I know many of us are used to paper mags etc…I was trying to make a transition to my Ipad, but as an example, QST and related ones are available now at significant extra cost in paper which I will not pay, but this is the third month I have forgotten to go on line to try and read. It’s too much work to download and keep organized. And the frightening thing is, I don’t really miss them! I now pick and read individual articles about specific topics online but no mags.
Scanner Tales: The Magazines
- Thread starter N9JIG
- Start date
I was a faithful subscriber to PopCom for many years. Not always the best journalism, but certainly (for me) the most interesting. I also read MT if there was something of interest. Like other oldsters here, I enjoyed monthly visits to the radio stores to browse the magazines and see what was new in electronics.
Police Call (mainly the SoCal detail edition) was invaluable to me as a news photographer, although Gene's "UXX" listings for FBI, USS (Secret Service) and other three letter government agencies got childishly tiresome after awhile.
Tom Kneitel's writings and publications filled in a lot of Gene's "UXX" gaps, especially the Top Secret Registry of US Government Frequencies. I still have a couple of copies that I use for reference occasionally.
There was another author/publisher, whose name escapes me at the moment, who published thick, computer printout books of California frequency guides in the 1980's or '90's. I think I still have a couple of them in the file cabinet.
The internet has removed a lot of the mystery and intrigue that was once a part of the scanner scene for better or worse. Conversely, agencies has adapted by going BIG E or adopting technologies like LTE.
Police Call (mainly the SoCal detail edition) was invaluable to me as a news photographer, although Gene's "UXX" listings for FBI, USS (Secret Service) and other three letter government agencies got childishly tiresome after awhile.
Tom Kneitel's writings and publications filled in a lot of Gene's "UXX" gaps, especially the Top Secret Registry of US Government Frequencies. I still have a couple of copies that I use for reference occasionally.
There was another author/publisher, whose name escapes me at the moment, who published thick, computer printout books of California frequency guides in the 1980's or '90's. I think I still have a couple of them in the file cabinet.
The internet has removed a lot of the mystery and intrigue that was once a part of the scanner scene for better or worse. Conversely, agencies has adapted by going BIG E or adopting technologies like LTE.
Yeah, I really miss all those old magazines, Radio & Electronics, Popular Communications, Monitoring Times. The world was not so fast paced, you could anticipate the magazine arriving in the mail with all those neat informative articles, advertisements and believable reviews, and all without "personalities".
Now days The Spectrum Monitor is the only thing of value I can find. It has one major drawback though...
... still it's a great magazine, and is a suitable replacement for Monitoring Times in my book. Even though it's in PDF only format, it's enabled them to keep the cost down and in the final analysis it is about the content.
If you're interested, buy the last four months of the year individually, then subscribe in January.
Where else are you going to get such a great e-magazine for $3.00 an individual copy in this day and age?
Now days The Spectrum Monitor is the only thing of value I can find. It has one major drawback though...
... still it's a great magazine, and is a suitable replacement for Monitoring Times in my book. Even though it's in PDF only format, it's enabled them to keep the cost down and in the final analysis it is about the content.
If you're interested, buy the last four months of the year individually, then subscribe in January.
Where else are you going to get such a great e-magazine for $3.00 an individual copy in this day and age?
NYAirOne
Member
A local radio store always had MT and Pop Comm. Used to go there every month to pick them up and look around in the store. They also published their own freq book too with local information. Got to know the one guy there from going in all the time. He introduced me to the Milair band. Our local military base had fighters at that time and they used to train at least twice a day. He gave me some freqs to check out to hear them and i was hooked after that. We would trade info every time i went in the store. He also made up a local milair freq book and gave me a copy when it came out. I have been listening to milair for probably 30+ years now. The store is long gone now and i tired to look up the guy to see if he was maybe on facebook, but i heard from a local radio guy that he had passed away. Spent alot of time in the store and chatting with him. I miss having paper magazines to read. I used to get 5 car magazines, out of all of them the only one left in paper is Hot Rod magazine. Now it only comes out 4 times a year. I like to sit down with a actual magazine like at work when i eat my lunch and read through it. I stare at a computer most of the day at work, so i like the break to read paper. I still get 2 gun magazines and i also get Trains magazine in the mail. Im sure its just a matter of time before everything goes to digital only.
jaymatt1978
Member
As a write I got my big break with ScanningUSA when Ed Muro gave me an opportunity to introduce myself in his column. It was my first time writing and I was horrible a t editing my own work, it's still hard. It was nerve racking but the reward was seeing my name in pr int! I then contributed a few more articles, including one on the communications during 9/11 which was the first time I ever monitored military aircraft. I had a ball writing. I then expanded my resume to include Scanner Digest where I had a bi-monthly column, unfortunately I didn't have enough material to keep the column going. I also wrote an article for the ARRL website which came down when they redesigned their website. Great memories
I miss Pop Comm.
I liked Popular Communications as they often had a Military Band monitoring section, and sometimes articles about odd radio intercepts. Being in the military at the time, it would often give me a larger picture of the compartmentalized projects and operations I was part of.
