I love this feature in QST. Not only can you feel the history of amateur radio by reading these articles, many of them still impart useful technical information. Read on and you’ll see what I mean.
July 1923
The article that I chose from this issue is “Electric Filters” by F.S. Dellenbaugh, Jr. He writes, “Most thing in amateur radio have gotten beyond guesswork; reliable information is available. A glaring exception is the electric wave filter…” He then goes on to give a relatively rigorous explanation of LC filters in many different forms. This is all good stuff and still relevant today.
Also notable in this issue are the articles:
- Why Inflict Keying Thumps on Your Neighbor? This is perhaps one of the first articles on RFI.
- Bureau of Standards Explores Short-Wave Region. Early amateurs were relegated to wavelengths below 200 meters, which at that time were thought to be useless for wireless communications. It wasn’t long, however, before radio amateurs proved that to be incorrect.
July 1973
You might thing that the article, A Simple Computing SWR Meter, describes one of the first amateur radio applications of a microprocessor, but you’d be wrong. Instead, the article gives plans for an SWR/power meter that uses op amps to perform analog computations. The beauty of this approach, according to the authors, is that the SWR reading are independent of the forward power.
July 1998
Two articles in this issue are aimed at helping clubs:
- Where Radio is Fun. This article brings home the point that to be a successful club, members have to have fun. If your club is failing, perhaps it’s because you’re not having enough fun.
- Anatomy of a Special Event Station. I like special event stations, so I’m highlighting this article. The deck reads, “Is your club stuck in a rut? Looking for a project to pep things up? Putting a special event station on the air will definitely pick up the pace….” This article gives a bunch of good advice about running a special event station that’s as relevant today as it was 25 years ago. One such bit of advice is, “Design QSL cards and certificates early in the process—and determine how and when they’ll be printed.”