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THE AM BULLETIN BOARD => QSO => Topic started by: K1DEU on July 13, 2009, 02:43:51 PM



Title: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1DEU on July 13, 2009, 02:43:51 PM
  I just signed up for another 3 year subscription with the ARRL, but a little differently. Normally they get $111 for a normal 3 year membership with a forced QST subscription, and QEX would be $24 additional per year charge!

I first told them at 1-888-277-5289 that;

I would only re-new if I could subscribe to QEX their bi-monthly highly technical rag without QST, which I have not opened for 8 months.

After a bit of friendly White light exchange.

The subscription supervisor at Newington stated, well I can put you down for a Blind subscription for 3 years for $24 dollars with only a QEX three year subscription for $36 more. To make sure it was legitimate, I quickly stated my eyesight is 20/15 and she said, it doesn't matter, for this way you receive election membership notices.


Yes I asked if I could distribute this to other Radio Amateurs. She hesitated but then quietly agreed that its better to have a (blind) member with QEX than No member at all!  QST to u  and 73 , John K1DEU since 1956


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: W7SOE on July 13, 2009, 03:25:44 PM
"blind" membership?  Vas is das?

So you are paying $16 per year including QEX?


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1DEU on July 13, 2009, 03:40:35 PM
I subscribed for three years to QEX and membership for approximately half the normal membership + QST price and anyone else may also for shorter periods.  Blind membership is no QST or QEX but all other privileges? such as web access eligible President, SCM and other election ballot info...  And we do not have to be sightless !!! John

PS plus I want to see QEX publish Steve, WA1QIX's Class E Gizmo's


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: W4EWH on July 13, 2009, 04:03:09 PM

So there you go one year blind subscription with QEX is 8+8.


Didn't they tell you that's only for the Braille edition?

W1AC



Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 13, 2009, 04:28:25 PM
Welp,..They need to get the Dollar Figure up, That's a Given, Creative Memberships.....LOL......

73
Jack.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: WA1GFZ on July 13, 2009, 05:09:39 PM
John,
Download Nov. 2005 for my class e final and a bit after that N9NEO did a cool PDM modulator. That is a cheap rate. I think I paid more that that for QEX alone.
I am building my HPSDR rig with the the supplied chassis. Thinking of doing an article with my set up. Almost done drilling and blasting and should start wiring this week.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: KF1Z on July 13, 2009, 05:37:12 PM
Yeah...

QEX is $24/yr for arrll members.

Much too expensive for what little you get...
Haven't seen an article that interests me in the past year or more.
I've cancelled my subscription.

Along with the ARrL  membership...


I'd rather see them on the newsstand, and could buy the ones I wanted.




Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 13, 2009, 06:01:23 PM
  I just signed up for another 3 year subscription with the ARRL, but a little differently. Normally they get $111 for a normal 3 year membership with a forced QST subscription, and QEX would be $8 additional per year charge!


I don't understand the last part of your statement. A yearly member subscription to QEX is $24. Non member is $36. I don't understand the $8 additional.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1DEU on July 13, 2009, 11:37:42 PM
Thanks Pete, CWA I corrected the prices. Total remains at almost half the member + QST price. It was rather difficult but necessary (to help many) to put ARRL board policy in a fair but very different context/light in a 21 minute phone call with two special ladies at ARRL subscription services.

Frank, GFZ I will look. Sadly its been many years since I subscribed to both QST and QEX and was quite bored with QST only. We can read QST's from 5 years back anytime online as a member as there has been an occasional interesting article. Regards John, K1DEU



Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: KF1Z on July 13, 2009, 11:59:58 PM
We can read QST's from 5 years back anytime online as a member as there has been an occasional interesting article. Regards John, K1DEU



Yes, and of course if you dig in the right spot, you can download all of QEX, and QST for zip.

It's all out there for the taking.

I suppose it depends on how dear you hold copyright laws, and rights, as to whether you would feel "right" in downloading them without paying.



Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1DEU on July 14, 2009, 07:06:36 AM
    Copyright ? Well I always felt that about 3 years would be correct and fair allowing the author and their animal (genetic) ancestors some initial income. But not their grand children 18-21 years later. For we all meditate about new/different designs, music or any methodology. Remember that short nap or longer sleep we had and upon awaking we scramble for the pencil to quickly write down the new solution/answer as we return to this physical dimension. Well like it or not we got the idea by contacting some we know and many we do not know in the entire universe. Our personal animal pride wants the credit to be rich and famous which does not impress me. This is why I do not sell anything or accept donations on my web site or ever ask or state that I have copyright. For the Universe (Good Karma) takes care of me and my parents. My dad just turned 102 0n July 8th and my mom is 96 and I'm going grocery shopping at Price Rite, my favorite Grocery Store for them who live 30 minutes away in their old 1952 house in Williamstown, Mass.
        Regards John, K1DEU Hartwellville Vermont in the mailing address of Stamford, Vermont


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K5UJ on July 14, 2009, 06:42:18 PM
I must be the only one on here who is an ARRL LM  : |

Rob K5UJ


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: W1UJR on July 14, 2009, 06:54:40 PM
I must be the only one on here who is an ARRL LM  : |

Rob K5UJ


Nope, I am as well Rob.  ;)
I don't agree with all they do, or perhaps I should say, don't do, but the League is the only organized voice
the government seems to listen to when it comes to the amateur service.
Besides, my AARA/K1MAN fan club membership ran out, and I see they are aren't currently renewing.  ;D


John, I must confess, I am a little surprised.
I didn't realize that you were blind, wonder how in the world can you author
those websites of yours with your "blind" condition.
Wonder if that's ethical and fair to other members who pay the full price?

Of course, you can always pay the full shot, and then donate your copy
of QST to the local library, that's both ethical and doing a good turn for
others who might become interested in the hobby.
See what the "white light" has to say about that concept.
Tell you what John, if you sign up for a proper three year ARRL membership,
and promise to donate your QST copy to the local library,
I'll even pay for your first year's membership fee.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 14, 2009, 07:30:06 PM
I've been a Life Member for over 30 years.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: KF1Z on July 14, 2009, 07:34:09 PM
I must be the only one on here who is an ARRL LM  : |

Rob K5UJ




John, I must confess, I am a little surprised.
I didn't realize that you were blind, wonder how in the world can you author
those websites of yours with your "blind" condition.
Wonder if that's ethical and fair to other members who pay the full price?



Bruce,
Maybe you missed a line in his origional post....

The ARRL subscription Supervisor OFFERED him that rate.

He did not ASK for it, or CLAIM that he was blind.

Mayb John isn't the one with the ethical dilema, but perhaps the person in Newington.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 14, 2009, 07:47:28 PM
Thanks Pete, CWA I corrected the prices. Total remains at almost half the member + QST price. It was rather difficult but necessary (to help many) to put ARRL board policy in a fair but very different context/light in a 21 minute phone call with two special ladies at ARRL subscription services.

Frank, GFZ I will look. Sadly its been many years since I subscribed to both QST and QEX and was quite bored with QST only. We can read QST's from 5 years back anytime online as a member as there has been an occasional interesting article. Regards John, K1DEU


Can you clarify what you said in your fifth paragraph of your original(first) post:
"The subscription supervisor at Newington stated, well I can put you down for a Blind subscription for 3 years for $24 dollars with only a QEX three year subscription for $36 more. To make sure it was legitimate, I quickly stated my eyesight is 20/15 and she said, it doesn't matter, for this way you receive election membership notices."

Here are the QEX member and non-member rates:
https://www.arrl.org/forms/qexsub.html
Member rate is $72 for three years.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1DEU on July 14, 2009, 08:26:19 PM
   Well I have supported Ham Radio perhaps a different way, but not with Emperor Caesar's Gold. Hi Irb !

In this local Berkshire county area I taught free, open to all the public, Ham radio classes for more than 3 years total.

In my favorite later Novice preparation classes I explained how a person could speak into a microphonium, modulate a carrier and be received by a person using an AM receiver. Next I explained the math of this setup using the transmit and receiver mixer teaching (sum, difference and 2 originals) how a one kilocycle whistle transmitted is heard as the same exact whistle in the receiver audio. This was not difficult to teach to beginners at all, shame to the ARRL for not believing in Johhny Novices. They remind me of churches implying, we are too stupid to learn.

On and on it progressed into a simple but full understanding of a Single Sideband single conversion, filter heterodyne transmitter to  a matching SSB single conversion heterodyne filter receiver. Whoops I did not exactly use the material supplied by the ARRL to me an ARRL member. Who to me mainly wanted non electronic/radio inclined ops. I had so many show up for free classes that I had to ask a friend Bruce, WA7CSL to also hold free classes. In my classes alone i guided over 230 to successfully achieve their Novice or Technician Class tickets. Less than 5 per cent failed but 3 percent who failed went on to pass and help teach the second wave of classes.

   One of my dearest contacts was early mornings with W2UJR on 160 AM around 5:30 AM, he and I had similar life paths knowing that the greatest reward was to un-conditionally love and help all, even those we dis-respected and those who sprayed their money and business/government position around. Sometimes Dale, KW1I joined in. W2UJR definitely knew and carried White Light which is also know as un-conditional love for all Humankind !  So may we all continue to pass on our great hobby to any who ask for help freely. 73  John


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1DEU on July 14, 2009, 08:47:48 PM
Pete at an early point in our conversation she pointed out that, as she sits on board meetings, that the directors want all members to know about prospective elections by mail. At first she thought that only QST would inform we voters properly. She later noticed that the blind also receive election membership notices without a QST magazine. Then eventually she stated if I put you down as a Blind member that will fulfill the majority directors intent. And then I checked to make sure She knew I was not sightless and then subscribed.  Whew, you are very fussy Pete. 73  John   

And Yes, they as all in the world have non published special rates for those who desire to pay for QEX and other things for more than 1 year in advance. Heck I am one of the few that subscribed to the Dish Network for 1 year in advance.  I studied the ARRL published rates before calling, so what. What is published is not set in stone for any subscription anywhere in the World, especially if we pay ahead. To me its a normal part of an possible subscription to state I am not renewing Unless;


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: W1UJR on July 14, 2009, 10:42:29 PM
   Well I have supported Ham Radio perhaps a different way, but not with Emperor Caesar's Gold. Hi Irb !

In this local Berkshire county area I taught free, open to all the public, Ham radio classes for more than 3 years total.<snip>


All that is fine John, but it in no way excuses taking advantage of a program intended to offered only to the visually impaired.

So the question remains, are you going to take me up on my offer, buy an honest 3 year membership, and donate your QSTs to the local library? Remember, I'll pay for the first year.

