Larry Van Horn

Amazon bestselling author, Larry Van Horn, a native of San Antonio, Texas, started his radio listening hobby in 1964, when he received his first shortwave receiver.

In 1971 Larry joined the U.S. Navy and served on 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, 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, satellite monitoring, and AM, FM, and TV broadcast DXing.

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 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 is authored a series of annual e-Books – The Milcom Archives, which are reprints of his Monitoring Times and Spectrum Monitor Milcom columns.