Shortwave radio: can you hear me now?
mountainrunner.substack.com
mountainrunner.substack.com
I wasn't interested in the propaganda per se but rather the fact that it was so transparent and hyped up as to be absolutely hilarious.
What was not lost on me was how truly effective shortwave actually was as a communications medium. Radio Moscow was the quintessential example of this, almost everywhere one tuned across the various shortwave bands one could hear a 5/9+ signal almost as clearly as a local AM broadcast station. By comparion, VOA (Voice of America) was a minnow.
For years I've said that it would be foolhardy to discard shortwave on strategic grounds and the Ukraine situation has clearly demonstrated that.
I think we underestimate both AM and shortwave radio because they're old technology but we mustn't forget how truly effective they can be. In the end they will get the message through when all else has failed - the internet down, submarine cables cut and satellites out.
Not only is AM/SW radio effective but we also shouldn't forget that it's simple technology that we can fall back upon at any time. In an emergency, we can have services up and running almost overnight.
I've always reckoned that AM radio was one of the greatest inventions of all time. Sometimes we overlook the true worth of old and or familiar tech and that can be to our serious disadvantage.
I've had a problem with anxiety, and loneliness, over the years.
I just need something in the background.
I miss the old time radio programs, and Art Bell.
If had money I'd buy up any AM radio frequency, and put out new material. Even as a kid, I preferred AM old time theater to tv.
These days, radio is still a powerful tool but it's often underappreciated. Whilst one can have the TV on it's not of much help unless one's watching it, whereas radio is more intimate in that one can go about one's daily life and its presence is still with one.
What you observed about your mom's life I've also seen in my own relatives especially the women in my family whose partner had died. For them, the radio was pretty much a 24/7 comfort and a protection against loneliness. My appreciation of this never fully struck me until they'd died. It's now a big regret that I never spent more time with them when they were alive. The fact that I cannot undo that hurts.
(BTW, I often post comments on line more as a diary or aide-mémoire to remind myself of what I thought about a story. I wouldn't bother to do so if it remained on my home PC but the added incentive that others may read it spurs me to write. These days, there's so much competition for people's attention online that one posts on the understanding that if one's lucky one's comment will receive a few fleeting glances. Occasionally, when one receives genuine heartfelt feedback as with your post, it makes one's efforts feel as if they've been worthwhile. Thanks.)
Radio is by far the most effective electronic medium to keep one company, it's more intimate than any of the others - it's not only the broadcast program per se but also the fact that the announcer is talking to you.
I've still two Sony ICF 2001D receivers, in fact I'm looking across my room now at one. As FM, AM and SW RXes they're second to none outside a proper communions receiver.
What’s your take on podcasts?
Well, it depends on who you listen to. There are many places in Russia and Siberia that are out of range of normal broadcast services and many of those who live there still listen to shortwave broadcasts.
This isn't my opinion, it's the opinion of those who are prepared to and who are actually putting money into such broadcasts:
https://www.radioworld.com/global/bbc-world-service-revives-...
https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/why-we-still-be...
Moreover, as past experience has demonstrated, it only takes a few to receive such broadcasts and then the rumor-mill quickly works overtime to spread the word far and wide.
In remote parts of Australia it came as a great loss when Radio Australia was switched off, along with the SW rebroadcasts of the various state-wide ABC programs. Many 4WD and Marine travelers had their HF radios fitted with ABC frequencies. There are huge areas of land and sea which have no alternatives but for SW radio.
In ancient times I worked for RCA in its prototype laboratory who supplied much of Radio Australia's equipment to its Darwin† transmitting station (I would have worked on some of that equipment and my boss was head of the RCA installation team). Its closure, albeit some decades later, always struck me as a foolhardy decision by a stupid penny-pinching government.
If any place needs good AM and shortwave radio services it's Australia, as FM doesn't really hack the pace with such huge distances (and I've also had much to do with FM so my comment is engineering-based and not preferential bias).