Otherwise you are cheating, and boasting about doing so, from those who do support the League in an honest manner, and pay their full membership dues. I don't see any light, white or other color, in that action.  :(



BTW, I knew W2UJR very well, he was my near neighbor, mentor, Elmer and friend. He was indeed quite a remarkable man, and I miss him dearly. You might be interested to know that he was also a full dues paying ARRL member.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 15, 2009, 12:01:09 AM
Pete at an early point in our conversation she pointed out that, as she sits on board meetings, that the directors want all members to know about prospective elections by mail. At first she thought that only QST would inform we voters properly. She later noticed that the blind also receive election membership notices without a QST magazine. Then eventually she stated if I put you down as a Blind member that will fulfill the majority directors intent. And then I checked to make sure She knew I was not sightless and then subscribed.  Whew, you are very fussy Pete. 73  John   

And Yes, they as all in the world have non published special rates for those who desire to pay for QEX and other things for more than 1 year in advance. Heck I am one of the few that subscribed to the Dish Network for 1 year in advance.  I studied the ARRL published rates before calling, so what. What is published is not set in stone for any subscription anywhere in the World, especially if we pay ahead. To me its a normal part of an possible subscription to state I am not renewing Unless;

John, I'm not questioning the "blind" deal on membership. I'm curious on the QEX deal. As advertised, for members, one year is $24; two years is $48; and three years is $72. You indicated, if I'm reading it correctly, subscription supervisor quoted you a "special deal" of $36 for three years of QEX, (which is 1/2 of the price of the currently posted subscription price for three years) for renewing your membership (blind or otherwise). I'm wondering if this special deal would apply to all the membership who presently don't get QEX.

Now, Switching Gears -
Quote
According to the current ARRL By-Laws:
Dues

4. The dues of Members shall be $39.00 annually worldwide, payable in advance. For members outside the United States, except for International members who elect not to receive QST by mail, the Executive Vice President shall assess such additional mailing costs as are consistent with the postal rates for destinations outside the United States. Members choosing to pay dues for more than one year in advance, but for no more than five years, may be entitled to lower rates as determined periodically by the Executive Vice President and as published in QST.

Further under Dues:
7. A special dues rate of 20% of the annual rate established in Bylaw 4, rounded to the nearest dollar, with all membership privileges except the receipt of QST, shall apply to any Member who meets either of the following criteria:

(a) is legally blind; or

(b) is the husband or wife, brother or sister, son or daughter, or father or mother of another member who lives at the same address and is either a Life Member or is paying dues in accordance with By-Law 4 or 5. In the event of the decease of such principal member, his or her spouse will continue to receive QST until the expiration of the current family membership.

According to your conversation with the subscription supervisor:
Quote
"The subscription supervisor at Newington stated, well I can put you down for a Blind subscription for 3 years for $24 dollars with only a QEX three year subscription for $36 more. To make sure it was legitimate, I quickly stated my eyesight is 20/15 and she said, it doesn't matter, for this way you receive election membership notices.

Yes I asked if I could distribute this to other Radio Amateurs. She hesitated but then quietly agreed that its better to have a (blind) member with QEX than No member at all!"

It seems to me, based on the current ARRL By-Laws, the subscription supervisor is in violation of the ARRL By-Laws since you obviously don't fit into either the 7(a) or 7(b) categories. While I applaud her creativeness for holding on to a member, it seems to me this opens the door to propagating what might be perceived as unethical membership and/or renewal practices.

Case in point: This practice goes on for a year and new memberships and renewals increase by 10%. As far as I know, I've never seen a breakdown of yearly membership numbers (how many full, associate, blind, family, etc.). Only total membership number is published. I would suspect advertisers look at yearly increases or decreases in membership numbers to gauge how much advertising dollars they're going to spend. But, for this 1 year 10% increase in membership, there's going to be actually less members getting QST because they either renewed or became a member under the "blind" category. This provides erroneous data to all the potential advertisers. This is not an ethical way to run any business.

Note: The ARRL Articles of Association, By-Laws, Rules and Regulations can be found here:
http://www.arrl.org/aabl.html


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: k4kyv on July 15, 2009, 01:13:26 AM
I suspect there would be a noticeable increase in membership numbers if they offered the choice of QEX as an alternative to QST.

They never should have branched off from QST and put the technical articles in a separate publication anyway.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 15, 2009, 02:37:54 AM
I suspect there would be a noticeable increase in membership numbers if they offered the choice of QEX as an alternative to QST.

They never should have branched of from QST and put the technical articles in a separate publication anyway.

It was a great business move. It's been this way for almost 30 years.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: W1UJR on July 15, 2009, 05:24:08 AM
I suspect there would be a noticeable increase in membership numbers if they offered the choice of QEX as an alternative to QST.

They never should have branched of from QST and put the technical articles in a separate publication anyway.


I agree Don, it would be a nice option, but I'd sure miss the John Dilks vintage radio column.  ;)

Not so certain it would raise the membership numbers in a meaningful manner to offset any lost ad revenue from the companies who currently place the large and colorful ads in QST. 

It is no secret that the League, like most publishers, derives a substantial amount of revenue from the advertisers in QST. QEX by nature would never command such interest and ad revenue from vendors. I'd suspect that the Icoms, Yaesus, Kenwoods and MFJs of the world would hesitate to go into a narrow interest magazine like QEX with the same ad coverage they place in QST.

I'd further suspect most QEX readers tend not to buy a great deal of commercially made radio gear, and are rather by nature builders and experimenters. Nothing wrong with that, but not exactly the big Japanese three's prime demographic group. Which is precisely why I doubt the veracity of the statement that the League is extending a special "non-blind" visually impaired discount membership, sans QST, to members. Aside from the bylaw violation which Pete wisely pointed out, such a practice would simply be cutting one's own throat, and is a prime violation of the League's fiduciary responsibility to its membership.

I do think that the League could offer QEX online, in a PDF format, at a discounted cost to members. After all, once the editing and formating of the issue are completed, the next largest cost is the publication and distribution of the paper copies. This might be something that you may want to suggest to the League, it could be downloaded off their website, or sent out each month in pdf form via email.

I've been in communication with, and invited the current League President, Joel Harrison W5ZN, to comment here on John's statements, and perhaps he might also be interested in the QEX topic, it has been a subject of frequent discussion here.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 15, 2009, 07:21:57 AM
I don't Know....if someone calls up there bright eyed an looking to renew, with no malice intent, and the office person lays out a deal, the prospect is or isn't aware of, they agree shake hands numbers get exchanged....The fella comes on here Happy as a Lark for his good fortune....There Ain't No Cheating...That person offered the deal to be taken....speak to that person and call them a name.....

73
Jack.




Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: W5JBP on July 15, 2009, 08:08:52 AM
"Pete at an early point in our conversation she pointed out that, as she sits on board meetings,"

I have attended many board meetings, and the only woman from staff that is present during the meetings is Mary Hobart, which is the Development officer.

Jim


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: k4kyv on July 15, 2009, 11:43:11 AM
It was a great business move. It's been this way for almost 30 years.

Maybe so, but the League's profits from its publication business is not the same thing as the best interests of amateur radio.

Besides, how  could they be making much money off QEX, if the interest in technical topics by League members is so low as they claim it was, justifying the yanking of technical articles out of QST?

Coincidentally (?), the movement of amateur radio away from being a technically oriented endeavour towards becoming a "communicator's hobby", has been in a state of acceleration for about the same 30-year period.



Not so certain it would raise the membership numbers in a meaningful manner to offset any lost ad revenue from the companies who currently place the large and colorful ads in QST.

It is no secret that the League, like most publishers, derives a substantial amount of revenue from the advertisers in QST. QEX by nature would never command such interest and ad revenue from vendors. I'd suspect that the Icoms, Yaesus, Kenwoods and MFJs of the world would hesitate to go into a narrow interest magazine like QEX with the same ad coverage they place in QST.

I'd further suspect most QEX readers tend not to buy a great deal of commercially made radio gear, and are rather by nature builders and experimenters. Nothing wrong with that, but not exactly the big Japanese three's prime demographic group.

In that case, why would it cause a significant loss in ad revenue if the advertisers believed that readers opting out of QST wouldn't be buying commercial appliances anyway?

Quote
I do think that the League could offer QEX online, in a PDF format, at a discounted cost to members. After all, once the editing and formating of the issue are completed, the next largest cost is the publication and distribution of the paper copies. This might be something that you may want to suggest to the League, it could be downloaded off their website, or sent out each month in pdf form via email.

That would be a good idea, but it should be available free of charge to paying members, and include all articles, not just a select few.  Before the advent of QEX, this material appeared in QST, therefore was fully covered by the annual membership dues.

The birth of QEX is a classic example of "incredibly shrinking consumer junk", that is, veiled increases in costs of purchases, that I referred to in another discussion thread.



Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1DEU on July 15, 2009, 12:18:40 PM
    The League did not extend anything officially yet ! And the lady stated she had been allowed to listen in on some board meetings (my poor reporting, Fault). My own sources tell me that this is especially true since Mr. Summer backed off to a more pure democratic form of meeting, with more women in the room and nearby! Also I am guided that membership renewal is at an all time low dropping 22%. This is not only found in the ARRL but nearly in all other minority representative group in America. (NRA, AARP, etc.)

    I am hoping the ARRL will simply re-name the Blind subscription to the "Member, with out QST subscription" category.

    Some of we Americans notice that many are now either laid off work, have lost unemployment and some have even lost all their retirement benefits. Not funny at all, and feels to me like long term slow financial lending/rental/laundering disaster.

    Many of us have already, sadly been forced to re-adjust what we spend on extra things, including being a contributing member here!

   Like it or not but when everybody is being more pragmatic we must all adjust the amounts charged for our ( non manufacturing) Service based Economy ? 73 John 

P.S. And I appreciate the freedom we are allowed here with many different opinions being expressed.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: W1UJR on July 15, 2009, 12:26:46 PM
Quote
I do think that the League could offer QEX online, in a PDF format, at a discounted cost to members. After all, once the editing and formating of the issue are completed, the next largest cost is the publication and distribution of the paper copies. This might be something that you may want to suggest to the League, it could be downloaded off their website, or sent out each month in pdf form via email.

That would be a good idea, but it should be available free of charge to paying members, and include all articles, not just a select few.  Before the advent of QEX, this material appeared in QST, therefore was fully covered by the annual membership dues.


Good point Don. Yes, I think that would be a fine idea, I suspect that a large amount of the League's budget for QEX goes toward the costs for printing and distribution of the publication. I don't believe the author's are financially compensated, correct? The online version could be offered at a low cost, or even for free as an additional membership benefit.

Who knows, some good might come out of this yet. I'm interested to hear Joel W5ZN has to say, this is an idea time to bring up the QEX question.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 15, 2009, 01:01:47 PM
Well the one thing that isn't going to happen is the trading in or away the Cash Cows for PDF. print Packets, That ain't happenen, I don't care who comes on here in Representative Form If it so Happens...We been down this road before....It's always the same old same old...

73
Jack.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 15, 2009, 01:49:07 PM
"Pete at an early point in our conversation she pointed out that, as she sits on board meetings,"

I have attended many board meetings, and the only woman from staff that is present during the meetings is Mary Hobart, which is the Development officer.

Jim

In looking over the January 2009 BoD meeting attendance list, that's still true.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 15, 2009, 02:34:38 PM
It was a great business move. It's been this way for almost 30 years.

