“Spurious Signals” is a cartoon that appears monthly in CQ Amateur Radio Magazine and previously in Popular Communications Magazine until 2013.
These cartoons are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without express written permission. To get permission to use a cartoon in a non-profit club newsletter or other format, email jaythurbershow@gmail.com.
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CQ cartoon, May 2023
This week, I’ll be headed to Dayton, Ohio — actually, Xenia, a little bit to the southeast — for the annual Dayton Hamvention, billed as the world’s largest gathering of amateur radio operators, or “hams.” (My show this Saturday will be produced and broadcast from Hamvention, and I’ll be talking to some people at the…
CQ cartoon, April 2023
(As always, a reminder that these cartoons are posted after they’ve appeared in CQ Amateur Radio Magazine. Why not subscribe today?) This is true: Remember the freak-out a few months ago when a Chinese “spy balloon” was observed crossing into U.S. airspace, and Republicans and Fox News (but I repeat myself) lost their ever-loving minds,…
CQ cartoon, March 2023
Probably everyone who’s ever been married or in a long-term relationship knows the most perilous question you can answer is, “What are you doing right now?” closely followed by, “How do I look?” and “What should we have for dinner tonight?” (And in all fairness, I’ve done it to my wife more than once, and…
CQ cartoon, Feb. 2023
From time to time, for my monthly cartoons in CQ Amateur Radio Magazine, I draw a “dubious moment in radio history.” It’s almost always based on some actual momentous occasion, but with a dumb anachronistic punchline. For instance, in 2012, a Georgetown law student testified to Congress in favor of legal access to birth control.…
CQ cartoon, Jan. 2023
I often do a “CQ Predicts” cartoon for the first issue of the new year. It helps to have a working familiarity with The Amazing Criswell. I wish I had enough hair to comb it into a spit curl. Criswell: Cartoon: (Cartoons are posted about a month after they appear in the magazine. To see…
Like it so much, I’ll doodle some more
(Optional soundtrack for this post.) I suppose the fact that my real name isn’t “Jay Thurber” isn’t a surprise to a lot of folks. I picked the DJ name more than 20 years ago as a tribute to my favorite writer and cartoonist, and it just kind of “stuck.” But I use my real name…
CQ cartoon, Jan. 2022
Like a lot of the “Spurious Signals” cartoons, this is based in fact. I did go back to Season 1, Episode 1 of “M*A*S*H” and start watching the show all the way through, and I did try to figure out if Radar’s radio was a real piece of military equipment or just a mock-up built…
CQ cartoon, Dec. 2021
Another cartoon somewhat based in reality. Ever since I was a kid, I did want a Zenith Trans-Oceanic portable radio, but they went out of production when I was very small. By the time I got interested in radio, the remaining Trans-Oceanics were becoming rare and very collectible. Even scruffy examples were selling for hundreds…
CQ cartoon, Nov. 2021
The “mountain-top guru” is one of the oldest cliches in American cartooning. I decided to do my own spin on the trope. Why did the guru climb the mountain? He wasn’t seeking enlightenment, he was trying to win a DX contest.