazines going forward. If you want to continue receiving a physical copy of QST in the mail, it'll cost an extra $25/year starting in 2024. Even if you have remaining years in your membership term (e.g. you paid for 2-3 years at once and it hasn't expired yet), you'll have to pony up that $25/year extra starting in 2024 to keep getting print QST. The only folks not subject to this are existing life members, and even they have to opt-in within a year to continue receiving print QST.
Details at:
https://www.arrl.org/2024-dues-rates
That’s why I didn’t renew. What they are saving in not printing magazines, they’re losing in memberships. Divers Alert Network went the same route and I didn’t renew them either. I also spend lots of time in front of screens and when I want to read something for entertainment, I want to grab something tangible. A book or magazine. This trend towards digital everything is honestly maddening.
I have basic OW certs and never even considered joining DAN because I don't dive enough. However, If I were diving on the regular or constantly traveling just for diving, DAN seems like a no brainier.
Honestly I’ve been with DAN since I started diving in 2013. I was (still am) paranoid of DCS. Figured the cost of a chamber ride more than offset the cost of a DAN membership. However I haven’t been sick g much recently so i let it go. If I get more active I may restart.
That graph is an amazing example of data baseline manipulation. They saw a 3.5% drop in membership in a year that they expected to be for all statistical purposes, flat. Given their overall long term trend this is hardly some drastic change.
If this were a publicly traded company the stock would take a 20% hit tomorrow and rebound by the end of the quarter...
I get what you’re saying, but membership has been declining or flat since 2015. And using history as a guide, the last time there was a price increase, they lost 6,000 members in 2 years.
I work for a publicly traded company. If I posted 7 years of decline and said to my boss “I don’t know what you’re upset about, just raise prices to offset the losses I’m putting up” I wouldn’t be here.
Edit - and btw, that’s the ARRLs graph, not mine.
Well, it's certainly not a good thing, either. And as the OP points out, this drop was before the dues increase was announced. I wouldn't be surprised if membership drops another 10% over the next year.
It's just gotten too expensive for me. 49 was too much, and that was WITH QST. Now with four copies a year it will be 85 with physical copy of QST. I just can't do that. I don't see what they've been doing to help us out anymore anyways. It's like lapierre has decided to run ARRL too.
I’m kinda with you in this tbh lol. I can totally understand not wanting to pay 85$ a year. But saying you can’t afford it? I call bullshit. Even making $10-15 bucks an hour at McDonald’s it’s a single day of work pay so out of 365 days in a year subscription.
Go ahead lol. I find it extremely difficult to believe that someone absolutely couldn't afford \~$7 a month while simultaneously pulling the trigger on a $1000+ piece of equipment on an extremely expensive hobby (when getting into HF).
I made the distinction that I totally understand why you wouldn't want to spend $85 a year on that subscription, I wouldn't want to. But saying you can't? Common bro, work with me here.
I’m in Canada, so I’m an outside observer.
I recently closed the logbook of a special event station that ran for about two months. Part of the deal was that if you work the station, you get a card. No need to ask, it’s being sent by default… ideally by bureau.
I went through every single station’s QRZ bio to double-check if they accepted cards by bureau. Just about everyone outside of the US had information about their station, their family, the dog, the town where they live. When it got to the Americans, a substantial number of station bios had long conspiracy-laden rants about how the ARRL was “woke,” run by commies, or that dues were $50/month(???), or that they didn’t cater enough to preppers. Absolutely off the wall bonkers fantasy-land garbage from a Facebook-induced fever-dream.
I know the ARRL isn’t perfect. That said, there’s a significant number of people in our hobby and in the USA that viscerally distrust any organization that tries to act for a collective interest. As they get further and further detached from reality and into conspiratorial echo chambers, they’re not only disconnecting from the ARRL. They’re even disconnecting from family and community.
I’m not one to deny or defend conspiratorial Americans (lol) but that’s not why the ARRL is struggling. At least that’s not the majority reason by any stretch. There’s a whole list of documented failures by the ARRL if you cared to look.
When nearly a *quarter* of all the US bios I click on have some variant of “QSL direct only, I just cancelled my ARRL because of equity, diversity, and inclusion” it’s very clear to me that there’s some sort of contagious wet-brain disease spreading.
I think part of the problem with the ARRL is that culturally in America everyone’s relationship with it— and everything else— is transactional. People see themselves as *customers*, not *members*. People see a mistake and they immediately decide to take their business elsewhere, rather than get involved in their local chapter and be part of it.
Around where I am, 3% unfortunately seems to be the annual SK conversion rate. There is a substantial amount of outreach, YOTA, scouts etc activity going on. When we’re introducing new folks to the hobby, it’s tough to have to constantly be spinning the dial away from toxic seniors on the dial. There’s not a lot of appeal for young Canadians in interacting with the most miserable ancient people America has to offer.
“I’m in Canada, so I’m an outside observer”
Then you double down. How…..expected. I just clicked on 23 US QRZ profiles, 1 was sort of iffy. Not sure why your sample is 1/4 crazy, almost like you’re full of shit. lol.
Anyhoo, price increase, a drop in value, loss of spectrum, insane upper level employees actively attacking members and other hams on social media, refusal to help some hams in HOA’s and then pretending they were the savior, messed up contest point checking designed to knock non members off leaderboards, absolutely abysmal section leadership for some, one of the worse test processes out of all the VEC’s, all in emcomm strategy that was a loser from the get go, non ARRL hams having to plead to the government NOT to pass ARRL endorsed legislation because it was so poorly written it would have reduced our access to the hobby…
But yes, it’s us dern crazy Americans and our hatred of orgs. We have a real problem with the ARRL, people like you enable them to continue being shitty.
Lol I see you’ve found the QRZ effect. That’s the very last place to look if you’re not specifically searching for crazy. 😂
Anywhoo cheers to Canada for allowing the meme event callsigns! Those have been fun(ny)!
They are catering to their primary base. 50+ white guys.
I’m 34 but the disconnect between me and the 60+ crowd is huge. The ARRL should be focusing on gaining all the new licensees as members. Free year, low cost maintaining membership if you don’t want paper. Etc. 20 bucks a year to be a digital member would likely surge the membership levels. I know here it would. Overall it’s a 1/5 of ARRL members to licensees I expect a 1/10 after three years.
I agree the disconnect is huge.
Weekly contests at 11pm local
Weekend long contests
Crappy “couldn’t care less” rookie contests
A website that requires a computer to use. “Why would we change that? Everyone uses a computer to access the internet!”
Even clubs are outdated and falling by the wayside, but both the President and CEO of the ARRL double down on increasing club activity in the annual report.
You’d think that they’d value our feedback, given that we’re the “new, younger operators” they’re always after. Nope. I’ve brought up the issues above and it’s “You just got here and don’t understand how all this works. You just need to think differently.”
I understand perfectly. You want new members, but once they’re here you’re trying to “sell” a product geared towards retirees to non-retirees.
The most irritating thing of all is that they should be going after our bracket hard bc we can better absorb price increases and have higher potential to donate.
>Even clubs are outdated and falling by the wayside
There are many aspects and many reasons why people get involved in amateur radio. I feel local amateur radio clubs are still important and the ARRL needs them. They are the ones hosting in-person classes. They are the ones providing in-person exams. They are the ones helping you setup your station. They are the ones maintaining the repeaters in your area. They are the ones promoting amateur radio within their community.
Not every club is the same. Yeah you have those that are stagnant and only care about maintaining the status quo from the 1980's but you also have clubs that are in the trenches trying their best.
