Heavy Metal in the April QST!

[KD1SH]

  So, last night, in bed, I'm leafing through the latest issue of QST, an activity that's typically more finger exercise than eye exercise—flip, flip, flip, flip, through mostly mundane pages filled with the usual topics: how everyone loves FT8, who's doing POTA or SOTA; the latest DXpedtions, and glossy adds for the latest plastic rigs. Okay, there was an interesting article about the tinySA, but otherwise than that, it was pretty much the usual QST. But then, as I was flipping pages with rapidly waning enthusiasm, a rare word—for QST, anyway—flashed by: "iron." Woah! What's up with that? Back up a bit!
  Flip back a few pages, and there's a picture of the Timtron! And wearing a white lab coat and standing beside the now famous Gates BC-1T, no less! What followed was an excellent article by our very own Clark, N1BCG, about the history of that Gates transmitter; how it came into the possession of the Vintage Radio and Communications Museum of Connecticut, its temporary residence at the League, and its conversion to amateur use, with credit duly given to Tim, Bob Allison, and all the many others who made it all possible.
  Kudos to Clark. Nice job!

[KA3EKH]

Cool, unfortunately for me it’s too little too late. Dropped my subscription and membership to the ARRL years ago. Was good to see that they were paying more attention to vintage and tube technology but beyond that the ARRL just was not where I was going.

[AG5UM]

I also was very Happy and excited with the ARRL April 2024 QST great article with "Timtron" and the BC-1T transmitter,  great article. Also, happy that they listed AM radio events and youtube, QRZ,  links, etc...Enjoyed the article very much, Great job.
Donnie.
   

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Well, it is the April issue!

[KD1SH]

  Well, the main point of my post was to call out Clark for his excellent bit of writing and AM ambassadorship, rather than to either praise or condemn the League or QST.
  As for the League, well, I remain a member largely because they are really the only resource we have for spectrum advocacy and representation. Our bands are under constant assault by other interests, and in a society where local zoning commissions—and neighbors—will praise you for installing a big ugly solar array on your property, yet raise hell if you string a dipole from a tree, we need all the support we can get.
  QST mostly concerns itself with topics that resonate with the largest number of hams and have the greatest chance of attracting more people into the hobby, and, unfortunately, AM takes a back seat to FT8 and POTA and the like. I wish it weren't that way, but that's the reality of the situation. I'd love to open up my monthly QST one day and find a ten-page article on building a plate modulated 813 rig or a screen modulated 4-1000 rig, but the fact is that such things won't even raise an eyebrow for a young potential ham, whereas articles about the wonder of playing FT8 on a computer, or pictures of wannabe first responders kibitzing and getting in the way at a local disaster site with the latest whiz-bang DMR plastic toys on their belts just might.
  We AM'ers are old news; we're not the hot thing that will "sell" ham radio, but at least those of us with the inclination and wherewithal, like Clark, can stand up and wave our banner and let the rest of the appliance operators know that we're still here.

Cool, unfortunately for me it’s too little too late. Dropped my subscription and membership to the ARRL years ago. Was good to see that they were paying more attention to vintage and tube technology but beyond that the ARRL just was not where I was going.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Seems like the same info that was reported back in March 7, 2018:
http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-repurposes-am-broadcast-transmitter-for-ham-radio-use and was documented in QST "Happenings" June 2018