The ARRL needs to exit publishing

In my opinion the ARRL needs to exit publishing, and come up with a new game. At least their books. They have already done this at least with their magazines, as the cost for the traditional paper copy has transformed into a premium option.

Rumor on the street is they have / are considering some other source of funding other than the traditional membership method. Their membership members are obviously not really great which in turn means their former main membership benefit, the monthly magazine is not delivering the content potential members seek.

Meanwhile, ham radio stagnates because the general populace is less DIY than in decades ago. A lot is to blame here, from excessive income feeding a throw away society, the overall transitions from a manufacturing based economy to a consumer one… Ham radio now mostly relies on manufactures to innovate, rather than coming from within.

In my opinion, the league should study the Raspberry Pi foundation, and attempt to follow in their footsteps. And to be clear, those footsteps are in working towards a goal of manufacturing partnerships to put some new technology in the hands of the masses. This is how you keep the bands active in my mind.

Over the past several decades I haven’t ever bought a new ARRL published book from them directly. This is because I have found it cheaper elsewhere. There are too many other platforms for publishing to remain a viable thing for them. The other problem I see is the league obviously values exerting their publishing rights beyond what is reasonable, but within the outdated legal framework. Case in point is even really old ARRL publications no longer for sale; they have provided pushback for inclusion in the DLARC library. This is self serving.

In my opinion, authors and potential authors should be encouraged to publish elsewhere. I’ve always liked the lulu press concept. The 75 years plus the life of the author copyright thing is not in the spirit of ham radio in my opinion. There are other licensing schemes that allow the authors to make money and not lock up resources beyond a reasonable time frame. Perhaps grants should be offered to potential authors to encourage this sort of thing.

It’s going to take some radical changes and a lot of work for ham radio to survive another 100 years, let alone make it to another 50. The status quo at the league level isn’t going to do this.