Keith Perron Joins Amateur Radio Ranks

The long time international shortwave broadcasting celebrity, and current host of the long running "Happy Station Show" has taken, and successfully passed his Amateur Radio Exam in Taipei, Taiwan. Keith is now just waiting for the Ministry of Communications to issue his callsign and send his license. Congradulations, Keith! Expect a pile - up when you start calling! Everyone is going to wanna work you!

British Men With SBS Equipment Being Held In India

Two British men who traveled to India with their electronic aviation plane spotting equipment, commonly known as SBS, which is used by hobbyists and aviation professionals alike, are being held for questioning in India after a waiter at their hotel said they appeared suspicious. http://netindian.in/news/2010/02/16/0005353/two-british-men-plane-spotting-gadgets-being-questioned-delhi

Canadian Pirate Arrested - Equipment Confiscated

A minor in Canada, all of 14 years old was arrested and had his equipment confiscated in Ottawa, Canada recently. Complaints to IC and other authorities in combination with a reported suicide threat made by the minor, who was operating his pirate station out of his Father's strip club had authorities on to his operation quickly. A popular Canadian radio forum first broke news of this pirate station, known as MixFM. This young man also posted his telephone number and actually took callers who were then put on the air. Reports state that MixFM programming was mixed with profanity and diatribes. According to available information, the youngster may have been running at up to 3.5KW ERP while using a dipole mounted on a tower. The first website used by MixFM on a service called piczo has been removed, but MixFM is back as an internet broadcast operation without the benefit of generating RF. At this juncture, the young man who is not being named due to the fact that he is a minor, has vowed to obtain RF generating transmitter equipment again and put his unlicensed operation back on the air. As a side comment, this blog questions Industry Canada's competency in another matter related to this as far as why they cannot take VE7KFM off the air and yank his license, yet they can take this young man off the air using all sorts of manpower. Linkage is here , here, and  here

HF Propagation: Have You Ever Wondered?

Anyone who turns on a shortwave receiver or an amateur HF radio in any mode (AM or SSB) may notice that the signal comes and goes. This is called fading. Although fading isn't always bad, there are times when it's bad enough that you turn your radio off in disgust. Many people blame bad HF reception on near-by electronic sources and this can sometimes be the case, but if you have your listening station properly set up, then you may be no victim of local interference, but to a change in ionospheric propagation. This well written piece over at QSL.Net says it is a beginner's introduction to understanding propagation, however, it is so well written and so concise that you just might become an expert just by reading and understanding everything.That said, it would be understandable if a person wanted to further pursue the subject of ionospheric propagation. There will be more coming on the subjects of antenna's and propagation in the future. The follow up posts to using antennas will be forthcoming and is under development.

Strengthening Your SW Reception Antenna On Grundig / Eton SW Receivers

The radios named in the title come with antennas that are very well constructed, and good for almost all SW reception. Mike, over on the SWA Facebook site brought this topic up, and it was agreed that this topic is an excellent one to post! So, Mike, Thanks for this material! The Grundig and Eton SW Receivers come with a small antenna connector in the back of the radio. You can use a longwire such as cheap copper stereo wire or something similar, and it's very easy to use! If you live in a dwelling that allows outside antennas, throw your antenna around two of the highest points of the roof. If you cannot erect any antennas outside, using the highest points of the inside of the dwelling will also work well. Always make sure to extend your attached manufacturer's antenna to full length, as the antenna will hear much better. Unless you are very advanced in radio technology and electronics, I do not suggest taking your radio apart to work on the provided factory antenna. Doing this will also void your warranty if it is still in effect. For those who are advanced, or have access to someone who is advanced, a good pre-amp can be used in line with the factory antenna. MFJ and a few other corporations make some nice pre-amps! Prices will vary by brand and model, so be sure to do lots of looking around. One draw back of using a pre-amp, however, will be that a pre-amp can help bring in noise along with your desired signal reception, so knowing how to work with various filters in the radio helps! This is just a basic article and will not become much more technical than this tonight. Perhaps a follow-up article will be written giving links directly to working with these issues. 73 for now! SWA

Shortwave America On Twitter!

SWA can now be found on Twitter. The whole blog name was too long, and S_W_A was already taken, so look for SWA as ShortwaveUSA.

In the most recent Twitter revolution, it was thought that readers may want to use Twitter to catch up with SWA if there are those people who use it for radio information that follow SWA.

One fan of ours, PCJ Media is also there and will be very happy to see SWA make it's appearance there!
Hope to see everyone there!

Merry Christmas!

