This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you
by Tower Electronics. For connectors, cables,
and more, call 920 -435 -2973 or visit pl -259
.com. And by ICOM, heard it, worked it, logged
it. Visit www .icomamerica .com slash amateur
for more information about ICOM radios. Here
we go, welcome to Hamtop Life Call in, let's
talk, Neil's your guy Hamtop Life, here we go
Hey, good evening everyone. It's time for ham
talk live episode number 190 Making QST and on
-the -air magazines recorded live on Thursday,
November 14th 2019 I'm your host Neil rap WB
9 VPG. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of
ham talk live tonight. We're joined by Becky
Schoenfeld W1BXY and we'll take your calls in
just a few minutes. Last week Marsha Ford KW1U
was here to talk about NTS traffic handling.
So if you missed that show you can listen anytime
just go to HamTalkLive .com or your favorite
podcast app or YouTube or you can catch the rebroadcast
of the show on Saturday evenings on WTWW 5085
AM and that's at about 6 30 p .m eastern time
typically. So get your questions ready to go
for Becky. If you're listening to us live on
Thursday night you can give us a call after the
interview by telephone at 812 -638 -4261. That's
812 -NET -HAM -1. You can also send a question
via Twitter. The Twitter handle is at HamTalk
Live. So I'll be back with Becky right after
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Slash amateur and Becky is here Becky Schoenfeld
W1 BXY. She is the managing editor of QST magazine
She began working at ARRL in 2011 and became
licensed in 2012 and quickly upgraded as well
She has worked all states in DXCC and Becky is
known for her guest appearances in the past with
the famous Spurious Emissions band at Hamvention,
including her stellar performance of Don't Cry
for Hera Arena, a brilliant ham radio parody
of the song, Don't Cry for Me, Argentina. So
how is that for an intro, Becky? Well, yeah,
I never thought I'd be known for my singing voice,
that's for sure. You just never know. Yeah, you
never know. Who's watching those things on YouTube
and, you know, they get around. Well, Becky's
going to talk about all the happenings here with
QST and the new magazine coming out. Soon but
this was another listener Suggestion was they
want to know what goes into making an edition
of QST. So Becky what goes into making an edition
of QST? So much Well, you know as as many of
us know QST is published monthly And it's been
published since 1915. There was a break for a
couple of years for World War I, and it resumed
in 1919. It's been published continuously since
1919. So we've been around a long time. It is
the membership journal of ARRL. A lot of folks
think of it as a technical journal, but it is
actually the membership journal of ARRL. So we're
sort of the journal of record for the organization
and for the hobby and the service. And we do
present a lot of technical material. As you know,
Ham Radio has a lot of sub interests and sub
hobbies in it. And, you know, because the magazine
needs to represent ARL members. We try to touch
on as many of those sub interests as we can in
each issue and and there are so many of them
with so many more emerging all the time that
it's it's very very challenging So to put together
an issue An individual issue of course starts
with manuscripts And we're getting manuscripts
all the time we get stuff from folks, hams who
just send them in. We also get manuscripts via
solicitation. Steve Ford, WB8IMY, who's the editor
of QST, he and I also, we often reach out to
hams who have specific specialties and we'll
ask them to write articles on specific topics
for an issue. So then about every six to eight
weeks, two editorial committees convene. We've
got one for technical articles and one for non
-technical articles. And anything that's not
technical, we call general interest. So the editorial
committee for tech articles is made up of hams
who are technical experts in various aspects
of ham radio. And they have an online group where
they meet and talk about the articles that get
submitted. And the general interest committee
is made up of QST staff members and also some
staff members from other parts of the organization.
And these committees meet and they evaluate the
manuscripts that get submitted and they make
their selections and pass them along for production.
So when we're getting ready to put an issue together,
Steve Ford and I will consult the database of
manuscripts that have been accepted. and we choose
a selection of them that makes sense together
for an issue. Now for each issue, we're running
about two months ahead of the publication date
that's on an issue. So right now we're in November
2019, which means you count ahead two months
and that's January 2020. So that's the issue
we're working on right now. In fact, it goes
to the printer on Tuesday. So we are nearing
the end of the January 2020 production cycle.
