Grex Radio Conference

Item 4: Shortwave Listening

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.

We have two radios.  What sort of simple antenna have you tried?  I think our
radios may have been built back before there was a problem with stations
overlapping, hard to tune in just one.  One of them takes 12 D cells and is
'portable'.  We 'fixed' it by removing the corrosion from the batteries.

  For SWL, a long wire is probably the best bet

What length do you suggest?

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

Jim brought home a little glass isolator to tie to a tree, and then tie the
antenna to that.  What about lightning?

  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.

But if we tie the antenna to a tree?  Lightning struck a couple of years ago
in the driveway next to my apartment and fused some gravel, also killed
my neighbors' answering machine.  Maybe we should ground the tree better?

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. 

Or only connect it while listening?  What does a lightning bypass look like?
I am sure we would forget to disconnect during storms.

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).

I am wondering why we seen to get better reception for Toledo on a
south-facing hill than in a low-lying area.  WOuld short-wave also be affected
by location, if it is AM rather than FM?

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.

Hills create radio "shadows" on their lee sides. This generally affect
commercial FM more than AM as the shorter wavelength of FM requires
more-or-less line of sight, while the lower frequency of AM diffracts
around obstacles more readily. 

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.

I enjoy the programs about a country's culture or about what's
happening in various parts of a country.  For example, one Radio
Slovakia program had a spot on the world's largest bryndze (a type
of goat cheese) factory.

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.

I did a quick search on http://itre.ncsu.edu/radio/RadioCatalogSW.html
but no Albania.

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.

The search yielded:
www1.gospelcom.net/trw/w middle east.htm  - TWR religious broadcasting to the
middle east, in AM from Cyprus and Montecarlo, and shortwave broadcast from
Albania to the east (Iran).  NO mention of braodcasting in Albanian here.

support.tandy.com/supportelectronics/doc3/3571.htm
A list of stations that can be heard in North America.  Broadcasts are in
English unless specified.  (Was not specified otherwise).
Radio Tirana at 7300 KHz.  

A US government report says that in 1997 Albania had 0 shortwave stations.

Rane or somebody, could you possible find the two religious programs and
explain what the 12367 MW (or 345 MW) 205 1467 K means, and the times.
And check at 7300 K to see what Radio Tirana is doing, if it exists?
Our radios are quite hard to tune, I would have trouble finding things, and
we have no antenna yet.
        I don't see the point in parting with one of our radios if there is
nothing in Albanian for the person to listen to.  But we will also try, this
evening after the ionosphere settles or whatever it does.
Thanks.  

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.

I think it would be about 6 hours earlier here, or 1:15 pm, and the guy is
at work then.  I also checked and they broadcast just religious stuff.
We may dissuade him from even trying.  But now I have learned how to read this
sort of list, we can hunt up some more interesting (existing) stations and
try to rig up an antenna.  Jim thinks it should be at least one quarter of
the actual wavelenght, but I could hear something with the little telescoping
one built into the radio.
        There is not a whole lot of point in owning a radio that plays your
language only 15 minutes/day, and only gospel.  I am trying to track down some
other Albanians here for them to talk to instead.  Quite a few are showing
up in Detroit from Kosovo, former Yugoslavia (with the ethnic unrest).
Thanks for steering us in the right direction, Rane.

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.
.

Wow. Good think I don't understand Albanian.

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

My thank you to Bill got the following answer, regarding the future of
shortwave radio.  By the way, what is digital shortwave broadcasting?

I don't know whether this will help much, but here's something I posted
to a SW newsgroup some time back that got some discussion going.  It's
on the perception that shortwave use is dying around the world.  Hope
you find it useful.  The copy you see here was sent to one of my friends
here in TWR.  The comments from Mr. Johnson that I was responding to are
marked with  >>. 

Bill
Trans World Radio

PS:  Where are you located?

----------------------------

Glenn,

Thought you'd like to see my latest commentary to the uninformed on
rec.radio.shortwave newsgroup.


