Re: [IRCA] [NRC-AM] More on mergers

[Russ Edmunds <wb2bjh@xxxxxxxxx>]

A lot of good points here. And I especially liked the last line, but more to the subject,
one of the things we all have to keep in mind about archiving this and that is that it
is human nature to not consider things as being of historical importance until 100 or
so years later. What happens then is that those who follow immediately after see no
value in things, they are discarded and then much later historians and such lament
the fact. But even there, I know that I wonder how much historical importance these
may really have to a future generation without context.

While QSL's are a part of history, some of the prior comments raise the point of how
many are too many, and many of us have acknowledged that we have mostly rather
common QSL's. And how many of those do we need ? Not all of us have approached
this as Ben Dangerfield has, only verifying foreign catches - probably most have not,
but in that way Ben is out ahead of the rest of us because he culled his from the start.

With recordings, comes another issue, namely how much has the frequent changing 
of call signs in the US over the past done to devalue our recordings of them ? And is
the value of these recordings more of an aircheck than anything else. I have too many
recordings in the sense that I have multiples of a lot of GY stations which at some 
point I'll also have to cull to find the best ones. Further, because my records will only 
permit me to associate some of these with an actual reception date ( given that the
electronic signature reflects when I pulled the clip rather than the date of reception, 
and that I don't add multiple relogs to my overall log ).

This is where the question as to whether or not the format in which mine are saved 
( mp3 ) will be recoverable at any given point in the future. Thus I have asked myself
the question of why should I worry about saving them at all ? It isn't like I go back
and listen to them aside from those from the 1970's in NJ which I am slowly working
through to get individual clips.

Just some more food for thought, I guess.


Russ Edmunds
15 mi NNW of Philadelphia  
Grid FN20id
<wb2bjh@xxxxxxxxx>



--------------------------------------------
On Sat, 3/15/14, Scott Fybush <scott@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [NRC-AM] More on mergers
 To: am@xxxxxxxxxxx
 Date: Saturday, March 15, 2014, 9:49 PM
 

 Thank you, Les. Without turning this into a discussion of
 any one 
 particular individual, I'd submit that there's something
 dysfunctional 
 when we hear (often from the same mouths) that "nobody's
 stepping 
 forward to volunteer to carry things on"...and then when
 someone does, 
 the response is less "thanks for volunteering" and more
 "you're doing it 
 wrong."
 
 With respect to the question of paying for club membership,
 I think some 
 have lost sight of what those payments are supposed to be
 for. NRC, IRCA 
 and WTFDA are all nonprofit, volunteer organizations. Unless
 I'm 
 mistaken, none of us draw any salary for anything we do. The
 clubs have 
 no buildings or physical facilities to maintain.
 
 So what those membership dues have primarily covered,
 historically, was 
 the real-world cost of distributing information in physical
 form - 
 printing and postage of club bulletins, duplication and
 postage for 
 DXAS, printing and storage of books and reprints and Logs
 and such. 
 There was a fairly clear cost-for-value connection: if it
 cost 50 cents 
 each to print bulletins and another 50 cents each to mail
 them, and the 
 bulletin went out 30 times a year, and dues were about
 $30...well, that 
 was the cost you HAD to pay to get the information you could
 only get in 
 the bulletin.
 
 It's true, in a general way, that there's a cost to
 participating in 
 today's world of virtual information distribution - you have
 to have 
 some sort of broadband connection and some sort of device
 with which to 
 connect. It's precisely BECAUSE those costs exist and are
 already borne 
 by the end user that there's significant resistance from
 younger DXers 
 to paying additional fees for information that they
 (correctly) figure 
 they can get elsewhere for free.
 
 Because the membership of all of our clubs is predominantly
 older, we're 
 still bound to the concept that "membership" has to be
 something 
 exclusive that comes with some sort of price tag attached.
 
 But consider: if nobody in the club gets paid to edit or lay
 out DXN (or 
 DXM, or VUD), and if there's no longer a cost involved in
 printing or 
 mailing a piece of a dead tree, and if our mission is in
 fact to grow 
 the hobby of DXing rather than just grow old talking about
 it...what, 
 exactly, is the downside of simply posting the PDF or the
 MP3 to a 
 Facebook page or a Google group for anyone who's interested
 to 
 read/listen and enjoy? And if they read it and enjoy it and
 want to 
 participate by sending in a logging or contacting a local
 station for a 
 DX test or coming to a convention, call them a "member" and
 be done with 
 it? All of a sudden, a club struggling to stay above 500
 members might 
 be a 1000-member club. And if a bunch of those new "members"
 just read 
 and don't give much back...well, how is that really any
 different than 
 the hundreds of DXN readers who pay just barely enough to
 cover the cost 
 of printing and mailing (if even) and never send in a
 logging?
 
 This is what "clubs" look like in the 21st century. It's not
 the model 
 many of us are accustomed to, I know. I have no illusions
 that the 
 legacy clubs will go this way. I also have no illusions, as
 a result, 
 that the legacy clubs will be around by the time I hit
 retirement age.
 
 Shooting the messengers who tell you the world is changing
 around you 
 just leaves you with a pile of dead messengers and a world
 that's still 
 changing...
 
 s
 _______________________________________________
 The NRC AM mailing list
 Questions? owner@xxxxxxxxxxx
 Antenna Pattern Book Now Shipping
 AM Radio Log is now shipping!
 FM Atlas 21st Edition Close Out Prices!
 Details at http://www.nrcdxas.org



_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca

Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers

For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org

To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx