Amateur radio is a tough business at the best of times – hams are a cheap bunch, the market is small, there’s a fair amount of competition -it’s hard to survive. And it can’t be getting any easier, with an aging amateur population, a changing hobby…

One of the things that got me into amateur radio was CQ Magazine. I started reading CQ in the early 70’s, have subscribed for close to forty years, and I still have all those issues. It pains me tremendously to see them struggling for survival. For better than 6 months now, I haven’t seen an issue from them, and I suspect no one in Canada has either. When asked about it, they started out saying that they had a new distributor in Canada. Then it turned out they were also missing deliveries in the States. They blamed it on “distribution problems”. They kept promising that things were turning around. I gave them lots of slack.

I sent them an e-mail a couple of months ago asking when I might expect to see another issue. “Distribution problems”, they said. Well, yes, technically they have distribution problems – if they can’t pay the bills, they aren’t going to have anything to distribute.

Then, I see them in the smallest space they could get at the ARRL Convention – selling copies of May, June and July CQ. I bought a copy of each for $2, although technically they owed me those issues and I should have asked for them free. So what gives – there they are with issues they could be sending me, and they aren’t. Everyone wants them to succeed and survive, but a little more openness and honesty would probably be appreciated by the amateur community.

They are clearly in trouble, and most likely losing subscribers due to their lack of communication with the amateur community.

Sadly, I give them one more year and I am afraid they won’t be with us any more – at least, not in their present form.

I don’t even look for the magazine in the mailbox any more. Very, very sad.