[CQ-Contest] Re: [FCG] QST editing decisions

[Charles Harpole]

Hello all,
I am a professional editor of history books.  I have read QST every month
since 1957 and am a life member of ARRL.
I think the current editing practice of the magazine is quite poor.  On the
one hand, QST "poor mouths" about declining ad revenue and thus claims they
have limited page space.  And, that may be true.  Certainly, practical
limits will never allow the magazine to be fully satisfying to all its
readers.

But, and this is a big BUT... the editing decisions, in two ways, undercut
the magazine's ability to satisfy more needs and interests.

1.  The choice of article topics is highly dubious and often indefensibly
beside the point.
2.  The writing style that has been encouraged or tolerated in the last few
years...that seems painfully to try to be "chatty"...wastes many column
inches in "happy talk" drivel.  This is space better used for the needs and
interests of the readers.
I will explain:

1.  The topics are remarkably useless to the modern ham.  The magazine seems
to be publishing article topics more to impress the FCC and international
radio regulatory bodies that our hobby is very technical and that lots of
hams BUILD the own arcane gadgets...false estimation indeed.  Here are some
recent examples of dubious topics:
A Micro M+ Controller (oh, yes, thousands of readers are just waiting to
build this one...ha!),
Uncle Albert's Touch Pad Keyer (with the really VAST interest in CW these
days...face it!...this article is a MUST...ha!),
New Life for Old Laptops (old laptops are trouble, not useful),
Six Meters from your easy chair (I certainly have an old lawn chair that is
just crying out to be made into an antenna!  The appeal here is to two
readers, maybe three, really!),
A Compact Direct-Digital VFO (another topic just everyone is waiting with
baited breath to tackle...ha!),
The Drake TR-22 (three full pages with color photos of your grandfather's
rig...ha!),
Build an APRS Encoder Tracker (I can't wait til my soldering iron
heats...ha!),
Return of the Slide Rule Dial (just who could possibly be interested in this
over-drawn drivel?),
Amateur Radio Fishing Expedition (obvious and trite),
and the first prize for stupid article topics goes to....

A Portable Twin-Lead 20-Meter Dipole (two valuable pages and color photo of
a roll of wire to tell us how to make...badly...A DIPOLE !!!  We were all
waiting to learn how to make a dipole, and a dopy one at that... ha!.

2.  "Chatty, happy talk" writing wastes two to six column inches in most
articles.  The Feb 2002 Product Review of the IC-756PROII is but one of many
examples.... 10 column inches of drivel about the author's memory of the
earlier rig (with no evaluation) and then of his getting a TR-9000.  This
kind of writing is supposed to warm up the article and make it more human.
As QST does it, it just wastes space and talks down to the reader.  The
happy chat reads like a Sunday afternoon QSO, inane, empty chatter about
highly personal issues.  This kind of thing has no place in a magazine (1)
addressed to highly technically minded folks and (2) that is crying the
blues about tight space.  This kind of thing is FILLER in glossy woman's
magazines or weak newspapers with a Sunday edition to fill.  I wish this
example were the only one, but this style has become the norm with QST.
These days, I know to skip the first three to twelve column inches until the
writer gets to his real topic.

QST has a big responsibility.  It is fulfilling it badly.

73, Charly K4VUD


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