> >I'm not sure anything needs to be done at this stage.  Shortwave
> >radio is becoming a relic of the 20th century.
> 
> Methinks the reports of SW's demise are a bit premature.  Although the
> tendency in Latin America and Europe has been to do away with SW
> domestic services, many of the larger int'l broadcasters still see it
> as an extremely viable medium for at least the next decade or two, and
> many for longer than that.  This has been encouraged by the
> developments in digital SW broadcasting.  Here's a few salient
> comments taken from a variety of sources on the web:
> 
> In a report presented by the Steering Committee of Experts in
> International shortwave Broadcasting of the European Broadcasting
> Union and High Frequency Coordination Council given in the spring of
> 1994, the following opening statement was made:
> 
> "It was recognized that SW is still the best available medium for
> international broadcasting and it should be retained for the next 15
> years at least.    ...it is unrealistic to make any reliable long-term
> forcast due to the speed of technological development, this seems to
> be a reasonable period of time for SW being replaced by other media.
> SW audience is declining in certain areas of the world, but in others
> it is still the most popular medium of information."
> 
> In a recent report (May 1997) by the government of Australia as it
> evaluated changes in its international broadcasts by shortwave, the
> following comments appeared:
> 
>  "In the section on transmission in this report, evidence was cited
> that showed short-wave transmission is a major growth area in
> international broadcasting. International competitors are heavily
> investing in transmission facilities throughout the region, branching
> into satellite rebroadcasting and entering into leasing and exchange
> arrangements with other broadcasters. Within this field, Radio
> Australia stands out as the only broadcaster who is unable to make use
> of off-shore transmitters to boost its signal to target areas. Despite
> being advantaged by its strategic location within the region, and
> therefore being petitioned for lease or exchange of air time, Radio
> Australia is the only international broadcaster which has not been
> able to trade in this increasingly competitive market. The following
> broadcasters use off-shore transmitters to target the Asia-Pacific
> region:
> 
> Radio Canada International uses transmitters in Korea, China and Japan
> 
> Radio France International uses transmitters in Japan and Thailand
> 
> Deutsche Welle uses transmitters in Sri Lanka and the Russian Far East
> 
> Voice of America uses transmitters in the Philippines, the Russian Far
> East, Singapore, Thailand (two sites), Tinian (Northern Marianas) and
> Sri Lanka
> 
> Radio Nederland uses transmitters in Madagascar to broadcast to
> Indonesia
> 
> BBC World Service uses transmitters in Singapore and Thailand.
> 
> In the past 12 months several of the national broadcasters targeting
> the region have taken steps to improve their short-wave signal
> strength. A summary listing includes:
> 
> China Radio International imported ten 500kW short-wave transmitters
> to boost its signals to Asia.
> 
> The BBC opened a new transmitter site in Thailand at a cost of 30
> million including four 250kW short-wave transmitters and seven
> aerials.
> 
> Voice of America contracted to build a new short-wave station in
> Tinian Island in the Northern Marianas using three 550kW transmitters
> transferred from Portugal.
> 
> Radio France International started using two short-wave transmitters
> in the Russian Far East targeted at China and Vietnam.
> 
> Radio Japan resumed the use of short-wave transmissions from Sri
> Lanka.
> 
> Voice of Vietnam started using a short-wave transmitter in the Russian
> Far East.
> 
> At a time when Australia is considering closing or reducing its
> international radio service, other countries are spending significant
> sums of money to boost their coverage and signal strength in the Asia
> Pacific region. With the end of the Cold War in Europe, the BBC and
> Voice of America are redeploying resources from Europe to Asia and the
> Pacific, while other western and regional broadcasters are making use
> of former Soviet transmitters in the Russian Far East and other former
> Soviet Republics."
> 
> Although Radio Australia did cut its international budget, the reasons
> were financial, and did not speak negatively about the medium of
> shortwave.  In fact, Radio Australia and the others mentioned have all
> recognized the necessity for continuing with, and expanding the use of
> shortwave for adequate audience reach.  This is illustrated by the
> comments from of the BBC in the same report:
> 
> "BBC World Service reported that it had recently expanded its services
> in the Asia Pacific region. Mr Sam Younger, Managing Director,
> clarified the organisation's priorities in the region to the
> Committee:
> 
> It may be helpful if I outline BBC World Service's thinking for this
> major region which combines information rich and information poor
> countries. It is also a top priority for the Foreign and Commonwealth
> Office, who indicated to us, at a BBC/FCO review of the region, the
> importance they place on radio as a means of promoting free
> information within China and enhancing the profile of the UK there. We
> plan to strengthen our broadcasts in Mandarin and must rely on short
> wave as the main means of reaching China and other closed societies in
> the area, such as Burma. We see Indonesian as another key language to
> be strengthened. "
> 
> On BBC World Service plans for rebroadcasting Mr Younger commented:
> 
> "We will pursue rebroadcasting opportunities wherever we can, but this
> is not a viable option for a number of countries in the region. We may
> well lose our present rebroadcasting in Hong Kong after June 1997:
> accordingly we are turning to the Internet for Cantonese and are
> already using this for English teaching. We think it essential that
> programming be tailored specifically for target audiences. The
> proportion of domestic BBC radio programming that World Service's
> English network uses is quite small and all our news and current
> affairs is specially made in-house, as domestic programming has a
> different and obviously domestic audience in mind."
> 
> Also focusing on Asia, the United States Recently launched Radio Free
> Asia, which uses shortwave as a primary medium.  Current construction
> on Tinian, near Guam, will equip RFA with three shortwave transmitters
> in excess of 500 kilowatts each for the express purpose of reaching
> limited-access countries in Asia.
> 
> For Africa, (estimated urbanization 35%) the opinions of most
> international broadcasters are summed up in the following remarks
