The “Russian Woodpecker” HF demon
of the 1970s – 80s
By John Piliounis
What was known throughout the amateur
radio and shortwave listening worlds of the 1970s and ‘80s as the Russian
“Woodpecker,” was actually the sound made by a massive Over-the-Horizon Radar
installation designed to detect missiles during the Cold War. We look at the
installation then and now.
Over-the-Horizon Radar Today
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
Over-the-Horizon Radar is not a thing of
the past. In fact, there are more such
installations now than ever. While they don’t pack the punch of the Russian
Woodpecker, they can show up anywhere on the bands at anytime. Here’s how they
operate.
Boys’ Life Radio Club: The biggest SWL Club of the ’50s Nobody’s Heard
Of
BY Richard Fisher KI6SN
Remember the Boys’ Life Radio Club of the
1950s? It was one of the biggest SWL organizations of the 1950s that nobody’s
heard of. Richard talks to members of the club and finds out how that helped
them early in their careers.
The Junior Radio Guild
By Jerry Berg
Intrigued by a small pin that he found, labeled “Junior Radio Guild,”
Jerry discovered the origins of a radio building club for boys that predated
the Boys’ Life Radio Club by more than twenty years and encouraged boys to join
the radio business.
Putting My Handheld Antennas to
the Test
By Robert Gulley AK3Q
Have you ever wondered how your hand-held
amateur transceiver, scanner or marine radio antenna works compared to
after-market add-ons? Using his MFJ-269C antenna analyzer, Robert set out to
find which worked best.
TSM Reviews: World Radio TV Handbook
By Gayle Van Horn W4GVH
The venerable World Radio TV Handbook is
its 71st edition. Veteran shortwave author, Gayle Van Horn, reviews
this classic shortwave reference.
Computers and Ham Radio – Part 001
By Cory GB Sickles WA3UVV
This month we start a new series about the
evolution of the personal computer and its effect on amateur radio. Cory
explores the earliest efforts, their components and how it changed the radio
hobby forever.
Big Dish Movers:
Horizon-to-Horizon Actuators
By Mike Kohl
Horizon-to-horizon actuator motors could
drive big C-band dishes from one horizon to the other, covering 180 degrees of
arc. Mike takes a look at the predecessor to the small-dish HH actuator.
Scanning America
By Dan Veenaman
TETRA,
LTR and two New York, Texas Counties
Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
Scanning
Los Angeles
Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman NV6H
FEMA
Planning Exercises with Hams and Others for 2017
HF Utility Logs
By Mike Chace-Ortiz and Hugh
Stegman
Digitally Speaking
By Cory Sickles WA3UVV
Looking
out over the Horizon
VHF and Above
By Joe Lynch N6CL
The Find
Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
Big Sammy’s Bulging Caps and the
Fickle Flicker of Hope
Radio 101
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
How
to Prepare for the FCC’s Repacking of the US TV Bands
Radio Propagation
By Tomas Hood NW7UST
Storm-Triggering Holes
The World of Shortwave Listening
By Andrew Yoder
SW DX Contest, SWLFest and Global HF
Weekend
The Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
Interesting
Programming via Shortwave and Internete
Amateur Radio Astronomy
By Stan Nelson KB5VL
Back
to Basics
The Longwave Zone
By Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY
630-Meter
Action and Readers’ Reports
Adventures in Radio Restoration
By Rich Post KB8TAD
Raymond
Loewy meets Rube Goldberg: The Hallicrafters SR-75
Antenna Connections
By Dan Farber AC0LW
Antenna
101: A Timely Review of What We’ve Learned