The AM Forum

I have noticed in the last few issues, they now have a glossary section called Hamspeak, "brief descriptions of Amateur Radio related items found in this month's issue of QST.  Each article that appears in the magazine is listed, and under the heading, terms used in that article are explained.

Here are some of the terms defined in the June issue: carbon mic, dynamic mic, resistive divider, balanced load, feed impedance, unbalanced feed line, cathode ray tube, RTTY, slow scan television, FM capture effect, QRP transceiver, inverter, DXpeditions, dummy load, and I have saved the best for last: solder lug!

Hi Don ... sounds like you may have been an educator ... same here (math / electronics / ind maint)  as you know, the whole society is dumbing down (example: presidential candidates) so why shouldn't Qstreet magazine? .... I do wish for more design/construction articles ... according to a letter from arrl, they need more authors of these .... I wonder if they would consider adding the old buzzard am lexicon, FWIW ... 73  John

The Olde Buzzard Lexicon can be found here -->> http://www.w1ujr.net/glossary.htm

For some odd reason the League does not seem eager to publish this.  ;)

-Bruce

Keep in mind that not only is the current Generation Y dumbed down, but they lack any radio experience.  How many non-ham under 30s have ever listened to AM radio?  Ever tuned an analog radio?  Ever even heard of shortwave radio?  If one of these kids were to pick up a QST, they would be totally lost without the glossary of (SIMPLE) radio terms.

I have a kid in fourth grade, and at least HE knows many of these things.  I try to do a science/electronics demo for his class every year.  This year I brought in my old Zenith Transoceanic, and demonstrated that you could listen to broadcasts from Germany, China, South America, etc.  The sad thing is that none of the kids could understand why anyone would WANT to.

It may be offensive or incredible to some more experienced Ham operators that they have to define simple (to us) terms, but if you want to get more people interested in building/experimenting, you have to give them more help now-a-days. Especially now as the mentoring facet of our hobby seems to be declining. If QST is their first exposure to technical radio then keeping a little help somewhere in the back is a good idea. 
 A newly minted "extra lite" probably won't know what some of those terms are (and some old buzzard advanced license holders may not either), and with out the benefit of a patient explanation, they never would (unless they were more motivated to readup than most). 

You can argue that the simple stuff belongs in "that other magazine" but really if you want to build/experiment QST is the rag to read. 

To be honest, sometimes some of the articles in QST are a little intimidating to me too, but I slog through and either disregard the bulk of the math or read up elsewhere, but I am already hooked. 

Yes, the standards are falling, but it's a symptom of our culture/society, not just QST/Amatuer Radio/ARRL etc. 

A terminal lug is a "bum in a railroad station".

QSt ran an article on a survey that was published in 2004. The first part part targets the advertisers but lots of great information there. Starting on page 9, there is an article that "profiles a typical QST reader". Interesting reading.
http://www.arrl.org/ads/ad-matters/Ad-Matters-Oct-2004.pdf
No "dumbing down" but just a reaction to the type of person entering the current amateur radio hobby. The "dumbing down" phrase is now so over-used it's actually laughable. "They don't understand simple terms or phrases; getting a license too easy; can't fix a radio; can't change the oil in the car, can't roll your own capacitors, etc." ' all must be "dumbing down of society", "dumbing down of amateur radio", "dumbing down life in general", etc. I view the phrase as "class" P&M.

I think one perspective is that oversimplifying things makes them uninteresting.  Many letters to the editor in QST complained about them publishing complex construction projects "that nobody will build" - but the value of those articles was that they engendered interest in the technical details, construction practices, etc.  When I was a young JN most of the stuff in QST was way above me but it stimulated curiosity and further interested me in the hobby.

If the substance of articles is very basic, there's not much to motivate beginning hams to aspire to bigger and better things.  If they're implicitly told that building an xmitter is too complex for them, why should they aspire to be interested in building and experimenting?

IMHO QST should lead the way with a whole range of articles, not just pander to the lowest common denominator.  Not everyone will be interested in every article, but there oughta be a range - and that includes at least one article a month that would have been chosen for QEX as well as something tailored towards beginning hams. 

