Club Memberships and ARRL in the Ham World - is it worth the $$

It's your weekly show where we discuss ham radio topics in New Hampshire , new England and beyond , and we're thrilled to have you here , whether you're a regular listener or tuning in for the first time . And we know we've had a bunch of new people jump in , so we're glad to have you here and thanks for joining us for tonight's episode .

All right , so let's get into our show . I'm your host , call sign N11jur . First names eric , as always , and I'm with my great co-hosts it's paul n1og and todd w1stj wonderful guys . Well , good welcome to see you guys again , and we took a little bit of a hiatus here during christmas and whatnot , so we're kind of getting back in the saddle here .

So you're bound to uh to hear some of our screw-ups and mess-ups as we try to relearn all this all over again . But with that , as we always like to do in every episode , we like to update you guys and catch you up on a few things .

So , as always , our storefront up at livefreeandhamcom forward slash shop is where you can head over and check out all of our new merch . We've got some awesome new items in there for our cold winter weather friends . Paul is sporting the new live free and hat beanie .

Uh , we've got our classic live free and hat beanie , which is only just our state logo there , with the live free and ham uh antenna in it . Um , we're going to probably put in some hoodies out there , uh , with , uh , some of our favorite sayings on shirts and stuff like that . There , there we go .

There's our live free and ham classic one that Paul just put out there . There are plenty of great cool winter stuff you can pick up there to keep yourself warm while you're sitting here listening to live free and ham . So with that , we also have still left in the coffers there . We have a few left .

We've got our favorite live free and ham etched um , classic whiskey , bourbon glass and , uh , you know , they are all of it still available . There's a few left . So , you know , if you haven't picked one up now , you know I can't tell you . You know , you just need to get the ball rolling there and head over to the store and pick yourself up one .

Um , there are a lot of happy folks that have already grabbed theirs and they've sent us pictures and shared the love of live free and ham , uh , through , uh , you know , their favorite spirit , and so , as I said , our storefronts got them . Once they're gone , they are gone , my friend , and you know you could be a sad ham , which we don't want you to be .

So you need to live free and ham glass , simple as that , all right . So with that , I'm going to only touch this on a little bit . We've got our pigs , as always , you can head over to get hamcom and grab one of our little oinkers there , um , and spread the love .

Show folks , uh , you know , and those guys that are sporting some great antennas on their cars , that you recognize them . You see how cool their , their ham setups are .

You can now drop a small little pig with your call sign on it and point them at get hammed on uh , the little tokens affixed to that pig's body there and it's awesome little way to say , hey , I recognize you , I'm a ham , I love what you got set up there and it's a cool thing , um , that you know we're we're trying to just start as grassroots .

So you know , hey , go pick up a few . We've got a couple of small starter packages up on . Uh , get hamcom , um , and get your pig set up . But if you want to do this in your own club or you want to do this in your own little world , you know , reach out to me .

I'm always happy to share , you know , kind of my secret sauce and where you can pick the stuff up and you can start to kind of spread the love there yourself and enjoy having some fun doing some really cool stuff in the community . So , all right , well , with that we've got a couple more things . You know we've got a couple more things .

We always love feedback and we are starting to see the feedback rolling in . So we are appreciative of you guys . Thank you , guys for reaching out and sharing your thoughts . We've got some really good stuff today we want to share with you from a few listeners . But the way to do that is you can reach out to us in three simple , easy ways .

You can send us via an SMS text . That link is in all of our show notes and description below . Just click that link , send us a quick message and we'll get the fan mail from you . You can now leave us a voicemail , and we've got a voicemail that we want to share with you tonight , and you know our lines are open and that number is 978-233-1142 .

All you have to do is just dial that number , leave us a voicemail and we will share it on our next episode and we'll , you know , tear it apart and talk about it .

You know that's what we're hoping , so , um , and then you know , if you're the typical uh , you know type that just likes to send an email , you know you can always send us an email , live free , and him at gmailcom . How boring , but you know we'll still it on our next episode .

Whether you send us a review or you got a question , you know we're here to help you out and we want to share , you know , whatever you got , and so send it our way . And , as always , we've got two great things .

As we always keep sharing is that we always do a live stream , and in this month , in February , we are going to be having a live stream soon .

So the way you get in on the the the no , and know when we actually go live is to head over to our YouTube channel , click the subscribe button If you're not already a subscriber , and make sure you hit that notification bell . That way , you get notified anytime we go live and you can join in on all the action .

And I don't know how about you , but you know , if you remember , two months back , we ended up having , um , our shack roast , and that went awesome . I had a blast , we all had a blast . I think we all had a lot of drinking going on .

But , uh , you know , we had some really great , uh , really great roasts there and , uh , we , we all feel at this point that , uh , it's a great way , uh , and we're going to do this every year . So if you didn't get in on the action this year , then , uh , you know , there's definitely a possibility that the opening will come again next year .

So we'll love to have new folks there and new shacks to roast . And if you are always like us and you like to be in on the know and you want to be the cool kid , you can always head over to our Patreon channel , our Patreon front . I don't know Patreon membership , what are those things ? You know . You know what I'm talking about .

I don't know why I'm rambling , but you can head over to our Patreon page and become a subscriber and you will get free access . I didn't say free access . You will get access to membership to our um back uh , rock hut , uh , you know audio streams of all of our recorded episodes .

So if you want to hear all of the back channels and all the fun stuff that we talk about before we start the show and and all the stuff in between , you know , feel free to . You know , come be a membership and you get a lot of great other cool rewards that we give to our membership base um that you don't normally get . It's just a regular subscriber .

So go over and check that out and become a Patreon member . It's really easy and we'd love to have you help support the show , right ? So with that we are going to dive into our first segment , and I am slow on the draw here . Uh , what's the button ? Do I hit again my friend ? uh , yeah , here we go ladies and gentlemen , can I please have your ?

I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story . Everybody . We got some news . Slow down , Boog , Let me handle this . We've got some news . I've got bad news and bad news .

Is that a TV or an aquarium , or what ? So , eric , let's find out what exactly is behind you when you don't have your screen covered . Because , sometimes you don't cover your screen and you have some kind of funky electronic thing back there .

Uh , it probably didn't come in very well , but it was , uh , a video I did on my channel and so if you're interested in what that looks like , I'll throw them a link in the show notes . Uh , so you can check that out . But uh , of course it will do self-promotion . That's the way it goes , my friend . Do it all for you too as well .

Um , so you know you can overcheck that out . But that was my geocron . Uh , that was my only one , and only attempt to create some fine artwork . Um , and I have to say so myself , it turned out pretty good .

So you know I love my geocron , but now that my wife can actually walk by it and think it's a regular frame , then I've scored , you know , bonus points for a long time . So it's all good .

And then now it's just a nice pretty piece of artwork Now you can just put a mirror up in front of the shack and just look up at the mirror .

But then when I read it I was like wait , a who's it from ?

So let's kick that one off , this one , I think is what our second voicemail that we've had so far as uh you know uh having a voicemail uh box there , so let's play the quick voicemail here . Good afternoon , uh , first time listener . Just uh heard your checking off episode and uh a request to uh send comments like this uh via voicemail or text message .

Just wanted to say great show . I'm going to keep giving it a try and if you are ever looking for some new content ideas , there's a technician-friendly activity that runs the entire month of January called Winter Heat , from hamactivecom H-A-M-A-C-T-I-V-Ecom H-A-M-A-C-T-I-V-Ecom .

It starts 0000 UTC January 1 , which would be New Year's Eve around 6 pm Central , and I know you guys are on the East Coast , so obviously adjust accordingly . Check it out . I'm not affiliated , I'm just a participant who really enjoys it and my call sign is Kilo 9 , delta Golf . Yankee . Name is Chris from Highland Illinois .

Thanks for the show , merry Christmas .

I tried , I tried like heck uh , as as a technician to to get through , and you know I was still dealing with mike fright issues at that point .

Uh , I had learned about them I can't remember whether it was on Facebook or some you know the social media sites and and they were trying to very heavily promote it and at that point I think it was like they were running it for like two , three months , it just because it was like a winter thing , um , and it was all about a points structure and they kind

of revamped it . I was over on their website a couple of weeks ago cause I saw another post from them and every once in a while , see , on Facebook somebody will post a heat map . When you know the , the the G3 storm you know happens . They'll . They post the G3 storm happens .