Maybe so, but the League's profits from its publication business is not the same thing as the best interests of amateur radio.

Besides, how  could they be making much money off QEX, if the interest in technical topics by League members is so low as they claim it was, justifying the yanking of technical articles out of QST?

Coincidentally (?), the movement of amateur radio away from being a technically oriented endeavour towards becoming a "communicator's hobby", has been in a state of acceleration for about the same 30-year period.

I would question what are "the best interests of amateur radio" versus "the best interests of the current amateur radio population" and/or "the best interests of the ARRL membership". Like it or not, besides serving their membership, there is a business to be run and I'm sure the staff plays a constant balancing act to try and ensure everyone is accommodated within some reasonable and logical set of strategic plans.

It seems to me I remember seeing a subscription number for QEX several years ago, but don't remember what it was. Generally, once a year, normally in an end of the year issue, they publish total magazines printed, total distributed, etc. and generally in a font so small it requires a good magnifying glass to read it. Also remember that unlike QST, which is the member's monthly journal, QEX subscriptions can be sold to non-members. You don't even need an amateur license to receive QEX.

Amateur radio has always been evolving. Back in the 40's, 50's and 60's, many kids wanted to become engineers. The dawn of the Sputnik era, I believe, even accelerated going down that road. By the late 70's and 80's, computer costs were coming way down and computers were finding their way into homes and amateur radio stations. In today's world, you build a box with some electronics for a ham radio task. Write some software to make it do something. When you want the box to do something else, you don't build a new box, you write new software. QEX targets those people who want build unique boxes, unique software, developing or expanding on theoretical type ideas, and the sharing of those types of ideas. I would classify the QEX membership as a technically savvy "specialty group" that is constantly moving forward. Some may not know this, but Flex Radio was born on a series of QEX articles back in 2002/2003.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 15, 2009, 03:01:07 PM
    The League did not extend anything officially yet ! And the lady stated she had been allowed to listen in on some board meetings (my poor reporting, Fault). My own sources tell me that this is especially true since Mr. Summer backed off to a more pure democratic form of meeting, with more women in the room and nearby! Also I am guided that membership renewal is at an all time low dropping 22%. This is not only found in the ARRL but nearly in all other minority representative group in America. (NRA, AARP, etc.)

    I am hoping the ARRL will simply re-name the Blind subscription to the "Member, with out QST subscription" category.


It's interesting that on the membership application, besides the one, two, and three years rates that I show in the table below, there is this line:
"US Memberships include $15 per year for subscription to QST. Dues are subject to change without notice and are non-refundable."

          1 Year 2 Years 3 Years
Regular    $39   $76     $111    Monthly QST via standard mail for US members
Canada    $49    $93    $132    Monthly QST via standard mail for Canadian members
Intl QST   $62    $118   $167    Monthly QST via air mail for international members
Intl CD     $39   $76     $111    Annual CD-ROM (QST, NCJ and QEX) for international members
Blind        $8     $16     $24     No QST delivery, all other member benefits apply
Family      $8     $16     $24     Reside at the same address as the primary member, no additional
                                           QST. Membership dates must correspond with primary member
   
So, it seems to me, if current members are balking at renewals, with receiving QST as the issue, or new potential members, who have no interest in receiving QST, are not signing up, then the ARRL might want to consider changing its membership offerings.

Just add three new catagories: Regular (No QST), Canada (No QST), Intl (No QST). Subtract out the $15 charge for QST that's stated on the membership form, that's included in the current membership charge, for each year.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 15, 2009, 03:12:21 PM
Quote
I do think that the League could offer QEX online, in a PDF format, at a discounted cost to members. After all, once the editing and formating of the issue are completed, the next largest cost is the publication and distribution of the paper copies. This might be something that you may want to suggest to the League, it could be downloaded off their website, or sent out each month in pdf form via email.

That would be a good idea, but it should be available free of charge to paying members, and include all articles, not just a select few.  Before the advent of QEX, this material appeared in QST, therefore was fully covered by the annual membership dues.




Good point Don. Yes, I think that would be a fine idea, I suspect that a large amount of the League's budget for QEX goes toward the costs for printing and distribution of the publication. I don't believe the author's are financially compensated, correct? The online version could be offered at a low cost, or even for free as an additional membership benefit.

Who knows, some good might come out of this yet. I'm interested to hear Joel W5ZN has to say, this is an idea time to bring up the QEX question.

QEX writer compensation:
"Authors are compensated for published articles at the rate of $50.00 per published page or part thereof. The number of magazine pages your article occupies depends on such factors as the number of illustrations, equations, and the space restrictions of each issue. Payment is made on publication. No compensation is given for published letters. ARRL and IARU officials, including officers, directors and vice directors, as well as officials of IARU member societies, are not eligible for compensation."

The problem with electronic files (PDF's) is that once they're offered for download as a fee or additional member benefit, there's no stopping further distribution to any one else by the initial receivers of the download.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 15, 2009, 04:00:34 PM
Well Done Pete, as always on all the last postings I agree and support your Points, and I knew the PDF thing is a No No... it would be Nice, But, Not yet not today they're not ready or even looking at this on the horizon.

73
Jack.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: W1UJR on July 15, 2009, 04:14:00 PM
QEX writer compensation:
"Authors are compensated for published articles at the rate of $50.00 per published page or part thereof. The number of magazine pages your article occupies depends on such factors as the number of illustrations, equations, and the space restrictions of each issue. Payment is made on publication. No compensation is given for published letters. ARRL and IARU officials, including officers, directors and vice directors, as well as officials of IARU member societies, are not eligible for compensation."

The problem with electronic files (PDF's) is that once they're offered for download as a fee or additional member benefit, there's no stopping further distribution to any one else by the initial receivers of the download.


Ah, good to know Pete, guess I shouldn't quit my day job and write for the League?  ;)
Still, the rate is reasonable for such a publication, makes sense and is sure not breaking the League's piggy bank.

You're quite correct on the ability to share electronic files, but isn't that same with the QST scans the League is currently offering to members online? A member could download those, and share them with friends as well. Admittedly the images of old QSTs may not hold the broad appeal of a publication like QEX. Then again, the League could also limit  online QEX to view and print only, no download, that would solve the issue.

Oh well, as soon as my consulting fee comes in the mail, I'll figure it all out for them.  ;)
In the meantime we can only hope.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 15, 2009, 04:38:01 PM
Yea well maybe More and Creative Membership entrance would be the key here and very easily accomplished on their end if we want to make some changes, be a good place to start, freshen up the entrance and renewal area, be a good move. Offer some other choices...other ideas...it's 2009 get with today man. :D

No Charge.

73
Jack.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 15, 2009, 05:26:42 PM
QEX writer compensation:
"Authors are compensated for published articles at the rate of $50.00 per published page or part thereof. The number of magazine pages your article occupies depends on such factors as the number of illustrations, equations, and the space restrictions of each issue. Payment is made on publication. No compensation is given for published letters. ARRL and IARU officials, including officers, directors and vice directors, as well as officials of IARU member societies, are not eligible for compensation."

The problem with electronic files (PDF's) is that once they're offered for download as a fee or additional member benefit, there's no stopping further distribution to any one else by the initial receivers of the download.


Ah, good to know Pete, guess I shouldn't quit my day job and write for the League?  ;)
Still, the rate is reasonable for such a publication, makes sense and is sure not breaking the League's piggy bank.

You're quite correct on the ability to share electronic files, but isn't that same with the QST scans the League is currently offering to members online? A member could download those, and share them with friends as well. Admittedly the images of old QSTs may not hold the broad appeal of a publication like QEX. Then again, the League could also limit  online QEX to view and print only, no download, that would solve the issue.

Oh well, as soon as my consulting fee comes in the mail, I'll figure it all out for them.  ;)
In the meantime we can only hope.

On the ARRL Archive Page, it says:
ARRL Members can access the QST magazine archive online, from December 1915 through December 2005. Archive results are intended for personal use only, and may not be freely distributed or copied.

I believe Adobe now has the ability to watermark any page that is scanned and made into a PDF. Naturally, during the initial scan process, you couldn't enter a specific watermark designation, but you probably could designate a blank watermark area. When a member accesses a particular PDF file to review, their call letters are embedded (probably with some software running in the background that can draw in the member's info) into the watermark area. If they download and save the file, the member's info (call letters?) become a permanent record on each sheet. It might help curtail any additional distribution of the file after it's downloaded.

Note to Bruce: Joel might be traveling today. The  BoD meeting is July 17-18 and there are several meetings on July 16.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: W1UJR on July 15, 2009, 05:50:53 PM
Note to Bruce: Joel might be traveling today. The  BoD meeting is July 17-18 and there are several meetings on July 16.


Ok, thanks for that info Pete. I spoke with him via email late last night, and Mary and I exchanged emails this morning.
I'll be interested in the outcome of this discussion, it may very well bring about some additional value to members and potential members.


Cheers,
Bruce


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: W5JBP on July 15, 2009, 07:13:01 PM
"ARRL had 155,639 members by the June month end, exceeding our net growth goal for the month.  We are particularly pleased with the continuing growth trend we have enjoyed for the last 12 months.  Membership is up 1,012 members the year."

I have to ask, the question, where is the 22% drop?

The above is a clip and paste from data that I am still previ too..

Jim


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1DEU on July 15, 2009, 09:23:37 PM
     Dear Friends; When I meditate I.E. Pulling Akashic records (also known as Time Traveling) forward or back in time, I am guided that the projected ARRL subscription could be 22 to 27% higher than current, if some simple changes are formally made. For many more Americans are now at home out of normal working hours and to enjoy their sudden free time are taking up their hobby actively for the first time in several years or more.

     Well Its interesting that Mark Twain wags his tongue at me according to one of my special friends who just recently apologized to me for slandering my fiancée who was a Nun in France. Actually when we Time Travel we can easily speak to Mark Twain and Billions more including some of my favorite Americans like George Washington, Thomas Payne and Ben Franklin.

     I believe that meditation is our most important resource. For without it we will never know the truth, which is rarely written or presented in fair context...  May God bless all of us.
73 John, K1DEU


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: W1UJR on July 15, 2009, 09:40:37 PM
Yes, I forgot about the old Akashic record trick, foolish me.   ;)

John, enjoy, I always get a kick out of chatting with you.
I think you'll find the Truth is really much simpler than you think my friend.
Take a look at John 14:6 the next time you have the "light" on.
Keep seeking, you'll find it.

Now about that three year membership offer....


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1DEU on July 15, 2009, 09:46:18 PM
     Dear W1UJR;

Frankly I would be embarrassed to donate my last 8 QST's to any library for to me they would show a prospective radio amateur that our hobby is mostly about buying expensive already built appliance radios. Some costing thousands of dollars!

