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Reviews For: CQ Magazine

Category: Amateur Radio Periodicals

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Review Summary For : CQ Magazine
Reviews: 163MSRP: 42.95/yr
Description:
The Radio Amateur's Journal
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
151633.2
K7VO Rating: 2005-06-23
Dropped my subscription last year. I see no value in CQ. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I had a subscription. I dropped it. I received lots of notes asking me to renew but, of course, none asking me why I didn't. I am not a contester and I found very, very little content of interest to me. I still get QST, QRP Quarterly, CQ VHF, and SPRAT. The regular CW magazine was a waste of money. Oh, and yes, I had some shredded covers, something that doesn't happen on any of the other 8-10 magazines I subscribe to.
K3BZ Rating: 2005-04-22
Tied for First Place Time Owned: more than 12 months.
CQ and QST....tied for 1st Place. I enjoy and look forward to them both every month. I plan on continuing with both as long as I hold a ham license. Ham radio would not be the same without them. I've received both for many years and haven't had any significant problems with either one. CQ fills in some gaps in QSTs content and vice versa. As a DXer and Contester, they are both indispensable to me. Lately I've also been reading World Radio... those folks try very hard and the WR content is quite good.
NO9E Rating: 2005-02-12
Enjoyed it at the library Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My library carried it for some time until many magazines were dropped due to budget cuts. One could always find something interesting over there even though reviews seemed highly subjective.

With fewer active hams nowadays and therefore fewer subscriptions, CQ may have a hard time financially. When it goes, will all CQ contests and awards go away?

K7PEH Rating: 2005-02-04
Better Than Nothing? Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I too missed my December issue of CQ. So, when I was in Sunnyvale California, I had a chance to buy a copy at the local HRO store. Not only get I get my copy of CQ but I had it autographed by the guy in the cover photo.

I think it took all of 10 minutes to read that issue of CQ. Ten minutes of my valuable time. Therefore, I have this to say in CQ's favor "you guys have created one really fast reading magazine".

It is fast reading because I skip over the contest stuff -- I don't read that. It is fast reading because I skip over the ads, I don't read that. I skip over the silly little articles about fighting for our rights against the evil FCC, I don't read that.

What's left you might ask? Good question as there was virtually nothing left.

I offer these suggestions for improving CQ...

1. Drop the contest junk and put that on a web site where it belongs.

2. I know you can't drop the ads but could you please limit MFJ to just two or three full page ads -- or, increase your rates to them.

3. Put the news of the recent FCC battles on a web site where it could be current -- after all, anything in a published magazine these days is ancient history anyway.

4. Focus on some really good technical articles about this hobby. Maybe an advanced and then a not so advanced construction project. Maybe an advanced and not so advanced theory article.

5. Focus on some good general interest on the activities of this hobby as long as it is not setting up some phony station on an island the size of my backyard merely to provide a means of DX to that micro-island. Unless the island is Kauai and then I would volunteer to run the station.
K5UJ Rating: 2005-01-18
Nice QST alternative Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've never had a cover torn off, and yes, there is emphasis on awards and contests. I no longer contest and have never chased awards, but if someone wants to work a few stations in the CQ WW, send in a log and see his callsign in print so what?

In the golden age of ham magazines in the U.S., we had, besides QST and CQ, 73 (once a nice fat rag), Ham Radio, World Radio (once a large tabloid sized paper), and later on Ham Radio Horizons, DX magazines, the RTTY Journal, and magazines for ATV and more. There were a bunch of others I have forgotten. Now, they are either gone, or merged, or dramatically reduced in size and barely hanging on. The ARRL is trying to cover some areas with NCJ and QEX. CQ Communications is getting into VHF coverage with CQ VHF. For general North American ham radio, we are pretty much down to QST, CQ and World Radio. I subscribe to CQ for an ARRL alternative and also because there are some good articles. In the latest issue I enjoyed reading Gordon West's coverage of Quartzfest. K4TWJ's technical explanation type columns are always interesting, as are Math's Notes.

You guys who dump on CQ and refuse to subscribe will be the same ones whining about QST being the only magazine out there after CQ and WR fold.
KC2FTN Rating: 2005-01-16
Two Thumbs Up ! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Never a problem...always on time... and picture-perfect cover, month after month. Additionally, the magazine is filled with GREAT articles and information too for the active ham. Never a problem in my 5+ years of subscribing.

Mike KC2FTN
www.hamwave.com
N3HKN Rating: 2005-01-16
Barely OK Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The contest focus with endless listings of hundreds of stations who have received 599 reports is boring and never read by me. The only interesting thing in the contest area is the columnist continually berating the animal like behavior of some of the more vicious of those seeking the adulation and envy from their fellow Hams. This poor guy will eventually give up as this crowd spends thousands of dollars to achieve something only money can buy. They will NOT be deined!

The VHF is, the most wierd column I have ever seen. The same stuff over and over. It is like Ground Hog Day. Who talked to whom via a reflection from four or five different atmospheric reflectors. Nothing of value. It just drones on and on.

DX column is interesting when there is some info on an interesting expedition or individual. I can see that the info about upcoming DX expeditions may also be valuable providing that all signals are not magically 599.

Finally, the reviews are pitiful. They are simply an extended rewritten rendition of the information in the vendor's literature. Here CQ panders to advertisers with either bland reviews for products that may have low merit or glorious reviews that extoll untold virtues and, of course, the info from the vendor. Compared to QST these are worthless at best and actually insulting.

The technical content is a bit thin. However, there is some and for that I retain my subscription.

N3HKN
WY3X Rating: 2005-01-15
I just dropped my subscription Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Never had any problems with the covers, but the magazine was too heavily slanted towards contesting and DX'ing, and mostly away from construction articles, which is what I like to read. I can find contest info on the internet, there's no need to subscribe to a magazine for that. Reading what happened on a VHF band 3 months ago really doesn't make me want to open my wallet either. I honestly enjoyed their coverage of old keys and antique radios though. The final nail in the coffin for me was when I offered them a good article, and received promises of them getting back in touch with me. I never heard from them, then I received an apology from the editor for failing to get back in contact with me after I initiated a second contact. Then I never heard from them again. They could have at least told me "no" if they weren't interested. It appears the publisher has lost touch with it's readers. I have letters from an estate that show the same pattern of ignoring correspondence that dates back to the mid-1970's. It's sad. Very sad. -KR4WM
TECH2005 Rating: 2004-12-16
I don't lik the magazine. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I don't like the magazine at all. It always arrives with no cover, if it arrives at all. There is no decent value in the magazine.
KC0RCQ Rating: 2004-12-16
Good Overall Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have to agree about CQ showing up a bit weathered, but overall it is a good magazine. There is plenty of stuff in it to please any ham. Try not to judge the magazine strictly by its (usually ragged) cover!