They post a ton of that stuff because they know VHF and UHF is going to be a blast . And it's always hilarious because I look at the heat maps and where they do it from their point of origin . The farthest tip of it is just barely crossing over into New Hampshire .

So I'm just like there's no way in the world they're going to be able to reach all the way to Ohio . So I could only dream if I had a you know a butt ton of power and , uh , you know a bunch of Yagi's pointing at them that I'd be able to make contacts . But yeah , you know , it's good to know .

I mean , some of the heat maps that they posted are like go all the way down to like Georgia and Missouri and stuff like that and I was like wow , that's huge , that's like a huge swath . It sounds like the fun event .

We should definitely have those guys on and chit chat with them to kind of promote that a little bit , because it sounds like a real cool way to kind of , you know , do some VHF , uhf work when you normally don't do it .

You know , if it is true , then you know , we'll be buying some flexes later , but I only doubt it . All right , well , okay , with that , then I guess we're going to roll into and you know , as always with any of our uh , if you want to leave us a review or you want to , you know , say hello and you want to leave us a voicemail ?

Uh , you can always reach us at 9 , 7 , 8 , 2 , 3 , 3 , 1 , 1 , 4 , 2 , or you can send us a voicemail . Uh , you can send us an SMS text through our link in our show notes , um , and we'll be always happy to read it on our next episode or when we receive it .

So you know , like I said , if you can get it earlier in , then we'll be able to read it earlier If you get it in later , it's just the way it goes . But we appreciate you , chris , for , you know , leaving us a voicemail and we encourage everybody else to you know . So you know , definitely do it . All right With that , we'll roll into .

So we want to showcase , because we're tired of folks allowing the negative voices to overshadow all of our cool ham radio enjoyment . So I'm going to raise my fist and say bring on the good deeds , my friend , we'll share your story with us .

And so , whether you've you know , like I said , had your first ham radio experience , um , with the total stranger when you were activating a park , or you're teaching a student , a family member , you know the neighbors of the joys of ham radio .

Or you know , hey , you got a chance to demonstrate , uh , you know , to a new technician the thrills of hf at some field day in the future . Well then , we want to hear about it . So , with this week , we are have been graced by one of our great uh , youtube , uh , friends , uh , and part of the hamily there , carlos k9 . Um , wow , help me out there .

Oh well , thank you , my gosh . Sorry , I totally botched that . And you know , as the CRS I am turning , you know I've already turned 50 at this point , so I'm way over the hill , Um and uh , you know , really in in some serious trouble . So , um , I'm going to have to go take my CRS pill and hopefully I can recover .

So , um , he sends us a nice , uh , quick uh email here saying hey , we should take a look at . There is a group um in um , the pulling it up here , uh , in one of his local clubs where they're doing a build an Elmer um , for people that might need help .

And I think there's a really cool idea because , in essence , you know how many times you run into some new technicians , um , and they have no idea what to do . They , you know they're , you know they're at a loss to figure out where they go next after they got the technician license . So , why not have a program like this ? And this is a perfect idea .

And so what they try to do is , um , they uh are looking to , you know , connect , perspective , new hams , and they're looking to contact them via email and they're just going to reach out to them and they're going to say hey , you know , how can we guide you , how can we help you , how can we , you know , provide you some , you know , mentoring or just even

some general assistance or an ear to be able to , you know , ask a ton of questions and be able to get the answers you need , without getting the snarky comments or to say , well , go read a manual . I read my ARL antenna book for 15 years before I started talking about antennas , but sorry , I did that in my wrong voice , anyway .

So they are offering things like general questions , safety questions , the typical technical questions , or maybe you want to dive a little deeper , talk about Morse code , digital modes , maybe you want to get into antennas and station planning , you know . Or you're one of the guys that have deep pockets and you want to build a tower .

You know these , uh , these things are definitely questions you need to get answers to . Um , so you know these guys are available and they're willing and waiting , uh , to help you guys out and get you plugged into the hobby . So if you're interested , we will leave the link down in the show notes and you can always check that out .

And or maybe you want to be in mentor and you want to help on that program . Maybe they are willing to and they are out seeking for mentors . So you can reach out to them and offer your services and you know , maybe you can start to , you know , spread some , some positivity in the hobby and get more folks into .

You know aspects of you know the hobby that they may not be you know that , you know sure they want to dip a toe into you can help them lead in the way . And you know , you know we , we're all you know , pretty much perfect examples of one another being mentors to each other .

I mean , I , you know , I I kicked Paul's Todd's butt in getting his general and then what did we do ? We went out and did a poda . You know we had just met Paul initially and we were hanging out and we invited him a poda and God , you know , he can't stop podoing . So you know , it's like it's , it's , it's , it's an infectious thing . It's really cool .

It's awesome to have a bunch of other people do things like this in the hobby with with . So you know , you know , if you aren't a mentor already , you know , start doing it , but more so , hey , here's an outlet to be able to start doing it in . So thank you , carlos , for sending this to us .

We will make sure we spread the word and get this stuff out to folks so we can get more people in the hobby and excited about it and doing some really cool stuff in the future , because God knows , you know , that's the only way this hobby will stay moving forward .

So cool , all right , well , with that , as always , we say with this , you can always share content with us If you've got a great story you know and you want to share us . There's three easy ways . You can send us a voicemail and I'm going to drill this home every time 978-233-1142 . And eventually we're going to have to write an AI jingle on this .

Get on that one , great Paul Um . You can head over to our website at live free , hamcom , forward slash do good , all one word .

Fill out the form there and leave a , you know , a comment or two and we'll be glad to share it on our next good section , um , and if you are one of those type A's and we've had a few um , you can always send Paul and one OG a win link email over HF . No , none of this .

Tell Nick , crap , I don't want to see a tell that email , I want to see a true HF . You know , rf to RF , you know kind of scenario send him a win link email . You know , with your do good in it and we will be glad to have you on the next live stream . We'll coordinate that .

So if you want to , you know , get your five seconds or 55 seconds or five hours or whatever YouTube live stream . You're on with us . You know a fame .

You know we'll glad to have you on there and hang out with us , because you know we want to support our community and that's one way we can , you know , reach out to you guys and have you be part of that . So yeah , all right , well with have you be part of that . So , yeah , all right , well with that . I still have laxed and dropped the ball .

But , and now for something a little extra , with Todd W1STJ .

It's an awesome resource to help you prepare for your test and is recommended by three out of four volunteer examiners . Because the ARL is never around to comment . But no big deal , all right . So without further delay , I hand it over to our VE Quizmaster , paul . Take it away , sir .

B select the point at which baseband signals are generated . C provide access for debugging software or D provide incremental signal delays or filter algorithms ?

So more taps increase the steepness of the filter roll-off , while increasing the calculation time delay and , for high order filters , limiting the bandwidth . There you go .

The Zener diode establishes a constant voltage , supply and ground , the Zener diode establishes a constant voltage drop and the resistor sets a constant current . Note that you can immediately dismiss two of the possible answers because regulator appears in both the question and the answer . Yeah .

You on drugs okay , all right so you're definitely not gonna hear the song tonight I haven't listen , I haven't seen any of these questions .

For example , a shape factor of 2 to 1 at 30 to 3 dB means the bandwidth measured between the frequencies at 30 dB attenuation is twice that measured between the frequencies at 3 dB attenuation . This tells you how sharply and completely a filter attenuates signals outside of its passband .

The other answers don't relate to comparing signals inside and outside the passband . So hint , reject all TV channels to get into shape .

It was sort of going to be like more of the official official guide to this , like backstory of like explaining the , the text , but it's in one of our , it's in that episode , I think the link is there for that , so check it out there . But , um , it's supposed to be a really good , uh , free resource to .

That's hopefully going to replace , uh , you know , some of that stuff . Not that that's a bad resource there , but it'll go into more depth .

But again , it's taken me a longer time to get through the 99 questions in this section . 99 ? Really , paul , you had to have 99 in one section , like come on .

So congratulations to Kimberly , kate's kilo Charlie one , victor Yankee , mike , brand new technician , and so yeah , so congratulations her good job and also congratulations to kilo Foxtrot five echo alpha November , who just upgraded from technician to general . Nice Great job to both of them .