     Many of the prospective hams that took my and Bruce, WA7CSL's  free classes became interested by Myself speaking about the Fun of Ham Radio at Several Coffee Break clubs (CB clubs) in person by invitation. And both Bruce and I became active on CB in the local area. Needless to report there were many slandering both Bruce and I talking down ham radio. But with time eventually the local CB head guru a great enemy to adding ham radio, Dick Goodman in 6 years became the Local Ham Radio Club President of NOBARC.
73 John

PS; when it comes to reading a book heavily edited by Roman Emperor Constantine II
may we all meditate on the context to seek the truth.

BTW: I respect the first Emperor Constantine of Gaul (France), Portugal and Spain but not the second !


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 15, 2009, 10:15:50 PM
Hi John Ya know awhile back I took a handful of ER's down to my barber, of course that's when i needed one...LOL...now the Chemo keeps me free of growth for awhile...

Anyhow I stopped down to see John to mow off what growth was left on me, and I noticed the little books were gone, an I asked John I said hey bud where'd the books go John .."He said Jack those things are a hit down here you have anymore"....to which I said heck ya bundles.....Imagine that and no mention about a coupla QST's I dropped off there at times...still there... :o

73
Jack.



Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: k4kyv on July 15, 2009, 11:53:24 PM
Frankly I would be embarrassed to donate my last 8 QST's to any library for to me they would show a prospective radio amateur that our hobby is mostly about buying expensive already built appliance radios. Some costing thousands of dollars!

And why would they be interested in that, when some of the latest hi-tech internet gizmos can be had for a hundred bucks or two.  And you don't even have to take a test or get a licence to use them.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 16, 2009, 03:48:43 AM
    Dear W1UJR;

Frankly I would be embarrassed to donate my last 8 QST's to any library for to me they would show a prospective radio amateur that our hobby is mostly about buying expensive already built appliance radios. Some costing thousands of dollars!

73 John


Many new hams back in the "good old days" brought complete ready-made transmitters and receivers from their local ham appliance store which, in many cases, were not cheap. Plus, even people with money and means, go to the library. Also, most major ham retailers, carry a wide assortment of used/refurbished gear for sale.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1DEU on July 16, 2009, 11:20:55 AM
       Some of You people are really something. I do not enjoy nit-picking others apart. I do not force others to become humble and meditate/embrace the entire Universe/Creation. I only suggest this.

    When people ask about ham radio in this area (or in the library or school) they are given my telephone # and I guide them in person or on the phone about what to do. Is this unusual or too personal? Oh dear. Do you shake hands with strangers? We all should.  Can we say Love to our neighbors, enemy and strangers?

    Its interesting many can only speak to me here with the impersonal keyboard but not answer my CQ on the air, or join an existing QSO. Sadly in case we did not notice, in more than New England, we trust other persons less than ever before. On 75 meter phone we can talk to someone miles away like an old friend but not someone in our local area. It used to be, that only in New England when walking down the street we should never look at a stranger and smile.

   Sadly now day’s New England Arctic cold personalities have spread throughout America.

     I do not push and shove others towards my beliefs about where we come from, what our purpose is here now and into the future. My own beliefs have progressively changed since I was conditioned by Schools and my Government. 
     When I arrived in Udorn Thani, Thailand in 1964, 5 miles from the border of Laos which was the Mekong River,  it took me about 3 months to settle in and discover that I was not there to protect my parents, grandparents and friends back home from a Communist take over of America. But I was there to defoliate Thailand, Laos and Cambodia with Agent Orange, which has a life like nuclear waste. And not just where hi-voltage transmission lines run either. Yes ignorance is very alive and likely if I was not in several of our foreign wars where they were occurring I would still be afraid and not properly Love people who have different ethnic appearance and customs than we do. Do you dare ask me why the French tried to hang on to their Colony called Vietnam until their bloody defeat ? And why we Americans next tried to do what the French failed at? Sadly both John Kennedy and I know, and the answer is simple.
  John Shaw, K1DEU 
 One of my three web sites  http://www.hamelectronics.com/


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Steve - WB3HUZ on July 17, 2009, 09:29:47 PM
Quote
I do not force others to become humble and meditate/embrace the entire Universe/Creation.

Who are you to claim such even exist? May I suggest you meditate further.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1DEU on July 18, 2009, 10:42:48 AM
   Aye  Aye Steve my fellow mediator who formally trains self and others in transcendental ways. But many think I meditate  or am stupefied/out of the Animal body 24/7 already !  Thank God for Free Will for all humankind. 73  John


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Steve - WB3HUZ on July 18, 2009, 12:04:54 PM
It's good to keep others guessing. Watch out for the reckless drivers on the transcendental highway.   ;)


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: KB2WIG on July 19, 2009, 07:17:33 PM
 " It's good to keep others guessing. "                       


                         There you go, man
      Keep as cool as you can
      Face piles of trials with smiles
      It riles them to believe
      That you perceive
      The web they weave



klc


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1DEU on July 20, 2009, 10:29:30 PM
  Well I just got my "Dear John" so the boys at the ARRL won and changed my subscription agreement.

letter dated July 16 from Amy, KB1NXO

Basically  follows;

Upon reviewing your membership application on 7/13  I found the option I extended to you is only available to legally blind members.

blah  blah Orgs  bylaws state

As a result its necessary that I modify your application. etc.

I am sorry for the inconvenience  Thanks  Amy


Well the rich and famous boys reversed the agreement, but it took them three, unhappy days.  And so I will read my amateur News here on AMfone and on the Internet, without tying up the post man. Sadly the financial future for America is very set in stone for the coming two years. 73, John

P.S. Last time I checked the membership is up.  But the # of 3 year QST renewals is down which should be the  important issue !
 


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: KF1Z on July 21, 2009, 07:21:45 AM
In other words John....

Next time, keep it to yourself....



Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: w3jn on July 21, 2009, 07:46:54 AM
Indeed.  The "helpful" inquiries to the League president probably torpedoed this.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Todd, KA1KAQ on July 21, 2009, 11:08:17 AM
I think you could safely change the 'probably' to 'undoubtedly'. ;)

When I saw you being lectured and scolded John by someone who, compared to your time in and knowledge of amateur radio is a mere infant, I knew it wasn't going to end well. Sad but true, now and then a newb comes along who thinks that buying credibility is as easy as buying a life membership. So seeing an old vet like yourself actually negotiate a better deal and diminish that achievement, well....that's gotta be tough to swallow when they're so sure that their view is the 'proper' view. You just know those folks from the League got a self-righteous earful. As in life, sometimes it's just easier to give a child what it wants to stop the kicking and screaming.

Thanks for trying at least, and for sharing your results here. KF1Z is right on the money.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: WA1GFZ on July 21, 2009, 12:07:32 PM
Todd as a parent I can add. if you give a baby what it wants it never stops kicking and screaming. You should give a baby what it needs though.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Steve - WB3HUZ on July 21, 2009, 01:26:09 PM
As a parent, I would tell my children to stay away from the ARRL.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 25, 2009, 07:08:07 AM
Really..?...I don't think it's as bad as that, There might be a coupla people in there I despise But..that's a personal thing...on a personal professional level......

Look Man you gots to pay like everybody else...Chump....LOL :D So get in Line Jackson...LOL....Besides there's a Higher essence from the 4th level that tells me there's some groovey changes comen...man...better ani up ......


73
Jack.



Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Tom WA3KLR on July 25, 2009, 08:17:24 AM
I cut my ARRL membership cost to zero.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 25, 2009, 09:51:44 AM
Hi Tom,

Changes are coming Hang on man.. ;)

73
Jack.
 


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 25, 2009, 10:02:51 AM
As a parent, I would tell my children to stay away from the ARRL.


Yea,...But you will guide everyone to the AM Web Page they carry for you and plastered with your name all over it. Must be nice to talk smack about something and stand back and groove on your sponsored web page and I noticed some of the Info you have to be a member to access...AM is sponsored very nicely on the Web Sight Nice of the caretakers to allow that.... I wouldn't mind a bit any of my children reading the web sight or even joining if they want.

73
Jack..




Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: k4kyv on July 25, 2009, 10:50:17 AM
Amateur radio has always been evolving. Back in the 40's, 50's and 60's, many kids wanted to become engineers. The dawn of the Sputnik era, I believe, even accelerated going down that road. By the late 70's and 80's, computer costs were coming way down and computers were finding their way into homes and amateur radio stations. In today's world, you build a box with some electronics for a ham radio task. Write some software to make it do something. When you want the box to do something else, you don't build a new box, you write new software. QEX targets those people who want build unique boxes, unique software, developing or expanding on theoretical type ideas, and the sharing of those types of ideas. I would classify the QEX membership as a technically savvy "specialty group" that is constantly moving forward. Some may not know this, but Flex Radio was born on a series of QEX articles back in 2002/2003.

I believe the original intent of QEX was to publish esoteric technical articles that would have been of very little to QST readers and the overall ham community.  A perfect example of that would be going into the minute details of writing SDR software.  But scanning over some of articles listed in the promos for the publication, I see a recent series on improving the efficiency of vertical antennas, elevated vs buried radial ground systems, etc. Also, I believe I saw reference to a homebrew amplifier project not too long ago.  Those are just the kinds of articles that should be of interest to the greater ham community and that used to appear in QST.  I recall the first articles ever published on wideband untuned solid state amplifiers, now the staple of riceboxes, appeared in QST sometime in the mid 70's with detailed theory and construction procedures down to homebrewing the broadband input and output transformers. Now, members are deprived of that type of article and limited mostly to fluff and stuff like outboard transceiver microphone gain boxes, station control consoles, simple antenna projects (and how to camouflage them from nosy neighbours), QRP CW rigs built into a cat-food tin, etc, unless they pay extra for a QEX subscription.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 25, 2009, 11:28:16 AM
Maybe You Should run for office Don,..you have plenty of time being retired...it's the only way making any dents with these situations..standing back and throwing rocks don't do shit...Run for Office OM...

73
Jack.



Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Steve - WB3HUZ on July 25, 2009, 01:16:53 PM
LOL. It was a joke.

Feel free to volunteer to work on the AM TIS page. As someone posted, "standing back and throwing rocks don't do shit."


As a parent, I would tell my children to stay away from the ARRL.


Yea,...But you will guide everyone to the AM Web Page they carry for you and plastered with your name all over it. Must be nice to talk smack about something and stand back and groove on your sponsored web page and I noticed some of the Info you have to be a member to access...AM is sponsored very nicely on the Web Sight Nice of the caretakers to allow that.... I wouldn't mind a bit any of my children reading the web sight or even joining if they want.

73
Jack..





Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 25, 2009, 01:54:06 PM
Oh a Joke, Yea...I guess....






Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 25, 2009, 02:43:49 PM
As I have said so many times before, when Don brings up the QEX issue, if you want just technical articles, buy a subscription to QEX.  As QST is part of membership, there is no subscription to get it. It's designed to appeal to the vast majority of the membership, not just to the techie groupies. That change started almost 30 years ago as technologies, people, amateur radio, and a lot of other things continue to evolve. This dead horse has been beat so many times, it's been reduced to powder.