So you may not have time to be on HamTalk Live.
Well, we've been doing this a long time. You
know, I've been at ARL since 2011 and I've been
working on QST since I think fall 2012. And I
worked in magazines for many, many years before
that. So, yeah, we have it down. We have a small
staff. I think we have nine people is the QST
staff. And I think five of those nine people
are editors. And of those nine people, gosh,
I think... about five of them have been with
the organization for literally decades and decades.
So the team really knows what it's doing and
every issue is an exercise in creative problem
solving. It's a nice balance between being familiar
and being able to stick to our process and also
having to do some quick thinking when something
comes up and we need to make a change. So I always
think of it as creative problem solving. We don't
really have emergencies. So even though it's
Thursday night and we've got deadline on Tuesday,
you know, everything's under control and nobody
has to work overtime. And, you know, nobody runs
around with their hair on fire and we get the
job done. Yeah. Yeah, you have creative problem
-solving like these people who write, you know
three page articles and you have a page and a
half of space Yeah, that's what pictures are
for That's what that's what editing is for and
then we get creative we're really good at pretty
much everything you see in the magazine is Is
fairly heavily edited? And our editors are really
terrific about doing that sort of thing. We can
condense, we can expand, we do all kinds of stuff.
And it's all in the name of making the information
as clear as it possibly can be for the members,
for the readers. And making our authors look
good and making them sound good. So once you...
What's that? I said, oh, yes. Yes. So once we've
chosen an editorial lineup, the editors sort
of corral all the materials for their assignments.
For example, our senior editor, Jen Glyford,
KC1 KNL, is currently in charge of all the radio
sport material. So if she's got to work on the
results article for sweepstakes CW, she's got
to make sure that The author of that article
has sent in all the pieces of it main body text
the data for the results tables any photos any
captions for the photos You know, maybe a biographical
note, there's just all kinds of stuff Every article
that appears in the magazine has a lot of little
pieces parts that go with it and Often the more
technical an article is the more work it requires
to make sure that everything is If it's a build
article and there are diagrams, the author will
supply sketches. Those go to our technical illustrator,
David Pingree, N1, NAS. And he creates all the
beautiful schematics and drawings you see in
the magazine. So it's a lot of work. It's a lot
of like little fiddly pieces that have to be
sort of gathered together and finessed into a
whole. and checked a lot. You know, everything
has to be as correct as we can make it. You know,
you've seen an issue of QST, you know what kind
of materials in there. It's a lot of figures,
sometimes it's equations, a lot of measurements,
just numbers, numeric stuff in general, a lot
of acronyms. We love our acronyms in ham radio.
and of course a ton of call signs and everything
has to be checked to make sure it's all factually
correct, got to read properly, read smoothly.
So we spend a lot of time reading and rereading
all that stuff and making sure it's correct and
there's a point in the editing process where
a PDF of each article is sent to its author so
the author can correct anything that might be
wrong. So a lot of the time is spent on that,
sending stuff around and making sure that it's
really clean and that we're hopefully not making
any mistakes, even though we're imperfect human
beings and mistakes sometimes get through. And
then once everything's correct and we know it's
as clean as we can make it, our assistant production
supervisor, Jody Morin, who is KA1JPA, uploads
production PDFs to the printer. And the printer
gets those PDFs and away we go. And we go on
press out in Pontiac, Illinois, and we run about
140 ,000 copies of each issue. And they're fulfilled
from there in Illinois. And while that's going
on, So we'll upload the January 2020 issue on
Tuesday and then the staff will have about two
days where the workloads a little lighter and
then the whole process starts up again for the
February 2020 issue. So we're constantly in this
production process that takes about three to
four weeks for any given issue. And then, you
know, on top of all the articles, you've got
advertising, you've got, you know, all the listings
of all the people in all the divisions and, you
know, indexing and archiving and all that kind
of stuff too. Yeah, there's, I think almost every
department in the building contributes something
to QST or either contributes something or checks
something. overseas something, it's really an
enormous effort that involves so many people
around the entire building, not just the production
and editorial staff, because it is the membership
