Abraxas3d W5NYV
@kb6nu none of us are planning to stop volunteering for ARRL or donating, that I have heard. We believe in the mission.
I give an ARRL presentation in October, have another QEX article on the way to Kai, will continue to be a reviewer, actively serve as a technical specialist, and will keep sending things to QST.
Dan KB6NU
@abraxas3d OK. I can only go by what he says. Eric did say that he was an ARRL Diamond Club member (that is, he has contributed a fair amount of money to the ARRL) and will continue to be in spite of the situation.
Abraxas3d W5NYV
@kb6nu he's the type of person that would say that. He's an excellent collaborator and goes the extra mile to make it easy to work with him. He's accepted responsibility many times for things that weren't his fault in order to smooth problems over or ensure a good experience.
That alone made it an easy decision to speak up firmly about this bad decision and how it affected him and his work.
Dan KB6NU
@abraxas3d I don't think that Eric initiated it, but that it was a matter of miscommunication. At least that's the way it sounds to me from re-reading Eric's email to me.
Abraxas3d W5NYV
@kb6nu Eric did not initiate any "split". Being told QSO Today was now "competition" and would get "no support" was a complete shock to all of us that volunteer for the event.
Bob did attempt to frame the lack of an ARRL logo on the QSO Today website as some sort of evidence of Eric rejected ARRL. This is a silly thing to claim.
Eric didn't have permission to use the logo for the Academy.
Eric has accepted that ARRL views him as competition, is disappointed, and is continuing on.
Dan KB6NU
@abraxas3d Interesting to hear your take on it. Inderbitzen emailed me earlier today (in response to my email to him yesterday) and painted a somewhat different picture. He only addressed QSO Today, but made it sound as if Eric initiated the split. Re-reading Eric's email to me, it sounds as if Eric and the ARRL just didn't communicate properly on this latest version of the QSO Today Academy, and they both took it as though the other was severing the partnership.
Abraxas3d W5NYV
I'm going to try and recreate how it sounded.
He mentioned @kb6nu and "this stuff on the internet, on someplace called Mastodon", and that I had it "totally wrong!" and "completely inaccurate!" and something about QSO Today. It was honestly a wall of sound.
It was the sort of sound that comes from the mouth of someone that thinks I have not either personally witnessed or verified everything that I said.
He continued. There was no apology, offer to call me later, or chance to reply.
Abraxas3d W5NYV
At 8:28am this morning here in San Diego, the phone rang.
It was Bob Interbitzen from #ARRL, who introduced himself and just started talking. It was very loud and very fast.
I said this is really early and I wasn't actually up yet and that this was a bad time for me to talk.
I was literally still in bed and needed to go the bathroom. I answered the phone because only emergency calls come in before 9am.
He said "Sorry! I guess it is an early hour out there! ha ha ha!" and... dove right in.
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