Shortwave Listening

Mar 28 22:09 UTC 1998

Any of you into listening to shortwave broadcasters?  That's actually 
how I got into radio in the first place.  My grandparents had an old 
Philco console radio down in their basement which had a shortwave band.
I guess I was about 9 or 10 when my dad explained that you could listen
to radio stations from all over the world on that band.It didn't take 
me long to get hooked, and soon I was always anxious to go and visit 
my grandparents.

A couple of years later, I bought a shortwave set of my own.  I don't
remember the model number, but it was some kind of Hallicrafters.
Sometime after that, I graduated to a Lafayette HA-600, one of the
first transistorized SW radios.  It cost $100 back in the mid-60s.

My latest SW radio was a gift from my sister-in-law. It's a handheld,
battery-powered affair with an FM stereo band, the AM band, and six
shortwave bands.  It's pretty cool. I took it on a bike tour last 
summer and listened to the BBC out in the middle of the Upper
Penninsula.

response 2 of 98:

Mar 29 05:57 UTC 1998

  For SWL, a long wire is probably the best bet

response 4 of 98:

Mar 29 20:36 UTC 1998

  It can be any length, but the longer the better. Maybe 50' or greater

response 6 of 98:

Mar 30 05:13 UTC 1998

  What about lightning? Of course, anyone would disconnect the antenna when
lightning is in the area. The chances of a hit are remote at best. Lightning
is usually attracted to things like trees and trailers and things that stick
up. I think you'll be OK.

response 8 of 98:

Mar 30 20:39 UTC 1998

It will still follow the wire. There are a *lot* of antennas around
town - TV mostly - look on rooftops. Very few TVs get fried. One can put a
lightning bypass just before the wire enters the house. Better yet, just
disconnect the antenna during lightning storms. 

response 10 of 98:

Mar 31 06:00 UTC 1998

A lightning bypass would arc over to ground outside the house. Might
be called a lightning arrester. Check in your ARRL handbook for more
specifics (I don't currently have an outside antenna, so haven't been
worrying about it).

response 12 of 98:

Apr 1 02:42 UTC 1998

No.  The effect you see is due to the frequency of the carrier more
than the type of modulation on the signal. The station in Toledo is 
south of us, so that would explain why you get better reception
when on a south-facing hill.

response 14 of 98:

Apr 1 17:57 UTC 1998

I have heard that AM is still more widely used in Europe for that reason,
becuase it can be heard in mountainous areas.  I wonder what radio reception
is like in the Rockies.  I used to get classical AM stations in Macedonia.
I also got football games from Texas there, for some reason.
        What sorts of things to people listen to on shortwave?  Seems like
every other station is religious, the rest mostly news, but since I don't know
Chinese or Japanese it is hard to tell.  I have fun trying to identify
langauges, but this palls after a while.

response 16 of 98:

Apr 4 20:46 UTC 1998

Help needed quick!  Jim was volunteering at Kiwanis and someone came in asking
for a shortwave radio so he could listen to Albania.  We can let him have one
of our two, but will also probably try to set it up for him.  Can anyone tell
us quick what wavelength and time to try for Radio Tirane?  We will have
enough trouble just communicating, the guy knows even less English thatn I
do Albanian.  (I will bring a dictionary).  And seems illiterate to boot.
I think he understood that we would stop by Monday after 5.

response 18 of 98:

Apr 5 16:19 UTC 1998

Thanks Rane, I checked this same website and did a where is for Albania, and
got referred to www.gospelcom.net/twr/t_europe.htm.
Is this a religious broadcast?  They also do Armenian, Czech, 'Kabyly', etc.
What does it mean:  1915-1930 12367 MW 205 1467 K
                      1900-1915 345 MW    "     "
I presume the first is a time, but it is universal time, what time is it here?
We were going to stop by the guy's place after 5.
Maybe he knows more about what to listen to.
I will try to search on +Albania +shortwave now.

response 20 of 98:

Apr 5 20:56 UTC 1998

Maybe there is an anti-government station broadcasting in Albanian from
outside the country. 

