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Reviews For: 73 Amateur Radio Today

Category: Amateur Radio Periodicals

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Review Summary For : 73 Amateur Radio Today
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General Ham Radio News, Reviews and Construction Articles
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# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001062.7
NX7E Rating: 2003-08-04
Nutty Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I used to like to read 73 in the 80's. Wayne's weird editorial slant was always amusing, and there was a lot of good stuff there. But for me, at least, he grew very tiresome. I've read a lot of comments about how his editorials "make you think." To each his own, but I can find better ways to stimulate thought than a bunch of drivel about cold fusion and biomagnewhoosits and conspiracies and any other crank nonsense he latches onto. I have admired his pugnaciousness in the past, but I'm saddened to see that he channels it into pseudoscientific trash that has no value.
W7IAN Rating: 2003-06-03
poor Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
If you like Wayne its great. Was hoping for better.
WA6TLK Rating: 2003-01-24
getting paid Time Owned: more than 12 months.
73 was great. It can be again, once Wayne is gone. I to wrote and had published an article in the mag. I have yet to be paid; it's only been two plus years.
K2SDD Rating: 2003-01-18
They got me too Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I read with interest KD4PBJ's comments (5-13-02)about 73 Magazine. I also had an article published in 73 for which I was never paid. I responded to a letter that I received requesting former authors to submit more articles. It is now clear to me why they have to beg for authors. I am not really angry. I am just concerned that 73 Magazine may be in such dire straights that at any time it may fade from the scene. (Multiple-year subscriptions, anyone?) Having published several articles in 73 in past years I can tell you that the amount of money of which I was stiffed (this last time) was very little indeed so I guess their "good" name wasn't worth very much. I only hope that I will not be required to pay income tax on the payment that was never sent.

FYI: My experience with CQ Magazine is no better. About five years ago I sent CQ a manuscript that they informed me they would purchase. They never did. Instead, a few months later my article appeared in one of their monthly columns as if it was written by their regular CQ columnist. He had changed a few words at the beginning of each paragraph but it was still plaigerism. Of course I never heard from them again about my origional manuscript. If you plan to write an article for either 73 or CQ, as they say, don't quit your day job. I just do it for fun and so that when I drop dead some day, the newspaper obit will say that poor Mike is gone, but while he was on Earth he published in all of the ham radio magazines.

P.S. I really enjoy Wayne Green's editorials.

Mike, meltzer121@aol.com
WX9J Rating: 2002-12-12
Needed Time Owned: N.A.
Let's face it, had it not been for the QSL service, most of the money spent for QST and ARRL is a waste for the common hans today.

Green is a wild man who thinks and says what he thinks, we don't need to agree with him but we do need his voice among the din that most sheep follow.

I have learned from him, both in radio and in other areas and would say he is one man I would love to have spent an hour with in a QSO.
WA7IEF Rating: 2002-10-31
General ramblings by W3FJW Time Owned: more than 12 months.
It's been a long time. 10 years since I've received/seen a copy of 73, but in that time it's nice to see the controversy surrounding Waynes thoughts and ideas haven't gone away. Personally, I enjoyed the editorials, made me think ocassionally and gave me a welcome laugh once in a while. The construction articles were some of the best around. Especially Peter Starks. After moving 20 times in 10 years, and not being able to keep my address updated, and just recently getting back into homebrewing and ham radio, I think it's about time to see if I can get my life subscription (best $37 I ever spent) resurrected. Byte & Kilobaud bit the dust before I did, but, oh well....
At any rate, Wayne did more to help us than hinder us and earned his rightful place in Hamdom history. Long may 73 live in whatever format Wayne chooses to breath into it.
Good luck es 73 OM.
N5JOB Rating: 2002-10-21
Excellent magazine Time Owned: more than 12 months.
73 is the ONLY Amateur magazine to which I subscribe. What I like about it is the variety of articles. Wayne's editorials are great... he's actually encouraging people to try to do better in their lives.

Lots of theory in there for study, and lot of practical hints too.

