CQ Amateur Radio magazine archive now on-line

CQ Communications, Inc. of Hicksville, New York, publisher of CQ Amateur Radio magazine, and Buckmaster Publishing of Mineral, Virginia, jointly announce that Buckmaster's searchable online archive of CQ magazine back issues, dating back to the magazine's first issue in January 1945, is
now complete.

The searchable archive may be accessed via the internet at
http://hamcall.net/cq or via a one-click link from the CQ website at http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com.

All issues through early 2006 are now online, according to Buckmaster President Jack Speer, N1BIC. By agreement with CQ, issues are not posted until two years after their publication dates, as paper copies are still available from the CQ bookstore. Newer issues will be posted as the two-
year 'window' expires.

Buckmaster, which produces the 'HamCall' CD and website, and has for decades filmed back issues of CQ onto microfiche for use by researchers and hobbyists alike, has applied its advanced scanning and searching technology for online posting of documents to back issues of CQ. It has
taken nearly four years to get all back issues scanned and posted.

Pages are available to users as either low-resolution or high-resolution JPEG image files, or as PDF files, which are more 'printer-friendly' than the JPEGs.

'One of the great benefits to this approach is Buckmaster's very powerful search engine,' which indexes every word on every page, notes CQ Publisher Dick Ross, K2MGA. 'It is far better than anything we could put onto a CD.' Ross also noted that most readers looking for back issues are seeking a specific article and don't necessarily want to spend the
money for a set of CDs, 'an amount which can really add up if you want access to nearly 65 years worth of magazines.'

On the HamCall archive site, pricing is based on the length of time for which the user wants access. Searches are free, as is access to the first ten pages of each issue, assuring that the table of contents page will always be accessible.

Archive subscription pricing is as follows:
* Searching and access to the first ten pages of each issue: Free
* 1-day "test drive": 5 USDs (same as the cost for ordering a reprint of a single article from CQ)
* 3 months: 20 USDs
* 6 months: 30 USDs
* 12 months: 50 USDs
Views are limited to 300 pages per day to conserve bandwidth on the busy 'HamCall' server.

CQ Communications, Inc. publishes CQ Amateur Radio, CQ RadioAmateur (Spanish CQ), CQ VHF and Popular Communications magazines, plus the CQ Library of books, videos and CDs. It is headquartered in Hicksville, New
York.

Buckmaster Publishing is a leading archiving and retrieval service based in Mineral, Virginia. In the amateur radio world, it is best-known for archiving all major ham magazines onto microfiche, and as the publisher of the 'HamCall' amateur radio international callsign lookup CD and web site."

For more information, contact:
Dick Ross, K2MGA, Publisher, Jack Speer, N1BIC, President,
CQ Magazine, 516-681-2922, Buckmaster Publishing, 540-894-5777
k2mga@cq-amateur-radio.com speerj@buck.com