So if you're on the journey of studying for your technician , general or extra class license , then you want to head over to hamstud studyorg because it's an awesome resource , just as Todd has said several times over and over again , and both Paul and myself have used it . Um , and we appreciate those guys .

Uh , richard and um , well , man , I just Ben , thank you . Uh , that was a close one , uh , for you know , coming on a previous episode , so if you haven't actually caught that episode , you should go over and listen to that . It was an awesome episode , um , and that's in our back catalog there . But they are doing an awesome . You know they're doing .

What they say is the Lord's work there , for you know , awesome hams everywhere , um , so you know they are a great resource to getting your've gotten your upgrade or you just recently got licensed . We want to hear about it .

So send us an email at livefreeandham at gmailcom and we will be shouting your call , sign your name from the hills and celebrating with you , because it is an awesome , awesome honor to be part of something so cool as a ham radio .

Uh , you know hobby and uh , you know we want to welcome you in and encourage you to continue to further your understanding about rf and the hobby as a whole . So with that we are going to get into our usual format . What's been going on your hammering week , paul ?

I got Rob in Connecticut on 40 meters fantastic and then I got Tim on 20 meters also great signal . I've been trying to situate some things with the desk and you know I got projects on the workbench behind me that you can't see , um , but uh , I'm slowly chipping away at things and so , overall , I would say it was a . It was a really good ham radio week .

Um , I , um , I'm , I'm back to doing , uh , you know daily nets , um , so that's that's a good thing , and otherwise , uh , yeah , just , you know daily nets , so that's that's a good thing , and otherwise , yeah , just , you know videos and you know , feel free to check out my channel . I'm going to have some live brand ham stuff .

But yeah , without us there is no live free and ham , thank you . Thank you . See someone's on the right page . Get with the program , all right , cool . So hunting , all right , yeah , I . Yeah , I saw Rob pop up a couple of times . I didn't get a chance to work on my , just was too lazy from the couch , um , sadly . But uh , I did .

Uh , I did have a few folks that I hunted , but I'll talk about that in a bit . So Todd over to you , man . How has your Hammer Day week been ?

Yeah , um yeah , and I've been , uh , you know just , I've been doing some hunting and just getting on , I've been making contacts , just right , I hear someone calling CQ . I've been calling them out and radio is working great . The uh radio is working great . The uh the flex is is just phenomenal .

I mean , it's just been really good getting a lot of able to pull out some weaker signals and adjust . And , uh , I did find out I didn't even know this , but I can , um , add antenna gain on the flex . Um , oh , yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah I didn't even know you could do that and it it actually actually made a difference , at least on the receive .

I I literally want to freaking throw it in the dumpster . I can't stand pcs . My pc at work sucks and this one really sucks because I'm trying to download a driver for Zach for his quadcopter , and I've watched YouTube videos . I've done it step by step and the freaking thing won't log .

And it's not just me having this problem , it's a whole bunch of people , because Windows 11 sucks . So , whoever's running Microsoft , get off your ass and just make things work like Apple does , and , of course , my buddy's , like Todd .

I asked he's just like shrugging his head because he discussed , so you buy the initial investment right and then you trade it in and you know you'll probably be cheaper than buying a whole bunch of pcs over five years . Now this pc I , you know , eric built for me and it runs great .

But I keep hitting it cause it's underneath my desk and it doesn't need to be in this huge big case because it's only got two things in it and it's all empty inside . Um , but yeah , but I can't do the podcast with the max unless I spend like 10 grand , so which I don't understand why I talked to ryan .

So , windows when you buy a , buy a , build a PC yourself , you can add memory , you can add disc , you can add CPU changes to it , because you have the capability . When you buy a Mac , if you buy it at a certain level , it's going to give you that certain amount of power . After that you can't throw more power at it .

The only thing you do is trade it in and get a faster computer because you need that little extra horsepower . So it's sort of like going out and releasing a BMW , realizing that the M-Series you bought is not fast enough to beat your neighbor . So you're going to be like okay , I'm going to go out and trade my M-Series back in and get a whatever .

But you know , put it this way , mac will make it a little easier and make it a little different in terms of getting to making it easier , but the you know , the , the software and the functionality is the still the same . The difference is how they handle . What are you doing ? I have no idea what Paul's putting on the screen .

No , you could do that on the Mac , that that's not a problem . But , like with the , with the OBS stuff , like you're going to have to understand how the audio system works in a Mac . It is very different than PC . It's more abstracted than it is in a PC world , not to say that windows doesn't have its bullshit crap that you know we all deal with .

In fighting trying to crap , that you know we all deal with and fighting trying to , you know , make things work , uh , you know , with all the crazy technical stuff that we do , uh , in the background to , uh , you know , put these live streams on and you know , make it entertaining for folks , um , but yeah , we could go in for hours and we could probably turn

into a , you know , our own pc show .

And while I'm sitting there in court for hours waiting for my case to get called in , right editing , and then you know I I would like to switch the ham radio , like the flex and everything the stuff I do on ham radio , to the to like a macbook . What do you call it ? Mini ? I've talked to bill and then I looked on like like k murder , he does mac .

A lot of people do mac on ham radio , but then you know it's got the podcast stuff . If I wanted to get what I have in this computer I'd have to spend like $10,000 , and it's not happening . So you may not be getting it , I might not be throwing this computer out that soon .

And then I start looking at you know , eventually I've always wanted to get the curve monitor , just have one , and clean it up . And then I'm like , all right , if I put one on one side of it and one on the other side , I could do two on top , you know , maybe one vertical one .

So you know , but I started getting ideas from the shack , uh roaster shack thing and I saw everyone's uh shack . So it kind of got me thinking like , hmm , that would be a good idea . So that's what I've been doing ham radio wise .

I felt like that was telethon almost level , you know , in terms of you know , when was Jimmy going to start coming out and doing the dance with the girls ? You know . So I think at this point , we'll definitely have to do that again next year , and next year we're going to have to .

You know we have to boil that , you know , cause I'm sure everyone's going to come hard and we're gonna have to boil the , the grouping down a little bit to the top 10 . So we can at least get a show in , because you know we're we're not raising money for , like you know the teacher's Institute .

He always constantly on 20 meters . I can't get him for the life of me , no matter what , because he's just either got a rate you know it's a signal skips over me , or whatever .

But I can hear him all the life of me , no matter what , because he's just either got a rate you know it's a signal skips over me , or whatever , but I can hear him all the time . And gray man POTA has always been a thorn in my side to try to get him as well , like I don't know why I can't hear him .

And I just happened to you know , get the luck of the draw for both of them in the same . I think it was in the same day , like within an hour spread of each other , that I was like , oh , mike popped on . I'm never going to hear him .

And I heard him loud as day and I'm just like I'm going to , you know , I'm going to call him , and I think he was on 40 meters . So he responded back and I was just like , wow , man , it's finally good to get you in the log .

And then , you know , and I think , and actually he was on 10 meters when I , when I worked him , so I think that's , you know , to my benefit , that probably worked better than you know when he's usually on 20 or 40 , but yeah , so I did a little of that .

I just finally wrapped up some videos that have been working on and looking forward to , you know , some future stuff . I mean , there's a lot going on , a lot of different things , but , uh , you know , enjoying , uh , you know , playing ham radio when I can , and , uh , you know , I'm hoping to , uh , you know , see if I can reach some of my bucket items .

I think , uh , I mentioned in previous episodes , uh , and whatnot , that my bucket list is we start to get more into the spring season . I think we're going to have to start , you know , getting the legs stretched out there and start doing a little hiking and , you know , maybe getting into my first 4,000 footer and and start playing in that space .

So , yeah , looking forward to that .

You know , maybe you , uh , you , you came from the Gen X generation , uh , and you know you were very privy to , uh , you know , a Columbia house and the good old CDs for 10 CDs , for a penny type deal . Uh , you know about all those stupid ridiculous memberships that you'd sign yourself up for .

Uh , I God knows how many times I ended up getting sent to collections as a you know 20 , something , something , because I tried to get so many cds . Never worked out , end up . You know , max out my credit , you get the cassettes bmg and columbia house yep , those two guys , you .

And , uh , you know , sam goodies , or you know a rocket record , target tower records or wherever it was . And , uh , you know that always pissed me off .

