Underdeveloped ARRL

[W1UJR]

In addition to my comment on RM-11306, I posted my feelings in a letter to the ARRL "Chief Development Officer".
The reply was....shall we say "interesting".

[Ed/KB1HYS]

In addition to my comment on RM-11306, I posted my feelings in a letter to the ARRL "Chief Development Officer".
The reply was....shall we say "interesting".

Would you consider posting the reply???  Inquiring minds want to know... 

[W1UJR]

In addition to my comment on RM-11306, I posted my feelings in a letter to the ARRL "Chief Development Officer".
The reply was....shall we say "interesting".

Would you consider posting the reply???  Inquiring minds want to know... 

Let me get her permission first, but happy to post my side.

-Bruce

Ms. Hobart,

Recently I have received several solicitations to donate to various causes of the ARRL, of which I have been a member of since 1995. Let me assure you that I would be most delighted to donate, and donate on a regular basis, should I feel that my monies would be put to good use.

Indeed while visiting W1AW a few years back I made careful note of the Maxim club plaque on the station's wall. However, as a businessman, I very carefully examine at the Return on Investment (ROI) of each outgoing dollar in both my professional and personal expenditures. I'm sorry that I must report that I feel that I have received very little of value from the ARRL during the time of my membership. Indeed, Ms. Hobart, I feel that recent League polices and agendas are in direct contrast to the very things which I hold dear to the amateur service. In a democracy, change can be effected by voting, with the current League structure, I choose to make my change by withholding additional funds and donations. While I will still pay my dues and offer my services as both an ARRL VE and OO, I will not contribute one additional dime until I see the League change tack to an agenda which strengths the amateur service.

Specifically I refer to the League's past support for, and now current proposal of, the reduction of CW proficiency. I am quite certain that I do not need remind you that the art and skill of CW is time-tested and honored hallmark of the amateur radio service. I won't take the time in this email to put forth an argument over this matter, suffice to say that I am most concerned about the League’s support for no-code HF privileges. But my concerns over the lowering of standards pale in contrast to the current League proposal for the elimination of the amateur subbands. Specifically I am referring to the continued and accelerated use of automated “robot” stations on the amateur bands. Let me simply state I am deeply troubled and concerned over the chaos which is certain to ensue should this ill-considered scheme go forward.

I am troubled because I believe the proposal to be flawed, but most troubled over the League's abject failure to poll and develop a consensus over its membership on this proposal. Certainly League officers and officials do not dare to rule from "on high" and think that they know better than the membership that which is good for the hobby. I expect and demand my League officials, both regional and state, to keep me, as a League member, informed of any significant changes or proposals.

I am not certain how active you are in the amateur service Ms. Hobart, I assume that your amateur license predates your hiring as Development Director for the League, but I can assure you that such a misguided agenda will do nothing but weaken the amateur community. One does not lower an organizations standard and then expect to improve the quality and proficiency of the organization membership. Indeed, because it is hard, because the path is one of challenge that membership to any organization becomes ever more prized, and members more devoted to the cause.

I suspect should the two proposals which I have mentioned above go through; your job will become increasingly more and more difficult as those who were really devoted to the amateur service tend to drop their League affiliation. Certainly existing members will depart, but I believe you will be dealt the double blow of lowered recruitment numbers. With fewer and fewer new hams entering the amateur service, assuming the fixed costs of League operation remaining static, the need for additional funds will continue to grow. It is my firm and resolute belief that lowering CW proficiency and removal of the amateur subbands will be the death knell of the amateur service.

Allow me to close by stating that I would wish nothing more than to see the League and its directors stay fast and true to the very principals proposed by our founder, Hiram Percy Maxim. I have read a good deal on this gentleman's life and reasons for forming the League, and I am convinced that he would be most displeased by the current state of affairs today. Indeed I call your attention to his "Rotten QRM" letter and his tongue-in-cheek call for an "Anti-QRM Organization". Well Ms. Hobart, it was my belief that the ARRL was to be precisely that.

Perhaps the mission of the League has changed and I have simply escaped the notice. After all, we are told each month when the new copy of QST arrives, that ARRL really stands for "The National Organization for Amateur Radio".

I would be most interested to hear back from you or other League personnel in regards to my concerns.
 

73 Bruce J. Howes W1UJR

[WA3VJB]

Mary Hobart?
She's going to get a complex with crackpots like you.