> released by the BBC last year in their World Monitoring Report
> (January 5, 1997):
> 
> "International broadcasters have traditionally relied on amplitude
> modulation to broadcast on frequencies below 30 Megahertz [MHz], and
> mainly on shortwave (SW), to transmit their programmes.
> 
> Shortwave, and to a lesser extent mediumwave and even longwave, is
> attractive to international broadcasters and listeners alike, because:
> For listeners, receivers are relatively cheap and easy to operate.
> 
> For broadcasters, the initial investment in transmitters and antennas
> is quite substantial, but it enables them to reach huge numbers of
> listeners in many countries over a long period.
> 
> Reception on these frequencies, particularly on shortwave, generally
> suffers from rather poor audio quality, which is a major factor in the
> continuous decline in their popularity.  Local FM rebroadcasting was
> thus seen as an attractive solution to ensure the future of
> international broadcasting. However, the potential risks of local
> rebroadcasts being switched off by hostile "gatekeepers", or simply
> replaced by a growing number of local stations in need of frequencies,
> were not lost on international broadcasters."
> 
> Even more striking was a statement made by Robert Michael, head of
> research and strategic planing for Channel Africa in Johannesburg.
> The comment was part of an interview done last year in the Media
> Network program of Radio Netherlands. (Chanel Africa uses and
> subleases significant shortwave facilities for reaching all portions
> of Africa).
> 
> (From program transcript): "Robert Michel is head of research and
> strategic planning at Channel Africa in Johannesburg. He believes that
> it may be fine to talk about Internet and DAB, but Africa represents
> the real world, where there are far more have-nots.
> 
> [Michel] ... As far as Africa is concerned, we are not a continent
> where television will ever play the major role. I also have my doubts
> when we talk about DAB, digital broadcasting - the real world is
> different. A few kilometres outside Johannesburg, the tar will stop,
> and the dirt road will start. There's no mains electricity left...
> 
> And that is why I think we shouldn't talk about new technology, we
> shouldn't talk about television, we shouldn't talk about
> satellite-delivered programmes. What we in Africa really face is the
> problem: How do you effectively reach your audience? And I would think
> it's only by one means, and this is by radio...
> 
> Do we as international broadcasters want to reach these people? If we
> want to reach them, forget about television and forget about all these
> new technologies."
> 
> >What you are lamenting is the demise of a technology that has been
> >supplanted by the technology that made it possible for you to post
> >your concerns here.
> 
> While internet (usenet, www, etc.) is a really wonderful thing, it is
> highly unlikely in the next couple of decades that the areas that are
> principal targets of SW broadcasting will have sufficient internet
> penetration to the typical citizen at a cost effective to him to make
> any significant impact.  Scientific American issued a map earlier this
> year showing internet host densities - it was a striking illustration
> of how little internet is doing in Africa, Asia outside of Japan and
> Singapore, and India (where more than 70% of the population is rural).
> 
> One should also consider that in spite of all the non-English
> resoureces on internet, that it is still basically and English-based
> medium, and primarily a print medium at that.  While there is much
> debate on whether radio has much impact on the illiterate or
> marginally literate, there is litte doubt that internet will have
> virtually no effect on either group - which severely limits its
> effectiveness in most of the third world.
> 
> Might that change?  Sure, but not in the next ten to twenty years.
> 
> >This new technology will certainly replace shortwave radio in short
> >order for all but a few nostalgic hobbiest who cherish the past and for
> >those pockets of repressed peoples who have no other access to the outside
> >world. The Morse code is now deemed unnecessary and shortwave radio is
> >standing in the wings to take it's final bow.  Present shortwave
broadcasting > >budgets will soon be allocated for more direct communications
with targeted > >audiences. >  > Sounds a bit overstated to me.  Morse
communication ceased long ago to > be the principal use for SW, so its further
demise in the Ham Radio > community has little if anything to do with SW
broadcasts by > governements and other groups.  As to SW budgets being
reallocated, > that is true to a degree, but the evidence of new construction
above > seems to contradict that for the most highly-populated portions of the
> world. >  > >For most people, the present, and a yearning of the future will
suffice. > >Already, in many regions of the second, and even parts of the third
world, > >shortwave radio is no longer necessary in order to connect with the
latest > >in pop culture and what's going on.  The preferred media are local
AM, FM > >and TV.  The fact of the matter is shortwave radio is generally
relegated > >to diminishing lines on large government budgets and increasingly
present > >in the budgets of religious broadcasters who want to save the World.
It > >has ever-diminishing commercial value.  The average Joe outside the First
> >World context will grab the local clear station every time for pop music >
>and the government line.  It's only those few in the developing world who >
>desire an outside take on the news who will seek out a shortwave broadcast >
>from the BBC, etc. >  > Hardly a few.  BBC research claims an internaitonal
audience in excess > of 140 million on a regular basis.  As to "clear" local
stations, I'd > suggest you talk to some folk who have traveled to Africa,
India, > China, etc. and ask them about the reality of that outside of the >
cities.  Your comments concening the growth of FM and TV are true, but > again
with qualifications.  I'd be very careful of making sweeping > remarks which do
not reflect the reality for a lot of folk in the > third world. >  >
>Nevertheless, it remains a fact that shortwave radio is the only medium of >
>communications that can cross any border, regardless of any government >
>policy, and reach a little pocket radio fearfully clutched under the bed >
>covers. >  > Agreed! >  > >In that respect, here's to shortwave radio - may it
long live! >  > Thanks, we hope to! >  > Bill Damick > Trans World Radio >  >
PS:  we do about half of all our broadcasting on SW (about 600 out of > some
1200 hours weekly. The rest is on MW, FM, and satellite direct > where it's
better and more cost effective.  So, in places we've needed > to change, too.)


