The AM Forum

This is a real bargain, the full 22 year run of H. R. Magazine @ $4.50 plus $2.68 postage, "buy it now"

I have NO CONNECTION to this EBay seller (MOJAVEBOOKS) and W3JN got in on the first offering of this deal and saved 50 cents but it is still a really good deal on this top of the line magazine from that era...

Oh, he also has a few manuals on a couple popular radios, as well...

Yep, fast shipping and good quality.

Each magazine is a separate .pdf.  The "index" on the DVD connects to a website containing the actual index.

public domain??


         _-_-bear

good find the early ones are very good reference. The last few years sucked though.

Not public domain, unless something's changed within the last year or so..

they can be bought here unless I mis-read:
http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=HRCD

Ham Radio Magazine was bought by CQ Publications in 1990. They own all the rights and privileges. They only sell Ham Radio Magazine sets on CD-ROM. ARRL is one of a number of vendors that sell their product.

Ham Radio CD-ROM set
-- Ham Radio Magazine was published from March 1968 through June 1990. Now you can enjoy quick and easy access to back issues of this popular magazine! These CD-ROM sets include high quality black-and-white scanned pages, easily read on your computer screen or printed. All the articles, ads, columns and covers are included. Readers will enjoy a wealth of material that spanned the gamut of Amateur Radio technical interests: construction projects, theory, antennas, transmitters, receivers, amplifiers, HF through microwaves, test equipment, accessories, FM, SSB, CW, visual and digital modes.

The complete set covers more than 30,000 pages!

Search--Select--Browse--it's all there!

    * search for articles by title and author
    * select specific year and issue
    * browse individual articles and columns

System Requirements: Microsoft Windows 95 or later.

Each set includes four CD-ROMs. © 2001, American Radio Relay League, Inc. Ham Radio Magazine © 1968-1990, CQ Communications, Inc.

Only $59.95 per set:
# Ham Radio CD-ROM 1968-1976 #8381 Add to shopping basket
# Ham Radio CD-ROM 1977-1983 #8403 Add to shopping basket
# Ham Radio CD-ROM 1984-1990 #8411 Add to shopping basket

SAVE $30! when you order the complete set:
# Ham Radio CD-ROM Set (includes all 3 CD-ROM sets) #HRCD -- $149.85

So if I'm following this thread correctly, the seller of the $4.50 version of this DVD is engaging in an activity that most folks would consider to be illegal ?

Yeah, Sam, I guess you could consider it that way but hey, it's still one hellofabuy!!!

Just DO IT!

I wonder who owns the rights?  CQ Magazine took over HR, but the ARRL did the magazine scans. (Many of them came from my set and I remember packing them off to ARRL for dissection and scanning.)  I wonder if the ARRL got the  rights for the HR scans when Communications Quarterly was sold to the ARRL to increase their QEX circulation numbers?

Pete k1zjh

I think Pete covered that in a previous post.  If someone is copying that material and selling it illegally I ain't interested, nor am I interested in related activities such as ripping off musicians by redistributing their legitimate CD's and DVD's, etc, etc.

Ralph,
        Many thanks for the tip on HR Mag. I don't know how he does it for the price (or do I - hi!)

        There is only one copy left. The seller isn't the guy you mentioned, but someone called "wolverine-gulo-gulo"
        in Canada.

       Is it a bootleg?    

Yeah, Joe,

I saw that listing and I assume you purchased his last copy on that sellers site... His connection is not working right now.

For the seller I listed here you have to go to "advanced searches" and click on "items by seller"  and type in the sellers name "mojavebooks" and you will see the H.R. listing.

There are none left in this listing of 10 at $4.50 plus $2.68 postage; a bit less than the Canadian DVD's ($5.00 + $2.99 post) but apparently from the same PDF files...

To answer your question...  IMHO - YES! But you still can't beat it...

Ralph,
        I got the second to last copy, so as far as I know the last one is still available. I'll let you know when I get it. It should be a treasure-trove of good information and construction atricles.