journal. So it represents so many different parts
of the building and so many different aspects
of what we do. So it takes a lot and those three
or four weeks are very full. And they have a
sort of rhythm to them that we recognize and
so, you know, we'll upload on Tuesday and then
we'll have our Two days of quasi downtime and
then we'll do it all again Now let's talk a little
bit about distribution Because you have different
platforms now. It's not just print But you have
that print version and you've got to get all
those addressed and mailed and all that kind
of thing. And then you've got the digital. So
talk a little bit about the distribution. Yeah,
as I mentioned, it's mailed by our printer out
in Illinois. And QST is mailed in something called
a co -mail pool, which helps us save a little
bit on forwarding. Postage, of course, costs
a tremendous amount. Printing and forwarding
are some of the largest costs that a magazine
has. So a lot of magazines are mailed in these
co -mail pools where magazines are bundled together
to save on postage. So when you go to your mailbox
and you end up with, you end up pulling out a
handful of catalogs because the holiday shopping
season is starting, the chances are that a bunch
of those publications rode in one of these cold
mail pools. So, you know, we get to be fairly
hands off in production editorial. We have a
circulation department that handles matters related
to the distribution. So if heaven forbid something
goes wrong, sometimes production editorial hears
about it. But when we hear about it, we transfer
all it up to circulation and they're really great
about tracking things down, about finding stuff
that's lost, finding out if something was late,
why it was late, if something arrived mangled
in somebody's mailbox, you know, they can track
that stuff down. But down where I am, we don't
have a whole lot to do with that. Fortunately,
we have people who have that all under control.
As far as the digital goes, I am currently, blessedly,
not all that involved in the digital. Next year,
I'm going to be deeper into the digital end of
things. Our digital service provider is a company
called Page Suite, and they host the digital
edition of QST, which is just a PDF replica of
the print magazine. And that comes out about
a week and a half earlier than the print edition.
So we like to sort of hype that on social media
and say, you know, you can go look at your digital
edition right now. You don't have to wait for
the print. And that's handled by this company
called PageSuite. Very good. Well, as if there
wasn't enough chaos. Now you have a brand new
magazine to put together and was coming out soon.
So tell us a little bit about On The Air. Oh,
On The Air. I have been just immersed in stuff
for On The Air this week and it has been incredibly
exciting. Yeah, ARRL is about to launch its first
magazine in close to 40 years. So it's kind of
cool that I'm here tonight talking about ARRL's
oldest magazine, QST, and its newest magazine,
On the Air, the sort of bookending, the publishing
history of ARRL here. So On the Air actually
had its beginnings back in 2017. when a group
of managers at ARRL headquarters saw the need
to take a closer look at a group of hams that
we knew were underserved, namely newer hams,
sort of beginner to intermediate, a lot of technicians,
but not necessarily. They may be generals or
extras, but regardless of license class, they
never really progressed beyond getting a license
and, you know, maybe taking a couple of other
beginning steps and then kind of falling away
from the hobby. And, and of course, you know,
we don't want people to fall away from the hobby
or leave the hobby. We want them to engage, we
want them to stick around, we want them to build
their skills. But what we hear a lot at headquarters
is newer hams will email us and call us and say,
you know, look, you know, QST is just too hard
for me. My tech skills are not at this level.
My operating skills are not at this level. I
need more. I need the basics. And what I really
need is a mentor. I need an Elmer. And, you know,
this is something that We're not hearing just
at ARRL. I know that it's, you know, stories
like this are coming out at hamfests and conventions,
and it's out there in the community. It's out
there on the message boards and stuff. Newer
hams just don't have mentors like they did back
in the days when today's amateur extras were
just getting started in ham radio. Hams who are
in their 60s and 70s and older today, when they
first got into radio, um, the culture and the
community, not just in radio, but just in this
country in general was so much more connected.
And, and there were mentors or Elmer's because
kids were playing outside. They were running
around the neighborhood until it got dark. And,
you know, there was. maybe a kindly neighbor
down the street who would say, hey, you know,
kids, come on, you know, into my garage. I got
this, this workshop. I do neat stuff with radio
and you want to see, I can, I can show you this.