Technical Articles over the last several months in QST: The Quick and Easy Balloon Assisted Low Band Loop Antenna, Building a 1927 Regenerative Receiver, Resurrecting a Command Set Transmitter, Designing and Building Transistor Linear Power Amplifiers, A Better Way to Work Low Earth Orbit FM Satellites, Building a Five Band G3TXQ Broadband Hexagonal Beam, Hairpin Tuners for Matching Balanced Antenna Systems, The No Excuses 160 Meter Vertical, Build a Homebrew Radio Telescope, A Modular Receiver for Exploring the LF/VLF Bands, The Universal Keying Module, Experimenter's RF Spectrum Analyzer, etc., etc., etc.

If you want QEX Don, pony up the $24, if you're an ARRL member (saves you $12 over the non-member price). Let this poor horse rest in peace.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: k4kyv on July 25, 2009, 03:28:04 PM
As QST is part of membership, there is no subscription to get it. It's designed to appeal to the vast majority of the membership, not just to the techie groupies. That change started almost 30 years ago as technologies, people, amateur radio, and a lot of other things continue to evolve.

If you want QEX Don, pony up the $24, if you're an ARRL member (saves you $12 over the non-member price).

Actually, you are paying $31 for the QST subscription.  Membership without QST is $8, available to the legally blind and additional family members when one issue is already shipped to the mailing address. $30-$35 is about on par with any other monthly magazine of that size.  Despite all the ads, they still don't just give away QST free for the taking.  They would charge more for non-QST membership dues if $8 didn't fully cover the costs of  membership services. 

You are really paying for membership dues plus a magazine subscription, combined.  I just don't find the magazine useful or worthwhile any more, since it has few articles of real interest to me, and the amateur radio news is stale by the time the magazine arrives; rarely do I see a news item reported in QST, that I hadn't already become fully aware of weeks earlier via the internet (another thing that has changed during the past 30 years).  And the Ham-Ads are hardly even a shadow of what they used to be before ePay and other internet buy/sell opportunities became mainstream. 

ARRL membership would be a much better deal without the damned magazine.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1JJ on July 25, 2009, 04:00:31 PM
Pete posted as one of the recent QST articles:
"Build a Homebrew Radio Telescope"

That sounds like an interesting article.  Possibly a satellite dish pointed skyward with a 10 ghz receiver?  Hear the noise of the sun and galaxy.

But, I'll bet it gets old fast, unlike visual astronomy.


T


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 25, 2009, 05:02:16 PM
As QST is part of membership, there is no subscription to get it. It's designed to appeal to the vast majority of the membership, not just to the techie groupies. That change started almost 30 years ago as technologies, people, amateur radio, and a lot of other things continue to evolve.

If you want QEX Don, pony up the $24, if you're an ARRL member (saves you $12 over the non-member price).

Actually, you are paying $31 for the QST subscription.  Membership without QST is $8, available to the legally blind and additional family members when one issue is already shipped to the mailing address. $30-$35 is about on par with any other monthly magazine of that size.  Despite all the ads, they still don't just give away QST free for the taking.  They would charge more for non-QST membership dues if $8 didn't fully cover the costs of  membership services. 

You are really paying for membership dues plus a magazine subscription, combined.  I just don't find the magazine useful or worthwhile any more, since it has few articles of real interest to me, and the amateur radio news is stale by the time the magazine arrives; rarely do I see a news item reported in QST, that I hadn't already become fully aware of weeks earlier via the internet (another thing that has changed during the past 30 years).  And the Ham-Ads are hardly even a shadow of what they used to be before ePay and other internet buy/sell opportunities became mainstream. 

ARRL membership would be a much better deal without the damned magazine.

Amusing reply. Actually, if you took the time to review the actual membership form, it does indicate that $15 of your yearly membership dues goes towards QST (not $31). Obviously, a  legality blind person probably cannot partake, or easily partake, of all the membership benefits that are offered beyond the monthly journal, especially on their web site,  which is probably why their fee is only $8.

Personally, joining a membership like the ARRL, is not like buying a car or a radio. Your membership "dues" helps to support all their activities as related to our amateur radio hobby. To request a better "deal" is silly. Your best bet for deals is at the flea markets where vendors are looking to unload something.

I'm a member of AARP. Each month, as part of membership, they send me a magazine. I very rarely will read it although I do scan the table of contents before I throw it out. I didn't join AARP for the magazine. I joined because of all the support, information, and benefits they provide for me in my age group. To me, the membership dues is well worth the pay back I get from them. I view ARRL membership the same way.

For the most part, Grandpa's radios and magazines are history. But like old photographs, you can pull them down off the shelf from time to time, and reminisce the "good old days".


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: k4kyv on July 25, 2009, 08:12:23 PM
Amusing reply. Actually, if you took the time to review the actual membership form, it does indicate that $15 of your yearly membership dues goes towards QST (not $31). Obviously, a  legality blind person probably cannot partake, or easily partake, of all the membership benefits that are offered beyond the monthly journal, especially on their web site,  which is probably why their fee is only $8.

Since membership dues and QST subscription are inseparably a package deal, they can call it anything they want.  They could say that membership dues are $38/year and QST is an added bonus for $1/year.  Or they could say that a year's subscription to QST, which has more pages and better binding, is $36.95, the same as for CQ Magazine, and that dues are $2.05/month.


Quote
I'm a member of AARP. Each month, as part of membership, they send me a magazine. I very rarely will read it although I do scan the table of contents before I throw it out. I didn't join AARP for the magazine. I joined because of all the support, information, and benefits they provide for me in my age group. To me, the membership dues is well worth the pay back I get from them. I view ARRL membership the same way.

Now that you mentioned AARP, I am also a member.  I get two periodicals for my membership.  One is a slick magazine while the other is more like a newspaper tabloid.  Why couldn't the League do like AARP, if all their periodical data is too much to carry in monthly QST alone?  QST could carry all the ads just as it does now, along with ARRL news and happenings, K1ZZ's monthly editorial, the Correspondence section, the division director and vice-director information, as well as important amateur radio news.  Then the member/subscriber would have a choice of secondary publication, oriented towards technical topics, contesting or beginners (in the spirit of the old Ham Radio Horizons).  Each member would be entitled to one of these publications of his choice at no extra cost, and for a nominal extra fee each, could choose to subscribe to one or both of the others.

Quote
For the most part, Grandpa's radios and magazines are history. But like old photographs, you can pull them down off the shelf from time to time, and reminisce the "good old days".

It is not just I who is beating the dead horse.  The topic of the thread, started by K1DEU, is specifically regarding ARRL membership without QST.

In the August issue of QST, a letter appears in the Correspondence section by K6VGO, and I have to give the editors credit for publishing it.  He refers to a recent complaint that most articles in QST are "quite technical, almost requiring a strong electronics understanding", and he then asks "isn't this what used to separate hams from CBers?"  He then goes on to say that he  feels that QST is "the least of the technical publications" and that he found that complaint to be "humorous".

This same topic is also running in a current thread on QRZ.com.

http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?t=211561


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Steve - WB3HUZ on July 25, 2009, 09:39:32 PM
If they wanted, they could put ALL the sections and articles from both QST and QEX on the Web with a pay as you read menu. Sure would save all those printing costs.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 25, 2009, 11:23:44 PM
Amusing reply. Actually, if you took the time to review the actual membership form, it does indicate that $15 of your yearly membership dues goes towards QST (not $31). Obviously, a  legality blind person probably cannot partake, or easily partake, of all the membership benefits that are offered beyond the monthly journal, especially on their web site,  which is probably why their fee is only $8.

Since membership dues and QST subscription are inseparably a package deal, they can call it anything they want.  They could say that membership dues are $38/year and QST is an added bonus for $1/year.  Or they could say that a year's subscription to QST, which has more pages and better binding, is $36.95, the same as for CQ Magazine, and that dues are $2.05/month.

I was responding to your statement, "you are paying $31 for the QST subscription". You keep calling it a subscription. There is no subscription to QST. If you stop your membership, all your membership privileges, including QST stop.


Quote
Quote
I'm a member of AARP. Each month, as part of membership, they send me a magazine. I very rarely will read it although I do scan the table of contents before I throw it out. I didn't join AARP for the magazine. I joined because of all the support, information, and benefits they provide for me in my age group. To me, the membership dues is well worth the pay back I get from them. I view ARRL membership the same way.

Now that you mentioned AARP, I am also a member.  I get two periodicals for my membership.  One is a slick magazine while the other is more like a newspaper tabloid.  Why couldn't the League do like AARP, if all their periodical data is too much to carry in monthly QST alone?  QST could carry all the ads just as it does now, along with ARRL news and happenings, K1ZZ's monthly editorial, the Correspondence section, the division director and vice-director information, as well as important amateur radio news.  Then the member/subscriber would have a choice of secondary publication, oriented towards technical topics, contesting or beginners (in the spirit of the old Ham Radio Horizons).  Each member would be entitled to one of these publications of his choice at no extra cost, and for a nominal extra fee each, could choose to subscribe to one or both of the others.

I suspect cost would be one big reason for not doing this. There is also a stipulation in the By-Laws that all members will receive QST (except those International, blind, and family members who have elected a category of membership that does not include receipt of QST). As you read through the By-Laws, there are a number of statements that indicated certain official notices, activities, announcements, etc., relative to membership, must be published in the journal. If membership has the option of receiving one of two publications, these official notices, activities, announcements, etc. would now have to be published in both publications. Certain parts of the Articles of Association and the By-Laws must likely would have to be re-written. Note: from the By-Laws, "The policy of the journal shall be determined by the Board of Directors". I would suspect a majority vote of the Directors would be needed to change any of the previously mentioned activities.

And, in the end, what does all this buy the membership. In my opinion, nothing, except for a "specialty group" within the membership that wants only in depth technical articles each month and not pay for them.

Ham Radio Horizons languished for 5 years and finally folded.

Quote
Quote
For the most part, Grandpa's radios and magazines are history. But like old photographs, you can pull them down off the shelf from time to time, and reminisce the "good old days".

It is not just I who is beating the dead horse.  The topic of the thread, started by K1DEU, is specifically regarding ARRL membership without QST.

QEX, in place of QST, dead horse.

Quote
In the August issue of QST, a letter appears in the Correspondence section by K6VGO, and I have to give the editors credit for publishing it.  He refers to a recent complaint that most articles in QST are "quite technical, almost requiring a strong electronics understanding", and he then asks "isn't this what used to separate hams from CBers?"  He then goes on to say that he  feels that QST is "the least of the technical publications" and that he found that complaint to be "humorous".

This same topic is also running in a current thread on QRZ.com.

http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?t=211561

I read the correspondence section. "separate hams from CBers" - over the last 30 plus years, if listening to the ham bands is any gauge, probably nothing more then one has a license and the other one doesn't  ;D  It's also nice to see a 68 year old ham indirectly beating up a 73 year old ham on his lack of technical competence. I bet one has a grandpa's radio and the other is a grandpa's radio  ;D Probably has a banner over his station that says, "I took my code and written tests the old fashion way"

I'm sure all the amateur radio movers and shakers on that forum are posting great prose and verse in regards to the topic.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1ZJH on July 25, 2009, 11:29:04 PM
QST advertising rates are based on circulation. For that reason alone you will never see an "out" with regards to being able to support the league without the QST fluff.

