October 4, 1957: The Beep
Heard Around the World
By Richard Fisher KI6SN
Listening and peering into
the night sky on October 4, 1957, hams, shortwave listeners, scientists,
military personnel and ordinary citizens became eye and ear-witnesses to an
epic moment in human existence—the dawn of the Space Age. Richard has collected
the thoughts and memories of those who were among the first to hear and see the
original man-made moon, known as “Sputnik-1.” The historic event not only
changed the course of human history, but also changed the lives of many of the
individuals who heard those first beeps from space.
A Visual Tour of the Tokyo Ham Fair
By Keith Baker KB1SF/VA3KSF
In early September, Keith had the distinct honor of being an
ambassador for the Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA) at the big Tokyo Ham
Radio Fair in Tokyo, Japan. He writes, “Our mission was to personally invite
Japanese hams to join us in Dayton, Ohio, for next year’s big Dayton
Hamvention. However, unlike
the Dayton Hamvention, which is sponsored by a local (albeit large!) amateur
radio club (DARA), the Japan Amateur Radio League (JRRL), the Japanese
equivalent of our American Radio Relay League (ARRL), conducts the Tokyo Ham
Fair each year.” Keith also visits the Akihabara section of Tokyo known as
“Electric Town” and presents a visual tour of both.
TSM
Reviews: Digitech AR1780
By
Thomas Witherspoon K4SWL
Regular contributor, Thomas Witherspoon,
is always on the lookout for interesting, unheralded shortwave radios. This
month he takes a look at the Digitech AR1780, a relatively unknown, inexpensive
portable shortwave radio that covers longwave through shortwave, FM and even
the Air-band and, while it has some quirks, it has more than a few features in
its favor. Find out why Thomas says, “For $129.00 AUD (roughly $103 USD),
you’re getting a full-featured radio that is, by and large, a pleasure to
operate.”
The European
DX Council at 50
By Chrissy
Brand
It was 50
years ago, in 1967, that the first conference of the European DX Council was
held. The EDXC, an organization of leading DXers, is still going strong after
all these decades. This is testified by the continued success of its annual
conference and through the projects and information sharing that it still
carries out. Chrissy reports on this year’s conference held in August in the
Finnish city of Tampere.
Tran-Equatorial
Propagation: Pillows in the Sky
By
John Piliounis SV1OCS
Most radio communications at VHF frequencies happens between
different locations in line-of-sight propagation and, more rarely, either
through the E or F2 layers’ ionospheric refraction during periods of intense
sunspots, or through tropospheric ducting. But Mother Nature has provided VHF
communication links that also happen between symmetrical locations to the
geomagnetic equator. Propagation of this type has been named Trans-Equatorial
Propagation (TEP). John looks at the theory behind this phenomenon and the historic
experiments to prove its existence to skeptics.
Scanning America
By Dan Veeneman
Post Falls and Kootenai County, Idaho
Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
Eclipse, Weather Provide Scanner Action
Milcom
By Larry Van Horn N5FPW
Introduction to Military Monitoring: What Equipment do you
need to Monitor HF MilComms?
Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman NV6H
Summer 2017: Nature Gets the Last Word
Shortwave Utility Logs
Compiled by Hugh Stegman and Mike Chace-Ortiz
VHF and Above
By Joe Lynch N6CL
A DIY Hardware Store 2-Meter GOTA/EMMCOM Antenna
Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
The Twists and Turns of Amateur Radio Rotators
Radio 101
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
Monitoring Emergencies via FTA Satellite
Radio Propagation
By Tomas Hood NW7US
A Last Hoorah?
World of Shortwave Listening
By Andrew Yoder
AM and SW Pirates: Then and Now, Plus: Global HF Pirate
Weekend
The Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
BBC Program Notes for October and More
Maritime Monitoring
By Ron Walsh VE3GO
Nothing Remains the Same Except Change!
The Longwave Zone
By Kevin O’Hern Cary WB2QMY
Get it in the Log!
Adventures is Radio Restoration
By Rich Post KB8TAD
Re-converting a Radio for the Summer of ’42 (Motorola 50P
for Pontiac)
Antenna Connections
By Dan Farber AC0LW
Getting High: Antenna Effects and Oddities at UHF and Up