And a whole generation of hams were made that
way. Um, or someone had a grandfather and uncle
that was into it and they, they passed the hobby
on. And, um, our culture has changed so much.
Community has changed so much that That doesn't
happen anymore. Kids are indoors. You know, you
can't really invite a child that you don't know
into your home that's frowned on. So both opportunities
for that casual mentoring are gone. And of course,
we also know that now more than ever people have
more and more options about how to spend their
free time. So you get all of this and you get
these newer hams who go, you know, I don't have
the help that I need to help me engage with this
thing that I thought was going to be fun and
interesting and help me, you know, engage. So.
In the past, not just this little bottle of instant
Elmer's. No. You know, you can pull out and open
up the bottle, you know, like those instant Martians.
Yeah. You know, you just pour water on them and
poof. You know, you can't do that. They're not
there. I don't know if we want to equate Elmers
and Martians. Martians? Well, you never know.
You know, we got the Mars generation coming up
now, so, you know. Yep. And there is the Mars
award, too, the Elzer Mathis Cup. Somebody's
still got to win that, so let's hear it for the
Mars generation. In the past, ARL has made a
few attempts to address these beginner hams.
We've done things in QST, but newer hams approach
QST, and on the way to Finding a section that's
in there just for them They're faced with all
this more advanced stuff for for the more knowledgeable
hands and it's it's a kind of a turnoff for them
So This group of managers in 2017 thought well
What you know, what can we do there? these folks
really are just crying out for help and they've
been This is a need that we've heard of for quite
a long time now. How can we serve this group?
We're ARL, we're in a unique position to do it.
We have all these resources. How can we channel
these resources best to serve these people? So
this group got together and looked at several
years worth of data that we had already taken
on this group. And led by our membership manager,
Diane Petrilli, KB1RNF. And Diane is just a real
whiz with data. She sort of knows how to tell
stories with data. We got a pretty good picture
of the type of beginner ham that needed help.
But we still had a lot we needed to learn. before
we could move forward and do something toward
helping them. So back in 2017, we got permission
to conduct a statistically valid survey of hams
that were relatively new, that weren't ARL members,
to find out what they might need. And we spent
a few months carefully developing these survey
questions to find out not just Not only in terms
of their interest and needs in ham radio, but
who they were as people and We also wanted to
give them something to respond to other than
just survey questions Because if we were going
to consider creating new products and services
to help new hands We really wanted to make sure
we would give them something That was as close
as possible to something they would actually
want instead of something that we made up on
our own without asking them, you know, hey, what
if we, what if we gave you this? Do you like
that? You know, what, what if we gave you this?
What do you think of that? Um, so rather than
sort of go blindly into this, um, we cooked up
some things to show them that they could weigh
in on and help to guide us. So we put together
a package of test material. sort of beginner
to intermediate level, things like how to call
CQ, what's proper mic technique, how do you choose
your first handheld, things like that. And for
efficiency's sake, we gave it all a magazine
layout and we called the finished package on
the air. And it looked like a magazine. It was
a 32 page magazine for all intents and purposes.
So we mailed out the surveys, we mailed out copies
of this test material that looked like this mini
magazine called On the Air. And the responses
started to come in and the response to the material
was overwhelmingly positive. Hams loved it. They
said, you know, is this a magazine? Are you going
to make this? How can I get this? This is what
I've been looking for. You know, this is what
the community really needs, you know, I hope
you're gonna do this and We found out from the
survey some stuff about how these newer hams
wanted to engage with amateur radio We found
out about other types of things they were interested
in Beyond amateur radio or maybe other interests
they had that they wanted to combine with amateur
radio and we found out they wanted to know how
to use radio technology to do all sorts of things.
