KH6HZ wrote:

...
I suspect the potential amateur -- remember, the context of the discussion
was recruitment and googling 'amateur radio' -- isn't very likely to have a
clue about the politics of ham radio


Personally, if the applicant has "political aspirations", I would refer
him/her into some .political group ... we really do NOT need them in the
hobby of amateur radio--and that is possibly the greatest reason I'd
like to see the absence of the ARRL.

People interested in ham radio, who come on the internet to find out about
ham radio, are not very likely to do it in a USENET newsgroup. They're far
more likely to use a search engine to research their interest, and that
research (whether good or bad, whether you like it or not) is going to point
to the ARRL.

USENET? I said "THE INTERNET." (however, schools and community
events/functions are a good place to begin recruiting at) And, they
should be shown the availability of training materials made available by
just-little-plain-old-amateurs--it is much more than enough to get them
through any test, else we fail again ... but, NOT ARRL materials, that
will turn them away most of all.


Google, Yahoo, MSN all have the ARRL as their top hit for the search term
'amateur radio'.

Yes, that is a shame

If they came "here", e.g. RRAP, they'd run away from ham radio so fast, if
they concluded even a portion of the drivel posted in this newsgroup was
reflective of ham radio as a whole.

Personally, I do not run from a good fight, argument, not even a
discussion--doesn't look like you ran too far--nor the others here with
us ...

Good points, all of 'em ...

Warmest regards,
JS