We now know more about the VUCC fee changes than we did when the discussion started thanks to comments by Bill Moore and others. As someone stated, the sticker shock has everyone upset. If the costs of the VUCC program justify what is being charged, there's not much you can do about it unless you find someone in addition to Yaesu to sponsor the program. The money has to come from somewhere. As Americans, we are painfully aware of what happens when you spend more than you take in.
The League should have been adjusting rates over the years. The Post Office, our government and businesses all do this gradually to avoid a rebellion. If this had been done, we wouldn't be having such a big outcry right now.
I think the other problem with how this was done involved notification. Announcing that effective today, the cost for VUCC submissions is going up drastically, was not a good move. Rolling out the costs for LOTW VUCC submissions is one thing, but including the traditional filing rates as part of it without publishing an "effective date" ahead of time is another matter. It wasn't well thought out.
Now that it is done, how do we proceed from here? I think there are two main issues that can be looked at by the Directors. They control what happens at the League. My Director has been very responsive to things that I have brought to him. I hope your Director is equally as responsive. Just make sure that when writing to them that you don't rant. State the facts and be specific as to what you want them to do.
The first thing they should look at is the cost of the VUCC program. Bill Moore has suggested that they don't even break even considering everything involved. Ask your Director to get the numbers and validate the claim. Any evaluation should include monies derived from the website. Yaesu sponsors LOTW but it is unclear as to what extent they do. There may be other sources of funding as well.
As a subset of the cost, ask your Director to find out why hybird applications are part of the DXCC LOTW program but are not provided for in the VUCC program. After all, it's the same system. I would expect that we will always be submitting some cards along with LOTW matches. Most of the cost of a paper submission is subsidized by the card checkers. It takes a lot of time to scrutinize a card to find the Grid. After the initial application, only the Grid numbers are sent to the ARRL. A typist can enter 4 character grids into a computer very quickly. Callsigns, date, time, band, etc. are not entered for VUCC. If you send your cards to the ARRL and a paid employee has to go through the cards, the cost is significantly higher than if a volunteer does it. Hybrid applications for a single filing fee should be part of VUCC as they are now for DXCC.
The ARRL Membership was not given a warning about the fee increases. Establishing the fees for LOTW VUCC is one thing. Increasing the fees for paper submissions should have had an effective date into the future. This would allow those who were on the verge of filing the opportunity to do so at the current rate. Ask your Director to have the old paper fees reinstated until say, May 1st. This will give the applicants and the volunteer card checkers some time to process everything. If the new fees are found to be reasonable they go into effect after that date.
I have been licensed for 50 years and prior to getting my license I was involved with ham radio for more than 10 years. I attended many club meetings with my older cousin. The topic of dissatisfaction with the ARRL was always a big deal. The hams talked about it all the time. But if you think that we would be where we are now with Ham Radio if the ARRL had not been there representing our interests, you are sadly mistaken.
Radio spectrum is always in demand. You can't make more of it. You can digitize and process till you are blue in the face but there is never enough spectrum. Cellphones sound lousy because they don't have enough bandwidth. But we put up with it because they are portable and there is no other choice given the number of users. If the ARRL had not been there for us, we would all be on 80 meters. The League is our voice. If you don't like what they are doing, contact your Director or run for the position yourself. Ham Radio is a hobby but there are costs involved. You can choose what you want to spend. No one is forcing you. But do consider that we need the ARRL to preserve ham radio into the future. It takes money to run the organization and we are up against others who have very deep pockets. Supporting the ARRL makes good sense as does supporting AMSAT. They are our advocates.
73, John K8YSE