Like they would always launch like uh , uh , you know an album and the one song you wanted on it was never on it , it was on a separate single and the single didn't come out until , like you know , four or five months later , after the full album went on .

But I'm talking about , like , actually cutting the , you know , the actual tape ribbon there , um , or you're burning the bottom of the CD so they can never , uh , you know , read the bottom of the disc . But oh , all the good old days you don't get that . We're streaming these days .

But uh , sorry to segue there my friends , but uh , hopefully you didn't mind that little . Uh , you know , journey , journey in the past , um , but we're going to talk about memberships tonight , you know , and we all kind of have our um take on them and our view on them .

You know , I I wanted to kind of share and talk a little bit about them primarily , and I'm talking about , like you know , all of our ham , like type memberships that we have .

You know , whether you're a member of the ARL and you're , you know , just a general member , or maybe you're a diamond member , you know and I'm curious to see why you'd want to be a diamond member and you know , or maybe you're part of a , you know CW ops or uh , any of the the big um CW um clubs , and I can't remember the other one .

That's a big one and I'm sure people are yelling at me Long Island yeah . That's the other one I was thinking of . You know , or you know you're a member of your own club and so you know I wanted to talk . You know what ? What do you guys have for subscriptions in that sense ? You know , do you like them , like , do you , do you buy into them ?

I mean , obviously some of them are a must , you know , are they valuable to you , like in this day and age ? Like , do you feel like you're getting stuff out of it ?

And so I just kind of wanted to open that up and see what your thoughts are on a little bit light shed on it , but more so , the stuff I've heard has been like oh , this is just information . I want to get into the nitty gritty . Do you have an ARL membership ? Do you hate being an ARL member ? Let's get into the brass taxes .

Who wants to pick it up first and talk ? What do you guys have for memberships ?

Notice a trend there with the life membership . Yeah , I agree . How ?

Then there was another ham radio club that that I I had a membership for , you know , a few years , but after a while it just got to the point where it was like I'm I'm not benefiting at all from these memberships , and so I got rid of them .

And so the memberships that I maintain are memberships that I hold value in , that I personally hold value in , and that , I think , is the key , because a membership is only as good as you hold value in it . And so I'll , uh , I'll , I'll let todd list his memberships before I go on a tirade about memberships that I don't like .

But so I have been a member and I've just , you know , I probably my wife probably threw out the reminder in the mail and I get 3000 emails a day and I probably just missed it .

So whatever , but uh , I'll be joining them again and the reason I joined them is because it's part of ham radio and they're , they're the backbone and the people that are fighting for , you know , with the with the law , the government , government backbone . And the people that are fighting for , you know , with the with the law , what do you call it ?

The government . So , um , you know , I I do get frustrated with , with memberships when it gets more political . But you know , there I do think that you know , having a membership that supports your hobby is important and that's why I support them .

So I'm like , if they don't do anything for me , I mean , but membership's nice , I don't use it to its full ability , but I look at it as a donation to support my hobby .

So I joined them and I thought I owed them money because it's like at the beginning of the year and I all of a sudden I was about to pay him and go online and I got in the mail my membership is good through 2025 . So I probably paid for multiple years and just didn't look at it .

But again , it's a membership that I look at , as I don't really use it . I mean , it's not like I'm on there every day looking up stuff and reading stuff , but I do . When there are laws that are coming out , they do fight pretty well and they keep things going .

And then um other memberships that I have which I have way too many of them is like this . I mean they're more like subscriptions to all the tv and internet crap yeah , you know but those are like the two ones that I use and and again .

if I find something that I would use or I'm a strong believer in , then , yeah , I look at it as like I don't mind doing it . I was . When I first became a ham . I joined like every ham radio club I could possibly find . Some of them were just free hey , join us for free . But our club , the GSARA , was the only one that I actually connected with .

I was part of the Nashua I think it's the Radio Society . Nars , what NARS , nars . And I mean they weren't as like . They seemed more like an ARRL . Their website is phenomenal , has tons of resources and as a technician I was like , wow , this is great .

But I just kind of felt like I was just a number and , you know , I just didn't feel like I could get connected with them . Uh , you know . So I mean it was that . But then I joined , like I used to do the uh , the interstate repeater society . I was on that repeater all the time .

So I felt like , well , I'm using a repeater , I should support the repeater . Um , so I joined that for a couple of years and I don't really use that repeater that often . Um , now I'm really on ours and I'm on the Fort mountain repeater , but I don't think there's like a club for them , I think it's just a repeater .

But if there was one , you know , I would join that cause . I I use , you know , their stuff .

You , you're , you're pretty much like well , I'll just let it lapse and move on to something different .

The club is the money helps and we improve things and and you know it's more of a , you know it's it's a lot more money than we pay for our club . You know , to fly , to be in the thing , but it's for me it's like this is what you do and this helps make things better . So when I do go down to the field and I see the guys , it's a better place .

It's not just a a field with , you know , cut grass , it's got , we've got shelters , we got storage , we got lawnmowers . I mean there's a lot to it and um . So you know I don't mind paying for it and joining it and keeps me going .

But besides that , I mean I was a I'm not a union guy , so I hope I don't offend anyone but the union that the state has in New Hampshire sucks ass , and if any of you are members of the union , you come debate me on it . I'll tell you why you suck ass .

But , I was a union member for a long time and they did nothing that affected me in a positive way . If not , they did things that hurt me . So I there was a law that was passed I think it was called the right to work and they said , oh , you don't have to be a union member anymore . I'm like sweet . So I signed off on it and I'm not doing it .

And they literally harassed me . They were coming up to me at work . The guy was at the dump was trying to convince me . They were coming up to me at work . They were . The guy was at the dump was trying to convince me . They were calling me , texting me , emailing me . I mean it was harassment and to this day I won't do it .

And they said , oh , but we negotiate for your benefits . I said you negotiate shitty contracts . There hasn't been one I voted for because it sucks . And I said so he goes , but you don't get to vote . I said I don't care , you pass them anyway , I go . It's a big scam .

So I got out of it and to this day they come and try to drag me in and I just tell them so what positive thing did you do for us this year and it's not . I mean we would get 1% . They would praise on a 1% pay increase 1% . The cost of living was 3% .

You know it does the value equate to what you get ? You know as what you put into it , meaning your fees .

So I guess for me , really quickly , before we kind of dive into a few things , cause I got a lot of questions um is I kind of if I keep it just general , like you know , club memberships and ham radio stuff , I for a while used to be a lot like you guys where I would like if I was using the pay to play model .

So if I was using a repeater I was using , I would be a club member . I for me that kind of wore really fast because I felt I was just I understand that I was giving to maybe an organization to build help , you know , in support of their repeaters , their systems , their club , blah , blah , blah , what organizations as a whole .

But like , at the same time I was never really using anything except their repeater .

Now I took the attitude of like so if you look at a club that has a repeater only and again this is my opinion , so it doesn't apply to anybody else except myself is that if I'm using a club repeater whether I'm using like weekly , or I'm using it for a period of time , or I check in every once in a while , I check in a net for me it's like the

repeater was there . The frequencies that were assigned to those repeaters were never theirs anyway , so it was just part of the original you know kind of allotment to them that was given to them free because they never paid for it . Yes , they have equipment , resources and costs and stuff like that with all of that process .

But if there was club was only focused and , from my opinion , focused on just a repeater solely , I feel like it's not enough for me to be able to say I need to give them money , like because it's sort of like if I was like a ham radio , like being a ham radio operator , I'm like a POTA guy and every contact that I make with somebody like I would charge

them a fee because they want to talk to me . Like that's like that's kind of how I look at it . I'm just like that doesn't work for me because in essence , you know , airways are free . So that's kind of my change in thought around that .

So I don't , I don't give my money to a lot of clubs unless I'm involved in them in some form or fashion , and that's more . For like a lot like I think we touched upon is the connection with people , and so if I'm connecting with them and it's reciprocated and building relationships , then I don't care whether the club fees are $100 or $15 every year .

It's the value that I put into it because it secures my spot in that whole environment . So that kind of gets really difficult to deal with , at least for me .

