RADIO HISTORY WEBSITE - An Important Archival Service


RADIO HISTORY WEBSITE
An Important Archival Service

 Some wonderful archival resources can be found at the American Radio History website. Many of these will be of great interest to shortwave listeners and DXers alike, especially for those of us who can remember the "heydays" of DXing. And it's not just American magazines and books that reside in this online library! Here are just a few of the resources to be found:


Monitoring Times
This well-known magazine had very humble beginnings with their first issue in January 1982. The entire early collection right up until December 1999 can be found here. Checking out the old advertisements for receivers and auxiliary equipment makes fascinating reading for those of us who remember that gear.
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Monitoring-Times.htm

SPEEDX
The Society to Preserve the Engrossing Enjoyment of DXing or SPEEDX club was founded in 1971 by former officers and members of the American Shortwave Listeners Club. SPEEDX published a printed monthly bulletin posted to members. The membership began to decline in the late 80's until the society was dissolved in 1995. The Speedx slogan was "THE DX RADIO BULLETIN FOR ACTIVE SHORTWAVE LISTENERS". Although there are a few gaps here and there (including the entire first year of publication), much of the club magazine has been archived between January 1972 through to August 1992.
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Speedx.htm


Popular Communications
Popular Communications was a magazine with content relating to the radio hobby, including scanners, shortwave radio, CB, amateur radio, AM and FM broadcast band listening, radio history, and vintage radio restoration. There are some well-written stories with excellent photographs attached. The magazine existed between September 1982 and November 2013. The archive contains most of the early issues but there's a big slab missing from 2007 to 2012. 
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Popular_Communications.htm

Short Wave Magazine
Here is an opportunity to read how the hobby of shortwave radio and listening was treated in the United Kingdom. A very different view is presented here - a nice mix of technical and listening articles. "Short Wave Magazine" originally appeared in March 1937 and published up to September 1939 when it closed due to the onset of W.W. II. A second era began in March of 1943 and continued to 2005 when it was amalgamated with "Radio Active" to become "Radio User". The archive extends from the very first issue in March 1937 right through to the middle of 1998.
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Short_Wave_UK.htm


Radio Station Verifications
Do you enjoy looking at old QSL cards and verification letters? At the American Radio History website, there is a section devoted to a huge collection of shortwave and mediumwave QSLs from all eras (from the 1920s to the 70s!) and all parts of the world.
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/DX-Verificationss.htm


Guide to Broadcasting Stations
The Guide to Broadcasting Stations was a frequency list and directory of shortwave and mediumwave stations. Each edition included helpful feature articles aimed at radio enthusiasts. The book was issued on a somewhat irregular schedule by Wireless World magazine. 14 editions of the book have been archived here.
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Guide_to_Broadcasting_Key.htm


Communications World
Communications World was published from 1971 to 1981 and covered DXing, Short Wave, Utilities and related equipment. It also included the White's Radio Log of US MW and FM broadcasters. Communications World was previously named "Science and Electronics" which was itself a renaming of "Radio Television Experimenter". 15 issues have been archived here.
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Communications_World.htm

Popular Electronics
Popular Electronics was created in 1954 for an audience of electronics hobbyists and experimenters. It soon became the "World's Largest-Selling Electronics Magazine". The circulation was 240,000 by 1957 and exceeded 400,000 by 1963. Rival "Electronics World" was merged into "Popular Electronics" in 1972. "Popular Electronics" became "Computers & Electronics" in November 1982, and then ceased publication in April 1985. The title returned in February 1989 under new owners who purchased the name and gave it to their "Hands-On Electronics" magazine. "Popular Electronics" ceased publication in December of 1999, returning as "Poptronics" in January of 2000 after merging with "Electronics Now". The final issue was  January 2003. Most of the archive has survived and is kept here.
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Popular-Electronics-Guide.htm




Australian Collection!
There is even a section on Aussie magazines and books, including Electronic Australia, Wireless Weekly, Radio and Hobbies, etc.





And there's so much more!!! There are many hours of fascinating reading and learning to be had here at this website. Enjoy!

 And while you are at it, check out the American Radio History's Facebook page for lots of very interesting tidbits on radio broadcasting.

 73 and good DX to you all,

 Rob Wagner VK3BVW






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