The magazine is their main revenue generator.

Pete


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 25, 2009, 11:44:23 PM
QST advertising rates are based on circulation. For that reason alone you will never see an "out" with regards to being able to support the league without the QST fluff.

The magazine is their main revenue generator.

Pete

Yep. I went through that with Don back a number of months ago on this same topic. Splitting up membership magazine distribution would not make the ad and revenue managers happy.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: k4kyv on July 26, 2009, 01:50:06 AM
Ham Radio Horizons languished for 5 years and finally folded.

And so did Ham Radio.

To-day's QST is much closer to HR Horizons than to HR.

What is an "international" membership?


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: w3jn on July 26, 2009, 07:35:29 AM
Seems like they oughta change the bylaws then, Pete, to leverage the fact that almost everyone has computer access these days and can access that critical information on board meetings on the ARRL website.  For those old buzzards that don't have internet access then by all means let 'em read those scintillating sagas in QST.

Bylaws can be changed, and the definition of QST as a mandatory "benefit" of membership can be changed, too.  This attitude is reminiscent of the old "it's not a bug, it's a feature" jokes from the old days of computer programming.

Point is that the League is cutting off its nose to spite its face with this attitude.  Many (myself included) would be pleased to become members if QEX came with the membership rather than QST.  It seems quite the waste to lug the magazine from the mailbox only to chuck it directly, unopened, into the trash.

I'm not sure that the comparison to AARP is directly applicable.  Does AARP offer another publication at extra cost that is more technical and bereft of the human interest pablum?


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 26, 2009, 09:16:43 AM
It's Not Very Green, that tote an chuck with QST, I donate mine to the barber shop, it's a guy place....

What's needed is a real 24-7 Push on them daily daily, from all districts to make change....pester anyone long enough they'll move on something.....Blog Talk is what it is Blog Talk.... :)

How bad do you want this to happen..?  Get Organized..

73
Jack.



Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1ZJH on July 26, 2009, 09:54:34 AM
Ham Radio Horizons languished for 5 years and finally folded.

And so did Ham Radio.

To-day's QST is much closer to HR Horizons than to HR.

What is an "international" membership?

Ham Radio did not lanquish. It went out on a fairly high note... But the
handwriting was on the wall" fewer tech types in the hobby, smaller
writer pool to draw from... But from what I know, it was still very
viable when the publisher decided to retire.

Pete k1zjh
former assc. tech. editor, review board member, HRM


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: k4kyv on July 26, 2009, 01:11:41 PM
Not saying that HR languished; my point was that it folded, just like its offspring HRH.

Along with 73. Some of the 60's issues were a half inch thick, filled with dozens of technical and construction articles, along with plenty of non-technical ham-related stuff.  By the time it folded till it had dwindled to the point where it was more like a pamphlet than a magazine, and was largely filled with Wayne's rants on non-radio topics.


I'm not sure that the comparison to AARP is directly applicable.  Does AARP offer another publication at extra cost that is more technical and bereft of the human interest pablum? 

No, but two periodicals come inseparably with membership.  You cannot join AARP at reduced cost by declining one or both publications.  They somehow manage to send out both items on a regular basis, included in the cost of membership dues. 

If the problem is lack of space between the covers of one magazine (QST) for everything, the latter could contain mostly general membership stuff and the ads, and the member would select a second publication at no extra cost, choosing from QEX, NCJ or a third one, a beginner's publication specifically oriented towards new hams, with the option to pay extra to receive one or both of the other secondary periodicals.  That way, the advertisers would still reach their intended audience, and members would receive membership publications oriented more to their specific interests.

But I wonder if dead-tree periodicals like QST, CQ and AARP Journal aren't headed in the direction of daily newspapers.  Many of the long-time well known ones have folded in recent years. Afternoon editions are practically non-existent.  The dailies still in circulation have become skinny in both page size and thickness.  I have heard it said more than once recently, that the industry is barely hanging on by the threads and struggling to survive.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 26, 2009, 03:39:05 PM
Seems like they oughta change the bylaws then, Pete, to leverage the fact that almost everyone has computer access these days and can access that critical information on board meetings on the ARRL website.  For those old buzzards that don't have internet access then by all means let 'em read those scintillating sagas in QST.

Bylaws can be changed, and the definition of QST as a mandatory "benefit" of membership can be changed, too.  This attitude is reminiscent of the old "it's not a bug, it's a feature" jokes from the old days of computer programming.

Point is that the League is cutting off its nose to spite its face with this attitude.  Many (myself included) would be pleased to become members if QEX came with the membership rather than QST.  It seems quite the waste to lug the magazine from the mailbox only to chuck it directly, unopened, into the trash.

Sure, there's lots of things they probably could change, if it benefited the majority of the membership and the ARRL organization. I have yet to see anyone, member, nonmember, or ARRL Director come forward with a plan or set of recommendations that benefits all parties and isn't a revenue breaker.

Personally, if I was running an organization that had a monthly journal, and the only reason you wanted to join my organization was to get a magazine, I would most likely tell you to hit the road. An organization, among other things, needs members who can provide constructive input, and, if necessary, support on their activities. People, who become members just because they want to receive a magazine, in my opinion, aren't a valuable asset to the membership. Ask yourself if you would become an ARRL member if they did not provide any magazine either in paper form or electronically.

Quote
I'm not sure that the comparison to AARP is directly applicable.  Does AARP offer another publication at extra cost that is more technical and bereft of the human interest pablum?

As Don pointed out, we received two printed publications; one is monthly and the other is bi-monthly. They come as part of membership. Both generally hit the recycling trash bin soon after they arrive. I view them as great sleep inducers. 30 seconds after opening one up, I've dozed off.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1ZJH on July 26, 2009, 03:50:03 PM



As Don pointed out, we received two printed publications; one is monthly and the other is bi-monthly. They come as part of membership. Both generally hit the recycling trash bin soon after they arrive. I view them as great sleep inducers. 30 seconds after opening one up, I've dozed off.

Well, I am an ARRP member, too!  Their publications are self-serving; mostly to sell insurance plans that have their names on them (indorsements) and to push their polictical agenda. The magazines no doubt pay for themselves and probably turn a handsome profit as well.
Pete


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 26, 2009, 03:52:37 PM
Not saying that HR languished; my point was that it folded, just like its offspring HRH.

Along with 73. Some of the 60's issues were a half inch thick, filled with dozens of technical and construction articles, along with plenty of non-technical ham-related stuff.  By the time it folded till it had dwindled to the point where it was more like a pamphlet than a magazine, and was largely filled with Wayne's rants on non-radio topics.


73 Magazine had it thickest issues in the 70's when FM came on the scene and computers for the amateur market showed great promise. It was also during the time, if I remember correctly, that their magazine was running roughly 70% advertising and 30% article substance each month.

HRH languished for 5 years and folded. HR hung in there for 22 years. But amateur radio demographics were changing by the latter part of the 80's. Less techies types and it was probably difficult to maintain the quality of an amateur radio technical magazine on a month to month basis. But, on the bright side, the remnants of HR eventually rolled over into the QEX magazine we know today.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1ZJH on July 26, 2009, 04:06:35 PM
]

HRH languished for 5 years and folded. HR hung in there for 22 years. But amateur radio demographics were changing by the latter part of the 80's. Less techies types and it was probably difficult to maintain the quality of an amateur radio technical magazine on a month to month basis. But, on the bright side, the remnants of HR eventually rolled over into the QEX magazine we know today.

Wow, what happened to Communications Quarterly, and its ten year run as the sucessor to HRM under the CQ banner?
This is a good example of the ARRL killing off the competition, BTW..

Pete k1zjh


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 26, 2009, 04:29:47 PM
]

HRH languished for 5 years and folded. HR hung in there for 22 years. But amateur radio demographics were changing by the latter part of the 80's. Less techies types and it was probably difficult to maintain the quality of an amateur radio technical magazine on a month to month basis. But, on the bright side, the remnants of HR eventually rolled over into the QEX magazine we know today.

Wow, what happened to Communications Quarterly, and its ten year run as the sucessor to HRM under the CQ banner?
This is a good example of the ARRL killing off the competition, BTW..

Pete k1zjh

I knew it was there Pete, I just truncated its life cycle  ;D
For those that may not know or remember, here's a very brief view of the transition (HR to QEX) from the QEX web page:

"In January 2000, ARRL purchased the Amateur Radio technical journal Communications Quarterly from CQ Communications and merged it with QEX, creating the combined QEX/Communications Quarterly. Published for the preceding nine years under the editorship of Terry Littlefield, KA1STC, Communications Quarterly billed itself as the philosophical successor to ham radio magazine, which was founded by “Skip” Tenney, W1NLB, and Jim Fisk, W1HR. Littlefield was ham radio's Editor when CQ Communications purchased it in 1990."


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: w3jn on July 26, 2009, 04:40:00 PM
Quote
Sure, there's lots of things they probably could change, if it benefited the majority of the membership and the ARRL organization. I have yet to see anyone, member, nonmember, or ARRL Director come forward with a plan or set of recommendations that benefits all parties and isn't a revenue breaker.

Then I would submit that nobody's thinking very hard.  I would think that this would have the possibility of substantially increasing League membership, and I fail to see how it could "break the banK" nor adversely affect other members.

Quote
Personally, if I was running an organization that had a monthly journal, and the only reason you wanted to join my organization was to get a magazine, I would most likely tell you to hit the road. An organization, among other things, needs members who can provide constructive input, and, if necessary, support on their activities. People, who become members just because they want to receive a magazine, in my opinion, aren't a valuable asset to the membership. Ask yourself if you would become an ARRL member if they did not provide any magazine either in paper form or electronically.

OTOH what kind of organization would turn down prospective members merely on their choice of a magazine?  Seems pretty short-sighted to me.   Besides, we *know* that's not the case where people just want the magazines, because you can already get QEX or NCJ separate from the membership.  What about those of us who would like to be members but can't be bothered with QST?

Is the ARRL in such a good position, membership- and financial-wise, that they can afford to be so inflexible and tell people to go to hell?  Judging by the number of pleas I get from HQ for my membership, that doesn't appear to be the case.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 26, 2009, 05:42:06 PM
OTOH what kind of organization would turn down prospective members merely on their choice of a magazine?  Seems pretty short-sighted to me.   Besides, we *know* that's not the case where people just want the magazines, because you can already get QEX or NCJ separate from the membership.  What about those of us who would like to be members but can't be bothered with QST?

Is the ARRL in such a good position, membership- and financial-wise, that they can afford to be so inflexible and tell people to go to hell?  Judging by the number of pleas I get from HQ for my membership, that doesn't appear to be the case.

Want to be a member and don't want QST; donate it to your local library, local school, the kid down the block, senior citizen's home, as Jack said, your local barber, your local CB'er, etc.