When you look at the large organizations like ARL or Long Island CW club or any of like those kinds of avenues where people like throw money at that because they feel like they're giving something to help and they are , I mean those , those resources and those places and those groups you know do a lot for the hobby , um , but like when I look at ARL , like I ,

it's a toss up for me a lot and so , yeah , I pay my ARL dues because I want to just kind of have my ear to the rail to hear what the hell's going on , and maybe they might be doing something for me , maybe they might not , I don't know , you know , but then money is not hurting my wallet right now to the point that I can say , yeah , I can't .

You know , giving them the $49 or whatever it is forever . How many years I pay in advance , you know is .

But like , at the same time , I'm also not like the life members either , like I don't understand how someone can lay down a thousand dollars plus to ARL and say to them I want to be a diamond member but all I get is a little plaque on my , you know the wall that says I'm forever . You know , ingrained in that .

You know , and it's just kind of like , just , it's just my old school , you know , mentality of thinking like you know , screw damn the man , save the empire , kind of thing .

Um and so , yeah , subscriptions for me and I I think it's the same thought that you guys have is that you know , if there's value in it and you're getting value back out of it , then you know you're going to put , you know , your money , you know , on the table and you know , help , support them , because that in essence helps just further along the process ,

and so don't you need an arrow membership to be in logbook of the world ? No , it's free .

Um , you know , I I don't think qrz provides me any more than my regular logbook , except for the fact that it allows me to connect my logbook to them , to be able to synchronize contacts and confer , you know , further along , further along my awards , you know kind of journey .

But I don't , I don't consider myself a QRZ , like I don't wear the badge proudly on any of my websites whatsoever that says I'm a QRZ member . I don't know about you , but no , I don't have any badges .

Like if there was a thing and said , hey , uh , you know we're short money , we're offering lifetime memberships .

Whether or not I'm going to be here or not , I would probably buy a lifetime membership to our club only because I'm passionate about it and I think the club offers a lot and I've had a lot of great experiences and met some great people and made a lot of good friends . So to me that's something that I wouldn't even hesitate to do .

Same thing with the Flying Club . Those guys have been my friends for I don't even hesitate to do it , you know . Same thing with the flying club . You know those guys have been , you know , my friends for I mean , I don't even know how , I'm probably pushing 15 years now , but you know that was another one .

Like if they said , hey , we're short money and we need to put money down . We need lifetime members because we have to raise this money , I wouldn't even hesitate . I'd be like all right , I'll be a lifetime member . And we've got guys in that club that moved away and they still pay their membership and they don't even come anymore .

They live out , you know other parts of the country .

So I think it's like if you're , if you're really passionate about a club and a club has done some good stuff for you or membership , you know , staying with them , I mean I'm going to be a , I am going to be a um membership to my flying club and our ham radio club for my life , like if I move away , I'm still buying a membership just to support them

because of what they offered me .

It was like , well , I could pay X amount per year or I could pay one lump sum . It was a relatively reasonable rate . I don't ever have to worry about it again , and so , for that , I love the magazine , I love not having to worry about renewing my membership . Lifetime membership just made sense For the VFW .

When I first got active in the VFW , I was a yearly member . Then I upgraded to life . Um , there's additional added benefits to the higher legacy life levels . Um , I stopped at bronze . It's four hundred dollars per additional level . There's three more , so it's another twelve hundred dollars on top of the life membership fee . So it's a lot of money .

And , and while I absolutely love the VFW as an organization , um , there's there's just a lot of bad actors doing bad things and ruining the organization , and so I've , I've , I've since stepped away , and and and I , I still don't , I don't regret , uh , becoming a life member , because I know that you know , when it comes to legislation and things like that ,

they're , they're in DC and they're advocating on on my behalf as a vet . Um , so for that I appreciate it . Um , now you move over to the ARRL and , and let me just tell you , I I am , I'm so unbelievably frustrated at the cost of the annual memberships of the , a double rl , versus what you get from it , and 100 .

There's three different magazines you could choose from and you get those magazines every month delivered to your mailbox and it's fantastic and they , um , you know they , they advocate , uh , on our behalf to the fcc , for you know the , the band allocations and things like that . Um , just recently , last fall , we had an issue where , uh , what was it ?

Uh next sat , uh , wanted the 900 megahertz . Right , they wanted to take the 900 megahertz band and they wanted to , you know , do things with it , and the things that they wanted to do are great .

Don't tell me that it's oh , it's digital , and well , you know digital is just as good .

How long do you hold onto it , and then where does it go after you're done ?

I have a manila envelope that's got all the great freaking articles in it that I I've found in my magazines um , good magazines like where the whole magazine cover to cover is fantastic , and I want to keep the whole magazine . I will keep the whole magazine . I will keep the whole magazine for 10 plus years .

But once I started getting them , I had a pile over in the corner that was just getting bigger and bigger and I felt like I'm never like if I go with , like so , with me and you guys can maybe different , but like even if it's a great article , if I go and I'm like , hey , I want to remember where that I saw that antenna build , I'm not going back to

that magazine or book , I'm going to go to the internet and I'm going to surf the internet to find the latest article . Because we know that you know antenna designs change , you know people come up with new updates and so I'm always going to want to get the latest stuff or go down a rabbit hole trying to find the latest stuff .

So I just basically was like , okay , I don't get the QST anymore , I didn't want the paper version and I know people like that , the idea and I just kind of said you know what ? I don't read it enough . My wife looks at it and goes why love the online app version ?

Because one it's got awesome search capability so I can find anything across any one of the magazines that's available . I can also I get February's magazine . Have you gotten February's magazine yet ?

And so I got to read all those cool write-ups and you know , share them on social and stuff like that , and it was really cool . But at the same time , like I didn't like worry about like because , okay , I go to bed and I read my ARL magazine . I can't turn on a light and you know , annoy my wife to read a physical paper form .

But I have it on the phone , I can read it on my tablet . I , you know it makes it wicked easy because it's already on my phone anyway . So you know that that's my , I guess , challenge to you . So you know you might want to look into it . It might , you know , suffice some of your problems .

But I know you , you like the , you know the tangibleness of holding the paper and sniffing you know the glue that they assembled the binder with .

I have real books and and and the books that I've read and I don't need to go back on them . I donate them because somebody else could read that book . But there is , there is something to be said for reading off of physical paper and the way the way that your eyes are the way , the way that your brain receives the information .

It's different and and so I don't know . I I like having something physical in my hands . It's like , hey , for your money , this is what you get . Okay , you get our , you get our advocating on your behalf and you get this little magazine in your hands every month all right .

But you know it's funny because I used to get like a , I used to get like an email that I haven't had it since March and I got to get back into it Cause I honestly still thought I was a member Um . But I did look at the digital copies and , like I said , it's , it's , I would rather . I mean the AMA has the same thing .

They went through um , they have a magazine and it went digital and you know I don't mind reading stuff on my iPad or whatever Um , but yeah , it clears , it brings less mail . I get so much junk mail and so much crap .

You know it just fills up and if I don't go through it , you know I'll look like I like I'll get'll get like um , like even the ham radio outlet .

I love getting them because I can go through and look at them and then I like put them somewhere I go into my drawer I'm like this is like three years old , like what the hell is on the back of the toilet and I just sit there right . So I mean , but you know , and I , I , like I said I , I , I , I do think I mean they .

They had that big price increase and I don't think they did it the right way and I don't think it went over too well . I think a lot of it had to do with piss , poor management of the organization and you know . But for what you get for it and what I use it for , it's like . Again , I look at them as like they're . They fight for the bands .

You know they fight for us to continue to do this hobby . I think if you don't have an organization like them , you know people are just going to take it from us . So I'm more of a .

I look at it more as like , not so much as my membership to them , but more of my yearly donation to have them be able to survive , my yearly donation to have them be able to survive . But I don't like when organizations waste money on stupid things that they should be putting their money in no better use .

But look , as a member , I guess I get a vote if they vote for them , because they did have surveys out about raising the prices and stuff and I told them what I thought and I'm not stingy and you know I still don't think I mean , I think $60 is , you know , for the year . Is not that out of control ?

But reading the stuff that was going on at the time , I mean you'd think like they're trying to take your house away from you . I was like holy crap , it's just $60 . Like I mean it's not that much . I mean it's a .