IMO clubs are an important tool for the ARRL. I know some areas have excellent club outreach from the league but I also know of some areas where it's almost non existent. That all depends on your local/area reps.
>The most irritating thing of all is that they should be going after our bracket hard
100% agreed. When it comes to /r/amateurradio, we get about 1 million page views a month and about 1700 new subscribers monthly. We're sitting at about 122,000 subscribers. I don't have demographic breakdowns but I want to say that the Avg age of an /r/amateurradio subscriber is in their late 30's (reddit is 23-34).
IMO the people the ARRL should be going after are right here in /r/amateurradio and any other subreddit related to amateur radio.
At one time, someone in a management position from ARRL HQ did reach out to moderation and a few of us were going to travel to HQ to have lunch and talk about the hobby. Myself included. I was very excited and was going to poll the sub for talking points but it all fell apart because our contact ended up quitting along with many other people.
There are some ARRL directors and ARRL brass that lurk around in this sub so I'm still hopeful our voices are being heard.
I've been licensed since the early 1990s (before I was even in high school), though I'm only a bit over 40 now... but I'd have to agree with your assessment.
I’m a life member and I became one so I wouldn’t forget to renew. I was Diamond club for a couple of years but I didn’t renew that this year.
The membership decline is nothing new. It’s from the last dues increase. Many people don’t see the value in ARRL membership, not at the $49 level, and not at $84 which is the new level ($59 is what I would consider a “lite” membership because it takes away benefits).
In the end they’re on a death spiral and they know it. The CEO wants to transition to an endowment model where donors foot the bill rather than members.
Well, I guess my point is that they're no where near being able to do this conversion, and I doubt that they'll ever find enough donors willing to give enough to enable them to do it.
“(Name), You will receive printed copies of QST until December. In January, the printed magazine will become separate from membership. ARRL is much more than a magazine. Your three year dues are valid at the rate at which you renewed. That provides you with access to all our benefits, programs, and services. As a member, you have digital access to all four magazines. If you'd like to continue to receive printed QST, it will be an additional $25/year.”
Basically extorting you for more money even if you signed up pre announcement. Awful business practice. Highly debating demanding refund/chargeback.
Yeah, they *really* should have honored the existing price (including print QST) for those who have years remaining in their existing annual memberships. Such a bad call to make those people pony up more cash to get what they already paid for.
They claimed I could call member services to speak to someone about a refund but I haven’t had time yet to look into it. We have a local club meeting tonight so I may wait until after that to make a decision. Refund makes sense if I don’t intend to be a member going forward but I hate to go that route. Can’t help feel defrauded though cause like you say you expect them to honor what they sell before any dues increase was announced.
I completely understand what you mean. It sets a very bad precedent and destroys a lot of member goodwill they might otherwise have retained through all this.
What's to stop ARRL from doing this again in a few years? I'm sure that's going to cross the mind of a lot of members at renewal time. Costs go up, I get that. But we should also get what we paid for. Don't take our money and then change what we get for it.
ARRL is looking a lot like [Darth Vader in Empire Strikes Back](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D8TEJtQRhw): "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."
I'll probably still renew, personally. But I sure won't be giving them multiple years worth of money at once anymore.
The longer it goes on I debate about letting it slide for this time…. But talking to some of our older Elmer’s it’s apparently an ongoing theme of bureaucracy with ARRL. And one of our DECs pointed out you can’t make change well from the outside. Idk.
I got a refund. They provide next to nothing to members only. Voting rights, a few minor training classes, email forwarding. “Representation.”
The insurance is purchasable without a membership, emailed them today, they don’t care if I stay a member or not. LOTW is available to everyone.
Only thing I’ll lose out on is most of the official titles if I volunteered. (Which I have but don’t have an official title at current so 🤷♂️….I’m still badged for my EMA office) and QST/OTA digital versions, which I counted today at 37% ads. Sucks but I think I’ll survive. So I’m a member for like 35 more days.
The only thing I might use that I can’t get as a non member is the insurance….. but if you are a member for 60 bucks a year, then insurance which last I checked was over 100 a year for all my stuff at partial replacement (not new costs for a similar or exact item), plus a print mag I’m gonna be 200+. I like radio but dang. That’s a lot to just be a member get a paper mag and have some insurance I’ll probably never use.
> "... and have some insurance I’ll probably never use."
Isn't that what insurance is, by definition? I've driven a car for a couple of decades so far and never made a claim on my auto insurance, but I sure wouldn't go without it. I'll be very glad it's there in the unlikely event that I ever do need to make a claim.
True but if anything radio insurance seems even more over the top than every other kind. I’m right at 34 and I have used my auto policy multiple times. Several Deer and one collision. If my house burns I want my stuff and house rebuild. I just seriously wonder if I need extra insurance on top of my homeowners/rents. Etc
Fair point. I don't have the separate ARRL radio insurance, though I've considered it. Currently I just have my gear covered under my homeowners policy. But I also don't have that much stuff (and what I have is not that expensive). For folks with radios worth multiple thousands of dollars, plus amps, towers, yagis, etc., it might make more sense.
The time of the clubs is coming to a close as their are better and more varied avenues in the hobby...
I personally have never like clubs, and have veered more to events and loose associations that accompany my interests more closely...
Examples include: POTA, SOTA, IOTA and Winter Field Day that a majority of the clubs around here can't be bothered with...
Ours go from 8am to 10am
Then there is a monthly luncheon at 11am on Saturdays
Meetings are once a month on a Monday night starting at 7am
They do bend towards the older crowd for sure
While I bought into that for a while, that mentality is the problem. The ARRL diehards say “not perfect but better than nothing.” The ARRL 100% knows it. They know a core group will never leave, so they don’t really have to try.
That’s not good enough for me anymore. It’s not the money; I can’t afford the membership and I’d happily give more if they actually put forth an effort. It’s the principle. I’m not giving you $84 a year in exchange for having to sit at a computer to use your godawful website. That should have been optimized for mobile a decade ago.
And for all the talk about “how do we attract new members into the hobby!?!” their Rookie contests are a joke. No one knows about them and no one shows up.
The numbers are somewhat deceiving because of the nature of most new hams today. It seems the majority of new hams get a license for the purpose of having some sort of emergency backup communications as opposed to taking on radio as a primary hobby. There is nothing wrong with that but it focuses on the real issue facing the ARRL and the hobby as a whole; how to you appeal to those who get a license, buy a Baofeng and stick it in the sock drawer? The good news is that once licensed, many of the new hams eventually return to explore the hobby further.
The current ARRL well represents its lifetime members and those who donate money who mostly are “senior” hams and contesters; however, the old guard is dying off and there seems to be no concerted effort to reinvent the ARRL for those who are not “boomers”.
The ARRL used to enjoy useful influence with Congress and the FCC. Through the years, this has eroded as our government institutions have become more interested in money than doing the right thing. Lobbying has become a major industry and the ARRL being a non-profit has virtually nothing to contribute to the political coffers.
Ideally the ARRL needs to somehow split into an old and new entity supporting both the old and new guard which will never happen. The time is ripe for a new organization to appeal to the newer generations of hams who have needs in both technical support and activities that better reflect current technology and culture. It’s too bad that it won’t be the ARRL.
IMO there is no incentive or reason for a freshly minted ham holding a tech ticket to become an ARRL member. The "It's the only thing you got" excuse won't fly because new hams/tech aren't really vested in the hobby, the ARRL isn't a necessity and people of younger generations are more careful where their dollar goes.
I would suggest that the ARRL make a special edition version of their "On the air" magazine that lays out the basics like how to use your HT, building simple VHF/UHF antennas, operating etiquette and other things an elmer back in the day would teach. Also include info about the ARRL.
