League Criticism #ARRL #hamradio

There's plenty of folks being critical of the ARRL   Some of the Comments are valid points that the League is addressing.  Some are not.

At Hamvention, the ARRL was out in force.  It was quite obvious that every badge had a name and every name was a person.

While the League is an organization, every organization has members.  If you want to complain, join.  If you don't join, you have NO vote.  

Bucket List item #hamvention #ARRL #hamradio

Following a successful retirement date of 1 February, the Hamvention was a sure item.  It's been planned for over a year.

First time visitor to Hamvention but with plenty of friends who have been there revealed a lot to expect among the unexpected.  

Members of the Christian Amateur Radio Fellowship
regularly plan to have a booth at Hamvention.

Hamvention, like social media, is about being social.  There were hams there that the author has known, over the air, for years but, until now, only could imagine their appearance, other than images on a web page, like this.

Hamvention is so much more than vendors but the vendor space was overwhelming.  Had one visited every vendor and bought something, the economy would be improved, yet, there would be no time for forums and socializing.   

Hamvention is so much more than forums.  The forums were educational.  From Automatic Packet Reporting System to D-Star to Military Affiliate Radio System to Shared Resources to Skywarn, there was a topic for everyone.  

Hamvention was well planned and executed.  The Nixle text messages were beneficial in alerting to strong storms to advising on the parking lot issues.  For all the work being done, Greene County and Hamvention should join the Weather Ready Nation effort.  

The media outreach was impressive.  Local television covered the event.  The media outreach was so effective the media parking lot was full at one point.  HamTalkLive and W5KUB were just a few of the amateur radio media in attendance.

The food trucks assembled at Hamvention was impressive.  From Cajun to Southern to Ice Cream and a variety of drinks, there was something for everyone.  Certainly, there was no need to starve at Hamvention, expect one would be too busy shopping or in forums to eat.

The ARRL, Radio Society of Great Britain, Radio Amateurs Canada, as well as the German and Japanese National Organizations of the International Amateur Radio Union had booth space and lots of it at Hamvetion.  It seemed that almost everyone from the ARRL was there but a phone call to Headquarters confirmed that was not the case.

Hamvention, even with the rain, was worth the bucket list item.  Follow KC5FM on APRS and Twitter to see if the trip repeats.  Regardless, put Hamvention on your to-do list.