Always interesting to find out the "real" story after the fact. Or, find out what the public thought was going on from the radio traffic that could, and sometimes could not be heard (early 1990's before almost everything went encrypted, or P25 Phase II in 2012).
The Pro-2006 and later Pro-2042 with OS-535 board came in very handy in those days. Popular Communications is how I found out about that Optronics OS-535 board initially.
Always interesting to find out the "real" story after the fact. Or, find out what the public thought was going on from the radio traffic that could, and sometimes could not be heard (early 1990's before almost everything went encrypted, or P25 Phase II in 2012).
The Pro-2006 and later Pro-2042 with OS-535 board came in very handy in those days. Popular Communications is how I found out about that Optronics OS-535 board initially.
Similar experience. I discovered PopComm in Korea, at Stars & Stripes Newsstand, or whatever it was called, at the main PX on Yongsan. I can't remember when I subscribed, but I think it was after I got to my next duty station, in Hawaii, and had trouble finding issues.
KCA6YU
King Charles Adam 6 Young Union
My fav was PopComm. Had a subscription for years. Also had 2 pics of my radios published in the mag back in 1992 and 93. Miss the radio magazines.
IC-R20
LoBand Nation
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2018
- Messages
- 512
I miss the forum. It was a great place for GMRS discussion and probably the only serious place. After it fell I remember there was a facebook group made for former forum users. No idea if it's still there or not, I stopped using using a lot of junk sites after 2017.
jmp883
Member
I was a subscriber to both Monitoring Times and Pop Comm. I miss them both and wished I had saved them. I did scan various articles to hard drive as I was getting rid of the print versions, I just need to find the drive they are on (really need to label my hard drives!). I also enjoyed the radio magazine that Radio Shack put out for a brief period in the late '80s'-early '90's.
You can download all the past issues of PopCom at:
Monitoring Times Is at:
They download as PDF's. I have downloaded the complete set of PopCom and MT to my iPad and can read them anytime and anywhere!
POPULAR COMMUNICATIONS: DX SWL and Utilities hobbyist maghazine
Popular Communications was a magazine with content relating to the radio hobby, including scanners, shortwave radio, CB, amateur radio, AM and FM broadcast band listening, radio history, and vintage radio restoration. The magazine existed between 1982 and 2013
www.worldradiohistory.com
Monitoring Times Is at:
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
www.worldradiohistory.com
They download as PDF's. I have downloaded the complete set of PopCom and MT to my iPad and can read them anytime and anywhere!
JDKelley
Just call me "Sparks." Or "Lucky."
That was a book, tho, wasn't it? Ran about a half-inch thick, I want to recall...
I had subs to PopComm and Radio-Electronics as a kid. Greatly enjoyed 'em both! Had to save up for my Uniden, which took me a bit (since, in my old man's mind, "family don't get paid." I had to seek alternate income, as and when available.)
N4GKS
Member
Is Bob still among the living?
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2002
- Messages
- 2,417
I have not seen anything from him in a couple years but has not published much radio things in recent years. No obituary has appeared. He would be 86.
The January 2025 issue of The Spectrum Monitor is out if anyone is interested. It's 101 pagese of goodness.
January 2025 TSM
January 2025 TSM
'Operation Snowcap' was DoD, DoJ, and USBP BorTac / DEA's anti-drug effort in South America, specifically Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala, and five other Latin American nations. There were a lot of assets thrown at the effort such as aviation, law enforcement, intelligence, naval ships and watercraft, diplomatic, economic, and propaganda efforts.
When I was at DEA, we had HF SSB transceivers in briefcases and a very high end transceiver [it may have been a Watkins-Johnson] at the F/D office that was monitored about 14 hours each day for the HF Net. Some firefights were captured in real time and enforcement groups would often rush to radio to listen in. We had several S/As assigned and rumour had it that if you were young, single, and ambitious - you were on a list to attend Ranger school and SF classes prior to reassignment.
At the end of 1990, over 53 tons of cocaine and 3/4 of a million precursor chemical had been intercepted and destroyed according to a DoJ briefing I got; but it had a unintended consequence of moving the trade from S.A. to Mexico thanks to the pressures and thanks to the profits that Norteno cartels made from meth production for the SoCal markets.
I bought an Icom R-71A just to hear the action from home.
I miss the printed mags as I could monitor things that weren't often openly discussed by classic media of the era.
When I was at DEA, we had HF SSB transceivers in briefcases and a very high end transceiver [it may have been a Watkins-Johnson] at the F/D office that was monitored about 14 hours each day for the HF Net. Some firefights were captured in real time and enforcement groups would often rush to radio to listen in. We had several S/As assigned and rumour had it that if you were young, single, and ambitious - you were on a list to attend Ranger school and SF classes prior to reassignment.
At the end of 1990, over 53 tons of cocaine and 3/4 of a million precursor chemical had been intercepted and destroyed according to a DoJ briefing I got; but it had a unintended consequence of moving the trade from S.A. to Mexico thanks to the pressures and thanks to the profits that Norteno cartels made from meth production for the SoCal markets.
I bought an Icom R-71A just to hear the action from home.
I miss the printed mags as I could monitor things that weren't often openly discussed by classic media of the era.