The technology itself being sort of a means to
all kinds of ends, not necessarily, I need to
know how to get on the radio so I can talk to
people all over the world. These folks have cell
phones that they use for that. So with all of
that information, this group of ARL managers
took all this info to upper management and we
started talking about potential strategies and
all of this was back in 2017 and you know now
it's it's nearly 2020 and and on the airs time
has come and we are working on the first issue
it is going to be a magazine it's going to be
bi -monthly The first issue will be January,
February, 2020. It goes to the printer in a month,
and it'll be in people's hands by mid -January.
And On the Air magazine is only the first of
a bunch of new things that we're going to be
putting out there to support newer hams and beginner
to intermediate hams. because we've heard the
cry in the wilderness, so to speak, and we feel
like we have an approach now that's driven by
them, rather than something that we've cooked
up sitting in an office. We've actually talked
to the community, and what you're gonna see now
is... what we've created based on things that
real hands have told us that they want and need.
Well, I applaud the decision and the efforts
to figure all that out and to get some of that
information in the hands of those people. It's
happening a lot with podcasts too. There's a
cry out there for information. about, you know,
how to do what a lot of us think of as a simple
task. If you haven't done it before, you need
some guidance and it's there. So we're going
to talk more about on the air and the distribution
of that and everything. We're running a little
over. So let's get a break in here and then we're
going to come back and talk more with Becky and
take your calls. And we've got some tweets to
go through. So we'll do that when we come back
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-1. That's 812 -638 -4261. Now, here's more HamTalk
Live. This portion of the show is sponsored by
our mystery sponsor, a product so good they are
paying us not to advertise it on this program.
You're listening to HamTalk Live with Neil Rapp.
Tower Electronics will be in Fort Wayne, Indiana
this weekend, November 16th and 17th. Then they're
off to Ocala, Florida December 6th and 7th and
Plant City, Florida That's near Tampa December
13th and 14th, but you can visit them anytime
at PL -259 .com and HamTalk Live is on the air
every Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern time
right here at HamTalkLive .com and be sure to
check us out on Facebook Twitter and Instagram
And it's time for your questions now. So if you
have a question for Becky, give us a call at
812 -638 -4261. Or you can tweet us. It's at
HamTalk Live on Twitter. We have several of those
to go through, so we'll... work through as many
of those as we can. And if you're listening to
us on WTWW or the podcast edition, sorry, we're
not here. It's Thursday, so you're out of luck.
So, Becky, let's finish up a little bit with
this on the air. You've taught us how that came
about and how all of the research went into figuring
out exactly what people are wanting and that's
coming soon. Talk a little bit about the members'
choices of which one they receive and which method,
because it's a little confusing when you do a
new project and you've got some options there.
There's a little bit of a learning curve, so
kind of walk us through the different choices
of the distribution of the two magazines. Yeah,
we are actually getting fairly steady flow of
calls and emails about this. Right now, members
can opt into only one print magazine. If you're
a member, you can choose QST or on the air in
print, only one. All members can access both
magazines in digital. So for now, you can only
have one in print, but everybody gets both in
digital. We're hearing from quite a few people
who want both magazines in print. We hear you,
we hear you, we hear you. That's dependent upon
some infrastructure stuff that needs to happen.
We're hoping to have the new infrastructure in
place about midway through 2020. So members should
keep an eye on our feeds, the news feed, the
social media outlets for announcements about
progress in that regard. So we are looking next
year toward making both magazines available in
print. We just, you know, we need to get a few
other things in place first. It's really exciting.
You know, the fact that people want both, you
know, lets us know that the community is excited
about this. We're all really excited and we're
really excited that you're excited too. There's
also going to be a podcast related to On The
Air that will sort of extend the content of each
issue and folks will be hearing more about the
launch of that podcast. There's going to be an
On The Air blog as well that will launch early
next year that will be Curated stories from out
in the beginner ham radio community what people
are doing with the technology What kind of projects
they're doing how they're making connections
within the community? so It's gonna be more than
just a magazine that the content will be extended
through the podcast and it will be Sort of riffed
on through this blog. So if you're a beginner
ham or if you're a more experienced ham who wants
to know, you know, what's driving beginner hams,
we're going to have a bunch of different ways
that you can engage with ham radio at that level
through the blog and the podcast and the magazine.