I think you know , if they were down that long and what they should have done is they should have gone to the members and said listen , we apologize , we had problems , we're extending your , you know , because you didn't have access to what we were offering for , the , say , three months . We're extending your membership for three months .

Yeah , they didn't Exactly , but that would have been a good offering which would have made me say , okay , well , now I feel comfortable signing up again , you know , and renewing , but they just don't . So they basically stole money from all its members because the members didn't have access to what they paid for .

Now I was in similar , same boat because , again , it's that value proposition of what the hell am I getting out of my $50 , $60 a year . And so I did . You know , and I'm sorry , todd , I'm going to promote I did a video on going to the ARRL and I thought it was fun .

It was fun because , like Marvin , I went with Marvin W zero MIT when he was working for the learning center and he gave me like the , the full walk through . Now , mind you , when I got to certain parts of the building and they had a lap , like they had what they called the um employees HF lounge , and it was like cutting edge everything .

They had flexes in there , they had , you know , uh , all of the , the tools and gadgets and amplifiers and towers , all in that room . Like , when I got to the room , the first feeling I had was like anger because I'm like my money's being used so they can have a lounge to do HF and I can't use this .

And then I was like , so I was like grilling them and all the questions , because I'm like this is our new state of the art . You know , we built this and we brought a vendor into . You know , bring in this hardware and flex donated and Icom donated . And I'm like , yeah , you're pissy , exactly Right .

And so so I literally , you know , for those that are on the podcast , paul's making a hand gesture that we won't , uh , you know , elaborate on , but you can watch the video to get more definition um , in eight and four K Um .

But you know , as I continued on the tour , um , we finally got to the Percy Maxim museum and I was like blown away because it's it , they explained it and the guy who walked me through the whole process and again you can go over my channel check out the video , Um , but he allowed like you can go there and you can operate all of their towers and their ,

their setups and their stations are like they're not top of the notch hardware but like their yezu um ft 101 , you know d's running 200 . You know running a kilowatt . You know , with a bunch of beams at different you know elevations , elevations , um , and it was a great experience .

So at least I got a chance to operate as W1AW , even though I didn't make a whole lot of contacts that day because the bands were shit . Um , but I , you know that that kind of you know we'll say , move me from the negative side of the . You know , I'm ready to burn the building down to okay .

Well , you know , maybe there are a little bit better because I have this , I have this resource that was never communicated to any like to anybody that I was aware of , that you could go down and do this , and so when I went , you know , through that , I was like , oh well , this is something somebody should , you know , be aware of , that that has you know ,

especially if you live in the new England area , frick , you know , if you haven't gone down there , you should go down there and just it out . It's an interesting kind of setup and I get what they do and why they do the testing , and so they do a lot of interesting things that we don't ever hear about or talk about .

So one of the things that I learned when I was down there was that they do RF testing . So a lot of those radios , antennas , all of the manufacturers that we see out there . They have full labs that they have set up . That does the RF testing , does superior submission testing does all of the manufacturers that we see out there ?

They have full labs that they have set up . That does the RF testing does superior submission testing does all of those things , and they . So they take , you know , anytime they do a review in the magazine .

They've already gone through their whole entire lab structure and tore that radio from , you know , beginning to end , through its paces , made sure it was , you know , you know , under the type acceptance and , you know , said what it was supposed to have , you know , and so they're starting to do more of those like Chinese radios and get in more of the garbage that

you know has been seeping through for a while . Um , that's gotten better , for sure , but I'm sure it's has been . At the same time , you know they they've done some really good things , but , you know , does that outweigh what I'm paying , as well as what they ? What I really think they should do ? I you know , probably not . You know .

I mean , in essence , I think they're very fat as an organization . I think they need to be a lot more leaner and I think they need to be in a place that they can offer really good benefits for the hobby as a whole , because they're a larger organization that already plugs into government entities and should be our voice and also an education machine .

But the one thing that pisses me off the most about them is why ? Why do they hold so tight to all of their properties when it comes to books and printing ? That just drives me bonkers .

Because , like ARL , they put out their whole antenna book great resource but , fricking , put it on like , put it in a digital version , because the books I don't need a shelf on the wall that could hold 300 pounds worth of antenna books , you know that are going to sit there .

That I maybe reference a couple of times , you know , and it's like they , they , just they , they . They aren't open enough . I don't think in that sense .

You know it was a silent key , but I'm looking at it , going like this is a stupid cartoon .

That would be something like okay , I'm going to pay my $60 and they're going to send me a digital copy of an antenna book , and then the next year they're going to send you a digital copy of an antenna book and then the next year they're going to send you a digital copy of Operator . Good point . You know how many coffee mugs I have .

Give me a break , dude . Don't waste your money on the postage .

And you know , I guarantee like I would buy 25 of those before I'd buy one of these cups from ariel I mean right , it looks like you got it at the dollar store . Yeah , exactly . And they're printed on it from like exactly yep , yeah , good quality . Exactly . Yep , yeah , good quality products .

But then I also think you know I haven't been down there but you're telling me that they've got state-of-the-art flexes and stuff in a room only for the employees . That's fucking bullshit . I'm sorry If I go down there I'm walking in that room and saying dude , I'm a member and I paid for this .

I'm using that flex , I'm not using this old freaking beat-up radio that you've had out here for 30 years . Why would they do that ? Why would they make that available to all members ?

Now we're going back a few years , but they were in serious hot water because they were taking in all this money that was supposed to go to vets and instead all of their admin had six-figure salaries and everybody was getting rich , but the veterans themselves were still suffering .

And so here we are we're giving to this organization that's supposed to be fighting on our behalf and they've got a station in Connecticut filled with flex radios and fucking towers and antennas and all this crazy expensive shit . For what fucking purpose ? Like what is my money going to ? That is really giving a benefit to me does the ARL ?

We need to get the arrow president dude , we can barely get them to them to give us a comment on our .

How come that wasn't in the front page of your magazine , like I want to know that ?

And how come you don't spend money to help clubs improve their clubs that can promote ham radio and get more members in there , like the AMA , which I know I go back because it's my only other hobby that I have but they actually every year you apply and you can do things to improve your field , apply and you can do things to improve your field .

And you put in a request and you tell them what you're going to do and you show them a budget and you do all that stuff . And I've never , our club has never been denied . So yes , there .

So in the case of that sense , but they , like , we put in our runway and they said this is what we want to do , this is how much we're going to get , we're going to get paid , and you have to buy it all first . And then they it was almost like a grant . And then he said , here , here's a check , good job .

And then they put it in their magazine and say , oh , the Southern New Hampshire Flying Eagles put in a runway , blah , blah , blah .

You know organization that takes , yeah , two , yeah , exactly , um , to take , you know , donations in to be able to apply for those . But they do have grants that they've been able to give 50 , 100 , 000 is actually a club in barnstable mass .

That , um , my dad's a part of the barnstable bark club and they got a grant from arl , which also was in conjunction with the ardc , to outfit one of the scout camp buildings with the full hf station tower .

You , you know power , backup , battery power , with the idea that the scouts could use it during summertime and scout camp activities , but they as a club could use it as their main location and you know kind of club radio facilities . So there is stuff out there like that , you know , and ARL does offer that and you can put in for those requests .

I mean , I know as a club we kind of have that on our item list to talk about and maybe look into because you know , I know , todd , you've had a dream to have a , uh , an RF or HF kind of you know club trailer .

And I think it's like the government , you know , like you give the government next thing . You know they're dishing out billions of dollars for this and it has nothing to do that I wouldn't pay a dime for , but we end up paying for it .

I think these organizations and you're not going to agree with everything they do , but not going to agree with everything they do , but I also think that they should be more upfront and honest and I mean , I don't know , is the arrow have a board of directors yeah , we all hate them , but yeah , they are , but are they , are they like ?

are they a club of board of directors that protect themselves and keep them in the board of directors thing like other term ?

Seriously , I mean I'm serious , because again it comes down it's all politics , right , it's all politics yes . Right and politics is the root of all evil .

So if you're going to have a good club , like the Arrow , even the AMA I would take every member , put them in a hat and pull up freaking one from each section and say you're on the board period , that's it . You're the board member for the year . You can decline it , We'll pick someone else out .

But if you want to volunteer your time and do it , but you get one person , you get a whole group of people . I know how it works . They all protect each other . Oh , we're going to do this and we'll force this and we have the power to do that . And then only way the members stop is if they stop joining .