Any comments?


If anybody wants I can expurgate the above, if you will explain again how to
read expurgated files, in your response.

I think that wireless, terrestrial, radio will be around for a long
time to come.  The reason I say that is because it does not require
infrastructure.  All one needs to communicate is a transmitter and a
receiver.  No wires, no fiber optics, no satellites, no internet.
Radio still works when the infrastructure fails, either by accident or
on purpose.

That is the fundamental justification for amateur radio - citizens can
provide communications in the event of any disaster or failure of the
infrastructures necessary for commercial communication. [This also
requires having independent power supplies.]

But I would definitely say, not "no wires".   8^}

I guess you have not opened some of the modern transceivers lately.
No wires.  Everything is surface mount, even the antenna BNC.  ;-)

Those are surface-mounted wires. I think of a wire as a particular kind
of boundary condition on Maxwell's Equations, which does what, well,
wires do. 

Wires = traces?  Apart from a good antenna, what do you need to broadcast
shortwave?  Is ham radio on the same bands as shortwave?  What is longwave?
What bands is public service and who uses it?  (All AM, I assume).  What are
the FM frequencies outside of standard broadcast used of?  We once fixed an
FM reciever that was for either longer or shorter wavelengths, I forget.

You need a transmitter, obviously. :)

There are ham radio bands in the medium wave, shortwave, VHF, and
UHF areas of the RF spectrum.  

FM is a type of modulation, not a band per se. The FM band on radios
is so called because in that band the broadcasters use frequency
modulation.

I have some idea what FM is, but was wondering what the wavelengths not on
my radio are used for, since we ran across a receiver for them.

What does a shortwave transmitter consist of?  

I believe you said you had borrowed an ARRL Handbook. That contains 
complete descriptions of all allowable modes on all amateur bands, and
designs and illustrations for transmitters and receivers. Find a SW
listening book/magazine for whats on other bands besides amateur, above
the AM broadcast band. 

keesan, do you remember what the frequency range of that radio was?  Some
parts of the world (Japan is one place, I think) have an "FM" broadcast
band that goes from 70-something MHz to 90-something MHz, as opposed
to ours at 88-108 MHz.  108-136 MHz is used for aviation (AM).  There is a
small band near 162 MHz used for NOAA weather radio (FM).  If you're 
interested I can send you a list of other frequencies.

I had noticed that on the some list of radio stations on the Internet, Japan
had a frequency that we do not.  The FM radio is long gone, but I do recall
that there was not much of anything on the extra frequencies, except a bit
of talk.  SOmeone must have know what to do with the radio, as it was sold.
What is 70-88 MHz used for around here?
        I hear that there are some very low power broadcasts (FM stereo?) put
out at various student dorms, would that be on the regular frequencies?

The low power stations that show up in student dorms typically fall int
into the normal 88-108 band.  I think they usually hang out on the low end
(near 88) though.  As far as other things in the 70-88 MHz ban, it's
mostly TV and RC toys.
50-54: HAM
54-60: TV Channel 2
60-66: TV Channel 3
66-72: TV Channel 4
72-76: RC toys (airplanes, cars...)
  75 : Aviation Marker Beacons
76-82: TV Channel 5
82-88: TV Channel 6

I don't think that receiver was labelled TV band, so it must have gotten
the higher frequencies.
        Re shortwave, while testing out a new radio given to us, with
shortwave, I thought I had tuned to 3.0 MHz (SW1), and the strongest of two
strong stations that I got at 6 pm this Sunday (today) was crystal clear
Albanian news!  Followed by business news, sports news, and a lot of 
commercials for businesses in Hamtramck and Detroit with 810 or 313 numbers.
At the end of the hour-long program they identified themselves as WMZK,
station of the nations.  The next program was Polish.  What I was hearing was
AM 690 (someone had pasted over the AM indicator).  I will inform our
local Albanian, who stops by Kiwanis every week asking 'shortwave radio?',
that he can hear Albanian on medium wave, Sunday evenings.  There was even
some music, and an English and Albanian ad from a 'spiritual advisor' (fortune
teller).  I may call the Albanian travel agency in Hamtramck to confirm that
there is no Albanian shortwave broadcast here at a time when it can be heard.
It was exciting hearing about flights from Detroit to Podgorice via Rome, adn
the soccer scores, and waitress wanted postings in Hamtramck.  Very little
could be heard on shortwave at that time.  Where does one attempt to attach
an antenna to a boombox with a broken FM antenna and good AM reception?  There
is no place to attach externally.  When I touch the stump of the FM antenna,
it improves reception a bit, but buzzes (with a fluorescent light on, I think
I may be conducting AC signals at 60 Hz.)

