[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: [IRCA] [NRC-AM] More on mergers
- Subject: Re: [IRCA] [NRC-AM] More on mergers
- From: Russ Edmunds <wb2bjh@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 07:00:57 -0700 (PDT)
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