July
2014 Contents
Feature
Articles
Monitoring NATO War Games
By Tony Roper
Twice each year the United Kingdom hosts NATO’s Operation
“Joint Warrior,” a combined
military exercise that includes major European
countries as well as the US, Canada and often non-NATO countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Brazil.
For monitors who follow such exercises closely, it’s a chance to tune in via HF, VHF and UHF to monitor some fairly exotic
modes. It also offers
some dramatic photo opportunities for those lucky enough to be close by. Longtime military monitor,
Tony Roper, tells us how it’s done, where to listen and what you’ll hear.
From Plane Spotter to Air Traffic Controller
By Tony Roper
You might think that growing up just
four miles from runway 10R at London’s
Heathrow airport, it would be mandatory for a kid to be interested in aircraft communications. But it wasn’t until a teenage
Tony Roper was given an analog VHF radio that featured
the aviation band,
that he connected those
countless flights overhead with what he heard
on that radio. It sent him on a 25-year career path as both a
Royal Air Force and civilian air traffic controller. He also became a writer
and photographer specializing in military monitoring.
Moonbounce: Earth-Moon-Earth
Basics
By Bob DeVarney
W1ICW
As with most space-related communications, bouncing radio signals off the surface
of the Moon, a distance of almost a quarter-million miles, has usually
been the domain
of NASA, the military, or a few of the world’s
most well-heeled hams. But, thanks
to inexpensive, high-powered computers, exceedingly capable
software and relatively cheap antennas, Earth- Moon-Earth (EME) transmissions are now possible for
average hams. Bob DeVarney W1ICW
traces the origins of EME and his own efforts that have netted
him 53 DXCC entities
and counting!
Monitoring the Chesapeake Bay by Sea and Air
By Dave Kelly
America’s Chesapeake Bay is
the world’s largest estuary, with
a watershed that encompasses 64,000 square miles. It’s also home to nearly
constant state,
local, federal and military communications on an amazing
assortment of frequencies. It’s also home to Wallops
Island Flight Center, Virginia’s own spaceport. From Navy Seal training
in the Bay’s backwaters to the thunder of rocket launches
on the shore, the Chesapeake Bay offers an abundance of radio monitoring and the best crab cakes you’ll ever eat.
Dixon, California: America’s Shortwave Mecca
By John Schneider W9FGH
The incredibly flat land around Dixon, California, was not only
good for raising
crops out to the horizon,
it also proved a great launching point for shortwave signals that went thousands of miles beyond that same horizon.
Radio historian and former
Monitoring Times feature writer, John Schneider W9FGH,
relates the amazing
story of the rise and fall of this legendary West Coast shortwave city.
July 2014 Columns
Scan America
By Dan Veeneman
Public Safety vs. Industrial/Business Pool Frequencies
Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
Who
am I Hearing on these Federal Frequencies?
Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman NV6H
On
the Trail of FAV22/M51
Digital HF: Intercept and Analyze
By
Mike Chace-Ortiz AB1TZ/G6DHU
More ALE
MIL-STD-188-141A Protocol and ALE Networks
Shortwave
Utility Logs
By
Mike Chace-Ortiz AB1TZ/G6DHU
Shortwave
Utility Logs
By Hugh Stegman NV6H
Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
Takin’ it
to the Streets (and Hills!)
Radio 101
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
Satellite
Radio vs. Wi-Fi Radio
Radio
Propagation
By Tomas Hood NW7US
Starting
an Adventure
on the High Frequencies
The World of Shortwave
Listening
By Keith Perron
Shortwave
Broadcasting Needs More Than Just News
The
Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
Summer
Shortwave and Online Listening
Maritime Monitoring
By Ron Walsh VE3GO
Summer Maritime
Traffic
The Longwave
Zone
By Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY
Vintage
Longwave Listening
Adventures in Radio
Restoration
By Marc Ellis N9EWJ
The
Coming of the AC Tube
The Broadcast
Tower
By Doug Smith W9WI
Where’s
that Station?
Antenna Connections
By
Dan Farber AC0LW
Beyond
the Rubber Ducky: Antennas for 144
and 432 MHz