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The 'American Radio Relay League' ('ARRL'), the national association for amateur radio in the United States of America, was founded in May, 1914 by Hiram Percy Maxim.
The ARRL serves as the primary representative of amateur radio operators to the US government. It performs this function by lobbying the US Congress and Federal Communications Commission or 'FCC.' The ARRL is also the international secretariat of the IARU.
At the end of 2005, ARRL had 148,877 members, which is approximately 22% of amateur radio licensees in the United States. However, some of ARRL's members are foreign amateurs which means that the percentage is somewhat lower. As of May 2007, there are 151,306 members of which 7,363 are foreign amateurs.
ARRL is run by an elected board of directors who are responsible for setting League Policy. Each director serves a 3-year term and represents the members within their particular region of the US. There is a CEO, currently David Sumner (K1ZZ), who is responsible to the ARRL Board of Directors for managing the affairs of the League including its headquarters staff and official journal, QST. There is also a field organization of volunteers which are supported by professional League staff.

Contents

League Field Organization

League Services

Sponsored Contests

Other Organization Activities

Criticism

External links

References

League Field Organization

The Field Organization of the ARRL is organized into 71 "sections" with each section having a "Section Manager."

★ The Section Manager is elected by the members living within his section for a two year term. The Section Manager has several different volunteers which serve as his local cabinet:
::Affiliated Club Coordinator, Bulletin Manager, Official Observer Coordinator, Public Information Coordinator, Section Emergency Coordinator, Section Traffic Manager, and Technical Coordinator. A Section Manager may optionally appoint one or more Assistant Section Managers, with or without portfolio to serve at the cabinet level.

★ The Section Emergency Coordinator is responsible for the Amateur Radio Emergency Service, or ARES operation within the section. This is the third largest single part of the field organization consisting of any volunteer who wishes to help with emergency and Public Service communications. (Participation is not restricted to league members.)

★ The Technical Coordinator is responsible for assisting local amateurs with technical problems.

★ The Official Observer Coordinator runs the Amateur Auxiliary program within a section.

★ The Section Traffic Manager organizes the National Traffic System operations within the section.

League Services

The ARRL provides several services to its members including the publishing of ''QST'', the official journal of the ARRL, incoming and out-going QSL bureaus, publishing of technical and training books, sponsoring various contests, and support of the field organization. Other league publications include 'QEX' and 'NCJ' magazines, as well as various technical books and online courses. Members also have access to a special ''Members Only'' section of the ARRL website that includes technical documents, expanded contesting information, and a searchable database of all league publications.
In addition the ARRL operates station 'W1AW', the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station, as a living memorial to the "Father of Organized Amateur Radio". W1AW is located at the ARRL headquarters in Newington, Connecticut. Licensed Amateurs are welcome to operate the station while visiting ARRL HQ. Among its many services, W1AW transmits Morse code for those wishing to learn.
The ARRL/VEC (Volunteer Examiner Coordinator) sponsors amateur radio licensing examinations for the three classes of amateur license. License classes and examinations are held in various locations throughout the year.
The ARRL's symbol consists of a vertical parallelogram with the initials ARRL arranged around the symbols for antenna, inductor (coil) and ground to earth, the schematic diagram of the fundamental radio circuit.

Sponsored Contests

The ARRL sponsors numerous amateur radio contests through-out the year with the biggest of these being Field Day. Other contests include Straight Key Night, VHF Sweepstakes, International DX Contest, UHF Contest, and 10 GHz and Up Contest. The ARRL also participates as a Headquarters station for the IARU World HF Championship.

Other Organization Activities

Recently, the ARRL has opposed BPL, or Broadband over Power Lines, making the case that the power lines will radiate interfering radio energy, impeding amateur radio activities. The League has filed several interference reports with the FCC.
In 2005, the ARRL, along with amateur radio operators, provided key communications assistance to officials coordinating Hurricane Katrina disaster relief.

Criticism

The ARRL is often criticized for acting in its own interests rather than in the interest of the amateur radio community. Common criticisms include ARRL's support for less strict licensing requirements in recent years, which are felt to be "dumbing down" amateur radio and/or are making amateur radio more like CB radio (where FCC regulations are generally not followed). Critics claim that the ARRL is doing this for purposes of gaining additional membership.^[1] Other criticisms include pushing for segmentation of the HF amateur bands in the US by bandwidth, rather than by mode, which some claim gives preference to Winlink.^[2]

External links

★ ARRLWeb: ARRL Home Page

★ ARRLWeb W1AW, the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station

References

1. http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/ZB%20April%202004.html ''CQ Amateur Radio Magazine'' Editorial, April 2004
2. http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/ZB%20Nov%202004.html ''CQ Amateur Radio Magazine'' Editorial November 2004