Radio Magazines - Do you miss them too?

[Omega-TI]

I remember the old days when you could walk into a store and pick up a copy of a magazine like Radio-Electronics or Popular Communications or subscribe to one, like my all-time favorite Monitoring Times. Sure, CQ and 73 were fun too, but I miss those days when I could get a non-Amateur Radio magazine to read. Now that I'm getting back into things, it's just not the same anymore. Sure, the Internet is nice and all, but nothing beat having a nice magazine to hold in your hand and flip the pages at your leisure while having a cup of coffee.

 

[Omega-TI]

 

[AB5ID]

I subscribed to CQ and Electric Radio it was always a good day when one came in the mailbox.

 

[mass-man]

Yea I was a MT subscriber for years...bought a few things from Bob!!!

 

[FIRE321FIGHTER1985]

I miss those and police call. I have the 2005 and 2 prior.

 

[tumegpc]

Scanning USA and StrongSignals was my happy place.

 

[Omega-TI]

Yea I was a MT subscriber for years...bought a few things from Bob!!!

Me too! As an adult I had as much fun with MT as I had drooling over the Radio Shack catalog as a kid. I remember the catalog "fell open" to the page with the DX160! Of course my budget as a kid was mostly of the P-Box variety.

<< RADIO SHACK CATALOG >>

 

[trentbob]

Yep we didn't have the internet. The only way we kept up with new radios and reviews of radios was our magazines and newsletters of which there were many. Love to this day looking at the Lafayette and RadioShack catalogs not to mention a few other brands. If you wanted to go check a radio out we had numerous local vendors with brick-and-mortar stores. Where else could we get our crystals from LOL.

For frequency lists I started with crb research in Commack New York, I was actually friendly with Tom Knitel. And we had Gene Hughes and police call before RadioShack got involved with it. Joe Cardanti had great frequency listings also.

CQ, Bob Groves monitoring times and pop com were faithfully read every month.

It was another time, a simpler time, I actually enjoyed the hobby more then than I do now, it was also for my work as a newspaperman. I miss those days.

 

[SteveSimpkin]

When I was growing up in the 70s, I had subscribed to Radio Electronics, Popular Electronics and Elementary Electronics magazines. I also probably every Radio Shack catalog from 1974 to the mid 80s as well. I kept all of them at the time and looked back at them often. I miss those times.

 

[VK3RX]

I subscribed to Popular Comms and MT, even though the frequency listings were naturally predominately U.S. The ads, reviews and articles were always of interest. Still got some copies of articles here now.

Ditto getting the Lafayette catalogs also - I even bought some stuff because at the time we had an Australia-based distributor for their products.

I also bought some things from CRB Research too, one of which was a tape of Vietnam military comms.

The Spectrum Monitor I now subscribe to is a great read.

 

[K4EET]

When I was growing up in the 70s, I had subscribed to Radio Electronics, Popular Electronics and Elementary Electronics magazines. I also probably every Radio Shack catalog from 1974 to the mid 80s as well. I kept all of them at the time and looked back at them often. I miss those times.

Sniff... Those were the good old days! And if you were into building electronic things in the 70s, there was Heathkit!

 

[SteveSimpkin]

View attachment 109829

Here are the complete issues of Monitoring Times magazine online from 1982 to 2013.

MONITORING TIMES: DX SWL and Utilities hobbyist maghazine

Monitoring Times was a monthly printed magazine based in the United States covering shortwave listening and DXing, scanners, mediumwave broadcasting as well as utility stations, pirates and clandestines.It ceased publication in 2013 after 31 years of publication beginning in 1982

worldradiohistory.com

 

[CrabbyMilton]

They were fun and interesting publications. They would often spark aspects of scanning that I had not thought of.
But now when you can look up just about anything on the internet, there's really no reason for those anymore.

 

[RichardKramer]

When I lived at home I had a corner of the room where I stacked my MT & Popcomm mags. I still have my CRB freq lists for PA/MD; as well as some Police Call books, and I have the Professional Monitor Certificate from CRB; my call was KPA3CI.

 

[PACNWDude]

Subscribed to many radio magazines. However, in 2021 I just can't bring myself to spend the kind of money that CQ magazine wants. Monitoring times was awesome, and I always wanted it to be twice as thick and comprehensive than it ever was. Being military, it was also amazing how much was being monitored by the public. I even learned about some of the compartmentalized info from the magazine.

As others mentioned, Bob Grove was great too. I bought a Pro-2006 scanner, then a second to modify based on books, magazine articles and information on electronic bulletin boards. Wish MT was still being published, it was one of the better ones. Gave up on Scanning USA when it began to inject politics instead of technical info.

 

[Omega-TI]

The Spectrum Monitor I now subscribe to is a great read.

That interested me, so I looked it up and found it's in downloadable PDF format. I'm surprised though that they don't have a sample issue, that usually get more people hooked once they can see an example, sort of like in the old days when you could browse them on the rack at the grocery store and find a new favorite to subscribe to.

 

[Omega-TI]

They were fun and interesting publications. They would often spark aspects of scanning that I had not thought of.
But now when you can look up just about anything on the internet, there's really no reason for those anymore.

... but when you got a magazine there were little morsels of goodness sandwiched between those pages that you may not have heard about, thought about, or even considered before. In a sense magazines could broaden your horizons after seeing a particular topic issue after issue.

 

[gmclam]

Let's see ... paper magazines or Internet .... hmmm. I can say I miss the printed matter, but love what we get on the Internet including sites like Radio Reference.

 

[jaspence]

Still have a few S9 magazines from my teen years of learning how to make money into fun. Much more convenient to sit outside on a nice day than a computer. If you dozed off, the noise of the magazine slipping off your lap wouldn't wake you up like dropping the laptop.

 

[weathermedic]

Miss MT and Pop Com magazines