At least they finally did away with the interminable section reports, who's hit the brasspounders league this month, and the contest results are much shorter also.  There's all sorts of niches in ham radio that they cover pretty well already (DX, contesting, antennas, digital) but they can stand substantial improvement in more in-depth technical articles.

The old QST was pretty realistic and informative.  Last week I was thinking about a 'Gil' illustration from an old QST, showing a ham with an HF receiver that made a slight hiss with no antenna connected, but when the antenna was connected it snapped and popped, and things came blasting out of the speaker.  Then the ham took a VHF receiver that made a slight hiss with no antenna connected, but when he connected the antenna, he heard exactly the same slight hiss, and he looked at the reader with a perplexed expression on his face.

People may be somewhat confused when radios are all-digital.  If something blocks the data stream, all they will know is that they can't hear anything.  I wonder how far down into the pull-down menus the receive signal strength or receive spectrum displays will be, if they will exist at all.  And like certain well-known operating systems, will manufacturers play shell games (no pun intended) with those little-used fields?  Imagine someone who dimly remembers "RSSE or something" and can't FIND it...

John,

So true, OM.  You reminded me of a couple of related stories.

I call it, "Learned helplessness"

Back in the mid 60's I stood in Hatry's, a local ham store in Hartford as a fly on the wall.  I was a 13 year old novice listening and learning from the wise Generals as they talked crap.   A well-heeled customer was talking with Corky, the OT ham counter man, about buying a used Collins KWM2 for sale on the display rack. This was the primo Caddy rig at the time. The guy complained that there was no power supply with the rig. Corky quickly said, "why don't ya build one... it's easy enough."    The guy acted insulted and said, " I don't homebrew my refrigerator, oven or car, so why would I want to homebrew a power supply?" He didn't buy it as a result.  This was in the 60's too...  That left an impression on me about how easy it was for ME to acquire, "learned helplessness" from others.

Fast forward to the other night.  I was listening to a very new and enthusiastic ham on ssb 75M talking about a Viking 500 AM rig for sale without the outboard modulator/ power supply cabinet for a ridiculously low price. The older and "wiser" newbie advised the guy it was useless to buy it without the PS/mod... and building it  "couldn't be done."  The potential buyer agreed and they let it go.

What a great deal and learning experience that could have been for the guy.  It will probably go to someone who knows his way around rigs and is not afraid to tackle a fun HB project.  Someone with the right "learned can-do" attitude.


It's probably a lot to do with the, "if it breaks, throw it away and buy a new one" syndrome.  Who ever heard of repairing a computer board, Ipod, cell phone, or any other electronic device these days?  Thus, newer hams have never learned the right attitude of seeing a piece of radio gear through the eyes of what it could be with some work.

The lucky ones are those who find OT mentors (like found on this site) and undo their society's "LEARNED HELPLESSNESS."

T


Definition:
"Learned helplessness" is a psychological condition in which a human being or an animal has learned to believe that it is helpless in a particular situation. It has come to believe that it has no control over its situation and that whatever it does is futile. As a result, the human being or the animal will stay passive in the face of an unpleasant, harmful or damaging situation, even when it does actually have the power to change its circumstances. Learned helplessness theory is the view that depression results from a perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation, or situations(Seligman, 1975). Examples can be found in schools, [or some ham radio operators] mental institutions, orphanages, or long-term care facilities where the patients have failed or been stripped of agency for long enough to cause their feelings of inadequacy to persist. [caw mawn]

It seems QST has been publishing a version of the current "hamspeak" numerous times since the 1920's. So I guess "learned helplessness" was also prevalent way back "in the good old days".

Here's a few:
British Standard List of Terms and Definitions Used in Radio Communications - Apr 1924 QST

American Standard Definitions of Electrical Terms - Sep 1942 QST

Vacuum Tube Amplifier Definitions - Sep 1929 QST

QST Abbreviations for Terms - Jan 1977 QST

Dictionary of Electronic Terms - Nov 1960 QST

"New Electronic Terms" - Mar 1947 QST

American Amateur Terms - Dec 1922 QST

Learned Helplessness?

Pete,

I think you missed the point of my previous post.  

Of course glossaries and definitions are needed for any and all technical articles. "Ham speak" is a necessary thing. We need to assume the reader could be a newcomer reading his first QST.  OT's can simply skip the definitions.

