QZX was one of the longest running Sinclair newsletter in the United States, starting in 1981 and published for more than ten years.
Many Sinclair computer users never heard of it because it was a special purpose newsletter devoted to the use of Sinclair computers in radio. Most subscribers were amateur radio operators and were often known by their Federal Communications Commission issued call letters. A few readers were not licensed but had an interest in the technical articles. Readers were from all over the United States and 20 different countries.
QZX was started by Marty Irons (K2MI). He started the magazine as a personal service to the ham radio computer community.
An article about the Sinclair ZX80 appeared in Popular Science in 1980 that absolutely fascinated him and he ordered it the next day. When it came, he was very impressed by the way it handled the syntax of BASIC programs. He was as happy with it as the IBM mainframe he programmed at Western Union.
As a ham, he was curious if it could be applied to ham projects. He asked QST, the national magazine for radio amateurs, to print an “I’d like to get in touch with” article to see if other hams were thinking along the same lines.
Initial response was not overwhelming, but those who did write and/or call were very enthusiastic. Some sent in BASIC programs and technical data with their first letter. Nobody offered to put out a newsletter, so he ran with the ball.
The name came from the radio operating background of the readers. Abbreviations starting with Q have special meanings for hams so it was natural to add the initials of the first computer to Q to get a title for the newsletter.
Friendships among the group of users grew quickly. Russell Parker (W9CQD) started a 20-meter net (a scheduled time for the geographically dispersed group of radio operators to all listen on a specific frequency).
An interesting phenomenon then appeared, which they called the 14-day reflex. About two weeks after each issue of QZX was mailed, letters would pour in with suggested improvements for many of the BASIC programs published. Hams tried other’s ideas, found better ways to do things, then shared their improvements in QZX.
Marty could not handle all of them, and eventually called for volunteers to test the programs coming in through the mail. A user’s group called “SARUG” was started in England by G4INP, and he handled the rest of the world while QZX responded to hams in the U.S.
These hams were pioneers, keying their transmitters, decoding incoming cw, printing antenna pointings and more with their Sinclair computers.
Eventually the volume of mail and phone calls swamped Marty. He put in 4 to 6 hours a day on the project, in addition to working full-time. When a brief article about QZX appeared in QST in the summer of 1982, his mail suddenly jumped to about 40-50 pieces a day. Reluctantly he had to give it up, as there was no way he could satisfy the demand for a quality newsletter.
That QST article in 1982 offering a free subscription attracted the attention of Alex Burr (K5XY). Burr could not resist the bargain that the Sinclair computer offered, having obtained a ZX81 kit. He was already familiar with the Sinclair products because he had been in Scotland when Sinclair was just hitting his stride with inexpensive hi-fi audio kits.
When Marty announced that he was looking for somebody else to take over QZX, Bo Barry (W4GHV), was recruited and negotiations for a change in sponsorship were stated. Unfortunately they failed.
Marty thought that a commercial company starting up in Arizona offered more stability for QZX. Unfortunately that company in turn failed, so QZX wound up in Las Cruces, NM with Alex as publisher and Bo as editor. Ron Suggs (KB5EZ), was recruited as technical editor.
Ron was a graduate student at New Mexico State University, so he dropped out after a short time. Bo published QZX for five years, writing articles and organizing the material submitted by QZX readers. Alex took over publishing when Bo’s work promoted him.
One of the first major authors was Kraig Pritts (KA2HLO). He created a series of ham-related programs which he published in QZX and later sold on tapes.
A major series of articles by Don Lamen, in part reprinted from other publications, was run starting in the October 1989 issue. Don was not a ham but his investigation of the Sinclair logic chip (ULA) in the ZX81 was an electronic detective effort worthy of any ham.
Guillermo (LU8MAD) was the most prolific foreign author and described some of the most sophisticated uses of the Sinclair computers in ham applications. He described one case where a commercial power company used ZX81 computers to help control their power lines. His son even contributed some cartoons to a few issues.
Bob Howard (WA6DLI) wrote about several different Sinclair computers and contributed several articles related to satellites.
In total, more than five hundred articles were published in QZX.
Adapted from an article by Alex Burr.
