ZERO BIAS: A CQ Editorial

Ham radio is a hobby dominated by numbers … the bands on which we’re allowed to operate, whether described in terms of frequency or wavelength; how many watts of power our transmitters are sending to our antennas, how many elements our antennas have and how many feet (or meters) above the ground they are; how many countries, zones or prefixes we’ve contacted; how many miles per watt our signals have traveled; how many points we made in the last contest; component values in our latest project, or how many words a minute we can copy in Morse code. The list goes on and on.

There are’s 75 anniversary issue. Over those 75 years of publication, there have been 900 issues of this magazine, and an equal number of editorials, of which I have now written approximately 240, or just over 25%. Some come easily, others are a struggle. In those latter cases, the problem is generally resolved by spending a couple of hours on the radio.