The Short Wave Magazine May 1976 [antikvár]

FOR THE RADIO AMATEUR AND AMATEUR RADISHORTWAVEEDITORIALRéversionWe hope readers will notice, and be pleased with, a change in the appearance of this issue. We are able to drop the small print (6pt setting) used for the last two years or so for the news-feature articles and go back to the larger, 8pt, type face.This is because the niimber of pages is now stabilised at 64 plus cover, whereas when the 6pt setting was instituted, the make-up was 56 pages. The extra eight pages worked into issues since then has enabled us to get back to the easier-to-read 8pt setting.As we well know, the small print was never popular with readerswe didn't like it much ourselves, either!but it served its purpose while we had to keep the total paging down.However, there are disadvantages in going back to the larger print. We cannot get in quite so many pictures as recently and we are going to be hard hit by the next increase in postal chargeswhich affect every copy sent out, whether to direct subscribers individually or in bulk to our retail distributors, who handle about 70% of the total circulation. And, of course, we shall also be using more paper which, these days, is very expensive and an important factor in costing. It seems extraordinary now that when "Short Wave Magazine" was launched, 'way back in 1937, the cost of paper and postage hardly entered into the calcula-tions. Paper was cheap and plentiful in all grades and postage rates reasonable and stable.What it all comes to is that we still, after all these years, aim to maintain om-status as one of the world's leading Amateur Radio periodicalsstill entirely independent and unsubsidised, relying solely on reader-choice in a free market and a highly competitive field.fat*-'WORLD-WIDE COMMUNICATION