Pop’Comm’s corpus is a goner

9 Jan

Well, as many of you know, Popular Communications magazine ceased publication toward the end of 2013 and a digital format for the magazine has existed sporadically since then in a CQ Amateur Radio magazine supplement online. While we hate to see a competitor die (trust me, competition is a good thing and always makes you want to be better), the online supplement never was anything like the original Pop’Comm ever was. Information below tells about CQ’s decision to now eliminate the CQ Plus supplement that contained some of the articles that Pop’Comm used to carry for radio hobbyists.

While Pop’Comm in all forms officially is toast after March, and we hate seeing it go (yours truly, National Communications’ editor, is a long-time columnist for Pop’Comm and even was its editor at one time), CQ’s woes don’t allow the publication to remain in any form or shape that it ever was. It’s an appropriate death for Pop’Comm’s corpus.

RIP Pop’Comm.

Feel free to let your friends and fellow radio hobbyists know that NatCom still is here to serve our readers and will continue to provide the CB, scanning and two-way radio articles of interest to radio hobbyists now that we’ve lost even yet another venue for the information. Read more about NatCom at http://www.nat-com.org.

Information posted by CQ:

CQ magazine has announced that it will publish a combined January/February 2015 issue and cease publication of its CQ Plus digital supplement as of the March 2015 issue. Publisher Dick Ross, K2MGA, said that both moves are intended to help restore the magazine’s normal schedule for its print edition and to strengthen its foundations moving forward as it enters its 8th decade of publication.

“These decisions were not made lightly,” Ross added, “but in recognition of the realities of the publishing industry. It’s a tough time to be in the magazine business, and we appreciate the patience and loyalty of both our readers and our advertisers.”

CQ announced last February that it was incorporating content from the magazine’s three sister publications — Popular Communications, CQ VHF and WorldRadio Online —into CQ Plus. The publisher also phased out the print editions of Popular Communications and CQ VHF and said WorldRadio Online would no longer exist as a separate online publication.

CQ will continue to publish both print and digital editions, but the digital edition will no longer contain the 50-60 additional pages each month that constituted CQ Plus. Editor Rich Moseson, W2VU, has said he hopes to include some CQ Pluscontent within the pages of CQ, but added that ham radio will remain the magazine’s primary focus. CQ marks its 70th publication anniversary with its January/February issue.

The magazine also announced that, “as a consequence of the changes,” CQ PlusEditor Richard Fisher, KI6SN, will be leaving the CQ staff after serving for many years as a columnist for — and then as editor of — Popular Communications,WorldRadio Online, and CQ Plus. He was also CQ magazine’s emergency communications editor.

Due to the combined January/February issue, CQ will extend by 1 month all print and digital edition subscriptions to CQ.

Goodbye, Pop’Comm

24 Dec

Not exactly the Christmas present some of my fellow radio hobbyists would like, but it now seems that beginning next year, there no longer will be a hobby radio magazine in print.

The magazine I have written for since 1996, National Communications Magazine, converted from print to digital (PDF) at the beginning of this year. Before the year went out, Monitoring Times magazine folded as its long-time publisher, Bob Grove, decided to retire. A successor magazine, The Spectrum Monitor, staffed primarily by former writers for Monitoring Times, launched its first issue a few days ago and is digital (PDF) only.

Now comes word that Popular Communications Magazine basically is being killed off and being blended into CQ Amateur Radio Magazine — kind of. Pop’Comm subscribers will receive issues of CQ in the mail beginning with the February issue and will receive access to a new digital publication called CQ Plus that will contain content from not only Pop’Comm, but also CQ VHF and World Radio Online. The latter three publications are being blended into the digital supplement to CQ and effectively are dead.

I was a columnist for Pop’Comm from 1982-1996 and also did some feature articles for the magazine in the past few years (until they got too far behind on payments to me). I also served as the magazine’s editor from 1995-1996. The magazine just celebrated its 30th anniversary, but it is no more.

I haven’t gotten too crazy about PDF publications. I never remember to download them or I don’t take the time. It’s not like them coming in the mail. I’m going to have to figure this out! Apparently the December issue of Pop’Comm has not been delivered to subscribers yet, and my guess is there are money problems in Hicksville (N.Y., where the magazines are based). Actually, as I look through my stack here, the last issue I received was in October. 😦 Something is terribly wrong.

