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 Another era, sadly, has come to an end.
H. Ward Silver (aka Ward Silver, NØAX) has announced
the end of his monthly column, "Hands-On Radio," in
QST magazine. The title
of each column was enumerated as "Experiment #nnn," followed by the subject. To
wit, "Experiment #179 Maxwell's Equations - The Wave Emerges" is Mr. Silver's
final column, appearing in the December 2017 QST. "Hands-On Radio" topics
ranged in intensity from relatively simple discussion on calculating power dissipation
in resistors, capacitors, and inductors to more heady treatises on subjects like
electromagnetic fields within coaxial cable and waveguide to Maxwell's equations.
Mathematics, too often avoided in modern electronics articles, were presented as
needed to supplement the story. Other than maybe in Microwave Journal,
when is the last time you saw a divergence or curl operation in a magazine article?
Final installment of "Hands-On Radio" in the December 2017 issue
of QST magazine.
First installment of "Hands-On Radio" in the February 2003 issue
of QST magazine.
179 ÷ 12 modulo 12 yields 14 years and 11 months worth of "Hands-On Radio"
columns. Assuming no skipped months of publications, that makes February 2003 the
first installment. Checking the online digital QST archives* confirms indeed it
was in that issue which "Experiment #1 The Common Emitter Amplifier" appeared. It
takes a lot of dedication to the amateur radio cause to produce high quality articles
every month for nearly 15 years. Since my first issue of QST arrived after joining
the ARRL in 2010, "Hands-On Radio" has been either the first or second column I
read each month (Joel R. Hallas', W1ZR, "The Doctor Is In" is the other). Thank
you, Ward Silver!
Mr. Silver still contributes a semi-regular column titled "The Ham's Wireless
Workbench" in Nuts and Volts magazine, so you can still get a regular dose
of his sage thoughts. I was a subscriber to the print version when the column, titled
"An Intro and Antennas," debuted in January 2015. His most recent
column titled "Vacuum Tubes" appeared in the November 2017 issue.
In addition to all of his magazine column writing, Ward has authored and/or contributed
significantly to many books including ARRL license manuals and the "... for Dummies"
series. In fact, most -if not -all - of the "Hands-On Radio" columns are captured
in a couple books available on
Amazon. He is also, as you might expect, very involved in Ham
radio events including contesting. We have not heard the end of Ward Silver, that's
for sure.
* ARRL membership is required to access the digital editions; however, the
September 2009 issue of QST is available in its entirety
on the nxtbook.com website.
Posted November 22, 2017
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