Yes Rick, I am positive that the ARRL did exactly that.  They published the
results, and made written statements in QST that they would fight for a
continuation of the standing rules at the IARU/ITU level, then turned right
around an voted with the rest of them against it.   They then said they
would support its continued testing with the FCC, and then turned around and
did not do so, instead supporting the FCC's stated intention to delete the
requirement.    I had at least two of them (ARRL OFFICIALS) tell me
face-to-face  they would support the majorities wishes.  Now they are
bragging about all the new "opportunities".    Its come down to a business
decision, and they broke ranks, in order to sell more books, and hopefully
gain more dues, etc.  I have read emails and missives from dozens of people
who are quitting over this.  The ARRL management has never listened real
well to their membership, but this is the straw breaking the camels back,
for many.

Go ahead and say 'JAPAN" .   This all started years ago, and in fact at the
region 3 meeting in Hong Kong (73 or 74) I was the HK voting member to the
meeting.  At that time, our Hong Kong Amateur Transmitting Society members
had thoroughly discussed the ever increasing numbers of hams we were seeing
in Japan and were discombobulated at the QRM we were being inundated with
from there.  We had discovered, in order to get a license in Japan, all a
Japanese citizen had to do was throw a few Yen in an envelope and send it
off to JARL - not the Japanese government agency equivalent .  For that,
they would get a code free HF license that would permit them operations on
certain parts of the hf bands, contrary to ITU rules. They were limited to
something like 25 watts at the time.  I was asked to write up a position
paper and read it to the conference, by our membership.

W1RU was there, representing the ARRLs members in the US Islands in the
region.  When I spoke that we had a position paper to read, he as much as
demanded that we not be able to present it, because it wasn't on the agenda.
I knew well what was on the agenda, as being the host, I had written it.  He
went on to demand that there be a vote JUST FOR ME TO READ THE PAPER.  We
were not asking for a decision, a vote, or any other action to be made -
Just to be able to present our thoughts on the subject of  "Issuance of Code
Free Amateur Licenses For Use On HF Bands"   I had written the paper
carefully, not mentioning Japan, or any other country by name, but simply
stating our position against such actions since they were against
international regulations.  A vote was taken, with 4 countries voting for
the reading of the paper, and two (JAPAN and USA) abstaining.  I read the
paper.

After that, JA1RL stood up and said as far as the Japanese were concerned,
they could issue such licenses because " These amateurs only use 25 watts of
power - so we know they will not interfere with any operations ""outside
Japan"""   Say what????   You could have knocked the rest of us over (except
W1RU) with a feather.  There were probably hundreds of hams already, at that
point, that had achieved and received QRP DXCC.

During the next session of the conference, we were all advised by W1RU that
JARL was giving us (Region 3) an amount of money (I forget how much - or how
little) to fight "Interference on our bands"    Yep - money talks.

So , this is nothing new, for an organization supposedly there to fight for
its membership, to do just the opposite of what the majority wants, or to
tell us one thing and do exactly the opposite. The sad thing is its the only
thing we have.  I was, and still am a member.  That gives me the right to
bash them every time they do something like this.  After all I AM THE ARRL.
Yeah ! Right!







Danny Douglas N7DC
ex WN5QMX ET2US WA5UKR ET3USA
SV0WPP VS6DD N7DC/YV5 G5CTB all
DX 2-6 years each
.
QSL LOTW-buro- direct
As courtesy I upload to eQSL but if you
    use that - also pls upload to LOTW
    or hard card.

moderator  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
moderator http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DXandTalk
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "KV9U" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <digitalradio@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 10:34 AM
Subject: Re: [digitalradio] US Hams Codeless Feb 23


> Danny,
>
> Are you sure about the decision of the ARRL to one day support the
> majority view and then reverse themselves a few weeks later?
>
>
>
>

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