[VHFcontesting] VUAC

[Kenneth E. Harker]

On Thu, Jun 22, 2006 at 07:55:16AM -0400, Alex wrote:

> >Another question that was asked was who is on the VUAC.  The following is a
> >list of all the members.  I didn't include any contact info because of the
> >open nature of this forum but I am sure if you want to talk to your
> >representative you can find a way.
> 
> See, and this is confusing again. They are not "your" representative,
> they are ARRL representatives. They have no constituents (they are not 
> elected), and their agenda is not set by "you", the VHF/UHF enthousiast. 
> They are more like sales representatives.

This is a bizarre attitude.  Before the formation of the VUAC, ARRL VHF contest
rules were established and modified by either the Membership Service Committee
or Program and Services Committee, both of which are standing committees of 
directly elected Division Directors.  Very few Division Directors, however,
are VHF/UHF weak signal enthusiasts, and even fewer are VHF/UHF contesters.
Recognizing this, they went out and formed an advisory committee composed 
of individuals active in VHF/UHF contesting that represent every part of the
country to help them make more informed decisions.

Some Director got it into his head that there was a problem with 144.200.
Now that there is an advisory committee, there is an avenue whereby he can 
investigate to find out if it really is a problem or not and what should 
or should not be done about it.  Beforehand, he might have assumed that the
viewpoint of a few cranks in his own Division were representative of the 
country at large.  Would you rather have the people making decisions on rule 
changes remain uninformed, or even worse, educated only by non-contester 
complainers?


> It's disappointing that the ARRL didn't choose to take nominations from the VHF/UHF community for the seats on this committee.

Actually, my Division Director did do that.

-- 
Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
kenharker at kenharker.com
http://www.kenharker.com/