Back in the day, I always considered "HamRadio" mag to be superior to QST due to their construction articles, and various antenna projects they had. It seemed to be more of a "Hands-On" type of mag.

Like the man said: "Don't bellyache - build something" - hi!

Now if only someone would come up with a CD of all of the older issues of CQ mag, and ESPECIALLY "ShortwaveCraft" mag. I have hardcopies of most, but not all issues of the later mag from the 1930's. They have some terrific transmitter+receiver construction articles more geared toward the depression era type "Ham on a budget". I particularly like the UHF long lines type of modulated oscillators like we were talking about the other night on 75M. Very kewl indeed!

As a sidenote, I have a fixed 10W 25K resistor, and 2 ea. 25W 3.5K and 8K sliders, and a couple of nifty small breadslicer tuning condensors you can use with your Hartley that I'll have out to you on Monday. I had company today and unfortunately couldn't make it to the snailmail factory to get them out to you.

If you want to mount the small breadslicer in parallel on top or side of your main tuning cap, do you need any ceramic jackbar stock? Let me know and I'll have the jackbar fairy make a donation to you.

Regards,
           Joe N3IBX

Joe,

I will more than likely mount the band spread cap on the panel and strap it to the main cap...  No need for jack bars etc...

Thanks in advance for the resistor donation.  I will put the keying/regulator assy on the power supply breadboard and run a patch cable from it to the Hartly.  Gonna put the Osc/PS units up on a shelf here in the shack where they will not be subject to any vibration As that thing is REALLY nasty with any local knocking on the desk, etc...

Okay on the magazine DVD and all.  I suspect CQ is available but more than likely at a price similar to the leagues asking for the HR CD's...Enuf said on that subject...

CQ Magazine is not on CD, DVD, or floppies.
However, you can get this:
http://hamcall.net/cq

Pete,
      Many thanks!
      BTW, if you're wondering what I'm doing up at this Godforsaken hour, I'm preparing my "RAK" to listen to "SAQ" in Grimetron Sweden on 17.5KHZ. They're firing up the Alexanderson Alternator at 05:00.

Many thanks again for the dope on CQ mag!
                                                          Joe Cro N3IBX

Pete, u da man!  Didn't know they were avaialble anywhere in digital form.

I sent 'em an email to see if they'd sell at least a partial set (up to about 1980 or so, when CQ started going to hell).  I'll post their response.

Good on Buckmaster for that - what a great resource!

I was up at that time doing Field day in a wet field. It's amazing the things that keep us up at weird hours.

This stuff has been around for several years; you should get out more ;D
I don't particularly care for the format they put it in for access, but I can understand their motivation.

Doesn't look like Buckmaster is interested in selling DVDs of CQ


Anyway I thanked them for having the resource available.

Okay,  If you didn't get in on the first few offers of this item by this seller, he has another batch of 10 DVD's on his site...

That's "mojavebooks"... 

Not sure how to state this but... 

I've been informed that these DVD's will not be sold anymore... 

Apparently there has been some action taken by the copyright holder and while there may still be a listing for same, this will be the LAST posting for this item from "Mojavebooks"... But, hey, there are other sellers out there still peddeling them!

So, if you want to get a copy, do it NOW!

When the blackberries are ripe, you pick 'em! Nuff said.
                                                                         Joe N3IBX

Here is the rub. He remembers ARRL using his magazines to produce the original pdf files and they claim copyright. That copyright applies to the CD format only. Not the original material. They also claim copyright to the magazine through the CQ mag purchase yet records indicate ownership to the "name" rights only. CQ did not produce the original content. The content itself seems to be public domain. No organization or individual seems to have claimed copyright to the DVD format itself and it is being considered fair game for copying by whoever. 

Here is the reply from the seller.