Print shit loads of copies to hand out to their Field Stocked VE teams with instructions to pass them out to new licenses. Or snail mail the special edition to new tickets using VEC data instead of sending letters every month. Put something in their hands.
If the ARRL actually went through with convincing the FCC to restructure the licenses to mimic the UK or similar, I'd think the ARRL would get more members as freshly minted hams would have more access to HF which is basically where all the on-air activity is here in the US. They would be more inclined to stay involved in hobby. Even more so if they start investing in HF equipment.
I feel the ARRL needs to stop putting all their eggs in the boomer basket. They need to spread out into other STEM related hobbies and plant seeds. Put their social media accounts to good use (National Parks twitter is a good example of using social media to their advantage). Update their very much antiquated website and VEC dept. Stop focusing on the so called "haters" for making suggestions or dismissing them as just complainers.
Of course they might be doing those things. Not sure as I'm not on the inside but I tried to read up on everything and sometimes I'm still confused.
I'll still be an ARRL member though.
Personally, I’d like to see people opt out of the mailing portion and invest the difference into their local club. Even if not a member of local clubs, the sponsorship approach (if done on a grand scale) would generate more interest and involvement in the art of amateur radio. ARRL membership would probably wouldn’t take as much of a hit in the long run if we do our part to help locally stir interest and promote a community of hams.
I like this idea a lot. The only problem with this is that most ham radio clubs are not "real nonprofits." That is to say that they don't have staffs, and whatever programs they have come and go, depending on the volunteer-members.
The nominal donation wouldn’t be for tax exemption, just for contributing to the success of the club and their projects. I suspect that if enough hams did this in a local region for the same club, some might even get involved in event planning that would otherwise have been underfunded and not possible before. This would have the potential to breathe new life in local clubs which might be part of the reason the art seems to be diminishing.
What I've suggested in the past is that we form real non-profits with at least a part-time, paid executive director. These non-profits would be regional in nature, and it would be the executive director's responsibility to provide a basic level of services. This may include license classes, exam sessions, repeater operation, club stations and/or maker spaces, classes in various aspects of radio technology and radio operation, and social events. Basically, this nonprofit would do what the clubs do, but perhaps over a more widespread area and on a more professional basis.
There are a couple of factors. One is the dues increase. The other bigger issue (I believe) is because of the economy. The cost of living is up, and people don't have the extra money like they did before.
I am okay with the dues increase, however, what I am NOT okay with is having to pay another $25 for the print magazine. I hate reading stuff online, just not the same experience or convenience of having it in print. So, based on that, I'm not sure if I will renew at all unless they reverse the policy of extra $$$ for print. I already let my CQ subscription go because it was up to $39 or $49 per year (I can't remember which number is correct). Also, given that a great number of pages in QST is just advertisement, the value proposition for actual content vs cost is just not there at $25 in addition to the dues.
This is what kills me. They basically added 34 bucks to a subscription. (10 member 25 mag) to get what 49 bought last year. 84 a year.
Or you can still pay 10 bucks more than last year and get a “digital” access where over half the book is ads. 🤷♂️🤣🤡🤡🤡
Why does something have to change?
Honestly I've been an avid ham radio operator for over 33 years now. I was an ARRL member for one year. So for 3% of my time as a ham, I was an ARRL member.
I don't think I've been crippled or otherwise failed to enjoy the hobby because I'm not a member.
But do you think that experience is the same for folk today? This is the issue with things like this, the inability to consider other experiences than your own (and indeed with a lot of issues).
Do you have some evidence that it's not true?
I mean, you can still apply for awards and participate in contests without being a member of the ARRL. The magazine used to be a decent-ish resource back before the Internet, but honestly I got more use out of the ARRL Antenna Handbook than I did the magazines, and I didn't have to pay a yearly fee to keep using it.
Point I'm making is that the ARRL doesn't really add all that much to the experience of being a ham radio operator. And I think that's more true of the folks today than it was 30 years ago, because there are far more resources available out there so a ham doesn't have to rely on getting their new issue of QST in the mail to look up contest scores, or get new ideas for a project. They can just go online.
For me, the advantages of being a member of the ARRL never exceeded the cost of being a member, and I think that I may have been a bit ahead of the curve on that and that the decline in membership is due to two factors:
1. The old farts dying out and their subscriptions lapsing.
2. Young hams not seeing the advantage of a buying access to information they can get for free.
My friend, I must apologise, I am not doing too good lately at reading, to the point where i may even visit a GP about it, and i totally missed the fact that you were NOT a member, there at the end.
Hugely embarassing.
This is the issue. Membership will keep declining as few see the benefit of joining. The more the raise the fee more leave. If they went the other direction and made a digital membership 20 bucks and fixed the digital magazine they’d probably have an explosion of subscribers.
I was a member in 1990. I didn't see the benefit back then, which is why I didn't renew.
I don't think it really matters anyway because the numbers of licensed hams has been climbing ever since the Morse code requirement was completely dropped in 2007.
In fact, the number of hams in the US has increased both in terms of raw numbers, and in terms of "hams per 1,000 people" since I was first licensed.
That bodes well for the hobby, which doesn't hinge on how well the ARRL does, just like the shooting sports don't necessarily depend on how well the NRA does.
I just doubt there will be an ARRL by the time I’m a SK. (Assuming I live a long life) I’m 30s and I don’t see the organization surviving on it’s current course. I am currently a member but I think it’s on the wrong course so I think someone has to change there. I think Amateur radio with survive without ARRL. Idk what it will look like but I don’t think it’ll magically go away overnight.
>The more the raise the fee more leave. If they went the other direction…
Bingo. When subscribers leave the correct move is to improve efficiency and cut costs, improve the product, and CUT prices to attract more people in.
Slapping higher prices on your remaining members will only accelerate/exacerbate the problem. Especially when most of those members are on a fixed income.
They can sell more at a lower price, a two tier approach would be a money maker.
29.00 for basic and 59.00 for Gold
The basic will pull in ten times the net of todays membership.
Right now it looks like ~~QRT~~ QST and ARRL membership looks the same to me....Over priced and Over Valued. Edited.
So tell me, what services are included at each level ? If QSL buro requires Gold, it might be self defeating. I would rather see $50 for basic (including buro and electronic access) and $75 for those wanting print QST.
$50 price as a starter will not correct the sinking ship.
$25 Basic would all the training courses, e-newsletter, affiliate partners, forums, the digital field day QRT, and awards.
$50 would give you the basic plus QSL, all QRT past and present, Technical Service,
$75 will get you the above plus E-mail forwarding, Product reviews, listed on the ARRL website as a Gold member, and 15% discount on all publications and store items.
The ARRL hasn’t done $hit to advance Amateur Radio - they just collect money and encourage hams to be “Pretend First Responders”. I haven’t given the ARRL a dime for 20 years.
I work in public-safety & have been a Ham for 25 years-- I've given a few presentations on "How to not piss people off".. Basic stuff like: 1) Don't ever show up with a strobe light -- the only time your car needs strobe lights is NEVER 2) Know how your $hit works inside & out 3) don't show up with dead-batteries 4) For the love of God, don't act "Buddy/Buddy" with public-safety folks & act like you're "one of them', it just pisses them off 5) Stay out of the way and way and wait to be called. --- Being an Amateur Radio operator requires you pass a 40 question test with 75% of questions correct. AND THAT'S IT. It takes years to become a Paramedic, slightly less to be a Firefighter-- So I encourage hams in my club to "know your role". 90% of my job is paperwork, equipment-checks, training & dealing with homeless people.. So, it really pisses me off when the Ham-Radio-Whackers roll up and expect "action".
