One of the least examined aspects of Peoples Temple’s history was its relationship with the Federal Commiunications Commission (FCC). The relationship was also an important one: Jonestown’s only medium of direct and immediate communication with the outside world was through its HAM amateur radio; the Concerned Relatives oppositional group knew of the Temple’s use of its HAM radio – and of its misuses as well, such as conducting Temple business on its bandwidths – and alerted the FCC of the violations; and HAM operators around the US started reporting their own experiences with communications from Jonestown. With all these considerations in mind, history student and HAM operator Josef Dieckman launched a website to document all aspects of Jonestown radio. The site was active for several years in the first decade of the 2000s before going offline. This website has restored as much of the site as has been possible to do, and has archived it below.
Some of the links within these articles are no longer operational and have been disabled.
The Jonestown Log Books |
One question that was on my mind for a long time after I started this project was, "What happened to the log book (or books) that were in Jonestown?" Like most other documents and files of evidentiary nature, the log books were taken by the FBI and kept as part of their investigatory files, RYMUR. Through the Freedom of Information Act, Fielding McGehee was able to obtain copies of thousands of the documents retained by the Bureau. Included in these documents are copies of one logbook kept by radio operators in Jonestown. (Editor's note: The pdf includes four logbooks.) Click on the log book cover on the right to be transferred to the log book page. **WARNING** The log book is in PDF format. You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to view the file. |
Cover page for one of the logbooks taken out of Jonestown. * Note the WB6MID/8R3 call sign |
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