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Reviews For: QST Magazine

Category: Amateur Radio Periodicals

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Review Summary For : QST Magazine
Reviews: 267MSRP: 34
Description:
Subscription comes with membership to the American Radio Relay League
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.arrl.org
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
002673.8
K1AZG Rating: 2018-01-11
Needs help Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The older online version was by far better for me. I could download the issues and keep them and I did not have to rely on downloading each time I wanted to read an article. I hope this is not an attempt to sell the cd archives. I've been a Lifetime Member since it was offered. If you go back to 50s, 60s and 70s QST there seemed to be more technical and less social. Just the comments from a crabby old ham.
N5XJT Rating: 2018-01-11
Not So Great Anymore Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I feel guilty about not supporting ARRL so each year I pay the fee which is now about $50. The online version is not exactly easy to use and is very slow. The printed version varies in quality from month to month and often seems like a MFJ catalog. It is what it is but it ain't what it used to be.

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Earlier 2-star review posted by N5XJT on 2016-10-16

QST used to be great and I devoured every word for years. Now most tech articles are above the average ham, reviews are more spec oriented as opposed to on the air usage and overall the articles and departments do not apply to most hams. Now I go through the issue in about 15 minutes. I do not support paying for the many pages of MFJ ads and reading and re-reading K3 reviews. ARRL is the only voice we have, otherwise I would not renew QST as the mag is no longer useful for me.
W1GOV Rating: 2018-01-11
It is a great magazine Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I personally think that the ARRL, including QST, does a fine job of supporting amateur radio. I've enjoyed a lot of hobbies over my not quite 75 years and every hobby magazine I have subscribed to, MR, FSM, etc. have had their share of detractors. The usual complaint is that they don't write about “what I am interested in”. The answer is
1: The magazine is not for you personally it is for all enthusiasts.
2. If you want articles that interest you, write them.

I expect that QST is not soliciting articles, it is just taking what readers submit. If the editorial content or columns are not what you want, write them a letter with specific constructive criticism. Explain what it is you are looking for and why it would interest a large portion of the community. I for one have no interest in contesting, but I understand that others are interested and I have no issue with the space that QST provides to the subject; it is a nice balance. I dropped my CQ subscription because ½ the pages were lists of contest winners. I am sure the contest participants love that, but it isn't for me.
If you are having trouble with the on-line version, I expect it is your computer or browser that is at fault. I have never had any issues reading online magazines on my Apple computers.

As for advertising—who do you think pays for the magazine; it sure isn't the subscribers. Advertisements are the life blood of the periodical industry, I personally enjoy the ads as they keep me informed about the latest technology and provide some nice dream fodder. Oh wouldn't it be nice to have that big tower, the 1.5 KW Amp and a $10,000 transceiver.

The $49 per year for the basic ARRL membership is is like 13 cents per day. How can you complain about that? You probably loose that much in the sofa.

ARRL—keep up the good work.
QRPNEW Rating: 2018-01-11
QST Online Terrible Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Who in their right mind lets users log in onto their webpage with an unsecured connection. This is what you have do to log onto the QST online edition. Its very irresponsible for the ARRL to compromise a users identity and security with their online edition.

I wont use this webpage until they fix this security flaw.

The web page is very slow and clunky. It has a terrible interface and the main problem is that the company the hosts the content has got very slow servers. Its pathetic really.

As much as I like online content reading the online QST is an exercise in torture. Not recommended.

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Earlier 3-star review posted by QRPNEW on 2013-09-30

I get QST with my membership which is OK.
I like supporting the ARRL.

QST in its current form is a light weight magazine full of basically nothing worth mentioning. I cant even recall 1 article over the last 10 years that I would class as memorable or a must read.

What I would like to see happen to QST is this. They should make QST, QEX and NCJ all one magazine. This will make it fat and thick like the Japanese CQ magazine. The Japanese CQ magazine caters for everybody from general articles, homebrewing, antennas, technical matters and contesting all in the one magazine. I dont mind paying a bit extra and I am sure the ARRL would make a huge savings on their production and distribution costs. What it would mean is that you take QST on a holiday or on a plane and have access to a broad range of material that suites your whim or interest. If I get QST I flick through it quickly and throw it in the bin its that bad. If it incorporated all the other magazines I would at least keep it for a month if I read all the articles from NCJ and QEX as well.

I would like to see QST become more technical. It should be combination of the old Ham Radio magazine and CQ and then some.

Some of things I would like to see in QST
are:

More technical in-depth articles.

More reviews of test equipment like QST has been doing lately. The article on Rigol VS Tektronix in a review was excellent.

Bring back the expanded test reports on radios.

Review more commercial HF equipment like Harris, Sunair and whoever else.

More serious homebrewing articles for radios and amplifiers. The lack of material in the Handbooks is a reflection of QST not publishing enough homebrew articles.

There is a huge interest in AM. When last did we see a article in QST on AM or making a AM transmitter. There numerous groups on the internet just dedicated to this part of ham radio that is largely ignored by QST. The only thing they seem to be interested in is contesting DX'ing and forget the rest of the stuff thats popular with many hams.