Every year at subscription time SHE is the one I send my "probation letter' to, and invariably she is puzzled and acts like it's the first time she's ever heard from anyone who is discontent.

So what did she write ?

[Tom WA3KLR]

Here's an excerpt from the January 2006 Committee Reports to the ARRL Board of Directors.

"Report of the Administration and Finance Committee
  2006 First Meeting

Ongoing Financial Issues

Membership Concerns
Membership decline continues to be bothersome.  Membership has declined by 2% so far this year.  We must turn this trend around!  The 2006 Plan includes a significant effort in that direction.  I hope you will give it your full support."

See the report in its entirety at:

http://www.arrl.org/announce/reports-2006/january/17-Administration%20and%20Finance%20Committee.doc

.

[Tom WA3KLR]

We may be gaining some clout for directing a regime change.

[W1UJR]

Mary Hobart?
She's going to get a complex with crackpots like you.

Every year at subscription time SHE is the one I send my "probation letter' to, and invariably she is puzzled and acts like it's the first time she's ever heard from anyone who is discontent.

So what did she write ?

Cordial and empathic was her tone and she informed that that regional and state officials were polled over the CW and subbands issue and this was to filter to membership – I never heard anything.

If it was not for Gary’s efforts on AM Fone the entire proposal would be unknown to me, and I am a League member, get QST, League bulletins emailed to me, etc. Maybe I overlooked something, but you’d like something like 11306 would stand out. In any case, she’s got a tough job, with the declining enrollment and average age of amateur ops going up each year.

I will be most interested when and if I hear from K1ZZ.
I still intend to retain my ARRL membership, but that’s it.

-Bruce 1UJR

[W1DAN]

Hi Bruce:

Very good letter!

I hope this causes some notice at the League.

I feel they have done an awful lot in the past and continue to do so, but also feel they are now travling in their own direction.

This bothers me. Reminds me of the current mode of operations in the beltway.

They should be able to do the right thing without extra money. I guess if they do not poll the members, they will not have members to poll later.

Good to hear ya on the air too...

73
Dan
'1DAN

[Tom WA3KLR]

Bruce,

Read this whole QSO topic, 2 pages - "9 Days Left to File.....".  I posted some research on the evolution of the petition.  We need to keep a better eye on the ARRL by reading our QSTs and reading their board minutes postd on the web.

http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=6865.0

[W1UJR]

Bruce,

Read this whole QSO topic, 2 pages - "9 Days Left to File.....".  I posted some research on the evolution of the petition.  We need to keep a better eye on the ARRL by reading our QSTs and reading their board minutes postd on the web.

http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=6865.0

Great job researching that OM, I am League member, guess I overlooked that in the flood of meaningless communicaiton from Newington.

Still, I think, esp. in this age of electronic voting and communication, the League should have done a much better job polling members and making them aware of this. This is one of the most signifigant changes in the amateur service in the last 50 years, I think a bit more member consideration is in order.

Not sure how to do that, but if I overlooked it, chances are most other members did too. In fact the comments posted un the topic you mentioned seem to indicate just that.

I'll still be interested to see what I hear back from the League officals, that will go a long way toward my future transactions with the League.

Tnx for taking the time to reply!

-Bruce

[WA3VJB]

Bruce,
They would have you believe they DID poll the members through that blind email box.
There was little interaction as this got going. In fact, the fatal flaw is that they polled AFTER they had internally determined they would use the regulatory structure to promote digital. As you've seen in the Comments, the poll most correctly rests one step earlier, with the premise itself, but that's not what Sumner is likely to acknowledge.
Paul

[W3SLK]

Bruce said:

Great job researching that OM, I am League member, guess I overlooked that in the flood of meaningless communicaiton from Newington.

This is exactly what they count on. Bury important issues with insignificant crap so that it will be overlooked. That way they can exclaim, "We had it in the minutes.."

[WA3VJB]

Mikey you probably recall that the concept of "regulation by bandwidth" dates back to Minutes 63 and 64 of a meeting of the tribal leaders a few years ago. Innocuous little mention of finding a way to promote digital. We started a few emails to question what they were talking about, and they backpedalled as fast as they could to deny they were building up to a bandwidth proposal of some kind.  Had we not spotted those two little mentions, we would have lost some time to mobiliize.

