511 issues of 73 Magazine are now online. Wayne Green started 73 in 1960 after serving as editor of CQ Magazine for several years. It ceased publication in 2003.
Wayne Green is one of the true characters in ham radio, and indeed, in technical publishing in general. Not only did he publish 73 Magazine, but also started Byte and a slew of other computer hobbyist magazines. These days, he seems to be interested in a variety of what some might call “off the wall” topics, including cold fusion and alternative health care.
The issues of 73 that are in the archives are listed in a seemingly random order. I suspect that this is the order in which they were uploaded to the archive. Even so, just scanning the article titles is fascinating. Here’s a sample:
- Eager for Meager – Try an 11m vertical on 160 (Dec 2002)
- How to Build A Great Ham Club (Dec 1997)
- The Schizophrenic Triangle – a split-personality radiator (Dec 1978)
- RF Sniffer – Snooper sensitive RF detector which you will build (Dec 1960)
When I first went to download an issue—the December 2002 issue—I was excited to see that a Kindle-compatible .mobi file was available. I was quickly disappointed, however. After downloading and copying the file over to my Kindle, I found that it was nearly unreadable. Whoever converted the file must have used some kind of OCR program, and didn’t do any checking before uploading it. So, stick with the PDF version.
If you do download and read some of the articles, please comment here if you find any that are particularly interesting.
Ned WB4BKO says
You are right. The 73 Magazine is difficult to read. I tried it on my laptop with little success.
It was a good magazine. A good compromise between QST (which I found to be a bit dry in years past) and Ham Radio Magazine though an interesting read, was often beyond my level of comprehension.
Then there is CQ. A bit of an “Every Ham’s” magazine.
Michael J. Zydiak says
For those of you attempting to gather up the entire collection of “73 Magazine” for your library, let me toss out the few “problems” that I have come across. To the best of my knowledge…
First issue… October 1960
The November and December 1975 issues are combined into issue #182.
There was a special “Bonus Holiday Issue” in 1976… issue #195.
There was no April 1999 issue.
The January and February 2000 issues are combined into issue # 471.
The last issue was September 2003… issue #514
There appears to be a total of 514 issues.
I suspect that archive.org is missing three of the issues, but I don’t yet know which ones they are.
Mike W2MJZ
Chris@Apple Roof Cleaning Tampa says
I just love never say die wayne green.
I am so glad that all those issues of 73 are now online. Are they free to download Dan ?
Dan KB6NU says
This topic is being discussed on the AMRAD mailing list, where Louie, WA3MYH, noted: “Ham Radio magazine also appears to be on archive.org as well: http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3Aham-radio-magazine&sort=-publicdate.
Dave New, N8SBE says
I applaud the Internet Archive’s efforts, but it will be of little value if they rush through the scanning process and make a botch of everything. Additionally, they seem to take the ‘hands off’ approach to copyright clearance, stating that they will take anything down if a proper DMCA form is filed, but apparently make no effort to find the current copyright owner to seek permission to re-publish, leaving that to the various contributors that feel they have the right to scan back issues and upload them.
This leaves one in a quandary — download everything you can get your hands on, before the inevitable ‘take down’ notices surface, or decline to take part in what seems to be a blatant attempt at wholesale online piracy? I know that Wayne Green has stated on his web site that he would like to see 73 made available again, but wouldn’t you think if he had the rights to do so, he would have done something like this already, even to the point of supplying the back issues for scanning himself?
I bet that the ownership of the magazine is tied up in whatever publishing house last touched it, and whichever publishing empire now owns that. And considering the usual bunch of corporate lawyers, if you ask, they will always reflexively say, “no”, just to cover their rears, if nothing else.
I’ve run into an issue like this with a book my father wrote, before he passed some number of years ago. When I contacted the publisher by phone, they stated that they had no interest in holding the copyright and would release it to me, so I could scan the book and place it on the web (it’s a book about landscaping, and was used as a text book in his university courses), as a tribute to his memory. Although the publisher promised me to send a release in writing, it never arrived, and repeated requests have gone unanswered. In the meantime, Amazon placed the title on their website, and has asked for permission to make it available. Unfortunately, no one in the family has the rights to grant permission.
If congress gets their way, these decisions will be taken out of the hands of both the authors (or their families) and the publishers, by considering works ‘orphaned’ if ‘reasonable efforts’ to find the owners fails. A lot of authors are understandably concerned that this will be an invitation for a rights grab for anything found lying in a corner (real or virtual).
Dan KB6NU says
There’s been some controversy about whether or not these issues of 73 are still under copyright or not. An item in the latest ARRL Contest Update puts this to rest:
I guess that says it all.