What I am referring to by "learned helplessness" is being influenced by the current throw-away society and some hams who advocate buying everything ready-made because it's too difficult to learn to do otherwise. In almost every facet of radio we can modify, or build our own if we choose.  It all depends on who we hang with. If your posse builds, then you are encouraged to build.  If you hang with appliance ops, then your attitude will probably be similar.

Fortunately, many AMers and most of the BB users here encourage building and modifying -  and are more than happy to mentor those interested.

T

Yep....  in rats, dogs, elephants, people... we're all animals...  ;)

I think the best example is the circus elephant. As a baby, his leg is tied to a stake in the ground with a rope. He soon learns he cannot escape.  As he grows older, that same rope and stake still holds him.  He could pull it out easily, but doesn't try cuz he's learned to be helpless in that situation. 

Another quick story:  Back a few years ago a ham friend was worrying about how difficult it would be to put up and turn a full size 75M Yagi.  Matt, KC1XX, who installs this kind of stuff every day for a living said, "heck, we've been designing and erecting rotary bridges for over 100 years! - what's the problem?!! "    The guy changed his attitude and put up a beautiful rotary tower and 75M Yagi later on.     

My point is, with big, scary projects (to us) we often need a friend or mentor to give us the confidence and nerve to pull it off. 


T

I think the reasons for some not building or experimenting is having something fail or the fear of failure and of course having the time to research and have confidence. The information is out there.  One just has to find it.  I took me years to get what little knowledge I could get and build confidence.  Then spending time collecting then building and the fear that it was all for nothing.  The "what if I buy all this stuff and it craps out or doesn't work" syndrome. 

I know I went through that.  I came from a family where frugality was paramount and money took the front seat.  I don't know how many times I asked my father for help building something and was reasoned into the fear of failure and wasting the money.  That followed me for years until I came across ham radio, well equipped electronic stores, having a receiver and finding the AM crowd, this is a whole story in itself.

Even after a few years of being exposed to ham radio and AM crowd I still had the fear of failure, information galore or not. Then one day I said to hell with it.  I was making money and could throw caution to the wind so I started collecting plus I didn't have my father monitoring my spending habits. 

It took many years of collecting, knowledge seeking, experimenting and confidence building and deciding that failure was not an option, thanks Gene. Then the time came and I put my money where my mouth was and jumped in.  I haven't looked back though at times I still get that guilt feeling my my parents instilled every once in a while but for the most part, having the knowledge is most valuable.

Those who don't or won't  risk the time and money for knowledge are shorting themselves. 

Yep, and you built an ass-kicking pair of 2KV  813's modulated by a pair as a FIRST HB rig project. That took guts.

Just think where you'd be now (knowledge-wise) if you didn't make that decision.

T

I'm related to people who look down their noses at me for building the beach QTH. They spend  the same amount as my my tax bill to rent a place for a week at the cape. We stay half the summer at the beach.

Here's a thought,

I wonder if some of that "learned helpessness", and "if I can't buy it, I don't want it" mentality, comes from the situation of always having things always available to you at your beck and call.  I learned to how to start fixing these rigs, out of necessity (and with a lot of help from people here, especially Rodger, WQ9E).  I had nobody around to do it for me, and even if I did, I couldn't afford to pay somebody to fix it for me.  I've had this situation for most of my life: not enough money; or not enough help available.  It's a pain, but it sure does help to make you self-reliant.  Like most of us, I've had build or repair things out of necessity, because there was nothing else available that met my needs.  Nowadays, many people have gotten used to having things available at their fingertips (figuratively, and sometimes literally speaking) or spoon fed to them.  I can't always say it's laziness.  But maybe complacency?  All too often, we seem to live in a society, that seems to value the "no brains = no headaches" paradigm.  I've seen it time and time again in my professional life - people who ask me to basically think for them.

73,
Ellen - AF9J

Hi Ellen,
Hope all is well with you,--I could not resist replying to your comments. 
You "hit the nail on the head",--I agree with your posting,--could not have said it better myself.
                                                   73, Rene, K1MVP :)

P.S., as far as QST being "dumbed down",--I would guess that is according to one`s perspective,
but as someone mentioned earlier,-- what is not "dumbed down" nowadays? (oh yes,--I  know I
am just a P and M`er). 