I have every issue of Pop’Comm and Monitoring Times (which I also wrote articles for over the years) printed, for whatever it’s worth. They’re dinosaurs in the digital juncle now.

In addition to my QCWA (Quarter-Centurty Wireless Association) membership, which also went from print to digital for its publication, and my life membership in the American Radio Relay League, which at least still prints its QST magazine, but also can be downloaded in digital form, I need to learn to read PDFs and not magazines. I think the industry will evolve further at some point to paywalls and web-based publications that are updated on the fly, and I probably would be more responsive to that type of a “publication,” per se.

Anyway, here’s a link on the discussion on the conversion of Pop’Comm to digital: http://forums.radioreference.com/amateur-radio-general-discussion/280552-cq-magazine-realignment-coming-feb-2014-a.html

And here’s the table of contents to the new blended CQ Plus digital publication that will debut in February: http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/cq_highlights/2014_cq/2014_02_cq/2014_02_cq_tof.html

I’d be curious as to your thoughts and comments on this change. It’s huge. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, my fellow radioaficionados. 73 de N2DUP

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‘Twas the Flight Before Christmas

24 Dec

hamsanta

I wrote this back in perhaps 2002 or 2003 and read it at one of the Rochester (MN) Amateur Radio Club’s holiday parties. I’ve lost it on my computer over the years, but thankfully, the Brainerd, Minn., club has immortalized it on their website, hi hi. Happy holidays to all my fellow radioaficionados.

 

 
A Ham’s Midwinter’s Night Scene
– or –
‘Twas the Flight Before Christmas

Written by Chuck Gysi, N2DUP, with extreme apologies to Major Henry Livingston Jr. (1748-1828) (previously believed to be by Clement Clarke Moore)

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the shack
Not a radio was on — anywhere on the rack;
The antennas were tuned by the op with care,
In hopes that DX soon would be there;

The harmonics were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of tropical isles danced in the op’s head;
And mamma with her logging pen, and I in my call-sign cap,
Just settled in for contesting after a short nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the shack to see what was the matter.
Away to the antenna farm I flew like a flash,
It looked like a scene right from TV’s “M*A*S*H.”

The moon on the breast of the slick coating of ice
Gave the appearance of what didn’t seem too nice,
When, what to my wondering ears should appear,
But the delightful sounds of DX, almost too near,

With a quick fix to the downed long wire,
I got back to the shack; but had a quagmire;
More rapid than pileups, the call signs came,
But the out-of-turn DXers called; much of the same;

“Now, second call district only, now third,” the DX station called;
“How about Europe only; now South America,” he apparently stalled.
To the top of the log, to the top of the pile,
Stations made it through the hash – with a flick of the dial.

Along the ladder line, the signals did fly,
When they met the inverted vee, they flew to the sky,
So up to the 20-meter band I tuned the dial,
Looking for DX and contesters to add to my log file.

And then, in a tweak, I heard the call –
The prefix didn’t match any I’ve ever heard.
As my XYL scribbled the call in the log – NP0LE,
We knew right away who this matched to a T.

He said he was air mobile, and he signed slant V02
His voice seemed to indicate he was in a hurry, too;
A bundle of toys he said he had in his sack,
Including some called Icom and Kenwood – with a power pack.

His signal increased as we chatted away,
The distance was lessening, not to our dismay.
As we exchanged our 5-9s as the morning neared,
He said those words that we had feared.

It was time to shut down; turn off the amp,
Finishing logging and turn out the shack’s lamp;
For soon in our town, a visitor would arrive,
And we were still too awake and alive.

We hurried out of the shack, flew up the stairs,
Headed straight to bed without any cares,
We knew the time was drawing quite near,
That some new toys would arrive – and we left him a beer.

On the scanner that sits right next to our bed,
“I’m entering RST’s air space,” we heard as he said;
It was time to fall asleep; think of the packages we would find,
But as I laid there, I couldn’t get it out of my mind …

I needed his QSL card, the one for aero mobile,
I’m sure this op’s card would be anything but dull.
And I heard as I started to drift into a daze,
“Good DX to all and to all Happy Holidays.”

Copyright 2002 and 2013 by SCAN Communications Co..
Permission granted for non-profit print or electronic reproduction only as long as this copyright notice is replicated word for word. Author’s e-mail is N2DUP@arrl.net

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Scanning, CBs and speed

8 Sep

ImageI’ve got three articles in the September-October 2013 issue of National Communications magazine. The cover piece that I wrote is on how cities are using red-light and speed cameras to control traffic and make money, and my photos, including the cover shot, were taken in Davenport, Iowa. My two other articles are about autumn scanner listening and CB microphones and accessories. With this issue of the magazine, I mark 17 years as a contributing writer with the publication. 