I'll ask again, would you be a member if there was no magazine of any type? In my opinion, QEX or the Contest Journal have nothing to do with the membership. You don't need to be a member to get a subscription to either one of these magazines. I wonder how many offers you get in the mail to take a subscription to QST.

I see a new T-shirt in the making - Some hams want it all free!!


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 26, 2009, 06:23:04 PM
There are some changes coming they're not deaf....change takes time..and I'm almost assuredly convinced that not every QEX is The one to have and pilings will occur and subsequently be handed off or sent to refloor the bird cage.

Everyone Has the right to submit a proposal I mentioned getting organized and doing it with more hands speaking as one would make some kind of impact..

73
Jack.




Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Steve - WB3HUZ on July 26, 2009, 06:26:13 PM
I just rejoined essentially free of charge. The ARRL offered a choice among several books as a "gift" to rejoin. The price of the book I chose exceeded the membership fee.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 26, 2009, 06:31:50 PM
I just rejoined essentially free of charge. The ARRL offered a choice among several books as a "gift" to rejoin. The price of the book I chose exceeded the membership fee.

And how does that make you feel..?




Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Steve - WB3HUZ on July 26, 2009, 06:42:52 PM
It makes me feel great! How does it make you feel?


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 26, 2009, 06:51:31 PM
Well that's just wonderful then...a satisfied Customer... :D


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: KF1Z on July 26, 2009, 06:52:59 PM
I just rejoined essentially free of charge. The ARRL offered a choice among several books as a "gift" to rejoin. The price of the book I chose exceeded the membership fee.

And how does that make you feel..?




Makes me  ???...... :'(

They can offer you a $40 + book, for free ( I never got one a dem offers).

But yet they can't see their way clear to offer, say, a subscription to QEX for a year?



Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Steve - WB3HUZ on July 26, 2009, 07:05:06 PM
And I get my name plastered all over their web site and traffic pushed to my web site for free. What a deal!


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: W3SLK on July 26, 2009, 08:48:31 PM
QST?!? Why I wouldn't even use it on the bottom of my bird cage..... if I had a bird with a cage. But ifn' I did, I still wouldn't use it. Where's Phil, K2PG when you need him ;)


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Steve - WB3HUZ on July 26, 2009, 08:51:06 PM
LOL. Is the top of the bird cage OK?


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: KF1Z on July 26, 2009, 09:01:17 PM
Gee Steve,
Now you're just rubbing it in!

 ;D


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1JJ on July 26, 2009, 09:03:37 PM
I just rejoined essentially free of charge. The ARRL offered a choice among several books as a "gift" to rejoin. The price of the book I chose exceeded the membership fee.


What book did you get?  The latest "Low Band DXing" by ON4UN might be worth it.

T


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: w3jn on July 26, 2009, 09:27:30 PM
I'm almost certain it was either the "Operating Handbook" or a repeater directory  ;D


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1JJ on July 26, 2009, 09:38:30 PM
Or was it, "Flaming on Six Meters"  -   by W6BD  (Ben Dover) ?


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: W3SLK on July 27, 2009, 09:08:10 AM
Steve said:
Quote
Is the top of the bird cage OK?

No it isn't!! Its not suitable anywhere in a birdcage!!!


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 27, 2009, 09:56:20 AM
.As Pete Said...I wish I would have thought of it. ;D

"I see a new T-shirt in the making - Some hams want it all free!!"


We Got Plenty of Tight asses...in this service..LOL.. ;D

73
Jack.



Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Steve - WB3HUZ on July 27, 2009, 10:43:02 AM
What about a chicken coop?


Steve said:
Quote
Is the top of the bird cage OK?

No it isn't!! Its not suitable anywhere in a birdcage!!!


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: k4kyv on July 27, 2009, 02:52:04 PM
QST?!? Why I wouldn't even use it on the bottom of my bird cage..... if I had a bird with a cage. But ifn' I did, I still wouldn't use it. Where's Phil, K2PG when you need him ;)



Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 27, 2009, 03:23:39 PM

(http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2009/01/Duplex_fish_birds.jpg)


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: W3SLK on July 27, 2009, 07:55:21 PM
Steve said:
Quote
What about a chicken coop?

I had a chicken coup and I wouldn't have used it there either. Although I did store a lot of boatanchor stash there. ;)


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Steve - WB3HUZ on July 28, 2009, 01:28:02 PM
Stash? You said stash?


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: WB3JOK on July 29, 2009, 02:46:05 PM
is that any relation to John Oates' Mustache (http://www.myspace.com/johnoatesmoustache)?

OK, someone else's turn to get weirder and more off-topic than this? I could have sworn this thread was about QEX originally...  ;D


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 29, 2009, 03:03:03 PM
A Sad Saga it is too... :)

Something about QST...it just makes people act up...it's just a magazine right..an inanimate a multi-paged visual conveyance for the sharing of Amateur Radio Information and for some reason there is a multitude humans that have a vendetta against it. Isn't that interesting a Magazine that moves people in strange directions and actions...

It should be studied, This and The cause of it. :P

73
Jack.



Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 29, 2009, 03:37:37 PM
I think some hams have their priorities somewhat screwed up with the notion that "I'll become a ARRL member (or a happier existing member) only if you send me a magazine where I can build neat things because I'm a smart and seasoned techie person".

This covers many of the ARRL membership benefits:

ARRL as Advocate
ARRL supports legislation that preserves and protects access to existing Amateur Radio frequencies as a natural
resource for the enjoyment of all hams. ARRL is the strong voice of Amateur Radio in government matters. As a
member, you contribute to the struggle to preserve our privileges. We can never afford to do less than what is
necessary to protect the future of Amateur Radio.

ARRL on the World Wide Web
ARRLWeb carries the latest Amateur Radio news bulletins, a hamfest calendar, exam schedules and much more.
We're always adding new features to the ARRLWeb, so check it often! Order books, CD-ROMs, software and more on
the ARRLWeb Catalog.

Foreign Outgoing QSL Service
Let us be your mail carrier and handle your overseas QSLing chores. The savings you accumulate through this
service alone can pay your membership dues many times over. The cost of airmail postage makes this service
a necessity to avid DXers and contesters.

Operating Awards
ARRL sponsors the most popular operating awards. If you live in the US or its possessions, Canada or Puerto Rico,
you must be an ARRL member to participate.

Regulatory Information Branch
■ FCC/regulatory questions
■ Antenna/tower/zoning restriction problems
■ Reciprocal licensing procedures
■ Legal and engineering referrals

Members-Only Web services
Enjoy exclusive access to the Members-Only services
on the ARRL Web site. You’ll find information and
services that are not available anywhere else.
■ NEW! QST Archive – ARRL Members can access
fully downloadable digital copies of QST articles.
View and print your favorite article and project.
■ Product Review archive. Download and view QST
Product Reviews from past to the present.
■ ARRL E-mail Forwarding Service. Sign up for
this service, and e-mail sent to your ARRL address
(“your-callsign@arrl.net”) will be forwarded to the
e-mail account you specify.
■ Member database. Change your mailing address
and other information on-line through a private,
secure link.
■ Current Product Reviews and contest results.
See them here before they are published in QST!

Member Benefit Programs and Discounts

QST delivered to your doorstep


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: w3jn on July 29, 2009, 05:14:10 PM
I'm happy to become an ARRL member, with or without QEX.  I do *not* want QST however.  Why should I buy something in which I have absolutely no interest? 

I can build neat things with or without QEX.  My interests do not depend upon ARRL membership,QEX, or lack thereof.  The ARRL does some things I'd like to support.  They apparently have no interest in having me as a member, and that's fine.

I could make comments about whose priorities are screwed up, but to each his or her own  ;D


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 29, 2009, 05:42:46 PM
I'm happy to become an ARRL member, with or without QEX.  I do *not* want QST however.  Why should I buy something in which I have absolutely no interest? 

I can build neat things with or without QEX.  My interests do not depend upon ARRL membership,QEX, or lack thereof.  The ARRL does some things I'd like to support.  They apparently have no interest in having me as a member, and that's fine.

I could make comments about whose priorities are screwed up, but to each his or her own  ;D

A person doesn't have to be a member if they want to monetarily support some of the things they do.
Go here for info:
https://www.arrl.org/forms/development/donations/basic/

For even more specifics on ways one can support their activities, go here:
http://www.arrl.org/development/

There are many ways to skin the support cat without ever picking up a QST.

A person not wanting to be a member simply because the person's perception is that the monthly journal sucks, in my opinion, is a rather lame excuse. What does membership really have to do with getting a magazine once a month? I'll ask again, would you join the membership if there was no magazine?


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: w3jn on July 29, 2009, 07:53:10 PM
Yeah!  But not for $40

I'd join if it was $20, or the $40 or whatever with QEX instead of QST.  Hell, it'd *almost* be worth the $40 to be able to cast a vote against the current director in this region  ;D


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 29, 2009, 08:36:54 PM
Yeah!  But not for $40

I'd join if it was $20, or the $40 or whatever with QEX instead of QST.  Hell, it'd *almost* be worth the $40 to be able to cast a vote against the current director in this region  ;D

Ah, but wait wise one:

As a non-member, QEX costs you $36.00
As a member, QEX costs you only $24.00. You save $12.00 but you have to become a member for $39.00. So at the end of the year, you take those 12 pristine QST's that had minimal fondling to the flea market and sell them (1 year's worth) for $12.00 or more. The net result is that by becoming a member, you also received QEX for a year and you recovered the majority (or maybe even all of it depending on your salesmanship) of the money you spent on QEX.

Several Director and Vice-Director terms are up this year.
Item 23 of the By-Laws:
Note, I updated the date to the current years.

23. In the year 2009 and every third year thereafter, a Director and a Vice Director shall be elected in the following Divisions: Central, Hudson, New England, Northwestern, and Roanoke. In the year 2010 and every third year thereafter, a Director and a Vice Director shall be elected in the following Divisions: Pacific, Rocky Mountain, Southeastern, Southwestern, and West Gulf. In the year 2011 and every third year thereafter, a Director and a Vice Director shall be elected in the following Divisions: Atlantic, Dakota, Delta, Great Lakes, and Midwest. The terms of Directors and Vice Directors shall begin at noon on the first day of January of the year after that in which they are elected.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: w3jn on July 29, 2009, 09:07:39 PM
In my experience, nobody will buy post-1985 QSTs at hamfests.

Instead of this futile attempt to chance my mind, if it's important to you, why not use those powers of persuasion towards HQ to be a bit more flexible?  I'd write myself, but my director advised me that as a non-member my opinions don't matter  ;)


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: k4kyv on July 29, 2009, 10:16:17 PM
This covers many of the ARRL membership benefits:

■ NEW! QST Archive – ARRL Members can access
fully downloadable digital copies of QST articles.
View and print your favorite article and project.

Now, if they can do that for Queer Street Times, why not for QEX?

And I don't mean that limited handful of articles they do make available on line.  Why can't they make the whole thing available to members-only?


