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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
W9JH Rating: 2016-10-25
Enjoying QST for 50 years+ Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Have always looked forward to receiving QST for over 50 years and still do to this day! Has it changed over that time? Of course — time does not stand still and the audience has changed as well. When considering the alternative there’s no comparison. I can read CQ for free at the library but don’t even bother any more as it’s always very late and the articles are not that interesting.

I find many of the ARRL publications to be useful and of good value and quality, including QST.

Life Member
K5YY Rating: 2016-10-23
overall VG for all hams Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Agree with a bit too much advertising overall, but our hobby needs a cross section of articles to satisfy the diverse hams in our hobby. Maybe one issue will have little interest to me personally, but the next issue may have a couple of interesting articles. The monthly DX and VHF sections are concise and helpful most of the time to fill us in a bit. The obituary page of our deceased hams is something most of us go thru briefly, although with some sadness. Overall, I have had my ARRL membership continuously for over 55 years, and QST is "part" of that ham radio support system rendered by our ARRL staff and governing body. I love the hobby enough to continue my subscription for now, but I wish I had taken advantage years ago for the lifetime membership ONE TIME payment. It was a bargain price equivalent to about 5 years of annual payments. Now I have lived another 15 years and prices have gone up during that time. My loss! K5YY
N2SLO Rating: 2016-10-22
Lucky to have a Magazine Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My two cents: I have expertise in the magazine publishing industry, had major publishing clients as audit clients when I was in big four public accounting. The industry has changed significantly over the last 20 years due to demographics, internet, social media etc. You are darn right- we are lucky to still have a print magazine. Those that complain about advertising- do the math and listen up, the majority of revenue $$$ is not from subscriptions, but "Ad pages". Just look at CQ- prime example. You lose major advertisers hard to replace. We have a niche hobby- every dollar counts. Not to mention fulfillment costs, print, postage, etc.... Be thankful this magazine exists, one day print will be gone and only soft copy available. This is not the 1950's.. time and industries change. for what its worth
VE6ND Rating: 2016-10-21
Best of the best Time Owned: more than 12 months.
It's nice to see that they are going strong still. Here we have RAC which on its best day is terrible and only published 6 times a year.
QST does have articles that don't appease everyone however they do keep up with current technology, where we are heading and if you're looking for that 6146B exciter then perhaps back issues of QST are your bet.
WO8USA Rating: 2016-10-19
We are lucky to even have a ham radio magazine Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have read all the ham radio magazines for a number of years, including the ones now out of business or going out soon. Given the market size and niche topic, we are even lucky to have a magazine these days, especially with the small profit margin now on advertising and ease of obtaining information on the internet. QST has made some improvements over the past few years (not so long ago it was B&W), now the interim electronic version with videos and added content. Provide some feedback via your section manager or directly to QST rather than reading it here...I did a while back and they respond.

If you cannot rate it a 5 tell ARRL what you want so it can be a 5. They are not hard to reach.
Chris WO8USA

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Earlier 5-star review posted by WO8USA on 2003-12-07

IMO, QST meets the mainstream hardcopy amateur needs. Personally, I use QST for long term reading and eHam as my daily fix for ham news.

Its hard to meet all needs with one magazine. I save the build-it-yourself antenna articles and reference them every so often. Let's face it--the magazine business has changed, and for those like QST which really serve a limited audience its probably hard to just survive. I'd imagineif it weren't for the greater ARRL QST would have folded long ago due to lack of a substantial client base.

In the perfect world, QST and eHam would combine resources to complement each other actively.

Chris WO8USA
WC3O Rating: 2016-10-17
Great Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Ummm, what K4LSX said. Actually, there is a great alternative? Opportunity is knocking! Start your own ham radio magazine! How hard could it be? And BTW I think the price of QST might just include something else? Perhaps the 5001 good things the ARRL does for ham radio? I wonder if that enters into the cost of the magazine at all? Nah, I'd rather just bad-mouth them. Keep up the good work OMs (ES YLs)
Respectfully
Bob WC3O
NN2X Rating: 2016-10-16
Great Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I can't believe the negative comments.. Sure it has product info and evaluation..I like this month they reviewed ICOM 7300 with SDR Technology...Now that is spot on.

They try to cover all, from DX Expedition, digital, product review, technical questions answered...(Q & A)..and more...

What more can you ask for?

Is there advertisement?, you bet, like any other magazine.

About the price. It is ridiculously cheap. Try another hobby, and see what it costs...

And Ham radio is not a large market. There are about 750,000 (Approximate in USA)..That is peanuts, compared to other hobbies like gaming, radio control air planes...etc...