Shortwave America (SWA) will be on break during Christmas. Posting at Facebook, and the official SWA blog sites will resume December 27th 2009, and will be followed by another break in posting from New Year's Eve through New Year's Day. Posting will then resume January 2nd, 2010. Everyone be sure to celebrate safely! If you plan on drinking, even one alcoholic drink, make sure you have a designated driver. If you don't think that's possible...then hand your keys over to someone who will let you stay the night so you can drive home ALIVE and help keep other people using the roads safe and alive as well!

CCrane 2 Radio With 2 Meter Amateur Radio Band

CCrane has accomplished something that no other radio manufacturer has! The marketing of a dedicated AM/FM radio with the addition of the 2 meter amateur radio band. This came to the attention of this author via WBBM Radio commercials by CCrane. The CCrane website tells the basic story of this radio. There are some radio enthusiasts, especially licensed amateur operators who might be happy using their all band - all mode transceivers for this task, but if you wanna shut down the rigs and just have simple coverage in your home somewhere outside the shack without having to buy a scanner receiver, this is your option! A small review of this radio can be found at E-Ham direct,  via this link

Today's Station Log: DX Galore!

Today's Shortwave finds started using a method in which the VFO was started at higher frequencies, worked back downwards and then back up again. Not all stations were able to be identified, so just the language of the broadcast is given with the freq in Khz and the signal report.

All of these finds took place between 1PM Central Time and 3:30PM Central Time.

AWR Nigeria - Freq: 11.750.00Khz Signal: 5 by 9

Polish Broadcast - Freq: 11.664.00Khz Signal: 5 by 9

German Broadcast - Freq: 11.565.00Khz Signal: 5 by 7 with fading

Middle Eastern Broadcast - Freq: 11.865.00Khz Signal: 5 by 9

Middle Eastern Broadcast - Freq: 13.650.00 Signal: 5 by 9 (sign-off)

Spanish Broadcast - Freq: 17.628.00Khz Signal: 20 over 9

Top Hits Of 2009 (possibly a UK Broadcast) - Freq: 9.503.00 Signal: 5 by 7 with fading

Classical Music with Female Vocalist in English followed by middle-eastern pop style music also with a female vocalist in arabic - Freq: 7.450.00Khz Signal: 5 by 9

"Mary Did You Know?" Freq: 7.462.00Khz Signal: 20 over 9

CHU Canada Freq: 7.850.00Khz Signal 5 by 9 peaking to 15 over 9

Portuguese Language Broadcast - Freq: 9.420.00Khz Signal: 5 by 7 swinging to 5 by 9

Arabic Language Broadcast (I.D. as Family Radio, Open Forum, Oakland, California)- Freq: 11.662.00Khz Signal: 5 by 9

Test Posting - New Feed Option

Testing a new feed option that hopefully, will send this post to LJ and also Facebook simultaneously. Crossing fingers!

Update: Test unsuccessful, guess it's time to try another method of connecting blogs automatically. 

SWA Facebook Group & Livejournal Account Opened

In the first twenty four hours, the SWA Facebook group has seen nine members add themselves to the group. It's a small beginning, but better than nothing! Thanks to the people who have joined! SWA hopes you have a great time being able to discuss all the radio related topics your hearts can conceive. A new growth experiment is taking place at Livejournal, as SWA makes it's presence as Shortwave_Blog. 

Facebook isn't able to find the blog URL over here for some reason, so an LJ account has started and LJ will post SWA material to Facebook!

Shortwave America Now On Facebook!

For those of you who frequent Facebook, you can now check out what's going on over at the Facebook group. This blog is also being imported to the same site by a very cool Facebook application. Please feel free to let this blogmaster know if the feed doesn't work well using this application.

Using Facebook, Twitter For Amateur Radio

While surfing the ARRL website, it seems that their "surfin" feature has hit on an interesting concept:

Using social networking sites for Amateur Radio. How can a person use one of these sites for radio related activity beyond simple social networking? This author has no clue, but will be watching to see what develops. The most interesting thing out here in terms of internet and social networking is D-Star, Echolink, and IRLP. WebSDR is also a neat thing. Various applications for cellular phones are available as well. Most of the cell applications are for RX only, unless you are one of those who use their cell to remotely access your HF rig at home.

Radio Prague To Keep Shortwave Station On Air, Chicago Radio Talent Feel Effects Of Economic Decline

This news is a bit late on both topics, but a double post is worth something. Radio Prague will keep it's shortwave station on the air but there is a trade-off. Their transmissions will not be as frequent as listeners are used to. In other radio news, famous Chicago voices worth millions of dollars are being cut from station talent lists. Shortwave America has recently discovered that there may be more to this story than meets the eye. Economic decline is just a small part of the picture. 