Sounds great. I'm looking forward to seeing the
new magazine and all the stuff to go with it
because I deal with high school students and
trying to get young people into ham radio and
anytime you do that you got to start with the
basics and so I have QST sitting there and sometimes
we dig those out and look at them but something
a little more on their level would be Greatly
appreciated. So look forward to seeing that.
Well, we have several tweets here I'm going to
try to get through those and I think we've got
a call or two coming so Let me get through a
couple of tweets here and then we'll take some
calls at 812 -638 -4261. That's the phone number,
812 -638 -4261. First of all, Jim, K5ND says
thanks for your great coverage of radio scouting
and from Jamborees to Jamboree on the air and
Jim's a friend of the show and so I echo that
as well. Yep. Hi, Jim. It's nice to hear from
you. I work with Jim quite a bit. And he keeps
us supplied with all kinds of great info about
what the Scouts are doing with radio. So it's
nice to hear from you, Jim. We've got a tweet
from Michael. He says, with a publication that's
been around for so long, how do you decide when
it's necessary to revisit subjects? What information
is important enough that it requires more constant
stories? And I want to hear this one because
I'm wondering the same thing about this show.
I want to hear this one. Yeah, it really applies
to anybody who's creating content, really. That's
a great question. Not an easy one to answer.
One way that we approach it is trends. what's
one of the biggest trends in ham radio and now
FT8. So you're seeing FT8 pop up a lot in QST
in different ways from slightly different angles.
And I think that's the word that is the key to
all of this is angles. Something else that comes
up a lot is balloon launches. Particularly if
we're talking about college hams or young hams
or teachers trying to introduce radio, we get
a lot of inquiries going, you know, I did a balloon
launch. Do you want to run an article about this
balloon launch? And that's when we have to sort
of evaluate, okay, well, when was the last time
we did a balloon launch article? What was the
hook? What was the angle? Okay, what kind of
story does this person want to tell? What's their
hook? What's their angle? Sometimes the person
pitching the story thinks the angle is one thing
and then we listen to what they have to say and
we go, no, your angle's really over here. We
know you think it's this, but it's really this.
What would you think about refocusing the story
that way? Because if we did it that way, that's
something we can use. So that's part of it is
what's hot right now. If it's something that
is really hot, we may run several things in issues
that are fairly close to each other, issues that
are back to back because it's a hot topic at
the moment. But there are some things that are
less timely, less less trending that we still
just get a lot of because they're things that
are favorites of the community. They're things
that are favorite teaching tools. And that's
when we have to kind of evaluate a little more
and go, well, you know, does this is this being
presented in a way that's fresh? Is there something
that readers are going to be able to take away
from this that we haven't already shown them?
So those are a couple of ways that we look at
that. And it also speaks to when we decline a
manuscript, when we reject a manuscript, there
are any number of reasons why something gets
rejected. And a lot of times the reason why something
gets rejected is because we've done it. Maybe
we've done it to death and and we just can't
run another article about You know this particular
whatever it is Really good question Yeah, and
I I'm kind of you know, we're up to episode 190
now and it's like yeah I'll get a question about
well, you know Are there any you know, can you
do one on how to get you know high school students
into ham radio? Well Did that it was back on
you know, it's like so, you know, I'll give them
the episode number But but then it kind of makes
me think well when maybe should we do it again
because you know It's it's way back there and
you know, different people are listening. So
yeah I'll say when you know I'll go into Steve
Ford's office and say, when was the last time
we did something on mesh? Why am I thinking it
was last year? And he'll say, oh yeah, it was
last year. Or it'll be something else to say,
oh no, that was three years ago. Because when
you work in magazines, your sense of time is
completely messed up. I mean, I think it's January
already. But sometimes it is just that. Well,
you know, we've done this before, but we haven't
done it in five years. So, okay, yeah, it's time
to bring this topic in again. 812 -638 -4261.
