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? > > > >