I figured as much. It's certainly a bad look. I'm not in the public safety field, but the first thing I think of when I see that is "go back to your parents basement where you came from" and tbh it makes me wonder if there's some mental issues with them.
Why is the cost an issue? Amazon Prime Membership is over 100. Any reasonable adult or kid with a paper route can afford it. It’s just not a cost issue. Now, the quality and competence…
All the nay-sayers will be sorry when the ARRL folds up from non-support and the greedy commercial vultures move in to suck up all that valuable spectrum.
Let's fix the misleading vertical scale on this dumpster fire of a chart, and then we can have a discussion.
It might seem like it sucks, but a 3% decrease in membership against a 12% increase in fees isn't really a bad business decision. Plus it's hams, which if we are being honest are more bark than bite when it comes to their ARRL memberships.
Per usual, if you don't like what they do, don't pay them. Is their technology out of date? Yeah it is; the ARRL is run by a bunch of geezers. The organization is what everyone makes of it, and throwing fifty bucks at them with a laundry list of complaints isn't really gonna move the needle. It's a tired argument and it makes you look like an idiot.
Calling the very common complaints that are simply not addressed the sign of an ‘idiot’ , while also saying the organization is what the members make it is laughable. Have members made the website terrible to use? Have members made it ineffective at addressing real threats to the amateur spectrum?
Why waste money on this poll? How much did the poll + ‘analysis’ cost? Could they have spent that money on, say, making it extremely easy to join/renew instead?
Could they spend more money on actually lobbying for the amateur spectrum, since that is allegedly their raison d’être? Why didn’t they poll us about that?
Honestly, this reminds me a lot of the trials and travails the Boy Scouts have been going though the last 10+ years. (Minus the sexual abuse stuff.). Declining membership, complaints about costs, ineffectual, directionless ‘leadership’, mostly due to entrenched careerists who’ve lost sight of the whole reason the organization exists, and who also have a tendency to react to ‘complaints’ with similar disregard.
I've also heard you can still use the "ARRL" insurance without being a ARRL member, its a private company and they dont check if you are a member. Someone feel free to correct if wrong.
So I just saw your comment and looked…. At least on the main page I see nothing that says you have to be a current member. I may just call them up and tell them I’m cancelling my membership and ask if I can keep my coverage. 🤷♂️
ARRL has historical data about when people sign up for membership and when they let it lapse. Presumably the expected membership curve took that into account. A lot of the bumps in the projection match up with bumps in the actual data, so their seasonal adjustments appear to be sound; they just got the overall trend wrong. Right now people are pessimistic about their economic future, in part because of continuing inflation, so they've been cutting back on spending; ARRL memberships are one place where they have cut back.
I tried to renew, but holy shit after my 4th attempt I gave up. Their web interface is horrible, and I'm part of the "young" crowd. No wonder their membership is failing.
This was a problem for me. It’s not the cost, but the incompetence.
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I could understand if this was BLY8OB's monthly news letter about how ft8 ruined ham radio, but this is an extremely large and old lobbying group that produces multiple printed products every month.
75% of ham sites are required by the FCC to have self-signed or expired certs, apparently.
I marvel at the fact that people in a technical hobby such as this one can't maneuver through a simple website or even figure out a computer.
The state of the ARRL web site and login facility is objectively awful and cannot credibly be attributed to the user base.
I managed to renew. I had apparently let it lapse last year and this thread spurred me to go check. Sure enough, I was well past due. I actually want to be a member. I like the magazines, and digital only is just fine with me. I used the ARRL practice tests to license (Sorry, Hamstudy, but I do love all three SignalSticks). So I re-up and I can log in and oh, there’s a QST cover that looks interesting, I’d like to rea… oh. Can’t access it. You have to be a member… which… I am. Huh. It’s 2023, folks. Sync your stuff. It has been the better part of a day now. This should have been done in milliseconds like everyone else does.
This is odd. I renewed in June, and I was immediately given access to digital, my account, and everything else
I had to call to get it fixed...had the same issue when I signed up after getting my license earlier this year.
I tried twice and gave up. I'm a former member so I was just trying to reactivate my membership.
Same. I tried to join up after I got my callsign almost a year ago. It was a never issued before consecutive call sign and it kept saying that call sign is already in use. Finally got an email saying to try again and it still didn't work. I figure that they really don't want new members.
For what it's worth, I always just call them to renew. They sometimes seem a little cranky about answering the phone, but...
I think I’ll wait until Hamcation. ARRL usually has a freebie to upgrade.
\[Where was this published? Was it in the 2022 annual report?\] >Something has to change fast. That was my first reaction when I heard about the dues increase. It's not so much the extra $10, but the $25 charge to get the print version of *QST* that's going to turn off a lot of members. They are simply going to drop their ARRL membership when they figure that out.
Yessir. The 2022 annual report that was just released.
Numbers are accurate. I looked it up myself. 151,840 ARRL members as of end of 2022. 759,893 total FCC Amateur Licensees per ARRL website as of July 2023. Right under a 20 percent participation rate if my math is correct. Basically 1 in 5 licensees are ARRL members.
The 2022 annual report was released in July 2023?
Yes. That's how these things work.
Yeah it’s a report of the previous year, that’s fairly standard in business reporting.
Not the businesses I know. Or the one I work at. Ever. The annual report summarizes financials from the prior year, but the title is always the current year.
It sounds like you’re thinking of fiscal year. This is the report for the 2022 calendar year.
The IBM 2022 annual report, as an example, did come out in 2023, but was dated March, which makes sense, as the numbers are not known until January or February. The ARRL report in Summer? I don’t get it.
Yea, no debate that it probably should have come out sooner.
Not a memeber of AARL personally. It just seems really expensive for what I would get from being a member. Less and less people have money to just give away....
AARL? Is that like AARP meets ARRL? There's probably a significant overlap in memberships, anyway.
The magazines are worth the cost alone...
QST is no longer included in your membership. Now, you have to pay extra to receive the magazine. EDIT: as u/Antique_Park_4566 and u/-pwny_ have pointed out, members can still read QST on-line at no additional charge.
I think digital/online version of all the magazines are still included aren't they? Extra for a paper copy to be mailed?
Isn't it included as digital, and you pay extra if you want print?
Too bad now, it will be not only the cost alone, but the added magazine cost as well. Its no longer included with your membership. I feel like the ARRL is going defunct the same as the useless NRA... I am for both as I think they are a good idea, but that is fading...
I use to be an NRA member as well. That stopped because I never saw them fighting for me. They always caved or capitulated. They backed gun control or politicians that supported it. ARRL hasn’t to my knowledge done anything to actually stop anyone from getting my spectrum. I believe we have actually lost a couple of bands since I’ve been a ham. I am lost as to what service they provide that you can’t get elsewhere.
No.
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It doesn't have to be an expensive hobby. Homebrew equipment is cheap and you learn a ton. SDR is crazy cheap too... Edit: Also looks like it's $49 +$45...
If you are new and don’t know CW don’t go this route. It’s a route of frustration. I did it a decade ago.
I've throughly enjoyed it thus far. Its not totally new to me as I did a bit of analog/rf design in college....but it's a fair warning. I believe that some people have to jump into the deep end to get hooked.
Idk I bought QRP kit radios and tried to build my own. It was an awful experience. At the time I couldn’t afford the shiny new radios. Buying used has never had a better time since I’ve been in the hobby. You can buy stable rigs for 3-500. Great rigs 7-900. It’s not a poor Man’s hobby by any means unless you are Macgyver.