Now's the time to call. If you're going to do
that tonight, give us a call right now at 812
-638 -4261. And we've got one more here. And
we're already over time, so I'm going to kind
of trim this down a little bit. But this is from
Tom. He's a longtime writer and editor in some
of the tech stuff. And he's kind of wanting to
know, sometimes articles are kind of unattributed
and says that When a writer says, you know something
happened to me. We don't know who the me is What
what's the policy on on the bylines? I'm not
really sure what Tom's referring to if if there's
a me in an article then there's definitely a
byline most of what's in QST is byline and What
we have been hearing is that when we redesigned
Recently we put the bylines way up at the top
of the page the top left in a pretty small pretty
fine font and a lot of people are missing the
bylines so Tom take another look look at the
the top left corner of the page and You hopefully
will see the bylines up there Almost everything
in there's bylined And I can't imagine that we
would run something that said, you know, I worked,
you know, Jerry at this time, you know, without
there being a byline on that piece. So this may
be the fault of our tiny little byline font.
Okay. Well, we've got a couple of calls here.
So let me jump to one and I believe we have.
Jocelyn, good evening. Good evening, Neil, and
good evening, Becky. I was just listening to
a show, great topic. I'm looking forward to see
what the new magazine looks like. But Mike, the
question is kind of a two -part. If somebody
wants to submit an article, what would be the
process? That's number one. And what kind of
art, what type of article are you mostly looking
for the On The Air magazine? I guess less technical,
but if you can give us just kind of an idea of
what you're looking for and hopefully listeners
will kind of help you fill the magazine up, so
to speak. Hi, Jocelyn. Thanks so much for calling.
And that is a very good question. On The Air
technically isn't open for submissions yet. It
is in the very early stages, we are doing a lot
of editorial strategy and planning and because
we are approaching this audience kind of methodically,
we need very specific things. So it's not quite
open yet. A lot of stuff is being solicited,
a lot of stuff is being staff written. QST is
always open for submissions and The short answer
to that question is a very simple, easy -to -remember
email address, which is QST at ARRL .org. All
submissions go to that address. They'll be automatically
entered into our manuscript evaluation process.
And there's also more information online. about
submitting to QST, if you go to ARL's website,
arl .org, and do a search on author guide. There
is an extensive author guide for folks who want
to write for QST or QEX or NCJ, ARL's other two
currently existing publications, as opposed to
On the Air, which doesn't quite exist yet. But
there are There's currently an opportunity to
write for On The Air. There's a personal essay
opportunity that so far I've been approaching
people for because we're in the stage of really
shaping the editorial. And while we're still
in those stages, we're kind of keeping a pretty
tight lid on what goes in. But we have accepted
a few things that have just come in over the
transom purely by chance that have been right
for on the air. So it's not impossible. It's
just that the funnel is very, very narrow right
now because we're still shaping it. All right.
Well, thank you very much for answering that.
And Neil, good show. And we'll keep on listening.
Thank you so much for taking the call. Thank
you. All right, Jocelyn. Thank you. Seven three
All right. Well, we've got Brian trying to call
in and Skype's not letting me add a third call.
So Brian call now And we'll see if we can get
you in here and you're gonna get the last word
here Well, there we go, let's see if we can get
it to work and Are you there Brian? And it didn't
merge right and if I hit this button I may Lose
you Becky. Okay. Oh, no Let's see if that worked
that was a different merge button. Are you there
Brian? No, Brian Okay, okay, let me try this
I don't know. I'm almost sure that's gonna That's
going to mess things up here. Let me do this.
Let me see if I can call. Brian, are you there?
Okay, but I think I've lost Becky. Are you there,
Becky? I'm here. Can you hear me? Oh, okay. We
got it. It worked. It says it didn't work. It
says it didn't work, but apparently it works.
Actually, Brian, can you talk a second? Yeah,
this is Brian kg5 GT. How's it going Neil? All
right, you're coming through here Becky. Are
you hearing him? I can hear you. I can't hear
Brian. You can't hear Brian Okay, I think I've
figured out what's going on Skype opened up a
second window. So I'll relay so Brian go ahead
I was just wondering. I know they had made some
changes to QSD in January of 2018 I've enjoyed
the changes. I look forward to getting it every
month. I was just wondering what the feedback
on the changes have been from other members.