It seems that Arbitron is being accused of cooking their ratings. The context of this accusation has more to do with shutting out stations who are important to minorities. An investigation is on-going, and it might be reasonable to expect that if Arbitron is indeed guilty of this, radio stations would be in a position to lose alot of money just because of their association with the well known ratings company. 

The talent with million dollar voices are being given a second chance to stay around by a short list of Chicago stations IF they agree to stick around for less than that cool million. Some personalities have stated that they have entered into agreements with their stations because they can live on just a bit less and they need their jobs, just like the rest of us. See the entire story here.

New Shortwave Schedules

This new set of shortwave listening schedules has recently been posted. Shortwave America hopes your Thanksgiving was a fun, healthy, and safe celebration and apologizes for the delay in posting. There were a few hindrances in the happenings, but posting resumes now on a regular basis.

Enjoy the new schedules, enjoy your listening, and feel free to post in the comments section about anything interesting you hear. On that topic, what is YOUR favorite shortwave band or specific frequency to tune?

73 for now!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Radio Amateurs all over the U.S. will be with their families for the holiday, likely getting stuffed. Some others will be at home or at community celebrations. Where ever you are, celebrate knowing that we all have something to be thankful for, even if it's not some dramatically inspiring event or circumstance.

Use this as an open post in the meantime. Shortwave America will be back on Monday with new material.

Drive safely, and if you drink at all...don't get behind the wheel! Let someone drive you back home if you can. Give a close friend or family member your car keys to keep temptation away, and make sure that person is someone who will not or cannot touch alcohol! Stay the night and get some rest at that celebration for safety sake if you know you shouldn't drive and it's a situation where others have been drinking and they can't be expected to drive! Your life matters and so do the lives of others on the road!

Shortwave Radio Africa - Bringing Hope To Zimbabwe

Africa, whose people have long been screaming for Freedom, a nation that has survived apartheid and endless other travesties now has to face a Government who has promised them freedom but has given little more than actions that are contradictory to their promises. This is a story about jamming, censorship, and the people's absolute right to have communication beneficial to their existence.

An excerpt from THIS SOURCE:

"Repeated attempts by the Zimbabwean government to jam the station's signal have recently stopped, she tells Journalism.co.uk, which is just as well as the station doesn't have the funding available to get around it."

"We're still being heard. We're clearly getting up their noses quite a lot at the moment. Even they realise that it would look really bad in terms of the unity government, but there is still a simplistic view that the opposition can shut us down," says Jackson."

Jackson has not asked to take over the government, she is asking for a conduit of communication that will benefit the people of Zimbabwe by providing programming that is informative and has a journalistic value. There is a web presence for this movement, as text and radio are said to be the only way into Zimbabwe in terms of communication per Jackson. Shortwave America will bring you links to the SWRA web presence and will follow this story with updates to this post.

Thank You To The New Few

This web publication has been alive since October 22nd 2008, and it laid dormant for many reasons. One of the bigger reasons has to do with finding the creative groove for this effort. Something that both promotes and advances the world of both Commercial Shortwave Radio, AM Medium Wave, and Amateur Radio altogether since our worlds intersect in certain ways.

I have found that there are those of you who have provided a link to this site on your own blog, or your radio related web presence, or you forwarded it on to your mail list in case anyone had any interest. It seems that the creative groove that was given mention, has indeed come about. The effort to find new material to publish here isn't always easy and other days, it's easier than the day before.

Thank you for coming here to see what the news is, to view station loggings, to read whatever it is that interests you! As you can see, the effort is not to be like most other big sites whom have all the same material as the next site. The purpose of having a mixed bag of radio activity published here is to have well rounded coverage of what interests everyone instead of staying limited to just one specialty.

Some of the bigger, more well known sites have more than one area of coverage for sure. The idea being worked with here is to bring all of the information sources together and that is what creates a well rounded publication no matter what media is used to present it.

Thanks for being here! You can look forward to something new here whenever you visit. Updates are planned for every 24 hours or every 48 hours, whichever gives the most opportunity for good material for your reading pleasure. The comments section is here to be used if you feel the need to add to a topic, to sound off your point of view on something, to say whatever it is you want to say on any topic. Use these comment sections as you would any of the other radio forums out here, but please keep it as close to appropriate as you can. Some topics could potentially stir emotion in certain radio circles and it can be hard to comment objectively.

This is easily understandable. Shortwave America wants you here and welcomes all from every radio related profession and social circle that exists. Thank you to the few new people who we know are reading, and to those who have linked here. The new work week starts tomorrow (like anyone needs to be reminded?) Enjoy your new week and Shortwave America will enjoy bringing you something you can relax to on your break time or your other free time. 73 From Shortwave America! 