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Steve - WB3HUZ on July 29, 2009, 10:31:25 PM
That archive thing is sweet. I've used it several times.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 29, 2009, 11:00:17 PM
This covers many of the ARRL membership benefits:

■ NEW! QST Archive – ARRL Members can access
fully downloadable digital copies of QST articles.
View and print your favorite article and project.

Now, if they can do that for Queer Street Times, why not for QEX?

And I don't mean that limited handful of articles they do make available on line.  Why can't they make the whole thing available to members-only?


Why don't they make the ARRL Handbook, the ARRL Antenna Book, or the hundreds of other publications they handle, available for download by members? Duh, because some enterprising entrepreneur will become a member just to download the book or magazine and then drop them on a CD or DVD and sell them for 1/10 the price on ebay, hamfests, nonmembers, etc. The publications, which QEX is part of, are revenue generations for the organization. It wouldn't make business sense, or any sense for that matter, just to give them away. QST is part of membership benefits. Big difference.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 29, 2009, 11:49:29 PM
In my experience, nobody will buy post-1985 QSTs at hamfests.

Instead of this futile attempt to chance my mind, if it's important to you, why not use those powers of persuasion towards HQ to be a bit more flexible?  I'd write myself, but my director advised me that as a non-member my opinions don't matter  ;)

You must be going to the wrong hamfests. Two weeks ago, at the Sussex hamfest I sold 3 complete years worth of QST's (2001-2003) in great condition, from a silent key friend, to a newly licensed ham (I think he said he got his license in December 2008). He joined the ARRL but wanted to pick up several years of back QST's at least from the 2000's. He had no interest in QST's from the "good old days". He got the three years for $30. He went away thrilled. Of course, it could have also been my winning personality that helped close the deal.

In my opinion, I believe the ARRL is handling the membership/QST grouping properly. As Pete, ZJH, pointed out in an earlier post, advertising rates are probably mainly based on circulation. Monthly QST's generate a lot of ad revenue. If you cut back circulation, ad revenue is going to suffer and advertisers tend not to be happy if their ads are now reaching less people. Amateur Radio advertisers don't have many magazine alternatives to place their ads to reach the people they want to reach. Individual membership dues are generally once a year whereas ad revenue rolls in month after month after month.

QST is also Bulk shipped which is based on certain quantity levels. If the quantity goes down beyond a certain level, the bulk ship cost per magazine generally goes up. The same holds true for printing costs. If you pay a certain price to print 150,000 copies of one sheet, and now you drop the quantity to 100,000 copies of that same sheet, you will generally pay a higher price to print that sheet.

So, if the ad revenue goes down, printing costs go up, ship costs go up, and probably on going costs will rise with managing two membership lists (who gets QST, who doesn't, or who gets something else, all the other mailings in addition to QST, etc.). The only way to recoup the losses from this activity, if it was implemented, would be to raise membership dues or raise the advertising charges, but then again, advertisers aren't going to pay more to reach less people.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: k4kyv on July 30, 2009, 02:51:55 AM
The publications, which QEX is part of, are revenue generations for the organization. It wouldn't make business sense, or any sense for that matter, just to give them away. QST is part of membership benefits. Big difference.

Perhaps they know that nobody would download QST and and try to sell it on CD/DVD, because there is not enough left to the magazine for anybody to want to buy.

But they could offer QEX in restricted pdf format that wouldn't allow it to be copied.  I have seen pdf's on websites that would only let you view them on screen but you couldn't copy them or even print them, or that would only let you print a limited number of pages.  I'm pretty sure it is possible to stamp a watermark on each page of a pdf that identifies the computer that downloaded the file. 

So, if there is that much of a demand for bootleg QEX's, why doesn't someone just subscribe to the dead-tree edition, scan them and sell the CD's for 1/10 the price on ebay, hamfests, nonmembers, etc?  There aren't that many pages to QEX, it comes out only once every two months, and extremely high quality scanners are now available at moderate cost, so one person could easily do it.

The technical and construction articles should be part of the membership benefits, as they always had been from 1915 on.  That's not the same thing as sales of the Handbook, Licence Manual, FCC Rule Book, and all the other non-periodical publications.  They never did issue the Handbook, Hints and Kinks, etc. free of charge to members.  But when they moved the technical and construction articles out of QST and pigeon-holed them into another periodical, a membership benefit was taken away.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: Pete, WA2CWA on July 30, 2009, 03:38:06 AM
The publications, which QEX is part of, are revenue generations for the organization. It wouldn't make business sense, or any sense for that matter, just to give them away. QST is part of membership benefits. Big difference.

Perhaps they know that nobody would download QST and and try to sell it on CD/DVD, because there is not enough left to the magazine for anybody to want to buy.

But they could offer QEX in restricted pdf format that wouldn't allow it to be copied.  I have seen pdf's on websites that would only let you view them on screen but you couldn't copy them or even print them, or that would only let you print a limited number of pages.  I'm pretty sure it is possible to stamp a watermark on each page of a pdf that identifies the computer that downloaded the file. 

Sure, there's probably a number of things that could be done, but why give up a revenue stream. QEX magazine stands on its own. It's not part of membership.

Quote
So, if there is that much of a demand for bootleg QEX's, why doesn't someone just subscribe to the dead-tree edition, scan them and sell the CD's for 1/10 the price on ebay, hamfests, nonmembers, etc?  There aren't that many pages to QEX, it comes out only once every two months, and extremely high quality scanners are now available at moderate cost, so one person could easily do it.

I'm sure the ARRL guards its copyrights and would hopefully pursue ligation against anyone violating them.

Quote
The technical and construction articles should be part of the membership benefits, as they always had been from 1915 on.  That's not the same thing as sales of the Handbook, Licence Manual, FCC Rule Book, and all the other non-periodical publications.  They never did issue the Handbook, Hints and Kinks, etc. free of charge to members.  But when they moved the technical and construction articles out of QST and pigeon-holed them into another periodical, a membership benefit was taken away.

This "membership benefit" was never taken away. There are technical and construction articles every month in QST. However, there are probably a lot less amateurs today that have any interest in reading in depth highly technical/bore-me-to-death type articles. QEX came on the scene almost 30 years ago as a subscription based magazine. I think it's about time to let the "good old days" rest in peace.

If you're a member, it's $24 a year; rolled down to $2 a month or less then $.07 a day.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: KF1Z on July 30, 2009, 07:50:16 AM

Why don't they make the ARRL Handbook, the ARRL Antenna Book, or the hundreds of other publications they handle, available for download by members? Duh, because some enterprising entrepreneur will become a member just to download the book or magazine and then drop them on a CD or DVD and sell them for 1/10 the price on ebay, hamfests, nonmembers, etc. The publications, which QEX is part of, are revenue generations for the organization. It wouldn't make business sense, or any sense for that matter, just to give them away. QST is part of membership benefits. Big difference.


It's already been done....
Except you can download them for free.
Anything that has been digitized by either the ARRL, or someone with a scanner and free time has shown up out there, free for the taking.

QEX, QST, antenna books, the handbook etc.

The only thing that is difficult to find, is the most recent publicatios...(the past 4 or 5 years)

As for the PDFs that can't be copied... well that's a lot of huey...
Anything, I mean anything that can be viewed on your screen can be copied....

Anyone that tries to copy protect their work is simply hoping that most people will be honest enough not to steal their work for free....
But lets face it, there are more than a few who will take what is there, and not think twice about it.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: ka3zlr on July 30, 2009, 09:21:19 AM
Hello,


Keeping up with this is Tedious, yea that's the word..Tedious...but I understand both arguments. Ya know from the Early Days on to Say the 80's I can see QEX being a Main gotta Have every month Rag with all the growth and changes that was taking place...but today circuitry arrangements is where SMT & "Software" OK not everybody will understand that but after awhile it's not new any more Throw away toys now computer driven transceivers..., antennas, feed lines, same same..... after awhile....the only thing that changes is the new people coming in.

That's pretty much it,The League does have a payroll to meet and bills to pay so the only way I see anything getting done is to get together enmass and do a protest directly with the League I'm for that and try to effect change within the system. One at a time is a waste of time but do it publicly and Large and they'll move I'm sure of it..either that or some folks just like bitching about something  ;D.....and keep it going...

73
Jack.



 


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: k4kyv on July 30, 2009, 11:05:09 AM
This "membership benefit" was never taken away. There are technical and construction articles every month in QST. However, there are probably a lot less amateurs today that have any interest in reading in depth highly technical/bore-me-to-death type articles.

Replaced with bore-me-to-death fluff and drivel.

Many of the technical/construction articles are fine if I want to build "novelty" items like a miniature QRP transmitter in a cat-food tin, a speaker selector switch or bluetooth adaptor for my receiver, an "on the air" light for my station, etc.  I'm surprised  they haven't published anything yet on building echo boxes and roger beeps. When was the last time they ran something on synchronous detection?  Didn't someone who is a member of this board once say they offered to write a construction article on class-E transmitters or pulse-width modulators a few years ago, and the editors weren't interested?  Some of the antenna projects are OK, buy why was the series on vertical antenna efficiency and ground radials not published in QST?

Quote
QEX came on the scene almost 30 years ago as a subscription based magazine. I think it's about time to let the "good old days" rest in peace.

If you're a member, it's $24 a year; rolled down to $2 a month or less then $.07 a day.

It's not the money; I could easily afford a subscription.  It's the principle of the thing.  Maybe a clue why membership numbers are so low compared to the number of licensed amateurs in the FCC data base.  I hear a lot of grumbling over the air and in other amateur radio related message boards on this very same topic and how much QST "sucks".

Quote
Sure, there's probably a number of things that could be done, but why give up a revenue stream. QEX magazine stands on its own. It's not part of membership.

Another area where AARP and ARRL have something in common.  AARP is largely an insurance broker.  ARRL is largely a publishing company.  Somehow they both manage to qualify for "non profit"  status.


Title: Re: Cut your ARRL membership cost in half, with QEX only, no QST Yea !
Post by: K1JJ on July 30, 2009, 01:20:24 PM
Another area where AARP and ARRL have something in common.  AARP is largely an insurance broker.  ARRL is largely a publishing company.  Somehow they both manage to qualify for "non profit"  status.

A so called, "non-profit" corporation can make as much profit as they desire. Some make $billions.   They are all corporations of some form or another. The thing is no person can own the company or stock. Officers and the board are really trustees. However, if you look at the salaries that some of the execs pull down, they rival "for profit" corps.  I think some of these "global warming" type non profits are set up simply to provide the founders with cushy salaries and benefits from donations.

These "501(C)(3)" companies are exempt from some federal income taxes. It's pretty easy to qualify.  They can qualify as "not for profit - 501(C)(3)" if they pass review that they provide a public service to the community and this service is not covered by the government already.

Another point: If you are the founder and later the board votes you out, you will forfeit all and any investments you made in the corporation.  ie, If Hiram was still alive and they voted him out, he would have no claim whatsoever of equity in the ARRL.. Notwithstanding things like building rental that he owned previously, etc.   That's all I know, caw mawn.


T
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