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Monday, November 21, 2011

2011: MY AMATEUR RADIO - BROADCAST RADIO BLOG

I have opted to import my www.gloveradio.com blog into this blog and make it an important part of local history. Few people realize that in this age of unbridled terrorism, weather-related, and other disasters, amateur radio, from its earliest years and up to the present day, has played and will always play a vital part in emergency communications when cell phones are disabled and other modes of communication are wiped out. The one ace in the hole that many but not all amateur radio operators have is their ability to send and receive morse code; an invaluable radio resource when all conventional communication systems fail.
I have also included another of my favorite subjects, broadcast radio, which played such an important part in our lives during the World War II era. Over the years I have accumulated a huge collection of old time radio programs in MP3 format. With the old amplitude modulated ("AM") radio descending into mostly sports and political "talk radio," old radio dramas have vanished from the American broadcast scene. Enter CD's and MP3 players: Now, those of us who are interested in broadcast radio from the 20's through the 50's, can own a library of classic radio broadcasts. My collection is centered around WWII newscasts (Edward R. Murrow, Frank Singizer, Gabriel Heatter, Etc.) and my boyhood radio heroes Superman, Captain Midnight, Terry and the Pirates, Hop Harrigan, and countless other 15 minute serials.
As to amateur radio on the local level, the cell phone has largely replaced the great on the air conversations we had back in the pre-cell phone years with our "2 meter " transcievers. The W2ZQ Delaware Valley Radio Association's radio repeater was alive with local amateurs from dawn to midnight with lively conversation. It is currently a mere shadow of its glory years before cell phones. However, amateurs have other reserved radio frequencies in the radio spectrum. These "high band" frequencies give amateur operators the ability to communicate all over the world with their larger and more sophisticated radio transceivers. (a transceiver is a truncated radio term: TRANsmits, and reCEIVEs) When I finally retire for good and have more leisure time for this fascinating venture, I hope to put a vertical antenna in my back yard and talk to the world with my transceiver which was a much appreciated gift from an old ham radio buddy of mine, Paul W2AEI.

REMEMBER TO RIGHT CLICK ON THE IMAGE AND CLICK ON
"OPEN LINK IN A NEW WINDOW"
TO ENLARGE THE GRAPHIC.

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