That table on gospelcom contains

Language        Albanian        Albanian 
Time (UT)       1915-1930       1900-1915
Day             12367           345
Band            MW              MW
Wavelength      205             205
Frequency       1467            1467

I take the day to be 1=Sunday, etc. MW = medium-wave, 205 = meters and 1467
= KHz. This is in our broadcast band and might be difficult to receive here.

response 22 of 98:

Apr 7 20:04 UTC 1998

From bdamick@twr.org Tue Apr  7 15:53:42 1998
Date: Tue, 07 Apr 1998 10:46:34 -0400
From: Bill Damick <bdamick@twr.org>
To: keesan@cyberspace.org
Subject: Albanian broadcasts

From:     "C. Keesan"  ("keesan@cyberspace.org")
To:       info2@ihq
Date:     Sunday, April 5, 1998   1:15 pm
Subject:  http://www1.gospelcom.net/twr/w_middle_east.htm  (SMTP Id#:
17879)

We are trying to help an Albanian immigrant find some Albanian
language to listen to on shortwave.  From what I can figure out,
Radio Tirane no longer broadcasts shortwave.  From Durres
there are broadcasts in Serbian.  Your organizatin also seems
to be broadcasting from Albania in Farsi, Armenian and Kurdish.
A question:  Have you takne over Radio Tirana's shortwave
facilities?  Is anyone broadcasting Albanian shortwave?
THe US government claims there are not 0 shortwave broadcasts in
Albania.  PLease let us know as soon as possible, as we are
supposed to be going to see these people Monday evening.
(I studied a little Albanian and will try to help. They don't
speak English).
Sindi Keesan at keesan@grex.org
-----------------------------------------------------
Dear Mrs. Keesan,

Please for give the delay in responding to your request. I just received
it forwarded to me this morning.

Thanks so much for your inquiry about Albanian programming from Trans
World Radio.  At present, all of the Albanian language programming we
carry is on Medium Wave (standard AM) and is targeted to Albania from
Monte Carlo.  There would be no possibility of it being heard in North
America, even with the most sophisticated equipment.

As to other Albanian language programs being available here on
shortwave, that's also a long shot.  I don't know of any other
broadcasters who target Albanian programs to North America.  As you
mentioned, Radio Tirana did in years past, and may still be doing so,
although the times seem to change regularly.  Here's the most recent
schedule information I could find on the internet for Albanina language
programs from Tirana targeted to North America.

Albanian 0300-2200?UTC 6100 kHz.  (This would be 11PM through 6PM EST)
Albanian 0730-1030?UTC 7270 kHz.  (3:30AM - 6:30 AM EST)

I certainly can't vouch for the content, but it's worth trying. 
Daylight reception of either of these frequencies would be problematic,
but not impossible.

To answer your other question - no we haven't taken over Radio Tirana in
any sense.  We're just one of many broadcast organizations they lease
airtime to.  BBC, Voice of America, and others have all used their
transmitting facilities.  To my knowledge, we're the only Christian
broadcaster from Tirana.

Radio Tirana does maintain some of their own schedule in addition to
allowingothers to use the facilities.

As to other countries broadcasting in Albanian on shortwave - here's a
list of broadcasters who had Albanian programming at the beginning of
last year (it may have changed since then, but I doubt sincerely there
would be no Albanian programs on SW of any kind.  It's just too
important in the international political scene.  TWR is also using
high-powered AM stations in Albania that the Albanina gov't uses for
their own purposes through most of the day.):

Radio Bulgaria (low-powered SW targeted to the Balkans) about 3.5 hours
per day

China Radio International (no doubt mostly propaganda aiming to get
Albania back "into the fold") - 1.5 hours daily on several frequencies

Deutsche Welle (German Gov't broadcaster) - a bit over an hour per day

RAI International (Italy's gov't broadcaster) - 20 minutes per day

Voiuce of Russia (formerly Radio Moscow) - 1 hour daily on multiple
frequencies

Voice of Turkey - (gov't broadcaster) - 1 hour daily on 1 frequency

BBC - (from the UK) - two 30-minute segments daily on multiple
frequencies

VOA - (from relays in Europe) - about 3 hours per day

The real difficulty with getting any of these broadcasts in the US is
that SW is directional in nature and specifically targeted to the region
where the audience is - in this case to Albania.  Althoguh not
impossible to hear them in the USA, it would take some pretty fancy
equipment (and a good deal of expense).  Sorry to disappoint you.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Sincerely,

Bill Damick
Broadcaster Relations Department
Trans World Radio
bdamick@twr.org



---
Jim called and thinks he may have succeeded in explaining to the Albanians
that there is 'no Albanian radio'.  He may find out Saturday, if the guy
shows up a Kiwanis again.
.

response 24 of 98:

Apr 7 21:36 UTC 1998

Mir dite, si jeni - Hello, how are you?  
(meer dee-te, see, yenee, in some people's transliteration)