Editorial

SSS Second Anniversary!

We did it -- a second year! Wow, it was a lot of work, blood, sweat and tears, but SSS is now starting on Volume Number 3. This little publication is really succeeding, after all! While we haven't grown as much as I would have liked, we have had slow to moderate growth. We have grown in subscribers, in advertisers and coverage. We have also grown in our presentation and have experimented with 4 color wraps.

This growth has not been easy for us. We continue to miss some publication deadlines -- sometimes this has made you, our readers, impatient or mad -- but we have gotten out this magazette on a fairly regular basis. The way we look at it, publishing is not our primary business -- so when we set priorities, we usually put our product development and consulting business first, the SSS second . The end result is that this magazette is a little bit late. Sometimes we have even had to combine two issues because we got so late -- we are sorry for this inconvenience, but it has been necessary for our survival.

Talk about survival, the popularity of Wireless and Spread Spectrum is certainly growing -- isn't it? Almost every newspaper or magazine I pick up these days has something on our favorite topics. Take the Scientific American for December 1993, for example, the article "When Cells Divide" gives a very good, general readership overview of the current transition to PCS systems in the USA. A more recent example is from the IEEE Spectrum for May 1994, pages 39 to 46. In their article entitled "The FCC on personal wireless" the subject of upcoming PCS and the proliferation of wireless, Local and Wide Area voice, data, FAX and computing services is highlighted. EDN for April 28, 1994 covered Wireless EDA (Electronic Design Automation) tools on a story starting on page 31. Then the May issue of even prestigious computer journal BYTE magazine covered our turf in several, well done articles. Even our closest rival publications RF Design and Microwaves & RF have boosted their emphasis on our primary focus area.

RF Design's Editor Gary Breed started a series of tutorials on Spread Spectrum in April. He covered an overview of Direct Sequence in April and provided a cursory introduction to Frequency Hopping in his May issue. I hope Gary doesn't run out of material for this series too soon -- he doesn't have over a quarter century of experience in SS to draw from, like we do!

On the other hand, Microwaves & RF has been a lot more ambitious -- they are putting out a new little publication entitled Wireless Systems Design, subtitle: "Technology and Applications." Ron Brown and Penton Publishing are a powerful machine, this new journal may just fly! They can attract top notch advertisers and first rate articles (so can RF Design) -- thus we seem to be up against some pretty serious competition!

I believe in competition -- it is a healthy thing! Competition is good for any business. It helps keep everybody on their toes. It also ensures that only the "fittest" survive! so we are in a fight for our survival, you see.

SSS needs your help -- to survive, we must increase our readership , subscriber base, advertiser base and improve the quantity and quality of our technical coverage. You can help us in many of these areas.

You can help by telling your friends and associates about SSS. You can help by considering SSS as an advertising vehicle for your product or service. You can help by sending us your new product releases and press releases. You can help by having your company sponsor a special issue of SSS (just call us for details). You can also help by renewing your subscription or extending it for another year or two at our new low $24.95 per year US rate ($35.00 US for foreign Air Mail delivery ).

To help ensure the survival of SSS we also have some plans for the upcoming issues of Volume 3 in 1994 - 1995. We discuss these plans in more detail below.

SSS Plans for 1994-1995

We have been using a full four color jacket for some months now. While this adds color, eye appeal and reader interest-- it has not paid for itself, yet. So, starting with the next issue of SSS we will revert to our old two color (or occasionally three color) format. If we ever get enough paid subscribers and /or advertisers, we may some day go back to full color -- but for the near term two colors will just have to do.

We mentioned earlier that we have had to combine issues a few times in the past. I'm sorry for this inconvenience, but some times other business needs just took priority over the SSS deadline. In Volume 1 we did publish 10 issues, while Volume 2 had 9 issues. In the coming year we plan to publish at least 6 issues -- we are going bi-monthly, starting with this issue. The next issue will be a June-July issue and we think it will be easier for us to meet our deadlines with a bimonthly publication. I hope that we can occasionally publish a "Special" extra issue once in a while, this coming year. Thanks for your patience, dear readers, and stay with us for more of the best on Spread Spectrum and related Wireless new technology.

We also have some interesting, and hopefully useful, promotions coming to you in the next few months. First among these will be the introduction of a "Bonus" disk for new or renewing subscribers. This New Subscriber "Bonus" disk will have several interesting and useful SS system design/analysis utilities and useful information on other new hardware and software to be offered through SSS.

We also plan to publish a complete step by step guide to building, testing and developing software and protocols for the "Ham Hopper-1" SS transceiver and its marching transverters and other accessories. This will probably turn out to be a series of booklets at first and later a compilation. The first detailed article on the Ham Hopper-1 is presented in this issue -- please take a look! More great stuff is coming on this design as it evolves. Remember that this DDS based Frequency Hopper will add DSP, digital voice and Direct Sequence to its bag of tricks in coming months.

SSS will only succeed if we can develop and keep a solid base of paid subscribers and advertisers who want , if not demand, an independent and unbiased look at new technological and legal developments that affect our industry. We actively seek your support. We hope that you stay with us and mention us to your peers and friends. We need all the help we can get, to stay in this tough highly competitive publishing business. We want your input, ideas and contributions. Drop us a note, a FAX or E-mail -- please!

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