A couple of days ago, I got an email from SWR Magazine, announcing their fifth edition. SWR is a publication produced by a group in Puerto Rico, including Editor Jose Candelaria NP4ET, Technical Editor Juan Montivo WP4OV, and Assistant Editor Serafin Martinez KP4FIE. This is the first issue that I’ve seen of this publication, and honestly, I’m impressed.
This issue has a number of great articles, including:
- Building Your Own End-Fed Half-Wave Antenna by Isidro de Jesus WP4NXI
- Understanding MUF by Juan Montijo WP4OV
- Lightning Protection for the Amateur Radio Station by Serafin Martinez KP4FIE
- and several more.
This isn’t the only self-published amateur radio magazines out there. Others that come to mind are:
- QRP Quarterly, which is a benefit of joining QRP-ARCI.
- SARC Communicator, published by the Surrey Amateur Radio Club (SARC) of British Columbia.
- Ham Radio Ireland.
These magazines are so good, that I’m not really sure that we need QST anymore. I don’t know about you, but since they’ve gone electronic, I rarely feel the need to read QST. To be fair, the latest issue did have a couple of interesting antenna articles, but publications like the Communicator and SWR, coupled with the plethora of amateur radio YouTube channels and podcasts more than supply my need for information.
I urge you to subscribe to these magazines. Aside from QRP Quarterly, they are free. And, if you’re a writer, I urge you to contribute to these publications. The SARC Communicator usually includes one of my blog posts, and I have published articles in both QRP Quarterly and Ham Radio Ireland. I’d be happy to help you write an article for one of these magazines.
I get the electronic QST, and I flip through it. I’m not shopping for shack equipment, so I ignore the ads (and also the boilerplate, which is extensive). I read NA2AA’s column to see what he’s up to. Occasionally I find something else that’s interesting or useful, but frankly the number of those items is small compared to the number of interesting or useful items that I get from email lists, social media such as Discord, podcast transcripts (who has time to listen to them?), and e-newsletters like Zero Retries and Random Wire.
ARRL just needs to get out of the monthly periodical publication cycle and convert the magazines to a true online portal with ongoing content publication. Monthly periodicals are archaic, especially when you don’t sell your magazines in brick-and-mortal stores.
This is the way. SWR, SARC Communicator and the other “online magazines” also need to move toward this paradigm. They all publish great content, but none of the articles can be linked on social media or other content aggregators promoting the hobby.
The last QST had product reviews that made me think I was reading _PC Magazine_… The two antenna articles lacked construction details, even in the online “in-depth” downloads. I don’t know how anybody could build that spiral antenna in any real world scenario.
There were no schematics printed except in an excerpt of a much-older QST, there were no measured drawings of the antenna projects. QST used to be a technical magazine, now I don’t know what it is. Columns such as “our heritage” and “old radio” indicate that perhaps it should be published by AARP not ARRL.
I still enjoy RSGB’s RadCom. Sure, RSGB membership is not inexpensive, but they still publish technical content.
Thank you for the links! I particularly enjoyed SWR and Ham Radio Ireland. Real people having fun with ham radio, sharing their experiences and expertise. Informative articles. Hands-on projects. News and reviews. That’s what a hobby magazine is all about.
Reminds me of how excited I felt upon receiving the latest Byte and Radio Electronics back in the day. I devoured those magazines cover to cover. (Not to mention the latest Radio Shack and Jameco catalogs, among others.)
I still prefer printed material. It’s more meaningful and special (and doesn’t require a “device”). Then again I’m older. Anyway, I appreciate you letting us know about these publications. Good stuff!
I wish I could recommend QRP Quarterly but it suffers from the same paywall-itis as QST, AMSAT Journal, RadCom, and the late CQ.
The enemy for such publications isn’t piracy, it’s irrelevance if they cannot be easily discovered snd read for free online.
QRP Quarterly is a print magazine. It is not available in electronic form, so there is no paywall – you just need to subscribe to the print edition. Electronic versions are only available on CD.