Their "art" of writing those Minutes is, in itself, an excellent test of deceptiveness. A former board member with whom I've had lengthy conversations about the Inner Workings says there is a tremendous amount of pressure to put on the appearance of disclosure, while not really saying anything publicly.  The result, vague shorthand references as to what was REALLY discussed that only make sense to the inside members of the Mystical Order ARRL Brain Trust.

I think the proposal on here to establish a watchdog function on their activities makes sense. I just, myself, could not stomach having to go through all that bullszht to find cause for alarm.

[W1UJR]

Bruce,
They would have you believe they DID poll the members through that blind email box.
There was little interaction as this got going. In fact, the fatal flaw is that they polled AFTER they had internally determined they would use the regulatory structure to promote digital. As you've seen in the Comments, the poll most correctly rests one step earlier, with the premise itself, but that's not what Sumner is likely to acknowledge.
Paul

The thing that gets me Paul, and think about this, is what mode do the majority of ARRL members use?
The simple answer is, ding, Fone.

So I ask, why the push to the digital modes when that makes up a small fraction of membership interest?

The next question is who really benefits from pushing a digital mode agenda?
I suspect once we understand that, we will know why this is ill-thoughtout proposal is being pushed.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Bruce,

Read this whole QSO topic, 2 pages - "9 Days Left to File.....".  I posted some research on the evolution of the petition.  We need to keep a better eye on the ARRL by reading our QSTs and reading their board minutes postd on the web.

http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=6865.0

Tom:
I didn't see your question on the thread you referenced above.
"I wonder if our resident ARRL watchdog Pete WA2CWA is reading the monthly minutes?"

I'm not sure what monthly minutes you're refering to. BoD generally has two major meetings each year. There are also Executive Committee meetings.
But to answer your question, Yes I do read the BoD minutes and the Committee Reports from each session. As a member I also get the weekly ARRL Letter, bulletins, and also read the "Amateur Radio News" on the ARRL Home Page and the Annual Report when it comes out.
Further, our Division Director also sends out a monthly email news letter that sometimes helps fill the news gaps from a Director's perspective.

It's unfortunate that we had a Forum burp around the end of 2004, since now all the archives prior to December 2004, are no longer there. We started talking about the bandwidth proposal right after the Draft Proposal came out in August 2004.

Here is the original announcement on the ARRL Site:
http://www.arrl.org/announce/bandwidth.html

August 10, 2004

Later this year, the ARRL plans to file a petition with the FCC seeking the regulation of amateur subbands by bandwidth rather than by mode of emission.

The principle of the petition was adopted by the ARRL Board of Directors in July 2002. The motion adopted at that time (Minute 64) reads: "At the next practical opportunity the ARRL shall petition the FCC to revise Part 97 to regulate subbands by signal bandwidth instead of by mode."

The main objective is to make appropriate provision for digital modes in the HF amateur bands, while preserving amateurs' prerogatives to use the traditional modes.

Before the petition was drafted, expert advice was sought from the amateur HF digital community. An ARRL Ad Hoc HF Digital Committee was formed. The committee submitted its report several months prior to the July 2003 meeting of the ARRL Board. Staff also provided an interim report at that time. A draft petition was reviewed by the Board at its January 2004 meeting. Additional review was conducted by the ARRL Executive Committee at its March 2004 meeting, and a final review by Board members was accomplished by electronic mail in late July.

In March the Executive Committee decided that a synopsis and explanation of the petition should be made available to ARRL members before it is filed with the FCC to give members and others who may be interested an opportunity to understand what is being proposed, and why.
<cut - details>
Please read the synopsis of the petition, below, as well as the exact rules changes that will be proposed. If you have any questions or comments, please direct them to bandwidth@arrl.org. ARRL staff will do its best to answer your questions. Comments will be forwarded to your ARRL division director. Members are also welcome, as always, to comment directly to their own director using the email address listed on page 15 of any recent issue of QST.

It seems to me the ARRL did its job in getting the word out. The members could either read about it in QST and/or electronically by the ARRL Letters, the Amateur Radio News on the ARRL home page, meeting minutes, bulletins. Sending out hard copy mail to all their members requesting their input would have been costly (150,000 members X First Class Mail = ~ $55,500) and if they included a paid return response envelope, you would have to double the $55K. There’s no $$ return on this type of expense. Requesting donations by this method however, can provide a $$ return.

And as you mentioned in your thread, from the time the Draft Proposal was announced, there was approximately 15 months to provide feedback back to the ARRL and the Directors. The Directors were important since they were going to be the ones to vote on the submission of the proposal to the FCC.