Okay, Brian is asking about some of the changes
that were made here in the last year or so to
QST. He's wondering about some of the feedback.
Have you heard any feedback about the changes
from any of the membership, how those changes
are being received? The changes are largely being
received along generational lines. We're doing
some more sort of magazine style pieces in the
general interest that are I think the more classic
hams. want to see more traditional topics. They
don't want QST to move into some of the newer
areas we've been exploring. Whereas some more
adventurous folks and some younger folks, and
by younger I mean people in their 50s and 60s,
have really embraced those articles, like a prime
example is some of the stuff we've done tying
into popular culture, like Stranger Things or
Die Hard. The feedback we get on pieces like
that is very, the generational lines are pretty
clearly drawn there. So it's mixed and The thing
about magazines is that they change all the time
because the people those magazines are serving
are changing all the time. And we're making changes
that maybe folks don't even necessarily notice.
But, you know, magazines change otherwise. If
they don't change, they die. If people, you know,
don't continue changing and growing and learning,
you know, maybe they don't die, but you sort
of if you're not continuing to change and grow,
some folks say you might as well be dead. But
magazines are like that, too. They're always
changing. They're always evolving. QST isn't
going away just because we're doing on the air.
QST serves a different audience than on the air
does. And so there are folks who love it no matter
what, and there are folks who are critical of
anything they see that looks, sounds, smells,
you know, like anything than their specific interests
that they want to see in QSD. All right. Well,
there you have it, Brian. Thank you so much for
calling in. Sorry that Skype was being troublesome
tonight. It's not the first time tonight. All
right. No problem. Enjoy the show and thanks
for having the answer. All right. Thank you,
Brian. Appreciate it. All right. Take care. All
right. You too. Bye bye. All right. Well, we're
going to finish things up here. I've kept you
over times and we still have Some stuff we didn't
get to but I think we've we've hit most of it
at least a little bit and Tom says Gosh, yes,
the fonts are really small. So You took care
of that one so Sorry, Tom, we didn't get to everything
else there on the list tonight, but we're running
way over. But appreciate you taking the time
to write in. Well, we're going to finish things
up. And I want to thank you, Becky, for coming
on and talking about all this. And it's an exciting
time with the new magazine and some of the changes
in QST. Thanks for being here. Any final comments
before we go? Well, thanks so much, Neil, for
having me on. This has been a lot of fun, and
it's a very exciting time at ARRL. We're making
changes that a lot of us have sort of talked
about for years, and we finally are being given
the chance to do some of this stuff. It's really
exciting. You're going to see a lot of very interesting
things out of ARRL in 2020, including an education
program that we didn't get to touch upon tonight.
series of online courses, but maybe that'll just
wet people's interest and They will have to wait
until 2020 to hear some more about it And we
may have to pull Chris back on the show and yep
and start talking about those so Well, thank
you so much for being here. I appreciate it and
You know, there's a lot of interest here. So
so maybe we will revisit it again Yeah, very
cool It's been really fun, so it's been great
to get out some of this excitement with you all
here tonight. All right. Well, thank you so much,
Becky. That is a wrap for this week's edition
of HamTalk Live. Thanks to my guest, Becky Schoenfeld,
W1BXY, and everybody out there in cyberspace
for listening and calling in and typing in. And
I'll invite you back next Thursday night at 9
p .m. When it when it's time for me to get excited
about a new project. Yeah, youth on the air camp
was announced last night and I don't even know
who's coming on the show. Jocelyn may be here,
Sterling, Sam. I don't even know yet, so we're
going to have some of the youth on the air people
on here with me and we'll talk about the youth
on the air camp and it's going to be on ham radio
crash course tomorrow, so. Be sure to check out
Josh's show over on YouTube if you can and you'll
hear a little more about the camp there as well,
as well as a lot of other places. So we look
forward to talking about that and getting this
camp off the ground. For a list of all of our
upcoming guests, visit HamTalkLive .com and if
you like the show, please leave us a review on
iTunes. That helps other people find us faster.
So for now, this is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. saying
7375 and may the good DX be yours.