 

Hi Ellen,

So what seems to be said is that someone helped us learn? And ARRL is trying to fill that gap? Shame on them for working with newcomers who know nothing about the hobby. What a waste of my dues :)  Clearly some people were born with that knowledge while some of us had to learn it. Surprised we were ever allowed into the hobby!

I am ashamed to admit I relied on the ARRL Code Practice Transmissions The ARRL How To Become a Radio Amateur and ARRL License Manual and some Elmers (I know, post 70s term) to learn.

I'm glad they are there to help the newcomers as they did for me in the 60s.

Carl /KPD

Sorry Carl,

I didn't mean that as a slam against the ARRL.  I'm sorry if it came off as sounding like that.  We all have to ask questions, at one time or another. Look at all of the boneheaded questions I've asked.  Until recent times (thanks boards on the Internet), I haven't had much access to people who could answer my Amateur Radio questions.  Just books, and magazines.  QST should be applauded for trying to offer articles for the newb and rusty OT who could use a refresher.  I guess, I'm bummed that the ARRL, due to a lack of interest in much of its readership, is forced to offer less and less building articles every year.   Building thngs is a great way to learn, or get something that isn't available off the shelf, that meets your needs , or you can afford.

Simple things are great.  We can't all start off building a multiband transceiver.  Also, many like me, don't even have the tools to make some of the stuff like the enclosures, etc.  My problem, is that because I'm not your typical "I have a 2m transceiver, and your run of the mill HF transceiver, that I can send out for servicing" Amateur, I've had to learn how to at least make an effort to fix my stuff.  I haven't been able to do plug & play like most Amateurs prefer to do nowadays.  Most of the operating I do, is not conducive to plug and play (so I've had to do it for myself).  Maybe it's the plug and play mentality that is so prevalent in Amateur Radio (and our society), that gets to me.  It is not conducive to learning.  There's no need to understand what's going on, since everythings's been done for you.  All you have to do, is push a button or flip a switch, and let her rip.  Here's an example with regards to Amateur Radio:

A year and a half ago, I was more into HFpack stuff (before I began to feel that the HFpack group was basically like a dictatorship, run by Bonnie, KQ6XA).  There was a Tech who would post on the HFpack Yahoo board many times, in response to other posts about cool portable antennas that were tried out.  The Tech's posts in a nutshell, were always "gee that sounds cool, where can I get one?"  This happened often enough within a span of several weeks, that one of the HFpack members politely counterposted saying "hey, why don't you try building some antennas, since most of these HFpack antennas can't be bought off the shelf?  Plug and Play is cool, but expirimenting with building your own antennas is even cooler ."  The Tech lives relatively close to me. I even met him at a hamfest, and gave him a cheap little tuner, to use for antenna expiriments.  He mentioned getting his General soon.  As of the present, he still is a Tech, and as far as I know, hasn't made much of an effort to do antenna expirimenting.  I think he probably has no desire to do much beyond plug and play.

Carl,  I have nothing against teaching the newbies.  When I've been capabable of doing so, I've mentored newbies.  It's kind of cool watching them go from clueless, to being really sharp at things.   I guess all I can say, is I hope the ARRL stuff stimulates newbs to learn more, and isn't just spoon feeding (which is similar to Plug and Play), which leads to making no effort to take the knowlege your learned, and using it as a tool for learning and doing other things.

Fumbling her way through an explanation (I'm still not sure I've explained things to my own satisfaction),
Ellen - AF9J

I guess my biggest beef is that 

Hi Ellen,

I did not take your comments at a slam against the ARRL. The salutation was only because I followed you.

My point is simply that there is nothing wrong with ARRL helping new people out, and in fact they have a long tradition of doing so. The bands are going to turn awful quiet in the future if we dont help people learn about the hobby and become hams

Car /KPDl

Hi Carl,

Oh I agree completely.  We could use more mentoring for the newbs, in any shape manner and form.  that was one of the things I did not have as teenager with a Novice license - mentors.  So, I guess that makes me a statistical fluke radiowise, since in all liklihood, I should hae called it quits after a year or two.  I just hope some of the newer hams want to take the info they get from the QST articles, to another level (in other words, it whets their appetites to learn more).