   The AM antennae in boomboxes are typically ferrite rods. You can't do
anything to improve on that unless you want to tear the entire system apart
and then that defeats the purpose. On the other hand, the FM can be improved
by either adding a long wire, or simply replacing the antenna by buying a
replacement. Purchase radio is a good source for replacement antennae.

So why did putting my hand on the FM antenna improve shortwave reception? 
Can you add a wire to the AM antenna to improve shortwave?

The telescoping antenna IS connected to the shortwave receiver!  Simply
attach a long wire to it to improve reception.
 
You can also improve the performance of a ferrite antenna simply by
attaching a coil of wire to the end of a long-wire antenna and holding
the coil of wire near the ferrite rod.  There are also more involved
and selective ways to improve the performance of a ferrite antenna without
opening the radio.

I guess I was having a similar effect to a coil of wire.  WOuld an old ferrite
antenna held near the one in the radio work as well as another separate coil?
We have several good receivers with the ferrite rods on the outside, may try
that when we have the time.

If the ferrite antenna is on the outside than just wrap about 10 or 20 turns
around it to couple to your antenna.

Nope, it is somewhere on the inside.  We may play with it tonight.  We now
have four portable, ferrite on the inside, shortwave radios.  The ferrite on
the outside receivers are not shortwave.

A shortwave receiver with the antenna on the inside?  I've never seen one
of those.

My guess is that the ferrite coil antennas are only used for the AM
band.  When you're listening to shortwave bands, the radio probably
uses the telescoping rod antenna.  As Rane says, if it's not there,
get a replacement or simply attach a wire to the stub.

Klaus said that. Ferrite antennas are used for AM only, because AM is
long-wave, and one can only resonate a short antenna at those frequencies
by building in lots of inductance. FM is much shorter wavelength and a
short wire and internal circuity is effective (plus some other technical
reasons).

Two of our 'shortwave' radios are actually boomboxes with shortwave added,
and casette players, which is why no external antenna connection.  The other
two are very old 'portables', one of which takes 8 (12?) D cells.  Some day
we will find the time to experiment with them.  In the meantime, a second
Albanian at Kiwanis gave me the full broadcast schedule for Radio Tirana, the
41 m band from 6-12 p. m. every day, plus they also broadcast to Argentina
on the 49 m band but more weakly.  He has several shortwave radios and know
the other guy and will give him one.
        Jim is ready to go.  Bye for now.

We attempted to listen to our four radios.  The smaller boom box, with the
FM antenna, got Radio Tirana, not all that clearly.  The bigger one, with the
dead cassette player and no FM antenna, did much better, especially with my
hand on the antenna stump.  No place to attach an external antenna.
        We then tried out my Sharp portable model.  It has P. L. (Panel light
- push it in and you get a red light), AFC (for FM) and PFO (which a friend
explained had something to do with sideband reception - when I pushed in it
the light glowed brighter and I got some whistling sounds).  Without buttons
pushed in I got nothing.  THe switches all need cleaning.  Vol is either off
or full blast, FM works almost none of the time, could not get shortwave but
we have gotten it before by pushing a random sequence of switches.  Will clean
the PFO, AM-FM-SW and volume controls and try again.  The Zenith trans-oceanic
has a nifty antenna that folds up in the carrying handle, a map of the world
and dial to compute local times, and a pocket with a list of countries,
frequencies and times.  Albania was listed for 6-12 pm, 38 m.  I should have
looked there before the Internet.  The radio takes 8 D cells but would not
work with teh adaptor from the Sharp, pulled the voltage way down.  Will
retrieve our D cells from Kiwanis (used to test a TV there) and try again.
I recall getting good reception with them.  Why would the adaptor from one
radio (also 8 D cells) not work on the other radio? 
        I also got some Russian talk.  More Thursday, with batteries?

It could be the the polarity on the plug is opposite from one 8 D-cell
radio to the other.

We tested for polarity first, Jim thinks it just needs a higher-power adaptor
(or is it higher current)?  
        I got Albania on the Sharp radio, with none of the buttons pushed in.
Took a long time to find, and I had to act as the antenna (a hand on the stump
worked just as well as a wire attached to the external antenna connection).
Also found Serbian news in the 31 m band and somewhere else, and Russian in
two places, possibly Romanian.  All terrible quality and hard to understand
because I think the bandwidth received is too wide and I heard several
stations at once.  Will hope for better reception with the Zenith.  Are the
newer models more selective (narrower frequency range tuned in)?

There is a minimum bandwidth required for intelligable reception, but
there are too many stations to separate them all that much, so you will
usually get interfence, and the stronger station wins. 

