R L Measures wrote:
On Nov 9, 2006, at 11:46 PM, Tony King - W4ZT wrote:
badgerscreek wrote:
<snip>
YES QEX MAGAZINE IS A RIP OFF CONSIDERING THAT YOU GET 6 ISSUES AND
WHEN YOU FACTOR IN THE MAILING COSTS ITS A HUGE PRICE TO PAY FOR A
FEW ARTICLES. I HATED RENEWING MY SUBSCRIPTION BECAUSE I SINCERELY
BELIEVE EVERYTHING IN QEX COULD BE PLACED IN QST.
<snip>
Greg, I believe it SHOULD be placed in QST. QEX was nothing more than
an effort to get us old timers to BUY another magazine.
Correct, and, according to my source, mo' money was the internal argument presented at Newington before launching QEX. I got the impression that we were being fleeced. My solution was to send a message to Newington by unsubscribing to QST and unsubscribing to QEX.
But quitting doesn't help... without a strong lobby, we have no voice for ham radio. Personal and group lobbying for change at ARRL may be time better spent. Start with your friends, get to know your Section Manager and District Director. Enough people sending the message will get it pushed up to the top.
It HAS to be
more costly to produce QEX as opposed to including the articles in QST.
Seems to me they're boiling QST down and what's left isn't the best
part... some of the recent articles sure make that obvious. When I was a
beginner there were plenty of articles WAY over my head in QST.
This was also my experience in high-school, Tony, but after a few years of additional schooling this changed and I realized that:
1. Designing and building RF transmitting amplifiers isn't akin to rocket science.
It wasn't all about RF amplifiers back then... there were lots of construction and technical articles.
2. Many of the articles in QST were difficult to fathom because the author did a somewhat less than ok job of explaining what was going on so that new guys could understand.
Well, there is always a percentage like that but looking back at many of them, they were good. Of course they didn't see some things the same way we do now... different view on technology or things learned during the last 50 years... but many were an honest effort to do a good job. Rich, you've spent a lot of your time trying to do a good job on articles for QST so they're not ALL bad ;)
Now,
there is little there I want to read. Too bad they can't be RE- combined
to make ONE better magazine.
The problem as I see it is that the powers that be at QST are presently "of, by, and for" something other than amateur radio.
It is like most of the cities etc. The government doesn't seem to exist by and for the people but for their own agenda and it is all driven by money. Now I don't fault ARRL for spending money on the spectrum protection effort and many other things. If they don't fight the fight, no one will. When people quit, there's less money... when there's less money, there's less to work with... and the end result may not be what you wanted. Unlike government that imposes taxes you can't avoid (most of us can't), ARRL is funded by volunteer membership... you choose to support them or not. If you don't, who do you support that IS fighting for ham radio?
I
also find it disturbing that the ARRL tries to control the way we use amateur radio bands. Take a look at the 1.8MHz band: There are no ARRL-approved sub-bands. No part of the band is reserved for CW, for AM, for spark. for SSB, for snobs, or for any we're better than you are elite group. We run what mode we want in any clear space we want. Things pretty much sort themselves out, and nobody owns a certain frequency -- with that one exception, of course.
True... even the new rules creating much larger phone segments on 75/80 wont help some of that. 75 meters is terrible these days with some of the most inconsiderate, meowing, singing, trash mouth crap I have ever heard.
OTOH, take a look at the 3.5MHz band. where many KHz are virtually a vast wasteland because of ARRL-blessed sub-bands.
cheerz
73, Tony W4ZT
R L Measures, AG6K, 805.386.3734
r@..., rlm@..., www.somis.org
And when that wasteland opens up... it'll be interesting. Unfortunately they went all the way to 3600 and all the guys doing digital down there will be forced down and that wont be pretty but that's the way it'll go.
I've been an ARRL life member for over 40 years now and have no intention to quit, but I'll send them a note... or two... or three... I've met a few of them and they put their pants on the same way we do and operate on the same bands. There's a lot of politics but it isn't without some hope.
Have a great weekend!
Tony W4ZT