While I like the convenience of the electronic versions, I prefer receiving a printed magazine. I think that the ARRL made a mistake by going to an online only format, as they’re now competing against blogs with free (and usually better) content.
Are these “free” pubs sustainable? SWR looks good, but how long could the continue as they are? Pubs backed up by clubs at least have one pipeline of support.
I’d also love for these to exist blog-style (with appropriate RSS feeds). Of course, this also perhaps ruins the discovery aspect of “flipping through pages”…
If you’re asking if they’ll be around for the next 100 years, no, chances are that they won’t be. But, now that it’s so easy to publish things, I’d expect other publiscations like these to pop up. I agree with having an RSS feed. that’s how a lot of people find my content.
The October 2025 issue of Ham Radio Ireland Magazine is now available in PDF format at https://docdro.id/Jv3u9ij. The FlipBook version is at https://heyzine.com/flip-book/0a67ce852c.html. Current and back issues may be downloaded from https://galwayvhfgroup.blogspot.com/2022/06/connacht-regional-radio-newsletter.html.
This issue has lots of good stuff in it, including articles on:
Don’t forget SPRAT, the quarterly periodical of the G-QRP club! It’s smaller than the standard magazine size – a good size in the hand. Plus, members can purchase the entire archive of SPRAT back issues on a USB stick. It’s a treasure trove of great information and reading for the homebrewer.
All those full color ads in QST for brand new commercial gear have the same effect on me as walking into a mall does – my eyes glaze over. I like tinkering, and looking at schematics and other people’s homebrew projects!
Dave
AA7EE
Good point, Dave. I’m not a GQRP member, so I’ve only seen a few SPRAT articles, but I always found them very interesting.
A very good point.
In the old QST magazines 20-30y back there was something. And something brand new, interesting, stuff to think about.
Looking at the publications today, nothing for my eye. Just quantity of half done stuff, half done antennas, virtual stuff that will never work the same way in real life.
Antenna Handbook in five or 6 volumes?
Check the ARRL antenna handbook from 1948. I got one. There was nearly all we need. Quantity never created quality. I can continue like that another page. NO, I do NOT need QST.
QST has become an empty shell. I subscribe to the paper magazine for this year but I wont renew. There is little of technical value for experimentors and what exists is poorly edited and requires url links to complete for even microprocessor free projects that require code. I have a hard drive fillled with .Pdf versions of QST, CQ, and 73 publications going back decades and some of the first up to last issues and get more use out of them than todays QST and its sister publications. As others have stated why do I need new versions of the Antenna Handbook when my copies I bought in the 50’s contain all one needs. In 2020 I bought the latest Hard copies of the Antenna Book and Amateurs Handbook and its unlikely I update those.
I like these publications you have referred us to. I also find the Solder Smoke blog useful.
Im an old greybeard from the Boatanchor era and pick up Ebay radio and test equipment relics for the challange of repair and restoration. But Im running out of room even with a 3 car garage stuffed from floor to ceiling. I had thought there might be a market for a publication specializing in such repair and restoration for guys like me but I lack the time to even create a draft. Publishing is tough art although todays sofware makes it far easier than yesteryear.
Anyway thats my 2 cents.
Don’t miss
https://w7dk.org/newsletter
The Logger’s Bark is fantastic.
That is a great newsletter. I can only imagine how much work it takes to put together. Thanks for the link!
Stumbled on this while looking for a PDF link for SWR Magazine – the “flip” thing is not for me.
I nearly missed the whole board-inflicted fooforaw over the extra charge for paper QST … and that’s because I’d decided several years ago that the paper QST was no longer worth the shelf space. Sad commentary. Of course, now, like, 1/3 (maybe overstating) of it is pure nostalgia play with reprints of articles from 60 years ago. I assume the intended audience for that is members who can’t figure out the ARRL’s admittedly poorly-executed QST archive …
Easy to blame this all on NA2AA but the rot started before he did. I get the sense that the Directors For Life were so used to letting K1ZZ run the whole show that they forgot they were in charge.
If I hadn’t gone for a Life Membership in 2007 and had waited, say, until 2015 or so, I NEVER WOULD HAVE BOTHERED.