"Dear w1ujr,

Bruce,
Sorry to go into this again but it really bugs me. I've done more research again. Like I said, ARRL produced the original pdf files on a set of CDs from loaned magazine issues from their membership. This does not make a copyright! The DVD seems to have been first produced by that Canadian eBayer who erected a website for cross reference which is still up. He first copied from the CD set to 2 DVDs and later used compression to reduce to 1 DVD. That is the source for all the rest and it is not copyrighted either. The original Magazine articles themselves are where the copyright lies and since the original organization has disbanded there is nobody to hold a copyright. They may have sold the rights to the Magazine name but they cannot transfer their implied copyright to those issues to someone who never produced them in the first place. That is why the files are public domain and fair game to all who care to copy them in any format. Tom."

Did they re-bind the magazines and return them to you after scanning?

Too bad the QST scans are not anywhere close to the quality of what was done with Ham Radio magazine.  I bought the QST CD-Roms to have a complete set but the quality of the scans are truly horrible for a lot of the issues.   I understand that ARRL is putting the old QST's up on their site but are they using new scans or are they just going to transfer the same low quality stuff that is on many of the CD's?

Just out of curiosity, I decided to open some of the PDFs on the ARRL web's QST Archive.   I opend a couple files from 2004, and they were crystal clear, even when expanded full width of a 21 inch monitor.  Very sharp text and graphics.

I then tried some files from 2000, 1995, 1990, 1985, etc.  Seems that all of these are very poor scans.  They are not even clear at low magnification.  When expanding to actual size on screen, the text is very coarse and pixelized.  Very hard on the eyes, not a pleasure to read or view at all.  I am disappointed.  Guess I keep all the heavy and space consuming hardcopy.

Here's the link:

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2008/09/09/10322/?nc=1

Related thread:

http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=17026.msg117823#msg117823

Rick,

Thanks, it looks like they took the easy way out by using the existing scans.  It would indicate that the individual who was in charge of this project doesn't think there is much value in the information contained in the early QST's (only fair since it matches my opinion of the value of the recent QST's and ARRL publications).

Rodger WQ9E

Rodger, I found this disclaimer in the search window for the QST archive:

"Need a higher quality reprint or scan? Some of the scans contained within the periodical archive were produced with older imaging technology. If you require a higher quality reprint or scan, please contact the ARRL Technical Information Service for assistance. Photocopies are $3 for ARRL members, $5 for nonmembers. For members, TIS can send the photocopies immediately and include an invoice. Nonmembers must prepay. The availability of past articles from QST is a great membership benefit that will save a nonmember $5 just by joining ARRL. Details are available on the ARRL TIS page or email photocopy@arrl.org."

It appears to me they took the easy way out and just placed the content of their inferior scans online.  But if you need something usable, you can still PAY for their scan or copy service.  They do what makes the most profit for them, not what serves the membership.  Truly a non-profit organization???

I found one article on modulator design that delves into using cathode followers for drivers of AB2 modders, and wanted to study it as I design the modifications for my Valiant.  It is entitled "A 40 Watt Modulator with Cathode-Coupled Driver" by William J. Lattin, W4JRW in the April 1947 issue.  Good technical data, but to be useful I had to drag out the original issue.

Another thing I found with their search tool is the keyword search is very poor, if the word is not in the title, it will probably not find it.  The old issues are still the best way to find your information!

I just downloaded the Lattin article and the text was perfectly readable, the entire schematic and parts list were clear, and the charts in the various Figures were also completely readable. The pictures are typical, fair to poor quality, since the sheets were scanned in a fairly low resolution. Remember, had to fit on a CD. DVD's didn't come on the scene until around 1995.

From the ARRL Index Search Help area:
"Note that this page searches an index of articles, not the text of the articles. There is no full-text search of these articles available.

The most commonly used search is one by title words and/or keywords. To search by title/keyword, simply enter the word(s) you want to search for into the Title words/keywords field. Those articles that contain all of the words you entered (in any order) in the article title or the article's keywords field will be listed. (Note: The keywords field is not displayed in the listing.) The words you enter are converted to their root words, if any, and the index is searched for words with the same root."

Naw, they were discarded.  We (the folks who donated the magazines) received free CDs. I
was out of room to store the magazines anyway.

Pete