Book Review: Surfing (DXing) The Web

BOOK REVIEW

Surfing (DXing) The Web

by David Bart

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following items have been suggested as interesting reading or as a useful resources. The following information does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by RCA. We welcome suggestions and recommendations from RCA’s members regarding books and media to share with RCA’s membership. The scope can include technical, regulatory, or other subjects. We encourage you to send your suggestions to David Bart at jbart1964@gmail.com for publication in a future issue of the Proceedings.

The Proceedings of the Radio Club of America frequently includes book reviews. In this issue, we touch on a few internet offerings that may be of interest to our readers. In radio parlance, DXing is the hobby of receiving and identifying distant radio or television signals or making two-way radio contact with distant stations in amateur radio, citizens’ band radio or other two-way radio communications. Many DXers also attempt to obtain written verifications of reception or contact, sometimes referred to as QSLs or veries. The name of the hobby comes from DX, telegraphic shorthand for “distance” or “distant”. In this issue, we stretch the DXing idea into the internet space. The following sites may be of interest, and are presented in alphabetic order:

1921 TRANSATLANTIC TEST RESOURCES

The Fall 2021 issue of the RCA Proceedings included a special section dedicated to the centennial of the 1921 radio tests, where radio amateurs in the U.S. and Canada transmitted messages across the Atlantic Ocean to the U.K. and France using short waves of less than 200 meters. See that issue for websites and other resources, including Antique Wireless Association’s http://1bcg.org/1BCG/, the American Radio Relay League’s www.arrl.org/transatlantic, the Radio Society of Great Britain’s https://rsgb.org/ main/activity/transatlantic-tests/, Antique Wireless Association’s https://www.antiquewireless.org/ homepage/history-1921-12-11/, and RCA’s https:// www.radioclubofamerica.org/transatlantic-testcentennial. Documentation is also available from https:// worldradiohistory.com/ and www.transatlantic.org.uk/.

ATLANTIC CABLE PK PORTHCORNU

https://pkporthcurno.com/pk150-connected-collections/ K Porthcurno, in the U.K., operates a museum and archive of Cable and Wireless’s global communications history based in the Wilshaw station building outside Penzance, Cornwall. PK Porthcurno’s archives were combined with the “2021 Citizen Curators,” students at Exeter University and overseas to create the PK150 Connected Collections of online maps, videos, blogs, and reports on the relationships between telegraphy, gutta percha, imperialism, and shipworm, among other subjects.

ATLANTIC CABLE HISTORY

https://atlantic-cable.com/ AWA member Bill Burns has developed a leading resource on historical technologies, especially cable telegraphy. Among other resources, he also curates a superb collection of online primary sources.

AWA YOUTUBE

https://www.youtube.com/c/AntiqueWirelessMuseum The Antique Wireless Association has a YouTube page with recordings of presentations from its annual conferences and other presentations. Featured topics range from early telegraph to the iPhone, electronic espionage technologies, early electrical meters, wireless, and many presentations about early radio history, including 126 years of innovations in high-frequency amateur radio technologies and techniques.

www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/ The BBC, or British Broadcasting Company, has compiled a website dedicated to unpacking the History of the BBC in celebration of its centennial. Articles with photos and document scans as well as clips from digitized oral and video histories, interviews, recordings, and programs going back nearly ninety years are included.

COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM (CHM)

https://computerhistory.org/publications/ CHM maintains a growing collection that encompasses areas beyond digital technology. Electronic technologies had applications in biology and medicine; television techniques, radio and other technologies were applicable to many other sciences. Two engineer/collectors from Ohio, USA, have been documenting their collections of unusual solid-state and electron tube devices at Industrial Alchemy (Vintage Technology: Electronics Esoterica): http:// www.industrialalchemy.org/index.php. Professionally photographed and accompanied by thoughtful, brief commentaries, a large array of indicator, display, imaging, and counting tubes and LED circuits fill a Museum section, while the Articles feature a variety of related do-it-yourself projects and esoteric discussions.

CRYPTIANA

http://cryptiana.web.fc2.com/code/crypto.htm Satoshi Tomokiyo, member of the Physical Society of Japan and a prolific cryptographic historian when he is not working in a patent office, posts his articles on codes and ciphers from the 16th to the early 20th centuries in western Europe, Russia, the United States, Japan, and China.

CRYPTOLOG

http://vtda.org/pubs/NSA_Cryptolog/ The U.S. National Security Agency’s internal historical serial, Cryptolog, is available online from August 1974 to Summer 1997. Be forewarned, there are redactions. Nevertheless, it does include author/keyword/title indexes for the first nine years, and each issue’s contents list articles by title thereafter.

ETHW

https://ethw.org/Main_Page Operated by the IEEE History Center, the Engineering Technology History Wiki is a virtual treasure trove of information about all sorts of technologies. The site includes materials from partner organizations, including the UEF, AIAA, AIChE, AIME, ASCE, ASME, AIST, IEEE, SME, SPE and SWE. It holds thousands of articles, first-hand accounts, oral histories, milestones, archival documents and lesson plans pertaining to the history of technology. https://mediahistoryproject.org/ The Mary Pickford Foundation recently allied with the American Council of Learned Societies to revise and expand the online Media History Digital Library. The MHDL is part of the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It hosts millions of pages of magazines and books that are viewable and searchable for free. The site contains substantial collections for U.S. radio and sound recording industries, film, and Global Cinema. The collections include technical journals, books (1873-1979), broadcasting and recorded sound, and early cinema.

NIST

www.nist.gov/nist-museum/nist-history/history-publications The United States’ National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), formerly the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), provides resources for historical study. It offers PDFs about the history of the institution that cover the years from 1901 through 1993, as well as scholarly and newsletter articles on NIST/NBS activities.

SHOT

https://twitter.com/Mercurians1 The Society for the History of Technology’s special interest group the Mercurians focuses on communications technology. It is managed by IEEE outreach historian and Mercurians chair Alex Magoun.

WORLD RADIO HISTORY

https://worldradiohistory.com/ WRH, compiled by David Gleason, is a fabulous resource for those exploring radio history. Copies of journals, magazines, and other publications are searchable and downloadable. Topics include amateur, shortwave, DXing, clubs and associations, broadcasting, advertising, music, electronics, technical and reference items, training manuals, retail and servicing information, etc. This list is large. A complete list of publications is alphabetically indexed and linked. The site also contains links to other websites of interest at https:// worldradiohistory.com/Links_Master.htm.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David P. Bart, KB9YPD, is Executive Vice President of the Radio Club of America, Chairman of RCA’s Publications Committee, a Life Member, and Fellow. He is also a Life Member and Director of the Antique Wireless Association. He is treasurer of the IEEE History Committee and former vice president of the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago.