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Zero Retries Administrivia - Payment Options Now Activated
2023-06-29 - Special Issue - Payment Options Now Activated
Zero Retries is an independent newsletter promoting technological innovation in Amateur Radio, and Amateur Radio as (literally) a license to experiment with and learn about radio technology.
About Zero Retries
Steve Stroh N8GNJ, Editor
Jack Stroh, Late Night Assistant Editor Emeritus
In this issue:
Web version of this issue:
https://www.zeroretries.org/p/zero-retries-administrivia-payment
Zero Retries Special Issue - Payment Options Are Activated
By Steve Stroh N8GNJ
As promised, this “Administrivia” issue of Zero Retries is notification to existing Zero Retries Subscribers that payment options for Zero Retries are now active (as of 2023-06-29).
The most obvious question you may have upon receiving this is:
Do I have to pay for Zero Retries?
No. See this detailed explanation about Zero Retries and payment options:
Zero Retries Administrivia - Activating Payment Options
In short, no-cost subscriptions for Zero Retries will always be available.
If you choose a paid subscription to Zero Retries, you will receive some value-added features (see below).
Behind the scenes…
The Substack platform has a huge number of configuration options. I think I have tweaked all the appropriate settings to activate payment options for Zero Retries, but it’s quite possible there will be glitches.
It’s especially possible that there will be glitches given that Substack uses the Stripe payment processing platform. Stripe has a bewildering array of options, and truth be told, I’m nearly out of my depth in using it for payments. If there was an option for a simpler payment processing system than Stripe, I would use that. But, Substack’s only option for payments is Stripe. Like with Substack’s payment options, I think I have settings right (enough) within Stripe, but again, there may well be glitches.
For you brave souls who decide to offer financial support to Zero Retries and choose a paid subscription, Thank You, and I appreciate your patience.
Valued-added Features for Paid Subscriptions
The first few value-added features of paid subscriptions to Zero Retries are:
Substack Chat
Early access to Zero Retries Indexes
Early access to Zero Retries on YouTube
Founding Members mentioned in every issue of Zero Retries
Substack Chat
Substack Chat for Zero Retries has been activated for paid subscribers, and I will begin using Substack Chat in the coming days.
Substack Chat allows Zero Retries readers to converse between themselves more substantively than comments. Zero Retries’ Substack Chat is private between subscribers. (Substack Notes, which I’ve chosen not to use with Zero Retries, was discussed in a special issue of Zero Retries is open to the public.)
Early Access to Zero Retries Indexes
There’s a lot of information in the 100+ issues of Zero Retries. While there is a search function:
… that only works when you kind-of know what you’re looking for, and just want to know where it appeared in Zero Retries.
An index, on the other hand, is different from search because an index lists the significant topics, items, people, etc. and where they appeared.
I’m slowly1 putting together multiple indexes for Zero Retries because I need such a reference now that I’ve written 100+ issues and I need to be able to quickly find info that I’ve previously discussed.
As I develop these indexes:
Monthly
Quarterly
Annual
Cumulative
… early access to these indexes will be a value-added feature of paid subscriptions to Zero Retries.
For example, the Zero Retries Index - 2023-05 would be available to those with paid subscriptions immediately as I begin creating that index page.
Eventually, for the benefit of all Zero Retries subscribers, and Amateur Radio, all the the indexes will be made publicly accessible.
Early Access to Zero Retries on YouTube
Admittedly, discussing this value-added feature for paid subscriptions is a bit of cart-before-the-horse.
Short form video - YouTube, TikTok, etc. is the medium most relevant to younger folks. Like it or not, short form video is the media of the 2020s. I consider myself a reader and my preferred form of information is text… but even I watch a fair amount of YouTube.
Consider the scale of the audience on YouTube. In Zero Retries 0093 YouTube Edition, of the four YouTube channels that offer consistent Zero Retries Interesting content, the least popular of those four (KM6LYW Radio) currently has 3,380 subscribers - more than 4x the subscribers of Zero Retries (as I write this issue).
Thus, to further the Zero Retries mission:
Highlight technological innovation in Amateur Radio;
Promote Amateur Radio to techies as a literal license to experiment with radio technology;
Make Amateur Radio more relevant to society in the 2020s and beyond.
… is going to require that Zero Retries be accessible on video. Given that YouTube is the video distribution that I'm most comfortable with (as opposed to TikTok), I plan to call the video version of Zero Retries…
Zero Retries on YouTube2.
I don’t (currently) have video (or audio) editing expertise. Of course, I could develop such expertise, either “by hand” or figuring out how to automate video production. But that will be time spent away from writing Zero Retries, or those Amateur Radio activities that I would really like to get back to soon.
Thus, Zero Retries on YouTube will require the services of a video editor - human or AI. Revenue from paid subscriptions will help fund3 those services.
