Hobnobbing with Harbaugh - Key Clicks and Mike Splatter
December 1961 Popular Electronics

December 1961 Popular Electronics

Table of Contents

Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Popular Electronics, published October 1954 - April 1985. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.

TGIF, right? Here are a few of Dave Harbaugh's Ham radio related comics from the December 1961 issue of Popular Electronics magazine to help wind down the week. From the time Popular Electronics began publication in October 1954, it dedicated a lot of print space to amateur radio and to radio controlled modeling. A lot of self-deprecating humor accompanied special features by various artists and story writers. Carl Kohler contributed many humor columns under the McWatts series and his domestic antics while attempting to appease "Wife friend." A fairly common topic of Ham radio comics is having a wife discover her husband has been carrying on communications with a "YL" (young lady); one such theme is included here. Being the December edition, of course there is a Christmas-themed comic as well. With the Khrushchev comic (remember the era), I'm not sure whether the red-faced Harbaugh is meant to indicate his rage while arguing with a Commie, or to represent his conversation with a "Red." Also common in the day was the nuclear war threat with a popular practice of building a nuclear attack bunker, hence the comic.

Hobnobbing with Harbaugh - Key Clicks and Mike Splatter

By Dave Harbaugh

Hobnobbing with Harbaugh (ham buddy) - RF Cafe Website

"Just tell him it's a ham buddy from Jersey."

- RF Cafe Website

"You'll get ho ho ho! I told you to go out and buy gifts for the kids."

- RF Cafe Website

"No, we're not making it into a fallout shelter!"

Hobnobbing with Harbaugh (Khrushchev) - RF Cafe - RF Cafe Website

"That's silly. How do you know that Khrushchev's listening?"

"So you're the lightest mobile kilowatt in the country; so what?"

Posted October 20, 2023

These Technically-Themed Comics Appeared in Vintage Electronics Magazines. I personally scanned and posted every one from copies I own (and even colorized some). 275 pages as of 5/13/2026.

Windfreak Technologies SynthHD PRO - RF Cafe Website

RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...