And I was watching that whole when they're going to raise the prices about they were they were .

What really made me is like they were OK with losing members , Like as a , as a person who would want to never lose a member , like I don't want to lose a member of our club because I think the members are beneficial to the club , and it's like , and I want them to stay because we're we've got a good club they were okay with losing a certain percentage of

members because they raised the dues so much and I was frustrated with that because it tells me that it's not so much about the members , it's more about their pocketbook and what they can do with that money , and that , to me , is is just wrong and that that really it put me in a bad taste in my mouth because again they had the speaker .

You know , they had the news things , they had the articles , but they were okay with losing members and that's not what a an organization should be trying to do , especially when you have thousands and thousands of members who are contributing , you know , to the cause . You sounded like dirty Harry just then .

So I guess the bottom line is so in all of your memberships and we obviously kind of outlined a little bit and touched upon the fact that you know the benefit and the value proposition of every one of your memberships has a , you know , an expiration in some sense .

So you know whether it's lifetime or it's a , you know one of those things that you know it's a period of time . You definitely have , you know , some measuring stick in place for how and whether you keep things around . So , from a standpoint of ARL and we'll just talk about ARL , like in Paul .

From a standpoint of ARL , and we'll just talk about ARL like in Paul , you already said that you weren't renewing this year . You know , do you find that there is going to ? I don't know , is there value per se in ever wanting to go back and renewing with them at all ?

Like , so , not today , but like in the future , like if there was , like everything was turned on its ear or things like . Would there be a turning point for you to say , hey , I'm ready to put back money into the organization to help support whatever it was doing ?

Um , I think , I think that what they need to do is they need to scale back , they need to balance their budget better and they need to handle their money better so that they can have lower dues , because they have .

They have the freaking pool of people to pick from as members people that want to be members and so if you've got a large group of people , you can charge less money and still balance your budget out the same less money and still balance your budget out the same . And and and .

Then I feel like , if that was to happen , more people would join because they would see a benefit of their membership .

You know , you take , for example , uh , you mentioned the long Island CW club , right , and so when I first got licensed , uh , I paid the yearly membership fee for the Long Island CW club the first two years , and then I was like you know what ? I just don't have the time and the resources in me . You know , I'm also learning Scottish Gaelic .

You know , one one extra language was was . That was all I could take at the time was was . That was all I could take at the time . Now I'm getting back into cw and I've been away from from the long island cw club for well over a year .

But as soon as I was gone for a year , they sent me an email and they said hey look , we understand that like these things happen and you're gonna , you're gonna go away . You're gonna go away a little while , but we want you to eventually come back .

If you'll pay I think it was $60 at the time , I think it's $90 currently it will make you a life member . Then , when you're ready to come back , we're here and we're ready for you . I think that that was fantastic . I had no problem two years ago paying the life membership fee and forgetting about it .

And now this year , I said well , cw is one of the things that I want to learn , and so I'm getting back into it and I'm going to utilize their services because I've paid for it . I'm a life member and , and you know , I have that ability .

It's it's all about being good to the people that support your organization , because if you're good to the people that are supporting you , then they're going to continue to support you , and so , while I might not have to ever pay them again , I'm more than happy now to donate because I'm getting a benefit from it . Does that make sense ?

You had 30 days to write a letter and get out of it . And I had told one of the rep guys I said you know , if you were such a great organization , you know , if you were such a great organization , this law wouldn't matter , because all of us would want to stay here because you provide such a good thing for us and you provide a . You provide nothing .

In my opinion , that helps me and you think you do , but I'm telling you things that you don't do and it's kind of like that's what really bugged me with the when the arrow and discussing and showing the numbers like this is how many people we can afford to lose . Like . To me that was . That was the thing that gave me that , because it's like I don't .

You shouldn't want to lose any of your members . You should be working and doing things to keep your members happy , so that they want to be a part of it , that they become passionate about it and they want to support you .

So I know we've been talking money and we've been talking about the value to you know cost proposition . But like $94 in European money is crazy to think that , like they do the same similar stuff that ARL is doing for us on our behalf , or whatever that might look like , they may be doing less but they're paying way more .

This year it's going to be $35 , next year it's going to be $40 , $45 , you know , or you can just get five years 30 . And now you keep it everyone happy . They know it's going to be going up because of expenses . You're going to still get your magazine , whatever , whatever people wanted .

And then you probably give people the options of either saying I'll just pay the 30 or the 45 bucks and take the rate each year , or I'll , for the next five years , I'll pay at 30 again .

Just an idea that maybe wouldn't piss so many people off , because there's a lot of people pissed off about it and I was like kind of like you know , like you said , it's like 60 bucks , it's like all right , it's , it is what it is , but it's not like a deal breaker to me .

But there are people out there , especially a lot of hams , retired on a fixed income . Inflation's gone , gone through the roof , paul . On a fixed income , it makes a difference If I'm retired and I have a set income and inflation shoots through the roof like it did last year now you're like you don't have $60 maybe to pay ?

I'm not trying to be devil's advocate here .

I don't know what they can look up what they offer for their benefits , but if we look at the dues rates as of January 1st 2024 , so they haven't changed and they probably won't for ARL right now , one year standard memberships , 59 bucks still $40 . Less than a little bit $30 less than give or take for what RSGB is offering . Yeah .

You're still cheaper than what rsgb is paying , and they may or may not get a magazine . So is that , is it like I get ?

I'm working , I can afford to throw 60 bucks on that , but there are people ham radio operators that can't , and I don't think they were thinking of that , and the part that just again I'm going to reiterate it was like they were okay with losing members .

And if I was in charge of a club like theRO , or an organization or the AMA or anything , if I was like the president or whatever , I would say that is a number one deal breaker . We need to figure out how to do this where we lose as little members , if any . I don't want any to go . I want to increase membership , but I don't want to lose them .

And that was never even a topic and they were willing to figure out how many people they could lose . And that was never even a topic and they were willing to figure out how many people they could lose .

We'll say round numbers . There are a hundred thousand dollars , a hundred thousand members , and so if they left a third of that , that's what ? 10 grand , or 10 , 10,000 members , or something like that . If I do the math right I don't know , I don't do math 30,000 . Okay , so yeah .

So , like you know , like it's , it's kind of like one of those things I look at is like okay , well , if Paul goes away , it's sad that Paul goes away , but you know . I definitely agree with you , todd , though , that they should spend more time trying to figure out how they can get that person back , you know , by doing the things that they might have .

But they don't .

It's about ham radio and the members are the gold . Right is not about making money . It's about ham radio . The members is the gold . You don't want to lose gold . You don't want to lose your base because that's what you got . I don't know how many people actually didn't re-sign up , but I'm sure there were a bunch .

If they didn't sign up , are they going to get back ? How are they going to reach out ? Especially ham radio guys older set in their ways . You piss them off . You're never going to get them back .

That stat and I decided to come down and have a meeting with all the members Right , and I said , okay , 50% of you are members and figure out why aren't you members and what can we do better to get you to become members .

You know , maybe you have like some kind of a , like a scholarship or something , I don't know , but why is that ? Why I mean , I'd love to know that answer of why people are and why people are . Maybe they don't think they get anything out of it , like you know .

You get access to the learning center , you get access to ARL period articles you know in their archive . You get their e-newsletters and then you get a couple other services , like their technical information service , so you can call them anytime to get information .

Couple other services like their technical information service , so you can call them anytime to get information . You've got their QSL Bureau . You've got their email forwarding service , which nobody uses any like . I hate the ARL email forwarding service . They should just shut the damn thing off . It's so stupid . But nobody needs an ARL email account .

I'm like I don't . It annoys me to death . We have sorry , I'm going to go on a rant here we have four members in our club that have ARL email addresses and I send to them every time and they always come back to me I didn't get it . Well , then use a different email address because your forwarding setup is not working , so you know .

And then they do a bunch of other activities , leadership stuff . But I would be curious because I hear from members like Bill and a few others that , like hey , they offer cheaper insurance for radio protection . They offer like other things that I just not aware of and it's not listed on their website but it's obviously talked about .

It'd be curious to see what that would be benefit . Wise to answer your question .

