Wayne Green

Wayne Green
Full name	Wayne S. Green II
Born	September 3, 1922
Died	September 13, 2013, aged 91
Occupation	Magazine editor and publisher
Amateur radio
Call sign	W2NSD ("Never Say Die")
Edited	CQ, for five years in the 1950s
Founded	73 (1960–2003)
Editorial column	"Never Say Die"
Computing
Magazines founded	Byte (1975), Kilobaud (1977), 80 Micro and others

Wayne Green (1922–2013), call sign W2NSD, was an American magazine publisher who edited CQ in the 1950s and then founded 73, an independent ham radio magazine he published from 1960 to 2003. Outspoken and restless, he used its pages to push new technology into amateur radio and to argue, often sharply, with the ARRL and rival magazines. In the 1970s he also helped start the personal computer magazine business, beginning with Byte.

Early radio

Green was born on September 3, 1922. He became hooked on radio in 1936, when he built a simple set from spare parts. While working as an engineer at the New York station WPIX, he got permission to put a ham station on the roof of its building. His call sign, W2NSD, gave him a motto: he read the suffix as "Never Say Die", which became the title of his editorials.

His first publishing venture, in 1952, was a newsletter about amateur radio teletype (RTTY), which grew to about 2,000 subscribers and led to a column in CQ. He went on to edit CQ for five years.

73 magazine

Main article: Amateur radio magazines

In 1960 Green founded his own magazine, named 73 after the ham shorthand for "best regards". The first issue was dated October 1960. He later said the magazine's purpose at the start was to get more hams building their own equipment, and 73 became known for practical construction articles alongside news and opinion. It was later based in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

Green liked to call himself the magazine's "El Supremo". His "Never Say Die" editorials, which could run for several pages, regularly criticized the ARRL and competing magazines, although he kept his ARRL membership throughout. He was also early to promote ideas that later became mainstream: single-sideband voice, solid-state equipment, FM and repeater networks, and the use of computers in ham radio. ARRL chief executive David Sumner recalled Green advising the league to promote packet radio by talking about it as if everyone were already using it.

Computer magazines

When the first microcomputer kits appeared in 1975, Green turned the same energy to computing. He did much of the work to launch Byte that year but lost control of it after a few issues. By Green's account, the magazine had been registered in his former wife's name, and she kept it. He responded with Kilobaud, launched in January 1977, and followed it with titles for particular computers, such as 80 Micro for the Radio Shack TRS-80, inCider for the Apple II and RUN for the Commodore 64, along with a software publishing business. In 1983 he sold most of the computer magazines to CW Communications, part of the IDG publishing group.

Later years

73 continued under Green until its final issue, dated September 2003. In his later years he also promoted unconventional theories on subjects well outside radio, including cold fusion, and he continued to write and to speak at hamfests. The Internet Archive's 73 collection now holds scans of more than 500 issues, free to read online. He died on September 13, 2013, at the age of 91; he had been living in Hancock, New Hampshire. Announcing his death, ARRL News described him as a pioneer, visionary and iconoclast of ham radio publishing.

The Internet Archive's copies of 73 are a treasure for builders. Its construction articles are still a good source of ideas for a weekend homebrew project, though parts may need updating.

See also

• Amateur radio magazines
• CQ Amateur Radio
• Homebrewing
• History of amateur radio

External links

• 73 Magazine collection at the Internet Archive
• Ham Radio Publications Pioneer, Visionary, Iconoclast Wayne Green, W2NSD, SK, ARRL News