NEW DIRECTIONS RADIO

Image Gallery PHOTO BY MADALEINE MACDONALD

Copthorne Macdonald is the inventor of slow-scan television . . . a method of amateur radio transmission that allows ham operators to both hear and see each other during shortwave broadcasts.

I frequently receive letters from folks who are looking for in-depth facts and figures on some particular aspect of radio. In answer to such queries, I've put together a list of a few information sources that I know to be especially valuable.

Radio is, of course, a multifaceted medium, and its diverse nature tends to complicate data gathering a bit. Each "facet" group seems to have spawned its own separate literature of books and periodicals.

THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE

International broadcasting, for example. has inspired publications which focus on that activity alone. As I mentioned in MOTHER N0. 60, the serious shortwave listener (or SWL) is apt to find both the World Radio TV Handbook and the Review of International Broadcasting to be worthwhile investments.

The WRTVH contains listings of time, frequency, and language for all the major world shortwave broadcast services. Furthermore, the 1980 edition includes a comprehensive technical review of shortwave receivers. The book is available for $15 postpaid from Gilfer Shortwave, Dept. TMEN, Box 239, Park Ridge, New Jersey 07656. Be sure to ask for Gilfer's catalog, too . . . it lists many items of interest to shortwave listeners.

A one-year subscription to the monthly Renew of International Broadcasting can be had for $12-or you can order a sample copy for $1.00-from Glenn Hauser, Dept. TMEN, University Radio WUOT, Knoxville, Tennessee 37916.

HAM RADIO PUBLICATIONS

Radio amateurs-because they're involved in two-way communication-have interests different from those of shortwave listeners. For many years now the primary source of ham information has been the American Radio Relay League, which is the national amateurs' organization. A year's membership in the League (costing $18) includes a subscription to QST, a broadspectrum ham magazine presenting news of on-the-air activities and FCC regulatory matters as well as technical articles.

As you may remember, my last column dealt-in part-with Tune in the World With Ham Radio, the ARRL. package for beginners that's priced at $7.00. Well, the organization's more advanced manual, The Radio Amateur's Handbook, has been ham radio's technical bible for some 57 years! The revised 1980 edition contains directions for building an uncomplicated beginner's receiver, as welt as a number of other, more complex projects.

The comprehensive 23-chapter book also covers radio theory quite thoroughly. It doesn't "spoon-feed" the material, however . . . the volume will be most useful to folks whose high school algebra hasn't faded away completely, and who've had some prior exposure to basic physics. Anyone interested in the technical side of radio will find the Handbook to be a bargain at $10. (The League's address is American Radio Relay League, Dept. TMEN, 225 Main Street, Newington, Connecticut 06111.)