Like that platform should be burned , it's garbage , it's a hot dumpster fire it . I don't get the benefit Like I'm in it . There are way simpler ways and more tighter , secure ways that I deal with companies and businesses that make billions of dollars every day to secure their borders and their information and we're just making context , we're just validating context .

We're not doing like moves of mountains and their system is way harder to be able to set up , to get going and to tweak and they treat it like you know . We're moving gold from you know Fort Knox to wherever , but I tried to .

And and I have to make sure that my mortgage is paid and and everything else . And you know my wife has enough money , wife has enough money to pay all the bills and so , when it comes down to it , at the end I don't have a lot of extra funds to throw at my hobbies and the things that I enjoy .

And so there's groups out there that they will be at least a little bit understanding to people in my situation and they'll say , hey , you know we get it . You know inflation's through the roof and you know times are tough and money's tight . So you know we're going to cover your membership for the year . I had a group this year and last year .

They covered my membership for both years and it was fantastic . I'm not super active in the group , but I'm active enough . And you know it was another $60 a year and I was like well fuck , I mean I just don't have the $120 to throw at them . Like well fuck , I mean I just don't have the 120 to throw at them .

So I greatly appreciated the fact that they were willing to cover my membership for the two years . But I'm willing to give my money to organizations that show me why they are deserving of my money , because I mean we're not all independently wealthy , you know , and not for nothing .

But I got other hobbies I'm trying to fund like $4,000 for a fucking skydiving license . Go to our Patreon page to help support Paul , because we all want to see him do more skydiving .

I think you have to earn the members dues , right . If you're the organization , you need to earn the members dues . Our club has a ridiculously low membership fee . I think we figured it out Whenever it was set at $15 , in today's money it was like $88 . So I'm like we spend more on Wednesday's breakfast at pressed than you as a group .

Yep , no , I'm just saying like as an individual , if you go and get like a , a burrito and a and a coffee . You know you're getting close to 15 bucks , right , if you're lucky , yep . So we could do a lot more with our club and for our members to make it better .

If we got like , say , 20 , 25 bucks a person , you know not that much more , but you could it would help with a lot . We could do more things with it because we'd have more money coming in and we could , you know , buy equipment for field day , week , you know whatever Um .

But if it was like a payment plan , like I could be dead tomorrow . But if it was like a payment plan , like I could give them a couple hundred bucks a year , okay , great , you know . And then you get the . What do you get when you pay it off ? You're , you get a , you get a certificate , nice little plaque , life member .

I want the digital version , like if I get the certificate myself . Exactly right like . They give me a small little like logo on my website but you can't zoom that logo to print it , to put on , like you know , an e-frame or something like that . You have to purchase their certificates .

You get prior to customer support , which I'll never call oh , that's true , because when I called , when I emailed them , they responded , in fact , the XML call book service , which basically allows you to synchronize with your loggers and that stuff . You get the third party logbook integration , which is the API key .

You get the swap meet forms , which are big dumpster fires and they should just tear all that shit down . Like that's just like garbage , like I can't tell you . You know I won't get into it . There's just been a lot of crap . Ad blocking I don't care , but like you're the one putting ads on your website , I get it .

You're getting paid for it , but take them down anyway .

But you know , in essence I just have two images on my website , on my QRZ page , which says go to my website or go to live free in Ham . So I don't want people to spend time at QRZ , you know , I want them to go somewhere else .

But in the case of Paul , it's been the shining moment because , shit , anytime someone does a QRZ lookup in Polo , they see your dog and they're like , oh , I got to go to his page , so he's drawn traffic that way . So , yeah , it works for him and his benefit .

They've got a membership honor roll , a wall certificate for lifetime membership and a lifetime subscription for spouse . Like my wife wants a QRZ subscription . So you see your Paul , your wife has already given granted a QRZ subscription . Will she use it ? I don't know .

I told him I said , look , this is what I want , and he did it , and now I mean that was 21 , so now we're in 25 . The only thing I've ever done is is updated and I add new pictures and I add new things and and you know , I change some wording . But , like I love that anybody can go to my cure's end page right and and my .

There's a link to my youtube channel . There's a link to all of the clubs that I'm a member of , um . There's pictures of of me in my vfw uniform . There's pictures of me and my wife . There's pictures of me and my dog . There's pictures of me in my VFW uniform . There's pictures of me and my wife . There's pictures of me and my dog .

There's pictures of me skydiving . There's a link . There's a link that goes direct to my skydiving video . No , there's no pictures of my friends because I don't have any friends wow , there we go

So I'm curious , we always got this discussion going on over in our Discord there what's your take on memberships ? We'll open up the conversation there and see , uh you know , see what uh folks opinions are . I'm sure we're going to have a shit ton of them , so you know we'll be ready for them .

I said you know , maybe you should send out one of those monkey surveys about what we think of you , anonymous and you'll see how bad you're doing and they're just like , oh , that's a great idea , Todd . And then it's been like five years later and I still haven't seen the survey .

I would read it cover to cover and I I always enjoyed the editorial because there was always some , there was always some tidbit of information there and it was like behind the scenes and it was . It was good , it was , it was captivating . But yeah , no , I'm not gonna stare at my fucking phone and read a goddamn magazine .

So we'll leave that to our Chief Summarizer and Chief Paul to put that out there . So keep an eye out for that . But yeah , let's continue the conversation . What do you think about memberships ? Are they valuable for you ? Do you have a bunch of them ?

Or are you the type of person that you have a tight fist of your money and it only goes to the individuals that earn their right to have your dollars ? We want to hear about it .

So , with that , we are going to say that , uh , you know , if you want to reach out to us or you want to be part of a live free and ham , there are a ton of ways to join us and hang out with us .

Obviously , the discord is a great way for you to do that and , uh , we will make sure that this is uh posted in that chat and , you know , let us know , tell us what's going on . You know , share some stuff . You know you can hang out in our in our shack section always a great little place .

That's been a , you know , a lively conversation for a while now . We can definitely see folks getting you know improvements in 2.0 setups being deployed there and we thank you for those updates . But you , uh , you know you can always uh , you know as a man I'm falling apart here . Why can't I find the end of my ? There we go .

You can always subscribe to our YouTube channel . You can always catch all the awesome content over there , um , and you know we're we're pumping out shorts left and right , so so we have some good liquid gold there from some of our episodes .

So keep , uh , you know , liking those and commenting and and and being part of the community there , um , and you can always , like I said , leave us a review . We love to hear from you . If you've got a question , you want to share something with us . You know you got to do good . You know we want to hear about it . You can text us via SMS .

You can send us , uh , you know , a voicemail via our uh voicemail number number , or you could send us a quick email or , like we said , you know you're always welcome to come on the show . If you send us a nice little wind link message and let us know we'll be make sure we get you on our next episode .

And as always , like we said , we always like to do the show . And but you know , with every time we do the show there's costs and expenses . And obviously now that we've got Paul thinking about skydiving we've got Paul thinking about skydiving we've got to start thinking about building those funds back up .

So , uh , you know that the , the , that contents you know needed and you know very much wanted . So you know you can help us out always by buying this merch uh off our storefront .

You can always pick up our live free and ham drams , because we only have a few of those uh left in stock and know you definitely you want one if you are one of those spirits and liquor lovers .

Uh , if there's such a thing sounds really weird to say um , but whatever , uh , and you know you can always head over to our patreon and become a member there and get access to all of our back you know catalog , all of our uh episodes , unc .

Uh , all of our banter , back and forth , um , and you know you also get a whole ton of value and benefits there discounts , you know , early releases to t-shirts and shirts and swag , um , and uh , anytime that we are starting to do we'll be planning meetups , hopefully in 2025 , maybe , and you know , when we do that , we'll be scheduling through our Patreon there

first to , to , you know , give them exclusive access , um , so , you know , don't miss a beat and head over there and you can use our uh , buy us a beer links too , if you want to give us a one-time donation , help support the show . And you always head over to livefreeandhamcom , because we got a crap ton of stuff over there .

We're always keeping that site updated , um , and you can find everything you need to know about us , uh , our hosts , the website , uh , the show and anything in between , and we have all of our affiliate links over there .

So definitely go over there and support them too as well , because they helped , in turn , support our show , um , and , as always , thanks again for listening and from all of us at live free and ham . Seven , three , seven , three , seven .