Newish here

[WSEL330]

Why join the ARRL. Pro's and Con's. Honest feedback please. I do see some of both but being new, I don't wanna get into something that turns into the treadmill or breadmaker in the garage.

[hxpx]

The ARRL is a non-profit org representing amateur radio operators, so... not much to stash in the garage other than maybe the magazine (which I guess is an additional cost now?). You don't need to be a member to use amateur radios. Supporting the ARRL mostly just supports the hobby, as they're the biggest political advocate for amateur radio.

Unless you mean why get into amateur radio in the first place, in which case: if you want to do more with radios than talk to the same four people and fiddle with antennas on your HT, ham radio is where it's at. HF bands can take advantage of atmospheric skip and you can talk over longer distances. It's less about "I want to talk to this specific person" and more about "I want to play with radios and learn about how they work". Plus you get to make connections with "anonymous men" as a certain someone likes to say.

If all you want to do is talk to friends and family over short distances and you don't really care about the radio side of things, then GMRS is close enough to the UHF/VHF bands you get access to with a Technician license that it's probably moot. Also the radios get expensive (you don't need a fancy radio but even the one I want to get is $650 without an antenna or power supply and that would buy a lot of Baofengs) and HOAs usually aren't happy when people start installing antenna masts.

I'm getting into it because I think the antenna theory stuff is neat and POTA sounds like fun. It's more of a hobby thing than the stash of GMRS radios I use to actually talk to people in my group.

[WSEL330]

Thank you for the reply. To clarify, The question is not about 'Why ham' and more about joining the ARRL. I enjoy this hobby as well as GMRS (I'm bought in for both in more ways than one). Thank you for your perspective. I 100% agree and feel the exact same way: "I'm getting into it because I think the antenna theory stuff is neat and POTA sounds like fun. It's more of a hobby thing than the stash of GMRS radios I use to actually talk to people in my group."

[hxpx]

Gotcha. Then yeah, supporting them just provides some money to help protect amateur radio frequencies, educational and outreach programs, and other stuff. I haven't joined but I'm thinking about it.

[SteveShannon]

I’m an ARRL member because I want to support the one main U.S. based group that represents us hams. They are not perfect but I think having them is better than having no organization. 
But the only way for a group like this to succeed is for its members to participate vigorously, informing the organization how to best serve the members. Not enough people do that and to its detriment the league sometimes fails to listen. 

[BoxCar]

10 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

I’m an ARRL member because I want to support the one main U.S. based group that represents us hams. They are not perfect but I think having them is better than having no organization. 
But the only way for a group like this to succeed is for its members to participate vigorously, informing the organization how to best serve the members. Not enough people do that and to its detriment the league sometimes fails to listen. 

I'm a member as well to support their efforts on protecting all amateurs but I don't participate in 99.999% of their events as I don't like contests. I work community events such as parades and bike races/rallies.

[SteveShannon]

47 minutes ago, BoxCar said:

I'm a member as well to support their efforts on protecting all amateurs but I don't participate in 99.999% of their events as I don't like contests. I work community events such as parades and bike races/rallies.

That’s great.  And when I spoke about participating I certainly didn’t mean contests and things like that, but rather engaging with leadership of the ARRL at the local level and higher to help them know how best to serve us.  Contests might be a lot of fun (I haven’t participated in contests either) also but I consider the work they do to inform us of legislation and intercede with our government representatives to be their most important work.