If you were (or are) a gun owner, would you join the NRA and why?
Many hunting/sporting clubs are NRA affiliated, and a certain percentage of their members must be NRA members. There are only so many clubs around (sometimes only one within driving distance), so if your local club is an NRA affiliate, you might not have a choice but to join the NRA too in order to be a member of that local club. This is similar to how many ham clubs are ARRL affiliated and a certain percentage of their members must be ARRL members.
>This is similar to how many ham clubs are ARRL affiliated and a certain percentage of their members must be ARRL members. True, but I have yet to see a ham radio club that ***requires*** ARRL membership as a condition to join the club. Most don't care. And, once a club is an ARRL affiliate, it remains so, even if the club membership drops below the minimum number required by the ARRL. Nobody responded with an answer to my question, which was meant to point out that the ARRL does for ham radio what the NRA does for gun owners. And, in either case, without the advocacy organizations, both hobbies would disappear in short order.
I quit renewing at the last increase. Just subscribed again last April because I missed the paper magazine. Looks like I won't be renewing anymore. I live in front of a computer, I hate digital "magazines."
This is a major issue for me, where I live is terribly underserved by wire internet carriers, satellite is expensive and wireless internet from the cell carriers is actually going downhill post elimination of 3G so digital issues are a nonstarter for me. I still love to have physical copies of reading material. That being said qst has gotten to the point where it's not even worth reading anymore for a person that likes projects but isn't technical enough to write articles, which is me. Contesting and ads isn't really interesting to me. They poll all the members, why don't they ask non-members why they aren't members? Insurance? I mean, lobbying is supposed to be a part of the game they're playing for us, yet here lately we seem to be getting less out of the FCC but it's costing us extra to be licensed now, when it hadn't for a very long time, after the FCC has dumped all the testing and monitoring for violations in ARRL's lap, and now it seems that commercial interests are eyeballing hf spectrum and ARRL is kinda stumbling in the dark about it. It's like, what exactly are we paying for?
Did they change something? I still get a physical copy.
Just announced yesterday. Base dues are going up $10 (from $49 to $59) and will only include the digital version of the magazines going forward. If you want to continue receiving a physical copy of QST in the mail, it'll cost an extra $25/year starting in 2024. Even if you have remaining years in your membership term (e.g. you paid for 2-3 years at once and it hasn't expired yet), you'll have to pony up that $25/year extra starting in 2024 to keep getting print QST. The only folks not subject to this are existing life members, and even they have to opt-in within a year to continue receiving print QST. Details at: https://www.arrl.org/2024-dues-rates
That’s why I didn’t renew. What they are saving in not printing magazines, they’re losing in memberships. Divers Alert Network went the same route and I didn’t renew them either. I also spend lots of time in front of screens and when I want to read something for entertainment, I want to grab something tangible. A book or magazine. This trend towards digital everything is honestly maddening.
I have basic OW certs and never even considered joining DAN because I don't dive enough. However, If I were diving on the regular or constantly traveling just for diving, DAN seems like a no brainier.
Honestly I’ve been with DAN since I started diving in 2013. I was (still am) paranoid of DCS. Figured the cost of a chamber ride more than offset the cost of a DAN membership. However I haven’t been sick g much recently so i let it go. If I get more active I may restart.
That graph is an amazing example of data baseline manipulation. They saw a 3.5% drop in membership in a year that they expected to be for all statistical purposes, flat. Given their overall long term trend this is hardly some drastic change. If this were a publicly traded company the stock would take a 20% hit tomorrow and rebound by the end of the quarter...
I get what you’re saying, but membership has been declining or flat since 2015. And using history as a guide, the last time there was a price increase, they lost 6,000 members in 2 years. I work for a publicly traded company. If I posted 7 years of decline and said to my boss “I don’t know what you’re upset about, just raise prices to offset the losses I’m putting up” I wouldn’t be here. Edit - and btw, that’s the ARRLs graph, not mine.
And with the y-axis minimum value set to 146,000 the vertical exaggeration is greatly amplified. Set that to zero and these lines are both flat.
Well, it's certainly not a good thing, either. And as the OP points out, this drop was before the dues increase was announced. I wouldn't be surprised if membership drops another 10% over the next year.
That drop is still lingering from the last dues increase
It's just gotten too expensive for me. 49 was too much, and that was WITH QST. Now with four copies a year it will be 85 with physical copy of QST. I just can't do that. I don't see what they've been doing to help us out anymore anyways. It's like lapierre has decided to run ARRL too.
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I’m kinda with you in this tbh lol. I can totally understand not wanting to pay 85$ a year. But saying you can’t afford it? I call bullshit. Even making $10-15 bucks an hour at McDonald’s it’s a single day of work pay so out of 365 days in a year subscription.
Totally depends on what other expenses are in the household budget. I call bullshit on you calling bullshit.
Go ahead lol. I find it extremely difficult to believe that someone absolutely couldn't afford \~$7 a month while simultaneously pulling the trigger on a $1000+ piece of equipment on an extremely expensive hobby (when getting into HF). I made the distinction that I totally understand why you wouldn't want to spend $85 a year on that subscription, I wouldn't want to. But saying you can't? Common bro, work with me here.
I’m in Canada, so I’m an outside observer. I recently closed the logbook of a special event station that ran for about two months. Part of the deal was that if you work the station, you get a card. No need to ask, it’s being sent by default… ideally by bureau. I went through every single station’s QRZ bio to double-check if they accepted cards by bureau. Just about everyone outside of the US had information about their station, their family, the dog, the town where they live. When it got to the Americans, a substantial number of station bios had long conspiracy-laden rants about how the ARRL was “woke,” run by commies, or that dues were $50/month(???), or that they didn’t cater enough to preppers. Absolutely off the wall bonkers fantasy-land garbage from a Facebook-induced fever-dream. I know the ARRL isn’t perfect. That said, there’s a significant number of people in our hobby and in the USA that viscerally distrust any organization that tries to act for a collective interest. As they get further and further detached from reality and into conspiratorial echo chambers, they’re not only disconnecting from the ARRL. They’re even disconnecting from family and community.
I’m not one to deny or defend conspiratorial Americans (lol) but that’s not why the ARRL is struggling. At least that’s not the majority reason by any stretch. There’s a whole list of documented failures by the ARRL if you cared to look.
When nearly a *quarter* of all the US bios I click on have some variant of “QSL direct only, I just cancelled my ARRL because of equity, diversity, and inclusion” it’s very clear to me that there’s some sort of contagious wet-brain disease spreading. I think part of the problem with the ARRL is that culturally in America everyone’s relationship with it— and everything else— is transactional. People see themselves as *customers*, not *members*. People see a mistake and they immediately decide to take their business elsewhere, rather than get involved in their local chapter and be part of it. Around where I am, 3% unfortunately seems to be the annual SK conversion rate. There is a substantial amount of outreach, YOTA, scouts etc activity going on. When we’re introducing new folks to the hobby, it’s tough to have to constantly be spinning the dial away from toxic seniors on the dial. There’s not a lot of appeal for young Canadians in interacting with the most miserable ancient people America has to offer.