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Traveling with a scanner

24 Jun

A TSA screener watches over airport passengers.

Do you like to travel with a scanner?

I almost never travel without a scanner. Typically, I carry along a GRE PSR-500 handheld or RadioShack Pro-197 mobile/base radio.

The handheld is good for mobile use or when I am sitting at an airport. It also allows me to do some on-site monitoring, such as I did when listening to crews aboard the cruiseships in port when we were visiting Caribbean islands.

The mobile/base scanner I typically use in locales I visit frequently and perhaps have the ability to put up a yagi or other antenna to get increased reception. I might have the handheld scanner going on the local channels while I use the base scanner for sniffing out new frequencies, talkgroups and radio systems at the same time.

I often see scanner hobbyists post on listservs and bulletin boards concerns about carrying their scanner aboard airplanes and past TSA security. My simple advice is it isn’t an issue. I’ve carried mobile and handheld scanners aboard aircraft and although my carry-ons might get some additional scrutiny by the TSA screeners because of the bulk of electronics I am carrying, nonetheless, I have not experienced any problems. The only experience I have had came pre-9/11 and I was required to turn on a radio (I can’t remember whether it was a scanner or amateur handheld radio) just to prove it was functional.

I would advise that you keep your batteries on you with your radio in case security wants to check to see that your radio is functional, however, with the screening equipment available now, they most likely can see inside the radio to ensure you aren’t up to any monkeybusiness on the plane.

Oh, and don’t turn on your scanner on the plane. It just isn’t allowed and you might even get in trouble. However, while you are waiting to board  your plane, feel free to listen all you wish — with headphones or an earphone so you don’t annoy others around you and don’t raise any suspicions. My goal while waiting always it to find the frequency used by the gate agents so I know a few minutes in advance when the plane will be boarding. I pack up and I’m ready to go — while everyone else is scrambling!

Summer monitoring and some of the most unusual CB radios

18 Jun

July-August 2011 National Communications magazine coverI have a couple of features in the July-August issue of National Communications magazine … including the cover piece on summer monitoring targets — or fun things to listen to on your scanner during the warmer months — and a feature that looks back at some of the most unusual CB radios ever made over the past 40 years. More info at http://www.nat-com.org

 

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National parks feature

31 May
June 2011 Popular Communications

June 2011 Popular Communications

The June 2011 issue of Popular Communications magazine carries my eight-page feature on scanning our national parks. There are plenty of photos from my journeys across the country to many of our beautiful national parks and there is a great list of frequencies — many from my own personal monitoring — that is included in the feature. You’ll find plenty to listen to with my tips the next time you visit a national park.

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My review of the Wouxun KG-UVD1P dual-band handheld

26 Apr

May 2011 Popular Communications

The May 2011 issue of Popular Communications includes my review of the versatile imported Wouxun KG-UVD1P handheld dual-band VHF-UHF radio.

This versatile radio can operate in the amateur bands as well as commercial and public safety channels covered under FCC Part 90.

Check out the review if you’re looking for an inexpensive handheld radio that works! The magazine’s website is http://www.popular-communications.com.

CB and scanning columns in the next issue of Nat-Com

16 Apr

The cover of the May-June 2011 issue of National Communications magazine.

For those who subscribe to the PDF of mailed versions of National Communications magazine, I’ll have two articles in there for the May-June 2011 issue. The first poses the question whether it’s a good thing that there are fewer CBers on the air these days. The second article takes a look at the top 10 most unusual scanning frequencies I have come across over the past few decades of monitoring. Magazine details at http://www.nat-com.org.

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A frequency worth monitoring

5 Apr

There is one frequency that is worth having in your scanner. 151.625 is an itinerant business frequency that can be used by business users for up to a year in any one location. Many businesses that are here today, gone tomorrow will use a frequency like this so as to not cause problem on regular radio frequencies used by other local users.

You will find a variety of users on 151.625 as you move about. You might hear a circus setting up in town on this channel. You could hear rail track cleaning crews on the channel. You also might here farmers or others using the frequency for chit-chat.

Keep it in your scanner and you might here something new — perhaps someone passing through your community.

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