As I've mentioned a while back on HN, in the 1970s and pre-Radio National, I could travel from Sydney to Adelaide via Cowra, West Wyalong etc. by car and listen to the ABC all the way without a break (2FC Sydney, 3LO Melbourne and 5CL Adelaide) on the AM Broadcast band. One can no longer do that due to co and adjacent channel interference from other stations as well as the general increase in the noise floor of the AM broadcast band that's occurred since then. Damn nuisance really.
__
† That said, the Darwin TX was mainly there for Indonesia and bits of Asia that you mentioned although that doesn't detract from my main points.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/2022/04/26/pacific-...
* AM is so under-utilised now this idea wouldn't tread on many important commercial or IP toes, it'd be nerdy hobbyists like us on HN for the most part. People would be able to experience being on the 'real' radio (as opposed to streaming) without the undesirably chaotic situation that would happen if this was allowed for FM or digital radio broadcasting.
* The barrier to entry for hobbyist listeners (as opposed to hobbyist broadcasters) is basically zero because everyone has an old radio capable of tuning the AM band in a cupboard somewhere - which gives this a great anti-ewaste environmental angle. The existence of webSDRs has made MW and SW DX-ing really accessible too.
* Interference is so bad on the MW band now anyway thanks to modern electrical equipment putting out lots of noise, adding low power hobbyists to the mix is probably an 'in for a penny, in for a pound' kind of scenario. Like what damage can a few hundred hobbyists spread out over the country and limited to a low power realistically do when there's millions of cheap power supplies putting out more interference to MW than all of them put together?
* AM has a really appealing subjective qualities in the same way other technologically inferior approaches like vinyl records and cassettes do. There's something really appealling to me about the way AM cracks when there's a distant thunderstorm or the way you have to get up and physically move the aerial to bring a distant station into audibility. It's a very hands-on thing, yes it sounds very lo-fi but I like that - it's lo-fi in a soft, gentle and pleasantly unpredictable way whereas when digital approaches sound cheap it's usually in a harsh and unpleasant way.
About 20 or so years ago I suggested to radio amateurs to set up a network for earthquake research but there were no takers back then.
It's known that often before an earthquake that highly stressed rock can radiate low frequency electromagnetic fields. If a widespread network of low frequency listening stations were established around the world then it's just possible that these waves could be detected before an earthquake begins within sufficient time to give vulnerable people adequate warning.
Because of the still-experimental nature of such research it is unlikely that governments or commercial operators could justify the funds necessary to set up sufficient (or the necessary) number of listening stations worldwide for the scheme to work (at least initially until proven to work). The solution: use the amateur radio network. Not only would it be in keeping with the longstanding ethos of amateur radio operators supplying emergency communications during disasters but also it would interest many radio amateurs from a scientific stance.
The way I'd envision it to work is that amateur stations would set up (VLF) very low frequency transmitters to act as beacons in a sort of cellular grid where a station would continually monitor one frequency and transmit on another (multiple frequencies being necessary so transmitters and receivers can be used simultaneously at each station (location)). When the transmission path is such that a signal is either received and or its signal varies with a signature that's characteristic of an earthquake then warnings can be issued.
It's my understanding that the transmission frequencies necessary would need to be much lower than any amateur band currently issued or agreed upon by the ITU, etc. (i.e.: in the 10s of kHz or so), so new amateur bands may have to be issued (initially, they could be allocated on a trial or experiential basis).
It seems to me that perhaps geologists, scientists and engineers with an interest in electronics or radio communications may wish to follow up this idea.
There have long been enthusiastic groups of shortwave listeners involved in such projects, for instance there's a world-wide group of VLF listeners who are interested in sudden ionospheric disturbances (SID).
see https://physicsopenlab.org/2020/05/07/vlf-receiver-for-sid-m...
