Hops Trains and Backpacks

Tag: Cold War

  • Visiting the USS Growler nuclear attack submarine

    Visiting the USS Growler nuclear attack submarine

    Earlier this Fall, Paola and I took advantage of the summer Friday night free admission to the Intrepid Air and Space Museum to visit, among other things, a Cold War-era nuclear-armed submarine, the USS Growler. During the late 1950s they were the front line nuclear deterrent and expected to be one of the sacrificial first…

  • Shortwave spy stations, still transmitting years after the Cold War

    Shortwave spy stations, still transmitting years after the Cold War

    I’ve been reading a number of John Le Carré books lately, which are mostly fictional thrillers about Cold War spies. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a particularly good one. So in that vein, I’ve been reading about ’60s spycraft, including how they used to communicate. In the pre-internet days, these spies…

  • The Cold War lives on, on shortwave radio

    The Cold War lives on, on shortwave radio

    After reading a few too many John Le Carre spy novels, I decided to see whether the shortwave radio spies in the Cold War used is still a “thing” and whether there’s any point to buying one. I tapped into a lively nest of hobbyists and websites documenting these international airwaves online, with no need…