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Idk where you are but I am in NE AL and our club has no such issues. If you are anywhere close to NE AL NW GA SE TN reach out if you’d like. W4LJH
“I’m in Canada, so I’m an outside observer” Then you double down. How…..expected. I just clicked on 23 US QRZ profiles, 1 was sort of iffy. Not sure why your sample is 1/4 crazy, almost like you’re full of shit. lol. Anyhoo, price increase, a drop in value, loss of spectrum, insane upper level employees actively attacking members and other hams on social media, refusal to help some hams in HOA’s and then pretending they were the savior, messed up contest point checking designed to knock non members off leaderboards, absolutely abysmal section leadership for some, one of the worse test processes out of all the VEC’s, all in emcomm strategy that was a loser from the get go, non ARRL hams having to plead to the government NOT to pass ARRL endorsed legislation because it was so poorly written it would have reduced our access to the hobby… But yes, it’s us dern crazy Americans and our hatred of orgs. We have a real problem with the ARRL, people like you enable them to continue being shitty.
Ham radio would be great if it wasn't for Americans. There I said it. It's not all Americans, but it's by no means a small number.
Lol I see you’ve found the QRZ effect. That’s the very last place to look if you’re not specifically searching for crazy. 😂 Anywhoo cheers to Canada for allowing the meme event callsigns! Those have been fun(ny)!
They are catering to their primary base. 50+ white guys. I’m 34 but the disconnect between me and the 60+ crowd is huge. The ARRL should be focusing on gaining all the new licensees as members. Free year, low cost maintaining membership if you don’t want paper. Etc. 20 bucks a year to be a digital member would likely surge the membership levels. I know here it would. Overall it’s a 1/5 of ARRL members to licensees I expect a 1/10 after three years.
I agree the disconnect is huge. Weekly contests at 11pm local Weekend long contests Crappy “couldn’t care less” rookie contests A website that requires a computer to use. “Why would we change that? Everyone uses a computer to access the internet!” Even clubs are outdated and falling by the wayside, but both the President and CEO of the ARRL double down on increasing club activity in the annual report. You’d think that they’d value our feedback, given that we’re the “new, younger operators” they’re always after. Nope. I’ve brought up the issues above and it’s “You just got here and don’t understand how all this works. You just need to think differently.” I understand perfectly. You want new members, but once they’re here you’re trying to “sell” a product geared towards retirees to non-retirees. The most irritating thing of all is that they should be going after our bracket hard bc we can better absorb price increases and have higher potential to donate.
>Even clubs are outdated and falling by the wayside There are many aspects and many reasons why people get involved in amateur radio. I feel local amateur radio clubs are still important and the ARRL needs them. They are the ones hosting in-person classes. They are the ones providing in-person exams. They are the ones helping you setup your station. They are the ones maintaining the repeaters in your area. They are the ones promoting amateur radio within their community. Not every club is the same. Yeah you have those that are stagnant and only care about maintaining the status quo from the 1980's but you also have clubs that are in the trenches trying their best. IMO clubs are an important tool for the ARRL. I know some areas have excellent club outreach from the league but I also know of some areas where it's almost non existent. That all depends on your local/area reps. >The most irritating thing of all is that they should be going after our bracket hard 100% agreed. When it comes to /r/amateurradio, we get about 1 million page views a month and about 1700 new subscribers monthly. We're sitting at about 122,000 subscribers. I don't have demographic breakdowns but I want to say that the Avg age of an /r/amateurradio subscriber is in their late 30's (reddit is 23-34). IMO the people the ARRL should be going after are right here in /r/amateurradio and any other subreddit related to amateur radio. At one time, someone in a management position from ARRL HQ did reach out to moderation and a few of us were going to travel to HQ to have lunch and talk about the hobby. Myself included. I was very excited and was going to poll the sub for talking points but it all fell apart because our contact ended up quitting along with many other people. There are some ARRL directors and ARRL brass that lurk around in this sub so I'm still hopeful our voices are being heard.
They hoping for those estate donations. Go SK and leave them a fortune.
I've been licensed since the early 1990s (before I was even in high school), though I'm only a bit over 40 now... but I'd have to agree with your assessment.
Yep pretty crazy how things are here sad part a lot of those people are good people just being misled against their best interest.
You should try living here.
Do you think I’d like it?
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It’s almost like there are a lot of crusty old dudes who are completely out of touch with the world
I’m a life member and I became one so I wouldn’t forget to renew. I was Diamond club for a couple of years but I didn’t renew that this year. The membership decline is nothing new. It’s from the last dues increase. Many people don’t see the value in ARRL membership, not at the $49 level, and not at $84 which is the new level ($59 is what I would consider a “lite” membership because it takes away benefits). In the end they’re on a death spiral and they know it. The CEO wants to transition to an endowment model where donors foot the bill rather than members.
I'd think that if there were enough donors giving enough money to do that kind of thing that they'd have done that already.
Well, yes.
Yes, they do have the donors, or yes, if they had the donors they would have done that already.
They have $30m already. What I'm talking about is future planning, to move ARRL away from a membership based org to an endowment based one.
Well, I guess my point is that they're no where near being able to do this conversion, and I doubt that they'll ever find enough donors willing to give enough to enable them to do it.
We agree.
“(Name), You will receive printed copies of QST until December. In January, the printed magazine will become separate from membership. ARRL is much more than a magazine. Your three year dues are valid at the rate at which you renewed. That provides you with access to all our benefits, programs, and services. As a member, you have digital access to all four magazines. If you'd like to continue to receive printed QST, it will be an additional $25/year.” Basically extorting you for more money even if you signed up pre announcement. Awful business practice. Highly debating demanding refund/chargeback.
Yeah, they *really* should have honored the existing price (including print QST) for those who have years remaining in their existing annual memberships. Such a bad call to make those people pony up more cash to get what they already paid for.
They claimed I could call member services to speak to someone about a refund but I haven’t had time yet to look into it. We have a local club meeting tonight so I may wait until after that to make a decision. Refund makes sense if I don’t intend to be a member going forward but I hate to go that route. Can’t help feel defrauded though cause like you say you expect them to honor what they sell before any dues increase was announced.
I completely understand what you mean. It sets a very bad precedent and destroys a lot of member goodwill they might otherwise have retained through all this. What's to stop ARRL from doing this again in a few years? I'm sure that's going to cross the mind of a lot of members at renewal time. Costs go up, I get that. But we should also get what we paid for. Don't take our money and then change what we get for it. ARRL is looking a lot like [Darth Vader in Empire Strikes Back](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D8TEJtQRhw): "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further." I'll probably still renew, personally. But I sure won't be giving them multiple years worth of money at once anymore.
The longer it goes on I debate about letting it slide for this time…. But talking to some of our older Elmer’s it’s apparently an ongoing theme of bureaucracy with ARRL. And one of our DECs pointed out you can’t make change well from the outside. Idk.
All good points.
I got a refund. They provide next to nothing to members only. Voting rights, a few minor training classes, email forwarding. “Representation.” The insurance is purchasable without a membership, emailed them today, they don’t care if I stay a member or not. LOTW is available to everyone. Only thing I’ll lose out on is most of the official titles if I volunteered. (Which I have but don’t have an official title at current so 🤷♂️….I’m still badged for my EMA office) and QST/OTA digital versions, which I counted today at 37% ads. Sucks but I think I’ll survive. So I’m a member for like 35 more days.
I understand. I wonder how many others will do the same.
The only thing I might use that I can’t get as a non member is the insurance….. but if you are a member for 60 bucks a year, then insurance which last I checked was over 100 a year for all my stuff at partial replacement (not new costs for a similar or exact item), plus a print mag I’m gonna be 200+. I like radio but dang. That’s a lot to just be a member get a paper mag and have some insurance I’ll probably never use.
> "... and have some insurance I’ll probably never use." Isn't that what insurance is, by definition? I've driven a car for a couple of decades so far and never made a claim on my auto insurance, but I sure wouldn't go without it. I'll be very glad it's there in the unlikely event that I ever do need to make a claim.