When posting a video onto YouTube, it can be made non-discoverable (semi-private), accessible only to those who know the web address.
Early access to Zero Retries on YouTube videos will be a value-added feature of paid subscriptions to Zero Retries.
Eventually, for the benefit of all Zero Retries readers, and Amateur Radio, each Zero Retries on YouTube video will be made publicly accessible.
Founding Members mentioned in every issue of Zero Retries
I wouldn’t have thought to offer a “Founding Member” tier for paid subscriptions to Zero Retries, but Substack defaults to showing that option to new subscribers, and several Zero Retries readers have now clicked the button to start a Founding Member subscription as soon as payment options are activated.
As a Thank You to Founding Members, their names (and callsigns) will be mentioned (with their permission) in each issue of Zero Retries.
Special Mention - Zero Retries Paid Subscriber 0000 - Steve Davidson K3FZT
I am indebted to Steve Davidson K3FZT for his sage advise about “taking Zero Retries to the next level”. Steve was an early and enthusiastic reader of Zero Retries and has graciously offered well-grounded advice from his background about evolving Zero Retries. For all his good advice, Steve asked only one small thing, that he be the first paid subscriber to Zero Retries, and thus I name Steve Davidson K3FZT…
Zero Retries Paid Subscriber 0000
Thank you very much, Steve!
Join the Fun on Amateur Radio
If you’re not yet licensed as an Amateur Radio Operator, and would like to join the fun by literally having a license to experiment with radio technology, check out
Join the Fun on Amateur Radio for some pointers.
Zero Retries Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) — In development 2023-02.
Closing the Channel
In its mission to highlight technological innovation in Amateur Radio, promote Amateur Radio to techies as a literal license to experiment with radio technology, and make Amateur Radio more relevant to society in the 2020s and beyond, Zero Retries is published via email and web, and is available to everyone at no cost. Zero Retries is proud not to participate in the Amateur Radio Publishing Industrial Complex, which hides Amateur Radio content behind paywalls.
My ongoing Thanks to:
Tina Stroh KD7WSF for, well, everything!
Pseudostaffers that write about about “Zero Retries Interesting” items on their blogs that I don’t spot:
Newsletters that regularly feature Zero Retries Interesting content:
Amateur Radio Weekly by Cale Mooth K4HCK is a weekly anthology of links to interesting Amateur Radio stories.
Experimental Radio News by Bennet Z. Kobb AK4AV discusses (in detail) Experimental (Part 5) licenses issued by the US FCC.
TAPR Packet Status Register has been published continuously since 1982.
Other Substack Amateur Radio newsletters recommended by Zero Retries.
YouTube channels that regularly feature Zero Retries Interesting content:
HB9BLA Wireless by Andreas Spiess HB9BLA
KM6LYW Radio by Craig Lamparter KM6LYW (home of the DigiPi project)
Modern Ham by Billy Penley KN4MKB
Tech Minds by Matthew Miller M0DQW
The Substack email publishing platform makes Zero Retries possible. I recommend it for publishing newsletters.
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Zero Retries (N8GNJ) is on Mastodon — n8gnj@mastodon.radio — just click:
Email issues of Zero Retries are “instrumented” by Substack to gather basic statistics about opens, clicking links, etc.
More bits from Steve Stroh N8GNJ:
SuperPacket blog — Discussing new generations of Amateur Radio Data Communications — beyond Packet Radio (a precursor to Zero Retries)
N8GNJ blog — Amateur Radio Station N8GNJ and the mad science experiments at N8GNJ Labs — Bellingham, Washington, USA
Thanks for reading!
Steve Stroh N8GNJ / WRPS598 (He / Him / His)
These bits were handcrafted (by a mere human, not an Artificial Intelligence bot) in beautiful Bellingham (The City of Subdued Excitement), Washington, USA.
2023-06-29
If you’d like to reuse an article in this issue, for example for club or other newsletters, just ask. Please provide credit for the content to me and any other authors.
All excerpts from other authors or organizations, including images, are intended to be fair use.
Portions Copyright © 2021, 2022, and 2023 by Steven K. Stroh.
Blanket permission granted for TAPR to use any Steve Stroh content for the TAPR Packet Status Register (PSR) newsletter (I owe them from way back).
You’d think this would be an ideal task to hand off to one of the new AI’s. I considered it, briefly, but then realized that because the content of Zero Retries is so specialized (not represented in the datasets the AIs were trained on) I’d have to spend practically the same amount of time auditing the AI’s output. Perhaps in a year or two this would be a trivial task for an AI, but I need this now.
I’m going to try to title this Zero Retries on YouTube to (hopefully) confer that the content is from Zero Retries (a text newsletter) that’s exported to YouTube.
If Zero Retries on YouTube (big if) gets enough subscribers, there could be some revenue generated from YouTube, which would be a virtuous cycle.