Cale, K4HCK noted in his latest edition of Amateur Radio Weekly the availability of an online archive of CQ Magazine. This is some sort of mash-up between the publication owner and the old Buckmaster International, LLC. who now runs HamCall.net.

What they are offering includes a few different ways to get at the goods. Being a ham radio history buff who has promised to stop bringing piles of old books and magazines into our home, an online archive of this history is highly valued.

I quickly sent them the sixty-bucks they wanted for year-long access to the magazines, all the way back to the first edition published in January 1945. Launching this new magazine at the time was a gutsy move as the World was still at War and amateur radio in the United States still shut down. As 1945 rolled around the outlook for Allied forces was looking much better, but there was no way of knowing when the War would conclude — and how much time would pass from Victory to when the government might get around to resuming the amateur service.

That timing eventually worked out and CQ Magazine became a healthy publication and a fount of information serving the amateur radio population for decades until the internet disrupted the magazine publishing industry and CQ became a casualty. I should add that CQ created and sponsored many contests and events along the way (CQ WPX, CQ WW DX Contest, DX Marathon, and more — most of which continue under different handlers, another legacy of the publication).

Now there is another legacy, the archives!

Having full access to CQ and QST magazines online is like a wormhole, a portal into the history of amateur radio in the United States and around the globe. It’s an amazing resource for learning, study, and a deep reference library covering a century of ham radio history.

I only wish it wasn’t only offered as a subscription. I’d pay $200 to download the entire archive and keep it on my server. Annual subscriptions aren’t retirement friendly budget items and it’s impossible to know if it will survive my future cuts as subscriptions are often the first to go under the knife.

But for this moment, I’m mesmerized while clicking through the annals of time.