Terrestrial Broadcast Radio Losing It's Relevance?

The newest threat to radio broadcasting, whether it be local FM, Medium Wave AM,  or Shortwave RF technology has been on the list of threatened communications for a long time now. It seems that Reciva has developed something they are calling "Internet Radio". Streaming audio has been on the rise everyday since the technology was invented. Radio stations have had to change with the times. Listeners have changing tastes, wavering attitudes that change with the popular trends in society. 

Articles at FRRL Wordpress go into great detail about the changing radio marketplace. Whoever wrote these pieces over there is truly someone who is in touch with everything that is happening, and one smart individual! From the business perspective, the author makes some really substantial points to the ends of being quite compelling. One of the best points made is that the author went to a location that should have had at least reasonable reception of a 50,000 watt local station, but that "blowtorch" couldn't make it outside of the metropolitan area of Chicago.

Another argument made by the FRRL wordpress author was: Who would want to deal with RF challenges when they can use an "Internet Radio" to tune in thousands of stations from across the world on one of these internet radios? 

I want to talk about why internet cannot be relied upon and why internet radio isn't radio at all! This change in the listener market has deceived many because they make this box cleverly designed to look like a radio, giving the perception to the public that this is really a radio. This "radio" look - alike depends on a stream of audio from an I.P. Address. The I.P. Address is assigned electronically to a computer server somewhere, and the computer feeding into the server may or may not be feeding live "broadcast" programming. 

No one is broadcasting at all with this internet radio. Internet depends upon a heavy infrastructure that has all sorts of holes in it, making it unreliable. The biggest flaw is that the internet can be taken down easily by anything or anyone or any circumstance powerful enough to be reckoned with. What happens when the internet is gone? Your signal to your "internet radio" stops! The term "signal" in this case is a misnomer. Satellite Radio at least depends on a real Satellite using RF to deliver a real signal. 

It's like a radio amateur who doesn't have a radio, or can't hook their radio up because of restrictions. This goof gets on Echolink and thinks he's somehow participating in radio. This can be equated to internet radio. We hams call it Hinternet. 

Any computer tech can more substantially make the argument about the internet being unstable and unreliable in the context this is being presented in. In any sense, even though it makes no logical sense, REAL RF Radio is being put into a corner by these developments. Forget about the old resistance to change that alot of people will make. Conspiracy theorists have united in the radio circles to call this a method of controlling the media, the flow of information, etc. They could be right however, it would be more likely to be true by accidental result of what the new technology is. 

This whole mess should concern the radio broadcasting industry, radio hobbyists, and our respective listeners enough that a stand should be taken. I mean a noticeable stand that shows concern in the scientific and business contexts. If a stand is to be taken, it needs to make a provable case for itself. Preserving radio ought to be a top priority for every reason there is. Every reason you can think of is a good reason to preserve RF communications! Add it all up everyone! It will be enough evidence to make even those promoting internet radio think twice if they know their profits could simply dissapear with any major event powerful enough to cause major disruption for more than a reasonable time. 

REAL RF Radio will still be there to inform the masses if anything described above should ever happen. Radio Communications is a proven science that cannot be overlooked nor forgotten about. The world is in major conflict constantly, and radio gets the news to everyone. Let's take a stand for REAL RF! Find a way to stand behind your local and shortwave broadcast stations, keep them on the air!

In the FRRL Wordpress artcle, it is mentioned that radio hobbyists aren't the focus of broadcasters. The article mentions that a station - radio hobbyist relationship is undesired, and that stations are more focused on those loyal listeners who believe in the station's content. This is as it should be to a certain extent. Who do these stations think a large portion of their daily, loyal, believers are? I think they would be stunned to fnd that these same people are educated people who come from a history of listening to their radios, and they have learned how radio works. In essence, they are all radio hobbyists!

The articles are here. Read them and follow the links. There will also be a link to an old Pop Comm article about radio facing a threat due to the changing demands of listeners. 

 

Handy HF Band Chart

How often have you wished you could recall a frequency for simple listening or even amateur operation? You might go to Shortwave Central or the ARRL site and pull your information from there, maybe even NASWA (North American Shortwave Association). These groups are all great organizations, but why should you have to surf all over the web for your information? 

Shortwave America decided it was a good thing to post a comprehensive listing of what the bands are, their corresponding frequencies, and UTC Time Conversion. Listings for specific stations will still have to be searched for until Shortwave America can incorporate specific station listings, which is a really ambitious project.

More complete HF Band Information can be found here

Shortwave America will be working on obtaining permission to copy the information from the above link into this post. Stay tuned for more updates!