73,
Ellen - AF9J
At work

If the ARRL would let a member choose QEX instead if QST, I would rejoin it.

Maybe you should write to the appropriate person(s) at HQ and tell them just that.  If they heard from enough people, they might consider it.  There must be considerable demand for this if the W5 who is running for Delta Division Director has included this in his platform.

QST has pretty well become on par with Ham Radio Horizons, the sister publication targeted at neophytes, that Ham Radio magazine published for a while before its demise.

That's fine for helping mentor newcomers, but those of us who can comprehend in-depth technical articles, and know the meaning of such things as carbon and dynamic microphones, balanced loads, unbalanced feed lines,  dummy loads and solder lugs should receive a  membership publication more attuned to our interests.

I would prefer to see the present contents of QST and QEX  combined into the same publication as it was before 1980.  Along with the "Technical" section, there could be another section entitled something like "Welcome to amateur radio" or "newcomer's corner", which would contain the mentoring information.

League personnel have stated that some readers of QST griped about technical articles they couldn't understand and construction articles that "nobody builds", but why should preference be shown to those readers, over those of us who no longer need explanations about what voltage dividers, balanced feedlines and solder lugs are?

The problem with subscribing to QEX without QST is that there still are occasionally good technical  articles in QST, so in order to get all the technical information, you would have to subscribe to both.  But I would be much more satisfied with QEX than the present QST.

Another solution would be to offer an online version of QEX (and the contest rag, for those interested), at no additional cost to full members, along with the option of paid dead-tree subscriptions.

The broadcast rag Radioworld offers free hard-copy subscriptions, along with a separate special engineering edition.  But the publisher encourages readers to opt for their free on-line versions.  Certainly the League could offer online versions of its "speciality" publications at no additional  cost to paid members.

You don't subscribe to QST. It's the membership journal that's included with your membership. It's a catch-all monthly journal for a large variety of amateur radio interests and activities. I would also suspect it generates a substantial monthly advertising revenue. It's a slick monthly publication that's probably geared to highlighting amateur radio in print both domestically and internationally while providing membership with their own unique journal. QEX, on the other hand, is a bi-monthly magazine that anyone can subscribe to. If you're an ARRL member, you can get a "special" subscription price. The ARRL generates additional revenue through the sale of magazine subscriptions of QEX and the Contest magazine with also some limited ad revenue. QST monthly distribution to members (let's say 150,000 per month) which makes many advertisers very happy and willing to advertise each month to that audience. Since many advertisers offer plug-and-play type equipment, versus the typical parts seller, which still might entice the techie population, having the QST distribution volume drop (because some had opted to take QEX instead), would, most likely, drop the advertising revenues.

Having a Director candidate propose such a change will, most likely, not win him a happy chair in the ARRL Board room with all the other Directors and Officers. However, candidates have been known to "tell the voters what they want to hear"; you can always make excuses why it didn't happen after you secure the position.

But still, the funding for that slick monthly publication doesn't appear out of thin air.  It comes out of the membership dues, which are not that much more than the typical $25-$30 annual subscription rate of any slick monthly publication of similar size, weight and page count.  So inevitably, a large hunk of the subscription fee is going into producing the magazine.  I haven't seen statistics on what portion of the membership dues goes to producing QST vs. what goes for organisational costs and membership services, but I would suspect that less than $10 goes towards the latter.

If they took the "slickness" out of QST, the monthly magazine could include everything that's in it right now including all the ads, plus 1/2 the contents of a bi-monthly issue of QEX, at no more than the current cost of producing QST alone. 

I used to subscribe to a magazine titled "Mother Earth News".  It had more pages than QST had at the time, but the pages weren't made of slick glossy paper and were slightly thinner, purported to be of recycled material, and the magazine still had full color display ads.  An added bonus of using non-glossy paper stock was that the ink didn't rub off when you handled the magazine with slightly moist or greasy hands. IIRC, the annual subscription rate was about half that of a typical "slick" magazine at the time.  I quit subscribing when the magazine went the "slick" route and the subscription rate went up, but the quality and variety of content went down.

The bottom line is that for many, if not most of us, a big chunk of our membership dues is wasted every month on a near-worthless stack of waste paper.