[W3DBB]

.

[W2VW]

Membership Concerns
Membership decline continues to be bothersome.  Membership has declined by 2% so far this year.  We must turn this trend around!  The 2006 Plan includes a significant effort in that direction.  I hope you will give it your full support."

See the report in its entirety at:

http://www.arrl.org/announce/reports-2006/january/17-Administration%20and%20Finance%20Committee.doc

.

They need to bring Pete and the other 2 remaining supporters in for advanced training.

[Steve W8TOW]

I recently resigned my OO appointment (and VE) with the ARRL...I also informed them
that I would no longer be a member of the "League".
THis brought response from several at "HQ" but the letters of most interest was from K8JE, Jim Weaver.
My points made were very similar to Bruces...1UJR.
The bandwidth, cw, etc..and how does ARRL really represent me...
8JE replied with denial. He claims that the ARRL supports cw, that all of the cw minimization was does solely by the FCC. The bandwidth issue is to "facillitate" experimentation by those who desire, so they will not have to wait months for FCC approval to get permission...if they want to experiment on the air with a "non-traditional " mode...
it is easy to deny, much harder to admit you are wrong...
73 steve
8tow

[Pete, WA2CWA]

The bandwidth issue is to "facillitate" experimentation by those who desire, so they will not have to wait months for FCC approval to get permission...if they want to experiment on the air with a "non-traditional " mode...
it is easy to deny, much harder to admit you are wrong...
73 steve
8tow

Even the FCC admits that it's current Part 97 Rules stifle experimentation of new modes or "non-traditional modes". Developing, experimenting, and usage in a particular amateur band with modes that are not currently covered under the rules has been a big problem with many digital experimenters. Case in point, digital voice: You talk into a microphone and it comes out at the receiver end through a speaker but the entire transmitted signal is a data stream. Where do they operate, in the current phone or CW band? You want to send video on 40 meters; where do they transmit, phone or CW band? Traditional analog phone and CW aren't the only modes anymore that amateurs are interested in experimenting with.

In my opinion, leaving the ARRL membership is always an option but it will not stop the evolving Amateur Radio Service. Collectively, members have a voice; non-members have P&M.
One lost membership $$ equates to selling one more Handbook to make up the difference in $$.

[W3SLK]

Pete said:

Collectively, members have a voice; non-members have P&M

So we should send our money to an organization that doesn't give a rat's ass about what we want or operate? Give me a break Pete. You need to take off your rose colored glasses and look at a society of amateurs that have been scortched your (not mine anymore) (be)Leagued(d). I have better things to do with my money than support a gaggle of good ol' backroom boys. There is rapidly coming a time when the ARRgghhL will no longer be the sole voice of amateur radio.

[W2VW]

Don't forget to turn the light out Pete.

[W1UJR]

Creative answer to RM-11306, an actual posting!
Seems the author just subed in "Digital Mode" for "QRM", amazing how well it worked.
Don't ask, I know nothing! 


http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6518325033

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Great stuff. Too bad the TOM thing will likely be lost on the FCC.

Rotten DIGITAL MODE   

This DIGITAL MODE business is getting my Nanny. Here it is midnight, and this msg. from a fellow whose girl has not had a letter from him for a full twenty-four hours, is still stalled. I have smoked myself into a state of funk, the floor is covered with burnt matches, I am losing a perfectly good temper, and there is no sign that this will not continue all night long. How long do these radio bugs sit up at night any way? Right now, as I write, there is that old gink 2AGJ up in New York State fluttering along with that bird –in-the-cage spark of his, 8YO is yelling his darned head off for somebody over on the Pacific Coast, apparently, 8NH is still trying her best to be ladylike in spite of a full hour of trouble, old 8AEZ is booming out QSA but DIGITAL MODE bad CUL, 9PC is trying to do something to 5BV, I distinctly heard 4DI say a bad word, and to the best of my knowledge and belief, no one has got anywhere.   

What are we going to do about this business? It used to be that we were perfectly satisfied to listen to SLI and once in a while on Saturday night when we could stay up late, we would listen to Arlington send time. When heard some commercial say DIGITAL MODE, we had to look it up on the chart to see what it meant. Later, we began talking to the fellow over on the other side of town and then was born amateur DIGITAL MODE. Sometimes, the “little boy with the spark coil,” (the latter is all right, but dog gone the hide of the former) would try to call us at the same time, and we used to think we were in trouble. Still later we used to think we were bothered when we were in the middle of a “conversation” with a fellow in the next town, and some whop would butt in. It about this era that we began to organize Radio Clubs, with high faluting ambitions about “promoting radio communications and controlling interference.”   

