which is stupid.
Some lofty intellectual peabrain in some school out in Colorado who actually had the gall to say he was speaking up for those that he said can't speak for themselves. How pretentious!
The first thing that came into my mind was "Holy $hit! I might hafta speak to a Kansas City faggot or something!" (KC faggot line shamelessly stolen from Blazing Saddles. Thank you, Mel Brooks.)
Wait a minute!! Maybe I already have spoken to a Kansas City faggot! Or maybe worse! I could have a QSO in my log with one a them people! (Insert whatever you want into here.)
What bull$hit! Ham radio is already the most diverse hobby on the planet today. I have thoudands and thousands of QSOs including at least 235 different overseas entities and I hve no clue as to what race, creed, color, sexuality or whatever of most of them. I don't care what they are. They are a ham and a ham is a ham is a ham.
In fact the only way I can find out who I am talking to is to look them up on their QRZ page if they have bothered to post their picture on it. Some have, some have not.
One time I heard one ham say to another, "You have a face that belongs on radio. I can tell because you don't have your picture on your Zed page." Laughter. (Who knows? Maybe the guy was ugly but who cares?)
Ham radio is already open to anyone that wants to be a ham. All you have to do is pass a test and pay the appropriate fee of (IIRC) $35, plus $15 for the test. I have NEVER heard of ANYONE being refused to sit for the test for any reason. It's open if anyone wants to sit for the test.
Ham radio is where I go to get away from the divisiveness of everything. It ia probaly one of the very few places left where race, religion, politics and the usual crap get tossed aside. One is not a gay, black, Jew, native female. One becomes a ham and an equal member of a fraternity.
Surprise! Nobody cares what you are when you are on the air.
Of course the jerk in Colorado that is complaining about the so-called lack of minorities on the air hasn't figured a lot of things out yet. I can also see what's coming on down the pike and it will be an insult to minorities in the United States. Hams overseas won't have to deal with this.
Now the first step is to decide that it's too difficult for minorities to be forced to pass the test. That's because liberals like the Colorado clown deep down inside don't think that minorities are as capable as whites. They believe in what Rudyard Kipling said about having to pick up white man's burden. Our poor brown brothers and sisters are just incapable of taking care of themselves. What horse$hit!
We're ALL capable of taking care of ourselves as individuals and skin color has nothing to do with it. Incidentally I have noticed an increasing number of American stations on the air that have operators that speek very accented (and very occasionally broken) English. A quick glance at their QRZ page if they have posted their picture leads me to believe they are fairly recent immigrants. Good for them! They coughed up their $35, passed the test, scraped up a rig and are on the air. I welcome them. A number of them are in my log.
There's probably a pretty good reason why a lot of monority people are not involved in ham radio that makes sense to me and it's strictly geographical. Most minorities live in urban areas and ham radio requires the use of fairly large antennas. Yes, you can work VHF and UHF with small antennas but HF (the serious long distance segment and the most popular part of the hobby) almost requires land to erect antennas on. The other reason is that cities in themselves with all of the electrical appliances, motors and other things tend to generate a lot of RF interference. A bad wall wart in the downstairs apartment can play hell on someone's reception and possibly output.
Also needless to say, every time anyone had a problem with their electricity or electronics a ham is the first person they blame.
Now how does the ARRL fit into this?
One of the muckety muck hired a transgender in an ARRL managerial position.
Someone asked why he hired her and the ARRL Muckety muck replied that he had RECRUITED her. Actually this answer is something that I would say. It's also something I would do it she was the best person for the job and promised to stay apolitical about it.
The only question I have is why he hired the transgender.
If he hired her based entirely on merit, ability and competence in the field she was hired for then I will support him 100%. That's why people should be hired.
Had he hired her for any other political or diversity-type reason then he has cheated the ARRL out of having the best person for the job.
The rank and file hams don't really want the ARRL to take a political side for either side of an issue not directly related to ham radio. The majority of its members want the organization to stay apolitical.
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Update. I checked in on the Arf 40 meter net tonight and when I asked Net Control "Could I have your pronoun for the log?" he didn't know what to say. 😁
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