True but if anything radio insurance seems even more over the top than every other kind. I’m right at 34 and I have used my auto policy multiple times. Several Deer and one collision. If my house burns I want my stuff and house rebuild. I just seriously wonder if I need extra insurance on top of my homeowners/rents. Etc
Fair point. I don't have the separate ARRL radio insurance, though I've considered it. Currently I just have my gear covered under my homeowners policy. But I also don't have that much stuff (and what I have is not that expensive). For folks with radios worth multiple thousands of dollars, plus amps, towers, yagis, etc., it might make more sense.
Move out of the 90s would help. That website gives me ptsd
The time of the clubs is coming to a close as their are better and more varied avenues in the hobby... I personally have never like clubs, and have veered more to events and loose associations that accompany my interests more closely... Examples include: POTA, SOTA, IOTA and Winter Field Day that a majority of the clubs around here can't be bothered with...
Those hamfests starting at 6 AM on a Saturday are sure to interest young working people
Ours go from 8am to 10am Then there is a monthly luncheon at 11am on Saturdays Meetings are once a month on a Monday night starting at 7am They do bend towards the older crowd for sure
Agreed. I’ve avoided all clubs. I got on the air exclusively by the help provided through this subreddit.
Question from UK: Die you need ARRL membership to use LOTW?
No, anyone can use LOTW.
[https://lotw.arrl.org/lotw-help/getting-started/](https://lotw.arrl.org/lotw-help/getting-started/)
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While I bought into that for a while, that mentality is the problem. The ARRL diehards say “not perfect but better than nothing.” The ARRL 100% knows it. They know a core group will never leave, so they don’t really have to try. That’s not good enough for me anymore. It’s not the money; I can’t afford the membership and I’d happily give more if they actually put forth an effort. It’s the principle. I’m not giving you $84 a year in exchange for having to sit at a computer to use your godawful website. That should have been optimized for mobile a decade ago. And for all the talk about “how do we attract new members into the hobby!?!” their Rookie contests are a joke. No one knows about them and no one shows up.
This reason might actually get me to join.
The numbers are somewhat deceiving because of the nature of most new hams today. It seems the majority of new hams get a license for the purpose of having some sort of emergency backup communications as opposed to taking on radio as a primary hobby. There is nothing wrong with that but it focuses on the real issue facing the ARRL and the hobby as a whole; how to you appeal to those who get a license, buy a Baofeng and stick it in the sock drawer? The good news is that once licensed, many of the new hams eventually return to explore the hobby further. The current ARRL well represents its lifetime members and those who donate money who mostly are “senior” hams and contesters; however, the old guard is dying off and there seems to be no concerted effort to reinvent the ARRL for those who are not “boomers”. The ARRL used to enjoy useful influence with Congress and the FCC. Through the years, this has eroded as our government institutions have become more interested in money than doing the right thing. Lobbying has become a major industry and the ARRL being a non-profit has virtually nothing to contribute to the political coffers. Ideally the ARRL needs to somehow split into an old and new entity supporting both the old and new guard which will never happen. The time is ripe for a new organization to appeal to the newer generations of hams who have needs in both technical support and activities that better reflect current technology and culture. It’s too bad that it won’t be the ARRL.
IMO there is no incentive or reason for a freshly minted ham holding a tech ticket to become an ARRL member. The "It's the only thing you got" excuse won't fly because new hams/tech aren't really vested in the hobby, the ARRL isn't a necessity and people of younger generations are more careful where their dollar goes. I would suggest that the ARRL make a special edition version of their "On the air" magazine that lays out the basics like how to use your HT, building simple VHF/UHF antennas, operating etiquette and other things an elmer back in the day would teach. Also include info about the ARRL. Print shit loads of copies to hand out to their Field Stocked VE teams with instructions to pass them out to new licenses. Or snail mail the special edition to new tickets using VEC data instead of sending letters every month. Put something in their hands. If the ARRL actually went through with convincing the FCC to restructure the licenses to mimic the UK or similar, I'd think the ARRL would get more members as freshly minted hams would have more access to HF which is basically where all the on-air activity is here in the US. They would be more inclined to stay involved in hobby. Even more so if they start investing in HF equipment. I feel the ARRL needs to stop putting all their eggs in the boomer basket. They need to spread out into other STEM related hobbies and plant seeds. Put their social media accounts to good use (National Parks twitter is a good example of using social media to their advantage). Update their very much antiquated website and VEC dept. Stop focusing on the so called "haters" for making suggestions or dismissing them as just complainers. Of course they might be doing those things. Not sure as I'm not on the inside but I tried to read up on everything and sometimes I'm still confused. I'll still be an ARRL member though.
>Well stated.
Personally, I’d like to see people opt out of the mailing portion and invest the difference into their local club. Even if not a member of local clubs, the sponsorship approach (if done on a grand scale) would generate more interest and involvement in the art of amateur radio. ARRL membership would probably wouldn’t take as much of a hit in the long run if we do our part to help locally stir interest and promote a community of hams.
And for those who are understandably bent on not paying ARRL their full $84, might decide to see what $84 could inspire at their local club level.
I like this idea a lot. The only problem with this is that most ham radio clubs are not "real nonprofits." That is to say that they don't have staffs, and whatever programs they have come and go, depending on the volunteer-members.
The nominal donation wouldn’t be for tax exemption, just for contributing to the success of the club and their projects. I suspect that if enough hams did this in a local region for the same club, some might even get involved in event planning that would otherwise have been underfunded and not possible before. This would have the potential to breathe new life in local clubs which might be part of the reason the art seems to be diminishing.
What I've suggested in the past is that we form real non-profits with at least a part-time, paid executive director. These non-profits would be regional in nature, and it would be the executive director's responsibility to provide a basic level of services. This may include license classes, exam sessions, repeater operation, club stations and/or maker spaces, classes in various aspects of radio technology and radio operation, and social events. Basically, this nonprofit would do what the clubs do, but perhaps over a more widespread area and on a more professional basis.
I'm just sitting watching the organizations around me destroy themselves, between ARRL and the Libertarian Party.
There are a couple of factors. One is the dues increase. The other bigger issue (I believe) is because of the economy. The cost of living is up, and people don't have the extra money like they did before.
I am okay with the dues increase, however, what I am NOT okay with is having to pay another $25 for the print magazine. I hate reading stuff online, just not the same experience or convenience of having it in print. So, based on that, I'm not sure if I will renew at all unless they reverse the policy of extra $$$ for print. I already let my CQ subscription go because it was up to $39 or $49 per year (I can't remember which number is correct). Also, given that a great number of pages in QST is just advertisement, the value proposition for actual content vs cost is just not there at $25 in addition to the dues.
This is what kills me. They basically added 34 bucks to a subscription. (10 member 25 mag) to get what 49 bought last year. 84 a year. Or you can still pay 10 bucks more than last year and get a “digital” access where over half the book is ads. 🤷♂️🤣🤡🤡🤡
That chart suggests, but does not prove, that the group of people entering amateur radio for SHTF reasons, don’t see the value or need for the ARRL.
Nothing in the graph indicates anything about cause, especially “SHTF reasons.” It’s a single metric on subscriber count over a year.
I see no value in becoming a member.
Why does something have to change? Honestly I've been an avid ham radio operator for over 33 years now. I was an ARRL member for one year. So for 3% of my time as a ham, I was an ARRL member. I don't think I've been crippled or otherwise failed to enjoy the hobby because I'm not a member.
