[FedCom] Pop Comm magazine going away

[Larry Van Horn-N5FPW]

My old friend Ken wrote:

>I always thought that Pop Comm seem to stay in the very basic information 
>side of the hobby, and with internet research much of what was published 
>could be found.  HOWEVER, it was around for a long time and when Tom K was 
>editor, it was basically the only publication available for the monitoring 
>hobbyist for many years.

That is a common misconception Ken by many because TomCat had been around 
for many years in various publications including my old favorite Electronic 
Illustrated.

Actually both PopComm and MT started in 1982. Bob started MT with 400 
addresses he had farmed from the letters he received when his was the 
Federal columnist in the old RCMA club bulletins. I was the RCMA satellite 
columnist at the time and we got to know each other through that club 
newsletter. While PC was monthly and magazine in 1982, Bob was newsprint and 
bimonthly. He actually only intended the newspaper MT to be a catalog for 
Grove products with some articles thrown in. Guess it was that monitoring 
the shuttle article in the front page that sparked the readership of only 
400 at the time.

I chuckle all the time at the shear number of people who claim to be readers 
since V1N1. Sure seems there are a lot more than 400. ;-) Oh, make that 399, 
I have my V1N1 upstairs in the radio room along with every issue of MT and 
ST ever published. Sure has a lot of old memories for sure.

>Overall other publications seem to be going more to a digital format rather 
>than printing, so that is how the industry itself is going overall.

Unfortunately you are correct. There are primarily two reasons for this. The 
main one is the 3 Ps (paper, printing, postage). That is the major expense 
overhead in producing any magazine. Writers fees and salaries and basic 
overhead are a fraction of the other and depending how the business model is 
structured that can be covered in subscriptions leaving advertising as the 
profit. Take out the 3 Ps and go electronic and you increase your profit. 
But that develops into other issues. No newsstand - so you lose visibility 
and our hobby is older and more conventional and they like their paper. The 
usual complaint is and (I hate this stupid excuse when I hear it, "can't 
take it to the bathroom." Duh, yes I can on a Kindle!!! I think it is more 
of a function they just don't feel like they have something substantial in 
their hands if it isn't on paper.

So there you have the dilemma. Several years ago MT Express (the electronic 
MT) which was my baby, really did prolong the life of MT thanks to the 
reduced cost to publish. But it was evident early on that the radio 
listening hobby was set in their ways and they really didn't embrace the 
electronic publication and still do not to this day. Strange that a 
technologically advance hobby such as ours can't embrace, well uh 
technology!

And this electronic thing really is working in other quarters as evidenced 
by the electronic publishing business with companies like Amazon. Now anyone 
can publish with no overhead whatsoever and get paid for their efforts. I 
know it works first hand, but the hobby as a whole still has their issues 
with e-pubs of any kind.

And the result is that now we have no US published print radio listening 
hobby publications left, except for a few hold over radio club bulletins in 
some very specialized areas of the hobby. Printed books are all but gone and 
have been for a number of years. No body needs them or wants them because 
their information need is being fulfilled by the "Internet!"

If the hobby doesn't embrace these new electronic radio hobby publishing 
efforts, e-books and e-zines, then they also will die away and with that 
sadly the radio listening hobby itself.  Given all that and the fact that 
members of our hobby are dying at a rapid rate, the future doesn't look 
bright, except for amateur radio. In an ironic twist amateur radio is now 
the entry level to many of the other radio listening disciplines. It use to 
be the other way around. So in order to attract new numbers to the radio 
listening hobbies I think we should look at that venue even more.

Regardless, any progress on breathing new life into the radio listening 
hobbies is a major uphill battle. And it is a shame as I have been in the 
radio hobby since 1964 and it really has been a lot of fun and still can be 
if we can ever get out of this "why should I buy it when I can get it for 
free on the Internet" mentality.

>Unfortunately with the new magazine "Spectrum Monitor" there's no dedicated 
>monthly military communications column, although there is a fed 
>communications, aero comms, scanner (regular), and HF utilities >columns, 
>so I guess it is >possible that milcom related frequencies/information 
>might show up in any of those columns.

I am sure there is someone else out there that can do a milcom column for 
TSM if they want to. I have been asked by a few folks why we (the VH family) 
did not transition to TSM from MT and the answer is simple. As the longest 
writer of the family I have been on a monthly deadline for nearly 35 years 
(and never missed a single deadline through many adversities and family 
crisis). Many times I was writing multiple articles/columns each month. 
Honestly, we both are just tired of that grind and we wanted to move in a 
different direction.

I hope to also be back to a fulltime, no radio related job soon. Yes, what 
was left of all of the fulltime MT and Grove staffers lost their jobs just 
before the holidays. This year has not been very merry and bright. So my 
time will not be as flexible for any extra writing for any pub TSM or PopC 
(which I was invited to write for recently).

But enough of this off topic rant. But heck I created this newsgroup (along 
with Milcom and some others) way back when so maybe the list admin will have 
some mercy on me. ;-)

It really is up to the radio hobby as a whole as to what direction the 
future holds It could be bright if we want it to be, but we have to grab 
that rudder and put us on a straighter course and make that happen. Right 
now the rudder is askew. Time will tell if we float or sink the boat.

Have fun out there and good hunting de Chief

Larry Van Horn, N5FPW
Brasstown, NC USA
President, Teak Publishing
PlanePlotter Sharer zL/Mode-S SBS Monitor
Milcom Monitoring Post http://mt-milcom.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @MilcomMP