With the entrance of the United States into World War One, amateur wireless was shut down with the takeover of all radio transmitters by the U.S. government. The September, 1917 issue of QST was the last one before it suspended publication for the war.
QST, September, 1917, page 16:
ANOTHER SEASON OPENS, BUT- - -
Good old September has come around once more with its promise to cut down on the static, but----. In happier days the coming of September would start us thinking about the cells in the "B" battery, and wondering how many of them had thrown up the sponge during the summer, but----. Probably many of us would already have gone so far as to take another look over that article on how to build a regenerative receiving tuner, and have made a few sketches of what would best suit a certain particular stock of miscellaneous pieces of wood and general junk, but----. Not a few would be writing in asking what was doing on audion bulbs about now and what the chances were going to be to get inside on something especially sensitive, but----. No doubt several would be measuring off the back yard and giving serious thought to Kruse's illuminating treatise, recently printed in QST, on "Tin Masts," but----. Anyway, the various manufacturers would be noting a big increase in their mail and they would be rolling up their sleeves getting ready to handle the coming business, but----.
This time, old September is different than he has ever been before. None of these little things dear to the heart of the Amateur Wireless Bug are happening. Not since "Amateur Number One," first strung a wire in the air, has there been a September like this fateful one of 1917. Not a single amateur aerial is in the air, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The little buzzing spark is gone and dust covers the once shining apparatus. How long this condition will last is a guess. It probably will be many months, and we expect to see at least another September come and go which will be not much different.
'Tis a sad, sad tale. But, like most sad tales, it is not without a big ray of hope. This hope is that the present conditions cannot go on forever, and that the spirit of amateur wireless is just as much alive in these dead days as it ever was. Whether the law closes up our stations or even takes away our apparatus, whether we ourselves are scattered to the four winds of heaven, whether we are in the army in France, or in the Navy on the tossing sea, we are still Amateur Wireless Bugs, and nothing will ever change us. Dead Septembers may come and go and the years may change us from springy youth to sober age, but the call of the "spark" will still be in our hearts and the desire to have and use the little old set up in the attic or down in the cellar will still be the one great yearning. We will always be Amateur Wireless Bugs, come what may. That's right, isn't it, fellows?.