As an old guy I still remember getting monthly magazines printed on real paper every month. Some of these were special and anxiously awaited. Monitoring Times, the RCMA Scanner Journal and Popular Communications were the “Big 3” in the scanner community. There have been and are still some others but for better or worse these were the biggest by far. Of course, all three are long gone now.
My personal favorite was The Scanner Journal published by the Radio Communications Monitoring Association (RCMA). This was what RadioReference is today, but in a paper format. Every month there was a magazine printed and mailed to your home, chock full of frequencies and information gathered by the best volunteers in the hobby. I joined and subscribed in the early 1980’s and was able to obtain back issues for many years before that. RCMA was started in the mid 1970’s in southern California. In the mid 80’s I was invited to a meeting of the Chicago Chapter of the RCMA by a friend and was hooked instantly. I became IL-370 when I joined RCMA and often submitted info for many of the Midwest states.
The Journal that RCMA published was a small format (5x7 or 6x9 inch) but later it grew to a standard 8.5x11 inch format. When it folded in 1996 remaining memberships were transferred to Popular Communications who had purchased the mailing list. At the time I had a complete collection of RCMA Journals that I wish I still had. As far as I know there has not been an organized effort to digitize the RCMA Journal but if you know of a source, please let us know!
Here in the Chicago area we had to rename our Chicago Chapter due to instructions from RCMA in California. Apparently, they were afraid of liability issues if a remote chapter did something wrong. We renamed ourselves to the Chicago Area Radio Monitoring Association (CARMA) and for several years produced our own newsletter. I was the editor of this newsletter throughout much of its existence and still have copies of the complete set electronically and on paper. CARMA still exists with an email list, Facebook page and occasional meetings.
After the RCMA Journal, my next favorite was Monitoring Times. This was originally published in 1982 with 8 pages and lasted thru 2014. During those 30 years or so it was a great source of information about scanners, shortwave, broadcasting and other radio related topics along with some off-topic stuff humorously tossed in. Bob Grove was the editor the entire time and it was a byproduct of his Grove Enterprises business selling radios and accessories. It was always informative and if one of my friends got his copy before I did, I would often go and read it as I couldn’t wait to get it. I was lucky enough to get published there a few times including a feature article or two. I was bummed when Bob Grove retired and shut down the magazine but as soon as he did Ken Reitz and others came forward and started The Spectrum Monitor with a similar feel and quality.
When the RCMA quit operations, they sold the mailing list to Popular Communications. PopComm, as it was known, was a product of its publisher, Tom Knietel. It was part of the CQ Magazine family. Tom wrote the editorials, some of which actually made sense, and wrote many of the articles and columns under his own name and several others (Alice Branigan, Shannon Hunniwell among others). Later Harold Ort took over as editor and the tone of the magazine became more geared towards general consumer products rather than the radio hobbyists. It was a far less serious publication than MT was, the “reviews” tended to be more of a shill to the advertisers, often an ad for the product would appear next to the “review”.
Tom Kneitel had other schemes going during the PopComm years. One of the most notorious was the “Registered Monitor” certificates he sold with derived “callsigns”. While meaningless, they were a cash cow, and I knew several people who spent good money for a certificate to hand in their office. All-in-all though it was meant to be an entertainment thing rather than anything serious.
PopComm started in 1982, the same year as MT and lasted thru 2013. Some of the content was incorporated into a web-based operation called CQ Plus, which only lasted a short while itself. CQ lasted a while longer, albeit sporadically, until about 2023.
I had a couple bylines in PopComm over the years and enjoyed reading it. It was more entertainment rather than an information source but fun to read.
National Communications is actually still around. Chuck Gysi still produces it, albeit in electronic form only. They ended print publishing in 2012 and last year converted to an article based subscription format. Check them out at National Communications Magazine | Chuck Gysi | N2DUP | Substack
The Spectrum Monitor is a great publication that produces a monthly magazine in electronic (PDF) format that contains a boatload of scanning info by many of the same writers that wrote for MT in the past. I have been a subscriber of TSM since day one and read it from (virtual) cover to cover each month. They have been around since 2014, right after MT left the building. Check them out at www.thesepctrummonitor.com
A couple others were around for a while. Scanning USA lasted a few years. While light on content it made up for it in big fonts and data dumps to fill up the pages.
The Scanner Digest, published by Lou Campagna, seems to have been abandoned since 2015. This was an informative newsletter in electronic form geared mostly to the Northeast. At some point the All-Ohio Scanner Club’s newsletter was merged in the Scanner Digest, AOSC itself had a great newsletter for many years.
I am sure I am missing some others. Incidentally if you go to WorldRadioHistory: Radio Music Electronics Publications ALL FREE you can download many of the magazines I spoke of here and hundreds of other titles. This is an amazing resource for magazines having to do with many facets of the radio hobby.
While paper magazines are only a small fraction of what they once were there are still some still making a go of it. Like printed books however electronic distribution has been making huge inroads. This is true for all kinds of specialty magazines, I get “Trains” magazine as a PDF every month instead of paper. The difference now is that you need to keep an iPad in the bathroom in order to read your favorite magazine.