Don,

I suspect that, like most magazines, ad revenue is paying the bulk of publishing costs for QST.
In the magazine biz, subscriptions pay but a small part of the total cost.

You can thank the likes of Icom, Yaesu and MFJ for your nearly "free" QST.
Which is precisely why the magazine content is written to the demographic that it is; Icom, Yaesu and MFJ don't make their money selling products to home brewers and builders.

I don't have the breakdown of ad revenue at hand, but perhaps Peter could provide the actual figures.

Many have raised the very valid and correct point of the need to elmer newcomers to the amateur service, QST does this very well.
With that said, I read perhaps three items each month in QST, K2TQN's Vintage radio column, the editorial, and letters to the editor. Little else is of interest to me, I find Electric Radio, and pre-war QSTs do the trick.

-Bruce

I must admit that I am a cheapskate.    I spend my allocation for ham magazines with ER.    My public library has QST so I suppose, being a local taxpayer, that I am a partial member of the ARRL.    I never tried getting the mailing label info to see if I could access the members only section of the website.    I was a full member until the ARRL lobbied to take away my earned privileges in the 60's.    Had to travel 200 miles to Philadelphia to regain them, only to have them reduced again.   Finally in the 70's I regained full amateur privileges, only to see them eventually given away to anyone.

I remember reading not to long ago somewhere on the ARRL web site (I did a quick eyeball scan of the By-Laws and Articles of Association but didn't find it) that 40 to 45 percent of dues goes towards the monthly journal.

I was using "slick" with slightly different meaning but I understand your point. I believe QEX also uses the same type of high-bright smooth glossy type paper. This stuff provides easier print reading, even with small fonts and provides a higher contrast with color print and photos. It seems to be the norm for many monthly and bi-monthly publications today.

The Journal provides a slick (as in sharp, cool, wow-factor) monthly presentation to the membership, and to others would might view the publication, on all the happenings, interests, monthly columns, excitements, etc. that are part of the amateur radio hobby.

If you were setting up a amateur radio display in your local mall or school, consider which publications would catch the eye and interest of the passers-by: the slick QST or a news-rag paper publication like WorldRadio.

At one time one could get QEX without being a member of the ARRL.  I used to do it.  Is it possible they changed the policy?

A simple click to the ARRL web site got this link:
http://www.arrl.org/qex/

I get QEX and not a member. I might consider a few more bucks but no way am I going for pay for a second useless rag and QEX. I tried QST a few different times and found it held my interest for about 10 minutes and it got tossed aside. After a year I had a pile of useless paper. QEX might have an off issue once a year.

I was under the impression that QST was aimed at hams.  You make it sound like it is aimed at marginally literate children.

The terms Don cited are the sort that one is supposed to know just to get a license.

I frequently find hams expressing amazement that I do not subscribe to the magazine.  I have not even seen a new one for decades, let alone subscribe and these sorts of issues convince me that I am on the right track.

On the other hand, I bought a stack of 1937 issues on Ebay recently and enjoy them emensely and take them to bed with me.  They are not only technically challenging but open a wonderful widow on "a long time ago when the Earth was green".

Can you imagin in a current issue, the authors giving  the "gang" the "dope" on how to make a 20W " 'phone rig"?

Every picture and even the cartoons, depict hams in coat and tie and an ashtray with a butt smoking away.

Great fun,

js

By Golly "that's" what is needed More Happy Chairs  LOL...;D.......Not to concerned about Technical Chairs or aiding an abetting Technical Influence or building prowess thereof...and on the World Scale of things, Just ignore the obvious Technical Influence...it's Not Relative....
 
It's Like a Bubble gum machine with all white gum balls..put your money in, out comes a white Gum ball...well maybe, just maybe, some folks would Like a Red Gum Ball..or a Green one..Aaah, u gotta put more money in the other machines..it's just relative purchasing Choice..Now...there's the business to think of naturally... ;D

I dearly Enjoy any and all pre 1950's editions on my night stand as well..then there's the little cubby drawer i put in next to the throne ...has a little tilt door..fits 20 rags easy on end...greatest modification i made to this farm house.. :)

Ya can't buy a subscription to QST. The monthly journal is one of the perks you get when you become a member of the ARRL. https://www.arrl.org/forms/membership/

Last time I wore a coat and tie was to a funeral.