In summary, QST Magazine is an excellent magazine
K4LSX Rating: 2016-10-16
there are whiners forever.... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Just over 60 years in ham radio and I have always looked forward to the arrival of QST. As far back as I remember there were always a small cohort that could constantly tell us all that was wrong with the ARRL as well as QST. A brave few have tried to make competing mags and organizations. Most of those efforts ultimately failed. The League/QST is all we have and it ain't bad. What benefit comes from the wailing and moaning? As someone once said - Lead, Follow, or Get Out of The Way. How about becoming a VE, an OO or teaching a class? Maybe become an Elmer or help a disabled or challenged ham? Help a widow sell a station. Or get involved with the dreaded league and change it. Yes, I have "served my time" doing most of these things.

And BTW - over my years I have subscribed to many publications - QST, Ham Radio, CQ, 73, Masonic magazines, Shrine magazines, NRA magazines, BMW Motorcycle Owners Assoc. magazine, Roadrunner, BSA magazines, American Legion magazine, IEEE magazines, financial industry magazines and others. My take is that the higher quality mags all have "loads of adverts". Publishing a high quality mag is not cheap. The ones with no or very few ads supporting the production are usually in poorer quality forms and not punctual; some so bad they are only available in pdf or laserjet print form.

I hope I can continue to have a new QST every month for the rest of the time that I am able to lurk on the bands.

73
John
K4LSX
K1FPV Rating: 2016-10-16
Still worth it after over 50 years! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I'm a life member of ARRL as well a subscriber and have been for well over 50 years! I've got most of my older issues of QST dating back to the early 1960's at 50¢ per issue compared to $4.08 per issue today(Annual membership $49.00/year to ARRL with the subscription to QST).

When I look at what I was earning back in the early to mid 1960's compared to wages today, I found that the cost of QST today is actually less than it was back in the 1960's taking into account the rate of inflation. The technical articles in QST now are not as technically complex in that then, many of the hams built their own radios and transmitters. I built my first transmitter from an old Admiral TV set. My receiver was a Knight Kit R-55.

Back then, the exams required you to figure out answers, not memorize them! They often may give you questions that required you to figure out the needed value of a resistor using OHM's Law, not some question that has been memorized. They often asked you what the function of a particular component was in a schematic.

Many of the articles then were more complex and often similar in complexity to today's articles in QEX. NO I'M NOT TRYING TO SLAM THE NEWER HAMS OF TODAY! Technology has changed! Back then, TVs were repaired, not thrown away like much of today's consumer electronics.

For the most part, I think that the ARRL has done a good job in holding the prices down. One way has been the advertising. Trust me, the business requirements at ARRL to keep their head above water is the same as it has been in broadcasting. Without commercials on the radio or TV, the stations go out of business....well the same applies to the ARRL! Without advertising, the price goes up much higher.

That is merely my 2¢ worth on the topic. Thank you ARRL for doing all that you have done over the years!

K1FPV

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Earlier 5-star review posted by K1FPV on 2013-10-01

I've been an ARRL member now for between 45 and 50 years. Time was I was excited to see QST in my mailbox primarily for many of the construction articles.

But over the years, they are fewer and farther apart! Many of the articles now are primarily for beginners or intermediate knowledge hams. Guess that the is way the hobby is going! Time was we could all fix our own rigs when they acted up. I still do fix mine....even the new microprocessor rigs. Unfortunately, now, most guys send their rigs off to repair facilities.

At least ARRL is still there to fight for our frequencies and privileges.

Bill, K1FPV
Life Member
AE5GG Rating: 2016-10-16
Been an avid reader for 36 years! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
After 36 years of being a ham I finally became a Life Member of the ARRL. I felt it was well worth the investment to support the only organization that has a significant voice in supporting our rights.

As to some of the comments below:

1) Advertising: many complain of too many ads. Well, I suppose the ARRL does have a choice, increase our annual price or increase the ads. Personally, I like to see all the new gear.

2) Overly technical articles: I find that some of the articles are a bit over my head despite the fact that my career is in technology. However, instead of getting frustrated about it I start looking things up on line. The whole move to digital had me scratching my head, but now I am deeply embedded early on to this newest venue in amateur radio. In my opinion we should stretch our minds, not complain and look for a "USA Today" type 4th grade writing style (ever wonder why they're so popular?? lots of pictures and simpleton writing...sorry, not my type of paper nor would I be interested in that for QST.)

3) I DO wish that QST / ARRL would give us the option of only getting the digital version. I only read it on my iPad and think it's such a waste for them to mail it to me. Here's a chance to save money!