It's the ONLY amateur magazine I've ever read cover to cover in one sitting, usually the day I receive it! 73 Amateur Radio magazine is for radio operators who have a life other than just radio.

You also can't deny that Mr. Green is incredibly sharp for being 80 years old! This in itself reflects positively upon the man and his magazine.
N7BUI Rating: 2002-10-21
Excellent! Uncle Wayne is still tops! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
73 has never been a "main stream" ham magazine. Its more like a psychedelic bus from hippy land that makes a person stand up and take notice. The articles are meant to make you think. Uncle Wayne does a very good job of this with his excellent writing style. This is one person who refuses to shrivel up and blow away from old age. I have been a subcriber for many years and will continue to do so. The ham community is made of of varied interests. The UFO/Conspiracy types probably hold more ham tickets than anybody really realizes. Wayne tends to cater to that crowd, of which I'm clearly a member. Beam me up Scotty!
N4SRT Rating: 2002-10-21
Unfortunate decline Time Owned: more than 12 months.
As a new ham in the 1980s, I read every issue of 73, QST and CQ I could get my hands on. QST seemed geared to the highly technical crowd. CQ had contesting cornered, and 73 was a bit of mish-mash of homebrew and whatever else was available. My brother (also a ham) and myself have built a number of projects from the pages of 73. Each issue was always chock full of neat reading.

Readers like myself have sadly watched the once-great magazine decline over the years.

The content has certainly declined and the magazine has lost many of its advertisers, though some issues still have articles worth reading. The print quality of the magazine has dropped dramatically; some issues are so poorly laid out they look little better than a high school newspaper. Even great content can't save a crappy-looking magazine.

Wayne Green is quite a showman. If there's a controversial stance to take, sometimes I think he would take it just to aggravate the rest of the ham community. His rambling editorials have at times been so lenghty they were printed in tiny type just to get them in the pages of his magazine. His editorials have at times been thought-provoking, and he deserves credit for being an advocate of abolishing Morse Code for ham tickets long before it was fashionable.

There's a fine line between challenging readers and obnoxiously badgering them, and Green usually crosses that line -- to the detriment of the magazine. His claims of the faked Moon landings, quack health cures, etc., have done nothing to promote ham radio or help his credibility or that of the magazine.

When I see the magazine today, it's like looking at an abandoned factory. The machinery of success and greatness is visible, but the dust and decay makes it apparent that nothing can bring it back from the dead.
WN3VAW Rating: 2002-10-20
Best days are long behind it Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Once upon a time -- from it's founding through the mid 1980's -- 73 was a thought provoking, entertaining magazine. It was probably THE magazine for the average ham experimenter -- ham radio was technically better but significantly more advanced, so the every day experimenter would get more out of 73. And if you were unhappy with either the ARRL or the Cowan's (when they published CQ), Wayne was your man!

And Wayne was the catalyst (from 73 and many of the magazines that grew out of it, Byte being the most famous) of a lot of the early home computer and Personal Computer industry.

So what happened? Well, at one point, Wayne sold off the magazine empire and eventually left 73. When he did, it's editorial direction suffered. He eventually bought 73 back, but never could recapture the magic. And Wayne has never made a secret of the fact that he wrote editorials to provoke thinking and get your dander up, but when he actually petitioned the FCC to require code re-tests when you renewed your ticket, he alienated a large segment of his audience.

Today, if you can find 73 (most of the local newstands used to, now no one bothers -- I've asked, and some say they can't get it from their distributor), you find a tired remnant of a once great magazine. And Wayne comes across as a sad shadow of his former self. Where once he thundered against boneheads in the ARRL & the FCC, now he promotes "NASA faked the moon landings" and related trash. He has lost almost all of the credibility he once had.

What few articles and columns remain are not worth the price of admission. A few remain good to adequate, and occasionally you get one that's great or fantastic. But these are so few and far between that it's just not worth buying the magazine to wait for them.

It's very sad to see 73 (and Wayne) whither away like this. I only hope someone buys what's left of the magazine and somehow revives it before it's too late... but I'm afraid that it's already too late.