But when we have a fellow who has not written to his girl for a full twenty-four hours, and who positively must get the msg. to her over in Illinois, it becomes a serious matter to have some one else getting gay with the ether, especially when the later had no conception of the existence of the word “brevity.” One thing I will say, and that is that good old 8AEZ is brief. His spark may drown out everybody in the western hemisphere when he sends, but he is brief. He says what he has to say in a few words in a few signals and he stops. He also does not go in for the long technical discussions about gap speed and condenser construction while forty or fifty others of us are waiting with five or six messages each, many of which have been stuck on the pin a week. Far be it from even me, a real blown-in-the-bottle radio grouch, to find any fault or mention any names, but some of the young gentleman who burn up my valuable time every night and thereby multiply this DIGITAL MODE business, ought to look up in the dictionary the definition of that particular combination of letter indicated by B-R-I-E-F. I could call off a dozen of them right now, and I would if I thought that Editor down east would print them.   

The trouble is, the young squirts don’t stop to think. They start out and call somebody somewhere every three minutes. Everybody they hear, they immediately call. If they don’t hear anybody, they send a QST something like this: -- QST QST QST QST QST QST QST de 1NUT 1NUT 1NUT 1NUT 1NUT 1NUT 1NUT 1NUT 1NUT. Any station more than fifty miles distant hearing these sigs. please send postal to Willie le Nut, Nutville. Willie repeats each of this msg. three times. Each letter is sent so slowly it puts you to sleep. He uses up just exactly twelve valuable minutes sending out this hogwash, and drives an old timer to the point where he radiates brush discharge from every hair on his head. These fellows ought to be limited to hours between supper time and 8:30, and any one of them slopping over ought to get a letter from every respectable amateur within his range threatening to spank him if he ever transgresses again. I know a certain some one who will put in his bid for election to the office of Chairman of the Committee on Chastisement.   Here is a sample coming in right now. Listen to this slop:-- Columbus co 2pp 18co all sigs charles 9vy u no hf a motor little heavier than the racine sorry sorry om Digital Mode Digital Mode pse qta k fish smell rotten yes yes wyd boston how do you get me gap bum bum rubber band qta pwf about motors. (Bad squeaks here. Sick spark coil near at hand. Wheezes terribly.) Want to hear tone like commercial? ark r r r yes ark r r r listen nw.   

Here begins ten minutes of the darndest scratching, screeching, groaning, blowing off steam, blubbering that ever mortal ear heard. At its worst it goes on into -- -- fine fine how do u do it? ark r r r rubber band on  vibrator—BANG. My friend with the one k.w. over on the other side of town explodes. He calls an 8 station. When finishes, the scratching reduces. Then we get the long distance DIGITAL MODE again. Cul om sk spfscity bunk allemo bish mela hash breakfast wunkey wunkey lala lala 2asj arm bad qsl 3zw must go to bed now hw hw hw abt abt abt msg msg msg pse pse pse k k k. This is the way my log book this evening looks. It’s enough to raise a blister on a wooden leg.   

Here is another sample of Digital Mode slush:--v v v v v v v v v v---------------- (Somebody sitting on his key.) v v v v v v v v v linneg se with the wlce sore feet commercial wirlih. Now what in Heaven’s name would you make out this? Is it to the effect that somebody has a line a commercial who is on the warpath for some amateur with sore feet? One cannot be sure of these matters. It might be that it is the commercial who has the sore feet, chasing down some poor amateur around town probably.   

Listen to this:-- Yes yes jst wyd glucky wait a mt muddy wouff hong bliftsfy monkey motor. We assume from this msg that Glucky is being asked to wait a minute while Blifsky seeks a wouff hong with which to wallop a monkey the next time the latter faces toward the motor. I do not think I know just exactly what a wouff hong is. Probably some piece of apparatus used in the southern states to beat monkeys with.   It is this form of uninteresting “conversation” which clutters up the air with DIGITAL MODE. Of what moment is it to the rest of the world that this fellow Blifsky is going to smear somebody’s monkey with.

