The "World Radio Television Handbook", an encyclopedia of shortwave radio lovers, concludes its 76-year journey with this 2022 year edition, sad news for radio enthusiasts and researchers like us.
Of the 76-year books, I have the version for most years except a few. The five cartons containing all of those books have become the talk of the family, each time moving to the rented house.
For the 15 years we have been publishing Sarvadesa Vaanoli (International Radio) magazine, for 16 years we have been publishing Quarterly Magazine called Dxers Guide, 54 weeks we produced Vaanoli Ulagam (World Radios) for External Service of All India Radio, my first Tamil book, Ulaga Vaanoligal (World Radios) were also published because of The WRTH (World Radio TV Handbook).
I got my first WRTH for myself, and when Mr. Adrian Peterson came to Erode for the AWR listeners meet in 1999, they handed over the 2000 edition directly. The scent of that first book still lingers in the memories.
Every WRTH book I have has a story. At the moment it is worth noting that most of the books were obtained while working as the Technical Monitor of the German public service broadcaster, Deutsch Welle (DW).
I have to thank Mr. Arasu (VU2UR) for helping me to collect 30 years of WRTH. Mr. Shanmuga Sundaram (VU2FOT), Mr. Ilampuranan, Mr. Jose Jacob (VU2JOS), Mr. Alokesh Gupta (VU3BSE), Mr. Sandiban Basu were among those who built the bridge between me and WRTH.
Radios like AWR, BBC, CRI, DW, RN, RV, RVA, SLBC, RTI, RFA, VOA, NHK and TWR have somehow helped to get WRTH.
Survived the rain floods of Chennai and is still one of my treasures today. The book that carried so much information said it would never come out again, just like a close friend leave us in the middle of sea!