More reviews of the numerous ham kits like Softrock, Hendricks and numerous other ham radio kit sellers. Even things like the HPSDR radios from Anan. Favorable reviews that could spark more interest in homebrewing like the hey day of ham radio. Now there is no going to the past but there are some excellent kits advanced ham radio stuff like DDS kits, SDR and test and measurement equipment. There is a lot of test equipment on the market however there is nobody reviewing this equipment. You dont know if you buying junk or good equipment. QST doing test equipment reviews could drag some electronic hobbyists into the ham universe.

While hams have become blackbox operators with poor technical skills. I also see many hams pursuing homebrewing and investigating the technical side of the hobby by building and testing the equipment that they build. QST just misses this side of the hobby with basic articles like how to use a multimeter. I would like to see articles on how to use a Network analyzer and such equipment which is available to hams these days.

What I would also like to see in QST is articles on restoring or repairing old HP/Agilent test equipment. I am sure there are many retired HP design engineers who are hams who could write such articles. These kind of articles would make me keep QST rather than throw the issues into rubbish bin year after year.

If hams lament how dumb down ham radio is becoming, its because magazines like QST are being dumm-ed down not being smartened up.

The message simple turn QST into a real technical ham magazine with a broader range of articles that reflect ham radio as a whole.
KD0ZV Rating: 2017-12-26
Big improvement Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have subscribed to QST on and off for 35 years. Have to say I have never been happy with it and Ham Radio and 73 were always my favorites with CQ close behind.

This issue with the new formatting and content was a big change and I think QST might be heading the right direction. The last issue had articles that fit my needs and the format was much improved.

Thanks ARRL
K1PJR Rating: 2017-03-19
Kudos to ARRL Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I agree with N2LSO's comments below. I'm a CPA and completely understand where the league is coming from regarding the ads in QST. How do you thing they generate revenue? It doesn't grow on trees.

They are the only US organization that supports ham radio. They protect our hobbies interests. No one else does. You can access thousands of QST articles online. LOTW is free and is used worldwide. It even Integrates with your QRZ logbook. I enjoy QST in print and on my phone. All this and more for about 35 bucks a year. That's $3 a month. Are you kidding me?

I'll always support the league. Rather than complain be proactive. If there is something you don't like the contact them and ask questions. You will get answers. They are not perfect but nothing is. Be happy they are in your corner.

73
Phil
K1PJR
WB8NUT Rating: 2017-03-19
More than a magazine Time Owned: more than 12 months.
QST is more than just a magazine. There are tremendous membership benefits with an ARRL membership and the ARRL is the only organization representing the interests of the American amateur radio licensee. The magazine has great articles for all interest from beginner to highly technical. Also an electronic version of QST is available to all members at no additional charge. There is also a good balance between ads, articles and contest information. Unlike other magazines for the amateur, QST actually arrives each and every month on time without fail so any date sensitive information is always early before an event. QST and an ARRL membership is well worth our support. Other magazines like RadCom are great, but for US hams, QST should be your first choice.
KB3ZVR Rating: 2017-03-10
QST Sucks Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The printed product is just okay with so so content, however the online version has a very poor UX, but that's true of the entire ARRL website. Both suffer from poor navigation. The search function on the QST site is almost non-existent. Oh and the phone app is even worse.

So for a technical organization it's downright embarrassing that the web based components are so poorly executed.
KI8M Rating: 2017-01-16
Great magazine (electronic and print) Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've been a member of the ARRL since 1962 for not only the magazine, which I enjoy reading, but for all the services the ARRL offers our hobby. Whether it's the equipment insurance plan (which I take part in), Technical help, help regarding HOA problems and of course, their lobbying work in Washington DC.

So unless you purchase QST at a ham radio dealer's store, the magazine is another benefit you get from being a member of the ARRL. Over the years, I've read other periodicals regarding our hobby, but I've never found one that offered more than this one.
WB8VLC Rating: 2017-01-14
buggy 2017 online SW Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Terrible new beta online version for 2017 while using 4 pc's:

Windows 8.1 on a dell tablet, Windows 10 and 8.1 two Toshiba laptops and Win 7 on another laptop the only browser it works on is Chrome and then very poorly.

It appears to be software written by a blind intern possibly on a Windows ME machine.

If using Mozilla Firefox or Internet explorer it doesn't have any controls for that matter and it constantly locks up so I only use Chrome.

I Updated all my browsers and my pc's mouse and touch drivers which then made one yaesu usb cable stop working on 1 pc but still on all 4 pc's there was no improvement.

On all pc's the touchscreens pinch n zoom doesn't work, the only way to zoom is with a mouse but zoom is buggy even with the mouse and so it never focuses if zoomed out and it only changes pages when zoomed full out.

It's hit or miss when attempting to move around within a page under either touch screen or mouse control and when moving around a page does work you cannot move to the next page until zooming full out and then it's out of focus.

So you need to be zoomed full out then zoom in to read text, attempt to move the page around with touch or mouse control to read more text, then zoom full out to change pages and repeat this annoying process.

A perfect example of using a computer at its worst.

This is my last year With QST and ARRL but I wish I saw this poor software before I renewed in Dec.