It is this form of uninteresting “conversation” which clutters up the air with DIGITAL MODE. Of what moment is it to the rest of the world that this fellow Blifsky is going to smear somebody’s monkey with a wouff hong? When anybody relapses into such mental slop as to want to operate with a thing named a “wouff hong”, he ought to keep his trouble to himself and not compel all of us respectable amateurs to listen to his drool.  To slaves and slobber a lot of foolish twaddle like this when that poor girl out in Illinois has not had a letter since yesterday, is plain wicked.   

Sorry om Digital Mode Digital Mode 9vy few words schlipsh nuzzle his mucket faded undershirt cfrish reptg pain in neck sus gup om cul ark. This is a real relay, evidently. 9VY over in Fort Wayne is mixed up in it in some way. Whose undershirt they are talking about and what schlipshing one over is, I do not know exactly, although I have a rough idea. Whether the signals faded or the undershirt faded, or what was the matter with the sus gup of the neck of the undershirt, I be darned if I know.   

Just cast a lingering look at this:-- Biirgrmp bru rotary ge ge ugerumf om with my set rettysnitch spitty tone hit in potimus? Now what do you suppose the poor gink was trying to say when unreeled that? You have to guess a lot in wireless, and how would you guess this? Something is wrong with this fellow’s biirgrmph, his rotary also has a bad case of ugerumf and somebody around the place must have spit on his rettysnitch, because his tone was so rotten it hit him on his potimus. Sound bad to me. Why will some people send such personal matter by wireless when the whole country can overhear it. It isn’t decent, and it makes the DIGITAL MODE more rotten than ever, and just think of the way it makes a perfectly good log book appear.   

I spent the better part of an hour trying to make out what ailed the poor fellow’s biirgrmpg, but had to give it up while I listened to a child with a spark coil scratch out this at a rate of around three words a minute:-- how do s........e.......? how be .....? how do I cowp ....... cw ....v v v v v v --------------------come in ? ? ?ark After a long wait another trouble maker with a bad cold in his head stumbled back with:-- r r r r r r r r r r r r ok ok please ? ? ? ark Another pause followed by the first little demon with:-- r r r r r r r r r r qta qta qta pse rat . . . . . . . ve . . . . . . . .? pse ttt . . . . . . . . . . .qta pse repeat ark. These brats kept this up for twenty minutes and they ended up just where they began.   

What we ought to do is organize an Anti DIGITAL MODE Association. Then let us elect for Chairman the worst plug-ugly we can find in these U.S.A. Then let us chip in for a little money and hire a clerk with a bad disposition who will write letters threatening the life of everybody whom the members report as causing needless DIGITAL MODE. If anybody gets balky, we will all join together and swear the gink is sending with a decrement greater than two-tenths, and so report to the local Radio Inspector. If the latter does not within twenty-four hours have the boy arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment, we will all band together and find another job for said Radio Inspector. Let us rise, fellow bugs. Rise and crush this octopus which is engulfing and overwhelming us. Eight hours a day and triple time for overtime is death and starvation to our families. Hash for breakfast, rotten smelling fish, and DIGITAL MODE -- -- -- We will have naught of it. Down with the fellow with the scratchy spark coil, down with the fellow who calls three times three, down with the fellow who calls everybody he hears and down down down with that unspeakable skunk who calls somebody and sends a long relay message repeating each word three times when the station to which he is sending is sending something himself.   

There by heck, I have that off my chest. Now you there in Illinois, get this call. Let everybody else stand back from now on. I’m tired and sleepy and cross, and I don’t care who I DIGITAL MODE until I get that pin cleared off.   

-TOM

[W2VW]

Maybe they might understand Scratchy Hashifisti.

[WA3VJB]

Steve, TOW, where you quoted yer League man as saying  --
The bandwidth issue is to "facillitate" experimentation by those who desire, so they will not have to wait months for FCC approval to get permission...if they want to experiment on the air with a "non-traditional " mode...

Does he realize this could become part of a Comment OPPOSED?  So easy:

"Why should this group in Newington throw out a popular, longstanding method of coordination by mode, just so a very small group of people will not have to wait months for FCC approval to get permission...if they want to experiment on the air with a "non-traditional " mode..

I mean, sweet baby Jesus, why is it such a hardship to make a technical case, apply for, and receive approval to be added to the list of Approved emissions ?  Excellent gatekeeping function, IMHO.