My personal favorite was The Scanner Journal published by the Radio Communications Monitoring Association (RCMA). This was what RadioReference is today, but in a paper format. Every month there was a magazine printed and mailed to your home, chock full of frequencies and information gathered by the best volunteers in the hobby. I joined and subscribed in the early 1980’s and was able to obtain back issues for many years before that. RCMA was started in the mid 1970’s in southern California. In the mid 80’s I was invited to a meeting of the Chicago Chapter of the RCMA by a friend and was hooked instantly. I became IL-370 when I joined RCMA and often submitted info for many of the Midwest states.
The Journal that RCMA published was a small format (5x7 or 6x9 inch) but later it grew to a standard 8.5x11 inch format. When it folded in 1996 remaining memberships were transferred to Popular Communications who had purchased the mailing list. At the time I had a complete collection of RCMA Journals that I wish I still had. As far as I know there has not been an organized effort to digitize the RCMA Journal but if you know of a source, please let us know!
Here in the Chicago area we had to rename our Chicago Chapter due to instructions from RCMA in California. Apparently, they were afraid of liability issues if a remote chapter did something wrong. We renamed ourselves to the Chicago Area Radio Monitoring Association (CARMA) and for several years produced our own newsletter. I was the editor of this newsletter throughout much of its existence and still have copies of the complete set electronically and on paper. CARMA still exists with an email list, Facebook page and occasional meetings.
After the RCMA Journal, my next favorite was Monitoring Times. This was originally published in 1982 with 8 pages and lasted thru 2014. During those 30 years or so it was a great source of information about scanners, shortwave, broadcasting and other radio related topics along with some off-topic stuff humorously tossed in. Bob Grove was the editor the entire time and it was a byproduct of his Grove Enterprises business selling radios and accessories. It was always informative and if one of my friends got his copy before I did, I would often go and read it as I couldn’t wait to get it. I was lucky enough to get published there a few times including a feature article or two. I was bummed when Bob Grove retired and shut down the magazine but as soon as he did Ken Reitz and others came forward and started The Spectrum Monitor with a similar feel and quality.
When the RCMA quit operations, they sold the mailing list to Popular Communications. PopComm, as it was known, was a product of its publisher, Tom Knietel. It was part of the CQ Magazine family. Tom wrote the editorials, some of which actually made sense, and wrote many of the articles and columns under his own name and several others (Alice Branigan, Shannon Hunniwell among others). Later Harold Ort took over as editor and the tone of the magazine became more geared towards general consumer products rather than the radio hobbyists. It was a far less serious publication than MT was, the “reviews” tended to be more of a shill to the advertisers, often an ad for the product would appear next to the “review”.
Tom Kneitel had other schemes going during the PopComm years. One of the most notorious was the “Registered Monitor” certificates he sold with derived “callsigns”. While meaningless, they were a cash cow, and I knew several people who spent good money for a certificate to hand in their office. All-in-all though it was meant to be an entertainment thing rather than anything serious.
PopComm started in 1982, the same year as MT and lasted thru 2013. Some of the content was incorporated into a web-based operation called CQ Plus, which only lasted a short while itself. CQ lasted a while longer, albeit sporadically, until about 2023.
I had a couple bylines in PopComm over the years and enjoyed reading it. It was more entertainment rather than an information source but fun to read.
National Communications is actually still around. Chuck Gysi still produces it, albeit in electronic form only. They ended print publishing in 2012 and last year converted to an article based subscription format. Check them out at National Communications Magazine | Chuck Gysi | N2DUP | Substack
The Spectrum Monitor is a great publication that produces a monthly magazine in electronic (PDF) format that contains a boatload of scanning info by many of the same writers that wrote for MT in the past. I have been a subscriber of TSM since day one and read it from (virtual) cover to cover each month. They have been around since 2014, right after MT left the building. Check them out at www.thesepctrummonitor.com
A couple others were around for a while. Scanning USA lasted a few years. While light on content it made up for it in big fonts and data dumps to fill up the pages.
The Scanner Digest, published by Lou Campagna, seems to have been abandoned since 2015. This was an informative newsletter in electronic form geared mostly to the Northeast. At some point the All-Ohio Scanner Club’s newsletter was merged in the Scanner Digest, AOSC itself had a great newsletter for many years.
I am sure I am missing some others. Incidentally if you go to WorldRadioHistory: Radio Music Electronics Publications ALL FREE you can download many of the magazines I spoke of here and hundreds of other titles. This is an amazing resource for magazines having to do with many facets of the radio hobby.
While paper magazines are only a small fraction of what they once were there are still some still making a go of it. Like printed books however electronic distribution has been making huge inroads. This is true for all kinds of specialty magazines, I get “Trains” magazine as a PDF every month instead of paper. The difference now is that you need to keep an iPad in the bathroom in order to read your favorite magazine.
