One of the features of WordPress is that you can create a draft post by jotting down an idea or cutting and pasting a URL into a blank post. I do this frequently, then abandon the drafts. There are several reasons for this:
- The idea was only partly-baked or just a random thought.
- I was too lazy to write a whole post about it.
- It wasn’t that great of an idea to start with.
I think that some of these ideas do deserve to see the light of day, however. They may get others thinking and spur discussion about a particular issue or technology. That being the case, here are some things that have crossed my mind lately.
arrl.org vs arrl.net email addresses
If you’re an ARRL member, you can request an ARRL email address. If you’re an ARRL staff member or a mucky-muck volunteer, such as section manager, you get an arrl.org email address. If you’re not one of the chosen few, they give you an arrl.net email address.
This is something that has griped me for a long time. It’s just another indication of how the ARRL views its members and makes it clear that members are second-class citizens in the ARRL hierarchy. By contrast, I am also a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). The IEEE has many more members than the ARRL, but when you apply for an IEEE email address you receive an ieee.org address, no matter if you are a Nobel Prize winner or a student member.
Photos on QRZ.Com
One thing that always bugs me is that when I look up someone on QRZ.com, I find a photo of their radios or their shack. Pictures of equipment, such as the one at right, do nothing for me.
What I want to see is your face like the one at left. That will tell me a lot more about you than the brand of radio that you operate.
Amateur radio advocate will not seek re-election to Congress
Representative Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) has announced that she will not seek re-election in 2024. In May, the ARRL reported that Lesko (AZ-08) introduced The Amateur Radio Communications Improvement Act (H.R. 3241) on May 11, 2023, to require that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) eliminate the obsolete HF digital symbol rate limit with a 2.8 kHz bandwidth limit. Hopefully, someone else will pick up the ball and run with it.
Mr. CW Lid says
arrl.org vs. arrl.net: I’m betting this is more of a computer programming thing than anything else. arrl.net is the “forwarding service” where you can have [email protected] forwarded to your real email. arrl.org is probably their internal exchange server.
Dan KB6NU says
I agree with you. I don’t think that they intended for this to make members second-class citizens, but that’s what has happened. If AMSAT and the IEEE can figure out how to do this, I’m sure that the ARRL can, too, with a little work.