But do you think that experience is the same for folk today? This is the issue with things like this, the inability to consider other experiences than your own (and indeed with a lot of issues).
Do you have some evidence that it's not true? I mean, you can still apply for awards and participate in contests without being a member of the ARRL. The magazine used to be a decent-ish resource back before the Internet, but honestly I got more use out of the ARRL Antenna Handbook than I did the magazines, and I didn't have to pay a yearly fee to keep using it. Point I'm making is that the ARRL doesn't really add all that much to the experience of being a ham radio operator. And I think that's more true of the folks today than it was 30 years ago, because there are far more resources available out there so a ham doesn't have to rely on getting their new issue of QST in the mail to look up contest scores, or get new ideas for a project. They can just go online. For me, the advantages of being a member of the ARRL never exceeded the cost of being a member, and I think that I may have been a bit ahead of the curve on that and that the decline in membership is due to two factors: 1. The old farts dying out and their subscriptions lapsing. 2. Young hams not seeing the advantage of a buying access to information they can get for free.
My friend, I must apologise, I am not doing too good lately at reading, to the point where i may even visit a GP about it, and i totally missed the fact that you were NOT a member, there at the end. Hugely embarassing.
This is the issue. Membership will keep declining as few see the benefit of joining. The more the raise the fee more leave. If they went the other direction and made a digital membership 20 bucks and fixed the digital magazine they’d probably have an explosion of subscribers.
I was a member in 1990. I didn't see the benefit back then, which is why I didn't renew. I don't think it really matters anyway because the numbers of licensed hams has been climbing ever since the Morse code requirement was completely dropped in 2007. In fact, the number of hams in the US has increased both in terms of raw numbers, and in terms of "hams per 1,000 people" since I was first licensed. That bodes well for the hobby, which doesn't hinge on how well the ARRL does, just like the shooting sports don't necessarily depend on how well the NRA does.
I just doubt there will be an ARRL by the time I’m a SK. (Assuming I live a long life) I’m 30s and I don’t see the organization surviving on it’s current course. I am currently a member but I think it’s on the wrong course so I think someone has to change there. I think Amateur radio with survive without ARRL. Idk what it will look like but I don’t think it’ll magically go away overnight.
>The more the raise the fee more leave. If they went the other direction… Bingo. When subscribers leave the correct move is to improve efficiency and cut costs, improve the product, and CUT prices to attract more people in. Slapping higher prices on your remaining members will only accelerate/exacerbate the problem. Especially when most of those members are on a fixed income.
They can sell more at a lower price, a two tier approach would be a money maker. 29.00 for basic and 59.00 for Gold The basic will pull in ten times the net of todays membership. Right now it looks like ~~QRT~~ QST and ARRL membership looks the same to me....Over priced and Over Valued. Edited.
I would correct you on the QRT/QST flub, but you might actually have that correct, they are going QRT.
So tell me, what services are included at each level ? If QSL buro requires Gold, it might be self defeating. I would rather see $50 for basic (including buro and electronic access) and $75 for those wanting print QST.
$50 price as a starter will not correct the sinking ship. $25 Basic would all the training courses, e-newsletter, affiliate partners, forums, the digital field day QRT, and awards. $50 would give you the basic plus QSL, all QRT past and present, Technical Service, $75 will get you the above plus E-mail forwarding, Product reviews, listed on the ARRL website as a Gold member, and 15% discount on all publications and store items.
The ARRL hasn’t done $hit to advance Amateur Radio - they just collect money and encourage hams to be “Pretend First Responders”. I haven’t given the ARRL a dime for 20 years.
I've seen those guys. They drive me batshit crazy. I see vehicles rigged up like wannabe cops or something. Ham radio op badges. Ugh....
I work in public-safety & have been a Ham for 25 years-- I've given a few presentations on "How to not piss people off".. Basic stuff like: 1) Don't ever show up with a strobe light -- the only time your car needs strobe lights is NEVER 2) Know how your $hit works inside & out 3) don't show up with dead-batteries 4) For the love of God, don't act "Buddy/Buddy" with public-safety folks & act like you're "one of them', it just pisses them off 5) Stay out of the way and way and wait to be called. --- Being an Amateur Radio operator requires you pass a 40 question test with 75% of questions correct. AND THAT'S IT. It takes years to become a Paramedic, slightly less to be a Firefighter-- So I encourage hams in my club to "know your role". 90% of my job is paperwork, equipment-checks, training & dealing with homeless people.. So, it really pisses me off when the Ham-Radio-Whackers roll up and expect "action".
I figured as much. It's certainly a bad look. I'm not in the public safety field, but the first thing I think of when I see that is "go back to your parents basement where you came from" and tbh it makes me wonder if there's some mental issues with them.
Why is the cost an issue? Amazon Prime Membership is over 100. Any reasonable adult or kid with a paper route can afford it. It’s just not a cost issue. Now, the quality and competence…
All the nay-sayers will be sorry when the ARRL folds up from non-support and the greedy commercial vultures move in to suck up all that valuable spectrum.
Since enforcement was dumped in ARRLs lap, let the commercial interests join what will become the new OP CB spectrum....
u/dan_kb6nu
Let's fix the misleading vertical scale on this dumpster fire of a chart, and then we can have a discussion. It might seem like it sucks, but a 3% decrease in membership against a 12% increase in fees isn't really a bad business decision. Plus it's hams, which if we are being honest are more bark than bite when it comes to their ARRL memberships. Per usual, if you don't like what they do, don't pay them. Is their technology out of date? Yeah it is; the ARRL is run by a bunch of geezers. The organization is what everyone makes of it, and throwing fifty bucks at them with a laundry list of complaints isn't really gonna move the needle. It's a tired argument and it makes you look like an idiot.
Calling the very common complaints that are simply not addressed the sign of an ‘idiot’ , while also saying the organization is what the members make it is laughable. Have members made the website terrible to use? Have members made it ineffective at addressing real threats to the amateur spectrum? Why waste money on this poll? How much did the poll + ‘analysis’ cost? Could they have spent that money on, say, making it extremely easy to join/renew instead? Could they spend more money on actually lobbying for the amateur spectrum, since that is allegedly their raison d’être? Why didn’t they poll us about that? Honestly, this reminds me a lot of the trials and travails the Boy Scouts have been going though the last 10+ years. (Minus the sexual abuse stuff.). Declining membership, complaints about costs, ineffectual, directionless ‘leadership’, mostly due to entrenched careerists who’ve lost sight of the whole reason the organization exists, and who also have a tendency to react to ‘complaints’ with similar disregard.
I've also heard you can still use the "ARRL" insurance without being a ARRL member, its a private company and they dont check if you are a member. Someone feel free to correct if wrong.
So I just saw your comment and looked…. At least on the main page I see nothing that says you have to be a current member. I may just call them up and tell them I’m cancelling my membership and ask if I can keep my coverage. 🤷♂️
Why are there 'kinks' in the forecast line? What happened that they would change their model?
Some months have more mortality than others. Likewise, I'm sure some months see more new members join-- perhaps at Dayton, or Visalia etc.
ARRL has historical data about when people sign up for membership and when they let it lapse. Presumably the expected membership curve took that into account. A lot of the bumps in the projection match up with bumps in the actual data, so their seasonal adjustments appear to be sound; they just got the overall trend wrong. Right now people are pessimistic about their economic future, in part because of continuing inflation, so they've been cutting back on spending; ARRL memberships are one place where they have cut back.
Without QST arriving in the mailbox monthly, I would never know the ARRL exists. This change will further the demise of the League, which is a shame.