Hero worship of the ARRL is the main cause.
But the league says...
And the league means...
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Kraus
Kraus
Some of your post clearly shows you have real knowledge of radio and antennas, many are just trying to be funny but are flippant/annoying QRM on the threads, but "
Hero worship of the ARRL is the main cause" given the question is "why clubs fail" I don't get. What does the ARRL have to do with whether a club is healthy and growing, or not?
We are a growing club (N1FD) due to "project nights", offering license and CW classes, hosting VE testing sessions, mentoring, having members write articles for a monthly news letter and much more. As Fred (AB1OC) writes above in this thread we reach out to the young to encourage STEM interests. The most recent was a high altitude balloon launch (it went over 90,000 feet and crossed 3 state lines) with various sensors, APRS and GPS for live tracking, and a Go-Pro camera link. Local HS students participated. None of these activities start or stop because there is a ARRL. ARRL is not the cause of clubs failing, or succeeding.
Now if the ARRL didn't exist it is likely Ham radio wouldn't continue to exist.
Spectrum is valuable real estate worth taking, making products RFI free costs money, and the thought of amateurs modifying/building non-type accepted equipment in non-channelized spectrum with ERIPs over 15kW scares a lot of people due to the potential impact to public safety and FAA comms, and the HOA lobby would be more than glad to see Hams put 10' under. Now throw in the concern over the preppers having a independent distributed comm solution without a single switch to turn it off.
There are a dozen organizations that have tried, and will keep trying to put pressure on the congresscritters to cut our coax for good.
We need guys in suits to put counter pressure on the congresscritters to keep the bands open. Guys that know their way around the Rayburn Building that have enough jingle in their pockets to live anywhere near Wash DC and cover a nice lunch for discussions with the congresscritters' staffers so they know our side of why Ham radio is important and the ability to sound the alarm to the Ham community if a threat appears. Those guys are the ARRL.
We just wrapped up the ARRL field day with 3 towers and 4 beams, wire Vs, and a 3 el wire V beam array with 3 50' masts, 7 transmitters going the full 24 hours. (I could have used you on CW). We put it up on a soccer field Friday and took it all down Sunday. We got additional points by inviting State reps, the governor and congresscritters. It's a ARRL effort to counter weight the efforts of those making the case to pull our plug.
Unlike big pharma the Ham related industry isn't large enough to do the job, and if Hams went it alone what would that look like? If Hams showed up on the Washington Mall to protest it's likely they would be out numbered by tourist and other disorganized protesters by 4 to 1 on a typical day, and they wouldn't be noticed. Beside most Hams would never spend the money on a airline ticket.
Is ARRL perfect? No, far from it, I could write pages on the issues I believe they have wrong. But as a member I, and 170k other members, have a voice to try and fix it. If they stray too far we'll stop sending money and they will need new jobs. QST is almost worth the $10/month to join.
Does ARRL always get what they want, no. They tried and couldn't stop the US Dept of Commerce from letting in non type approved LED
noise generators light bulbs because it would irritate China. But look at it this way, ARRL only has 170k members, which isn't a position of strength. AARP has 37 million members and nearly $1B/yr, and they don't always get what they want either.
73
K1HMS