Cheap, decent, shortwave receivers start at about $150 and go up from
there.  In general, the more you pay the better the selectivity and 
sensitivity, at least to a point.  The BFO is a Beat Frequency Oscillator.
You engage that to listen to Single SideBand transmissions and CW 
(Morse code).  SSB and CW are sent without a carrier like AM is.  The
BFO is use to reintroduce the missing carrier.  (It takes power to
transmit the carrier so it is more efficient to send the information
without the carrier and add the carrier back in on the receive side.
This works well for speech but not for music.  If the carrier is slightly
off, the pitch changes.  SSB and CW are used mostly by amateur radio
operators.  These signals are also weaker and more tightly packed
together so they require the more expensive receivers.  For Radio Moscow,
the BBC, etc. you do not need a >$200 receiver.)

What do the whistles mean with BFO pushed in?  Do you need a decoder?
(We forgot to get the D cells today, may test the Zenith Saturday.)
Our most expensive shortwave cost $8, the others were given to us.
Today I got a call for an Albanian interpreting job, which requires flying
around in a helicopter for a month, all expenses paid (I had referred a job
like this to a couple of Bulgarian friends who told me about it).  I gave them
the name of the guy who had told me what frequency Radio Tirana broadcasts
at, let's hope he does not have a real job to interfere with it.
        Radio Tirana came in much more clearly than the Serbs, but they both
seemed to be talking mainly about Kosovo.  Someone killed someone....

BFO modulates the received signal with another constant frequency, which
produces a sum frequency and a difference frequency. The difference frequency
is in the audio range, and you hear it as a whistle. This was first used
with CW (Morse code) which was just sent as dots and dashes of radio
frequency. It is made audible by modulating the received signal with a
constant one to produce a difference, which is heard as audio dots and dashes.

We heard some dots and dashes, and also some whistles, I think.

The BFO can also be used to listen to SSB transmissions.  When listening in
AM mode and you hear a voice transmission that sounds kinda like Donald
Duck (sorry, I can't think of a better way to describe it) pop on the BFO
to make it come in clearer.  It takes some practice, but if you play with
the tuning knob and the BFO adjustment enough you should be able to get
clear speech.  Ham operators use single-sideband a lot.  Try around
3.8 - 4.0 MHz, 7.2 - 7.3 MHz, and 14.2 - 14.35 MHz for the hams.

  I am a ham, and listening to hams on HF is in a word- boring. 

   Typical ham conversation is about, but not limited to the following topics:
  The dog, the wife, the new radio/computer/piece of test equipment, the
antenna, my neighbor, his kid/wife/mother in law. The weather, the lack of
weather. Trust me, hams have had nothing to say since God was in short pants.
 Better you should listen to the commercial stuff.

Not quite true - amateur radio has been very important in emergencies
when what hams have to say saves lives and property. But, admittedly,
that kind of traffic isn't exactly "typical", except I avoid the "typical"
topics and use ham radio almost exclusively for public service.

I think we have heard the sounds described in 57, but not recently.  We have
the batteries now, but are not where the radio is until possibly Monday.
People at Kiwanis keep asking for shortwave radios so we may donate a couple.
What criteria should we use to select the keepers?  (Other than getting Radio
Tirana, which all three tested do, and being understandable).  Is it worth
making a power adaptor for the battery one?  Will that reduce quality of
sound?

A power adapter will not reduce sound quality. Does the radio have a jack
for a power adapter? Does it specify voltage and polarity? Power adapters
can be obtained rather cheaply from many mail-order places.

We have lots of power adaptors at Kiwanis, all 12 Volts, and will try out
various amperages until one works.  Jim can figure out the polarity.  Nope,
no jack, just a battery compartment.  We forgot to bring one home with the
batteries.  Jim thought the slightly variable voltage from the adaptor
might give inferior sound quality compared to straight DC.  We can check.
(Connect a center negative plug of the adaptor to the negative end of the
battery compartment, or a center positive to the positive end, I presume, but
the last one we hooked up did not work for some reason).
If we get this working we can then hardwire an adaptor to the radio.

All 12 volts?  I'd be very surprised if you didn't find some 6V and 9V
adaptors in that box, too.

...and specified for the radio, too. Count the batteries, by the way, and
multiply by 1.5, to find the preferred battery voltage. It is not impossible
they include a LM780x for use with adapters.

I meant we had all sorts of 12 V adaptors (of course we also have AC, and 4.5,
5.8, 6, 7.4, 8.3, 12.6, 15, and the like DC).  Eight batteries - 12 V but
somehow the adaptor from the other 12V radio did not drive this one. 
I find it unlikely that we will discover in our box of adaptors an adaptor
specified for a 40 year old shortwave radio that was not built to take an
adaptor.  We will just bring home an assortment of 12V DC adaptors of
different amperages.  What is an LM780x?

How did you attach the 12V DC adapter? You have to put it across the
two wires that comes from the battery pack *unless* there are more than
two wires, and the batteries are tapped somewhere to provide an intermediate
voltage.

The radio is not where we are, we can check tomorrow for extra wires, thanks.

We now have two fewer shortwave radios.  Brought the Transoceanic in to
Kiwanis to donate and one of our helpers was interested.  He said one of the
solder connections needed redoing.  The other one we marked $35 and it sold
to an American who wondered whether he could also broadcast withit.

We brought home an old tube radio to test out (the speaker could use changing
- would that affect the antique value)?  Can someone explain why in order to
hear Radio Tirana I have to set bandwidth to 36 out of 100?  Changing the
bandwidth changes the station.  Could it be that the radio selects for the
stronger signal in a particular section of the spectrum and that depends on
the width of the section?  What is CW vs AM?
        We put the antenna wire on one of three screws.  The other two are
connected by a jumper, assuming AM and ground.  Correct?

How "old" a tube radio? Old tube radios from the 20's have some value, if
in good shape. Those from the 50's...well... Bandwidth? If there is such
a 'knob' on the radio, it adjusts selectivety, which has to be adjusted
to converge on a narrow frequency range in the broader range. That narrower
range might not include a nearby louder station. CW is "continuous wave"
modulation, which consists of turning the carrier on and off (in dits and
dots), used for code. AM is "amplitude modulation" where the amplitude of
the carrier is changed to follow the modulating signal (which might be
voice, or music, etc). The demodulation required for CW and AM are different.

CW sounded like whistles.  Radio is probably fifties, baked-enamel metal case.

OK: that means that "CW" turns on a BFO (beat frequency oscillator). One
cannot hear code transmitted just as interrupted carrier. One must mix
it with a close frequency, and one can then hear the frequency difference
as a "whistle" (forming dits and dahs). If you use a BFO with an AM signal,
however, it will beat with the carrier continuously, and you will get that
whistle. That's not a 'kitchen radio' from the 50's if it has a CW option -
rather more sophisticated. Does it have short wave bands? If it does,
including a BFO makes sense, as that's what you will find on many of the
bands.

Yes it has shortwave bands, it is a shortwave radio that also has AM.  Greyish
green baked enamel tube radio, bandwidth adjustment, cheap speaker but a place
for an earphone (two widely spaced small holes), several SW bands with cities
and other things marked on them.  I keep forgetting to look at the brand.

Could it be...Hallicrafters? I had one of those that I used for ham radio
in the 50's.

Hallicrafters it is!  Am I right about fifties?  It gets a lot more stations
than the others when I use bandwidth adjustment.  WOuld it hurt to put in a
better speaker?

Anyone played with shortwave to AM converters?  I'd like to put one in my
van, and I'm looking for a good circuit to build one.  Seems like the NE602
mixer/oscillator would be a good bet for this...any ideas?

Re #74: t he bandwidth adjustment is used while hunting for signals. You
get a better chance of picking up a signal, especially CW, if you can hear
over a wider band while spinning the tuning. Then you can narrow it for
selecting out the station you want. 

Actually, I think my parents gave me my Hallicrafters in the 40's. 

It's actually not a bandwidth control, it's called bandspread.  It's
function is to change the receive frequency, but it changes it more
slowly than if you turned the tuning knob.

That is a big help to know, sort of like the fine tuning knob on my other set?

A third Albanian came into Kiwanis and wanted to buy a $3 transistor radio
to listen to Tirane.  He said the last radio he bought there did not get
Tirana.  So I gave him a really special price on a shortwave radio and told
him what number to set it at.  It had brought in Tirana really clearly for
me from 6-12 pm.  Next week he brought in the shortwave - No Tirana - and the
clock radio.  And got a full refund.  This whole conversation was carried out
in Albanian (mainly the numbers and a; lot of pointing).
'The radio does not work'.  'It worked for me'.  .......

I have posted a notice in the other conference decrying lack of SWL
news, while here is a whole item devoted to it. hello all.I have been a
swl for quite a few years although I have not been in touch lately due
to other pressures. Re antenna, could anyone tell me the following: Is
there a "correct"length of wire for a particular frquency? In other
words will the wire i attach to my receiver be longer for say 19mb
broadcasts than for 31mb broadcasts.? thanx

  You can use a random wire, in this case, the longer the better. There is
a formula (which at the present moment I'm at a loss for) for calculating
the proper length. Since you're not transmitting, length is not a critical
factor, however you want to be long enough so that you can recieve the
desired frequency.
  I'm sure that the other denizens of this conference will offer thier
2 cents worth on this subject as well. 

Jim says you take the inverse of the speed of light times the frequency of
the radio station.  Your antenna should ideally be about one quarter or one
half of the wavelength, if possible.  For FM 90 Mhz about 5 feet.  3 feet is
just under one meter.  Rane, can you be more exact for 19 mb?  Use the speed
of light in a vacuum.  Radio stores sell useful lengths of antennas for SW.

Nicely enough, the speed of light in a vacuum is 300,000 km/s. Hence
if we use the frequency in mHz, the equation is f L = 300, with L in
meters (OK - its really 299.7923...you can't cut your antenna that
accurately). 

