The Magic of Radio
And a FREE RADIO giveaway!
If you make it to the end of this article we have a special giveaway for a few lucky paid subscribers.—Eds
As a kid I listened to a lot of AM radio. Sports was my primary interest, but I’d listen to talk radio, music on AM and FM of course—even rebroadcasts of old time radio shows. (Do yourself a favor sometime—dim the lights and listen to the Suspense episode The House in Cypress Canyon).
I’d listen to Sportsphone 68 on KNBR, and after dark when AM signals started bouncing off the ionosphere, I was able to tune into KDWN from Las Vegas, Nevada, where as a 12-year-old I’d call into Lee Pete’s sports show, broadcast live from the Stardust Hotel and Casino. Since my radio was on all night I’d sometimes wake to strange early morning broadcasts, like the rambling and questionable advice of Roy Masters and his so-called Foundation of Human Understanding. Radio was like the wild west—you never knew who you might come across. Art Bell’s Coast to Coast AM, with its after-hours explorations of the paranormal got me through many a late night project.
For a time I was a regular listener to the rapid-fire Mr. KFI show, and then the voiceover antics of Phil Hendrie on the same station. Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion was a favorite, as was the CBC’s Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean—the Canadian signal came through loud and clear when I moved to 48º north.
Radio personalities and disc jockeys were some of my heros. I’ve always wished I was old enough to have heard the gravelly voice of Wolfman Jack assaulting the U.S. airwaves from XERF’s 500,000 watt flamethrower down in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico. Imagine!
I’ve also spent countless hours listening to police scanners, playing with walkie-talkies and tuning in shortwave broadcasts (WBCQ has kept me company at night on remote boat trips). On the stormiest days I enjoy pulling out the VHF to listen to the Coast Guard and the sometimes dramatic happenings afloat. But there’s nothing better than tuning in distant radio stations from my small boat at anchor.
There’s something magical about radio. Electromagnetic waves moving through the air—immediate, fleeting, but also enternal. They say our transmissions travel through space forever and eventually fade into the background noise of space.
My uncle Craig and I shared a love of all things radio, and he collected them. I never set out to collect radios myself, but along the way I’ve managed to accumulate quite a few.
The latest one I had to have was the Raddy RF320 Shortwave Radio from Radioddity. This little guy fits in the palm of my hand but somehow has more features and technology than most of my other radios combined. That it cost me only $68 still blows my mind.
I could tell you all about it, but you’d be better served watching any of the many video reviews—here and here, for example.
Like with small boats, there seem to be fewer radio manufacturers these days. I’ve been so impressed with Radioddity and their diverse offerings that I reached out to them and told them about our little magazine and suggested our readers would probably appreciate their products. They replied with a kind offer of 3 of their fantastic GM-30 GMRS Plus radios for us to giveaway, as well as a special code for a 15% discount on most of their products.
I’d just recently ordered two sets of these GM-30 GMRS Plus radios and have been impressed with their performance and range. They’d work great on group cruises, camping trips, and as secondary emergency communications. Bands include: GMRS, FM, UHF, VHF, NOAA, Air, 220-260 MHz, and 350-390 MHz. They even have built-in GPS units.
Please feel free to leave a comment below to be entered in our drawing for the free radios. We’ll give one to three different lucky readers (using a random number generator and matching it to the winning comment). But if you have any interest in radios—AM, shortwave, HAM, VHF, or even weather stations or other similar electronics—take a look at their website here and consider returning the favor and supporting them. If our readers generate some sales perhaps they’ll supply us with additonal products for future giveaways.
Your special 15% discount code is: SCA15
Happy listening! —Josh Colvin
As a former licensed CB operator, when it was required [KAEP7705] and a formerly licensed marine operator, and a currently licensed HAM [KD2ONY], I would certainly be willing to invest in a GMRS license if I win.
Be aware that the FCC requires a separate license for GMRS. It's currently $70 for 10 years, no exam required. The interesting thing is that if you hold a GMRS license, anyone in the family can use it.
I use to help a friend with his amateur radio contests. Lots of fun. One cleaver invention he used for line of sight contests was a device that charged up a capacitor using AM radio frequency waves. It then would flash a light similar to a camera flash. We could put it and leave it on remote mountains in the California desert. At night we could see it flash and then actually point our antenna at it.