This weekend is shaping up to be a good weekend to spend some time on the radio.

So far our winter has been one of the snowiest and coldest on record in Central Indiana.  Over the past week we had just enough of a warm spell to melt off most of the snow that had accumulated  since January.  Unfortunately, the temperatures have already dropped back into single digits.  If the return to frigid temperatures were not enough, today the National Weather Service gave us a ground hog day moment by predicting 5-8 inches of snow for this weekend. Ugh!  It is starting to feel a lot like the winters I experienced while living in Syracuse, New York where 100 to 150 inches of snow annually was typical.

Regardless of the weather, as long as the power stays on and the antennas stay up I should be able to spend some time working a little DX during the ARRL SSB DX contest this weekend.

Front Cover of The Spectrum Monitor

Like many hams, I have also been interested in other aspects of radio and communication since I was a kid.  Some of my other interests include shortwave listening, scanning police and fire communications and vintage radios.  One of the best magazines which covered these topics was Monitoring Times, published by Grove Communications.  It was a big surprise last summer when Bob Grove announced that he was retiring at the end of 2013 and would be closing Grove Communications and ending the publication of Monitoring Times.

Just by luck I had just renewed my subscription for three years.  Of course Grove Communications gave all subscribers a refund for the remaining issues of their subscription.  The real loss was not being able to look forward to receiving each new issue because each issue always contained a wealth of information on scanning, ham radio, radio restoration and numerous other topics.

Fortunately, many of the writers from Monitoring Times have moved on to a new venture and are publishing an electronic magazine called The Spectrum Monitor.  The magazine contains  much of the same content that was in Monitoring Times, but with significant additions.  Since they do not have to worry about printing costs, the magazine is published as a full color pdf file which contains features not possible with a printed magazine–such as sound and video clips.  The sound clips are a nice feature well suited to those of us interested in communication.  Want to hear what that restored boat anchor sounds like?  Click on the link provided in the pdf file and you can actually hear it!

If any of you are like me and miss Monitoring Times you might want to check out The Spectrum Monitor.  Here is a link to their website:  http://www.thespectrummonitor.com/

I think you will be pleased with what you see.

By the way, I do not have any financial other interest in The Spectrum Monitor. This information is only provided because I feel there might be other hams that were also part-time or regular readers of Monitoring Times that would be interested in a similar magazine.

73,

Fred, KC9QQ