Antennas of 1/4 vs those of 1/2 wavelength are *enormously* different
in their electrical properties. This makes a huge difference in
transmission, when power is to be efficiently transferred from an
amplifier to the antenna radiation, but power efficiency per-se is
not nearly as relevant to receiving antennas. The receiving input circuit
for a SW receiver is designed for low noise and relative indifference to
the length of the attached antenna. I haven't looked into the nitty-gritty
of this, but it involves taking advantage of the fact that the currents
induced in a receiving antenna also cause (re)radiation. Actually, the
best thing you can do to improve reception is install a good *ground*
system. On radios running on AC, the power cord is in effect the ground.
On battery radios, there is just some inefficient coupling to ground
because of the capacitance between the chassis and ground. Ground the
chassis, though, and you will improve reception remarkably (usually - you
might overload the front end, which will defeat your objective).

Thanx for the responses. I am sure however that the last word has not
been said on the subject. I will follow with keen interest any tips for
improving reception , that a person like me not overburdened with
knowledge of electronics can implement.

Another thing I want to understand is the followin. I have the greates
difficulty in catching low frequency transmissions (3-7 mhz) in this
part of the world.(that is western India, in case you are not
aware).When I started out in SWL I was reliably informed that due to
phenomena like sunspot cycle and other atmoshperic conditions, reception
of certain wavelengths will cyclically vary in quality. i e there will
be parts of the year when you can listen to certain wavebands
particularly well, but they won't be so good in other times. Nowadays I
find rather unusually good reception on Higher frequencies.(17-21 mhz)
All I am trying to say is I observe no such cycle with the low
frequencies.They are uniformly bad at any time of the year. I get All
India Radioand that is that.

Another thing I want to understand is the followin. I have the greates
difficulty in catching low frequency transmissions (3-7 mhz) in this
part of the world.(that is western India, in case you are not
aware).When I started out in SWL I was reliably informed that due to
phenomena like sunspot cycle and other atmoshperic conditions, reception
of certain wavelengths will cyclically vary in quality. i e there will
be parts of the year when you can listen to certain wavebands
particularly well, but they won't be so good in other times. Nowadays I
find rather unusually good reception on Higher frequencies.(17-21 mhz)
All I am trying to say is I observe no such cycle with the low
frequencies.They are uniformly bad at any time of the year. I get All
India Radioand that is that. I will try experimenting with the correct
lengths of wire and see what happens.

I hope someone who knows more can help you, Harish.  Maybe Rane?
        Yesterday someone bought a nice portable shortwave radio from Kiwanis.
He had never used one before, and was interested to hear that I was a
translator.  Unfortunately it was too busy to ask him if he know other
languages.  We have had Turks, Russians, Albanians, Chinese, Spanish, etc.

I don't do any SWL. However ordinarily one needs longer antennas to capture
energy at lower frequencies - apart from the propagation conditions
that vary with the sunspot cycle. Long-wire antennas shorter than a quarter
wavelength drop off in their energy collection efficiency, which for 
3 MHz is 25 meters.

Keesan, when you say you are a translator, is that your profession. you
appear to know a great many languages.( I get that impression). I had a
whack at learning German recently. I did it for three months and
finished near the top of my class, but I do not think I retain anything
now.

You have to use a language to retain it, yes it is my profession, mostly the
Slavic languages and a bit of Albanian and Romanian.  Fun listening to SW just
to identify languages - Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and some odd ones besides
French, German Spanish Italian Russian Portuguese.  

I do not know if this is the right forum for this question.
Did anyone happen to see the much vaunted Leonid Meteor Showers which
happened yesterday?

It is being discussed already in items in both agora and science.

The reason why I brought it up here was this. I read some where that the
entry of thousands of meteor into the atmosphere at one time creates an
ionized layer very close to the earths surface. This enables us to
receive for a brief while AM and FM transmission over 2000 km compared
to the usual 50 km or so (for FM). Does anyone know anything about this?
I could not really test it out as FM transmissions here close at 2300
hrs IST and the meteor shower was scheduled at 0230 hrs IST. I did not
see any meteors either.

Re: the discussion on the sunspot cycle.  The way I understand it is that
sunspot activity is cyclical and that cycle takes roughly 11 years from peak to
peak.  Sunspot activity is currently on the increase.  What happens is similar
to what harish describes.  That is, propagation in the upper 10 - 15 MHz of the
SW spectrum becomes much more spectacular, while the propagation
characteristics for frequencies lower than that remain relatively unchanged. 

For SWLs, that means that propagation should improve in the 17 and 21 MHz
bands, and hams should see better conditions in the 10 and 15 m bands. That
does seem to be happening, too.

do you guys know anything about the Sony TFM-1600 rcvr ?i mean , have you ever
heard of it ?

I asked this in Agora, but this is probably a more appropriate place for it. 
Anyone know of any current car radios that receive shortwave?

I've heard that VW used to have, as a dealer option on some of their
European-spec cars, a Blapunkt AM/FM/SW radio, but I'm guessing my chances
of finding one of those are slim to none.

I answered in agora - but a more useful answer is - try Grove Radio. They
sell SW radios, and some are set up to run off 12 VDC. Adapters could
be used for those that run off other voltages. The catalog I have is old,
so I don't know what's currently available from them.

I just went through an old C. Crane catalogue, and they had an AM/FM/SW
radio that they claimed were the same as they put in Euro BMWs.  

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