For Immediate Release 30 January 2023
U.S.
Military Call Sign Directory 1st Edition Now Available on Amazon
Webster’s dictionary
defines the term “call sign” as the combination of identifying letters,
letters, and numbers, or words assigned to an operator, office, activity,
vehicle, or station for use in communication (as in the address of a message
sent by radio). If you are a ham radio operator, you are issued a call sign
used to identify your station to other hams. The concept is the same for
broadcast radio stations (AM/FM/TV/Shortwave), maritime vessels or shore
stations, civilian aircraft, and most government radio stations. Legally
operated radio stations transmitting anywhere in the radio spectrum will
identify at some point using a valid call sign issued to them by their national
controlling authority.
However, when you
start diving into the dark and murky waters of military call signs or words
things are not so clear cut. Finding out who and why a particular call sign is
being used can be a challenge. You won't find any official databases or
publications for these call signs online. The reason for this is simple. In
many instances, a military radio call sign/word is designed to keep that unit,
its platform identity, its mission, and in some cases even who is on board that
aircraft or vessel hidden.
Ask any radio
hobbyist what information they consider important during a radio monitoring
session and two items will top their list: frequencies and the call signs heard
on them. If you hear activity on a military frequency, unless you can fully
identify the participants by their call sign, you can’t fully appreciate or
document the traffic you are hearing on your shortwave radio or scanner.
To aid the military
radio hobbyists in their listening endeavors Teak Publishing has published a
series of call sign books/e-books over the last several years. Now the company
is pleased to announce its latest Kindle e-book in the series - the U.S.
Military Call Sign Directory, 1st edition by Amazon Bestselling author Larry Van Horn, N5FPW.
In this new edition,
the author presents the most comprehensive collection of U.S. military station
identifications ever published for the radio listening hobby. It is the result
of seven years of research and monitoring in the HF/VHF/UHF radio spectrums, by
the author. No classified military sources were used in the production of this
book, and due to the size of this publication, a printed version will not be
available.
In addition to
thousands of static and tactical call signs for the major U.S. military
services, other types of identifiers such as Automatic Link Establishment (ALE)
addresses and marine MMSI identifiers for U.S. Navy and Coast Guard vessels and
aircraft are also included in this edition. There is also a chapter devoted to
call signs/words used by the Department of Defense including the Military
Auxiliary Radio Services (MARS) and the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) auxiliary
services.
A whole new chapter
in the book is devoted to the latest craze in military aircraft monitoring -
decoding Mode-S ADS-B hex code radio signals. The chapter on these hex code
addresses includes introductory material on monitoring these unique identifiers
and thousands of hex codes identified by airframes. There is also an additional
chapter devoted to known hex hole ranges in the DoD ADS-B spectrum.
The last chapter of
this book contains a large list of resource information including Navy
ship/squadron classifications; Coast Guard cutter designators; a massive list
of abbreviations and acronyms that appear in the book and other Teak Publishing
publications; a comprehensive country abbreviation list; and the latest Table
of Allocations of International Call signs from the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU).
The Teak
Publishing U.S. Military Call Sign Directory is now available for
purchase worldwide from Amazon.com at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BT658LVL.
The price for this 1091-page e-Book is US$9.99. This book is being released
internationally. Amazon customers in the United Kingdom, Germany, France Spain,
Italy, Japan, India, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, and Australia can order the e-Book
from Amazon websites directly servicing these countries. All other countries
can use the regular Amazon.com website.
You do not need to
own a Kindle reader to read Amazon e-book publications. You can read any Kindle
book with Amazon’s free reading apps. There are free Kindle reading apps for
the Kindle Cloud Reader, Smartphones (iPhone, iTouch, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry); computer platforms (Windows and Mac); Tablets (iPad and
Android), and, of course, all of the Kindle family of readers including the
Kindle Fire series. A Kindle e-book allows you to buy your book once and read
it anywhere. You can find additional details on these apps at this link on the
Amazon website https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=16571048011.
A complete list of
all the author’s military radio hobby books can be found on his Amazon author’s
page at https://www.amazon.com/stores/Larry-Van-Horn/author/B00G1QMO4C.
Additional information on this and other Teak
Publishing radio hobby books is available on the company website at https://www.teakpublishing.com/.
Milcom Monitoring Post blog http://mt-milcom.blogspot.com/
Btown Monitoring Post Blog http://monitor-post.blogspot.com/
From the Static YouTube site https://www.youtube.com/c/FromtheStatic-83
From the Static Twitter feed @MilcomMP
If you monitor the military radio spectrum, outside of the international shortwave broadcast or ham bands, then there is something in this book for you. This e-book is a must in any radio shack reference library.
About the Author
Amazon bestselling author, Larry Van Horn, a
native of San Antonio, Texas, started his radio listening hobby in 1963 when
he received his first shortwave receiver.
In 1971 Larry joined the U.S. Navy and served
on several U.S. naval warships and in the naval aviation community until his
retirement in 1993. He retired in New Orleans with the rank of Chief Petty
Officer.
He was first licensed as an amateur radio
operator in 1973 with the call sign WH6INU. Later, Larry upgraded to General
Class and spent his early ham days operating out of the famed KH6SP ham shack
in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, with his ham mentor and friend Butch Weber, WA4GIF,
chasing DX and contesting.
Now a licensed Extra Class ham, holding the
call sign N5FPW, Larry enjoys operating digital modes, contesting, ham
satellites, and chasing DX. Other aspects of the radio hobby that he enjoys include
monitoring military communications (throughout the radio spectrum), federal
government monitoring, chasing HF utility communications (especially marine
comms), general satellite monitoring, and AM/FM,/TV broadcast DXing.
After his retirement from the Navy, Larry
worked for Grove Enterprises in Brasstown, North Carolina, the publisher of Monitoring
Times and Satellite Times magazines. His job on the MT staff
was the magazine's assistant / technical editor and staff journalist. He wrote
for Monitoring Times magazine as a freelance writer and full-time
staffer for over 30 years until that publication closed in 2013. Larry was also
the creative force behind the publication of Satellite Times magazine
and was the magazine’s managing editor, a position he held for more than five
years.
He has written dozens of radio equipment
reviews and several monthly columns in the pages of the former Monitoring
Times including the Signals from Space, Utility World, Fedcom – Federal
Monitoring column, Milcom – a military monitoring column, GlobalNet, First Look
– MT Equipment/Book Reviews. Service Search, Ask Larry, and the magazine’s
What’s New column.
His current writing assignment is with the
radio hobby e-zine – The Spectrum Monitor. He writes a monthly Milcom column
and has authored numerous features including the magazine’s annual Air Show
Frequency Guide.
Over the years Larry has also written dozens
of radio hobby books (some with multiple editions), dozens of magazine
features, and numerous technical articles for a wide variety of communications
publications and radio hobby club newsletters.
Larry is the founder and president of the Teak
Publishing Company based in western North Carolina. His first e-book published
under the Teak Publishing banner, the North American Enroute Aviation Guide,
was an immediate Amazon #1 Best-Selling Kindle eBook.
Since then, he has authored a series of annual
e-Books – The Milcom Archives, which are reprints of his Monitoring
Times and Spectrum Monitor Milcom columns.