Also have a look at the "Natural Radio & VLF Group" at VLF@groups.io
You might be surprised to hear that there is an active group of enthusiasts who are now transmitting over thousands of miles using ELF wavelengths (eg audio frequencies) that are not in any existing Amateur radio bands.
see http://abelian.org/ebnaut/
and https://naturalradiolab.com/
And FWIW, in recent years Amateur Radio operators world wide have been granted access to a number of VLF radio bands, eg the new 137kHz band.
When I asked some of those who were supposedly in the know (radio amateurs) a few years back if there had been any effective (actual) earthquake warnings they resounded with a define 'no' so I reckoned that it was a fair assumption that there were still insufficient monitoring stations listening or that no one was transmitting on suitable frequencies to detect any such signals/earthquake detections.
I've not heard anything to the contrary since then (published in Science, etc.). So far, I've only had the most cursory glance at your links but I didn't see any references except for a short comment to the effect that there was 'nothing conclusive yet'.
There is some overlap, but the prime focus is on different frequency bands and different areas of propagation research.
And FWIW, there is a large and active interest in VLF propagation research coming from the various universities, particularly centered on Arctic/Antarctic monitoring stations.
Moreover, from my observation, the quantities of research papers in the scientific press (in relative terms that is) on these topics have decreased. For example, the last IGY was in 1957/8 so it's been a very long time between drinks so to speak: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Geophysical_Ye....
Back then, this kind of research was public knowledge (I was just old enough to appreciate its significance and it was a huge deal). In comparison with the '57/8 IGY, more recent attempts have been second-rate also-rans.
We need the level of support and interest that the IGY received if we're to make real progress in these areas. Nowadays, like much scientific research that isn't mainstream (say, unlike the well-funded biological sciences), it doesn't attract a great deal of mainstream interest as it would have done in the days when the use of the spectrum below 30MHz was technologically, economically and strategically important (MF and HF/SW broadcasting for example). When did you last hear of developments in RF and ionospheric research below 30MHz make it into the nightly TV news? Point made!
More to the point, my main concern here is with Amateur Radio in that it has been in significant decline for decades (at least it's definitely so where I am in VK). There are those who say the interest is as strong as ever but the numbers speak for themselves (and it's a big worry - for I won't have to remind you of the ever-present Use them or lose them arguments).
This loss of interest in AR has meant that fewer younger people are entering the hobby - most of those who now attend field days etc. are ancient and have little interest in pursuing the matters you've raised.
AR is now a far cry from when I first obtained my license decades ago, unfortunalely, it's only a shadow of its former self. The concomitant effect of this loss of numbers/new blood is that SIGs are small, few in number and now lack sufficient resources to be significantly effective forces in large projects (such as those under discussion here).
In short, Amateur Radio no longer carries the prestige and influence it once did with both government and the general public. No doubt you'd disagree.
Trouble is times have changed and moved on, such topics are now much more rigorous in that they require a greater indepth engineering/scientific understanding, and university students no longer have the time to play Amateur Radio or to belong to SIGs, etc., etc. as they once did. Of course there are exceptions but the low numbers again speak for themselves. Unfortunately, the more professional approach towards scientific research these days leaves little room for amateurs and hobbyists.
We've seen this repeatedly over the years and nothing reminds me more of this than the way the hobbyists and amateurs were cast aside in the early days of microprocessors. Now that the Big Boys have moved in and taken over we're now left with a secret proprietary world that amateurs, hobbyists and independent professionals have lost control thereof. Their act of excluding us means we're no longer informed about the technology and if we dare reverse-engieer the tech then we'll likely end up in the slammer.
Facts are that we're no longer wanted participants in computer tech - but only as subservient consumers who no longer complain.
Frankly, I hate this state this affairs but it's the way of the world and I - we - have little or no chance of changing it.
Not an accident, targeting Americans with VOA used to be unlawful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith%E2%80%93Mundt_Act
Russians, however, are clearing living in opposite world. Intercepted calls to family from 'special operation' soldiers show that Russians have no clue at all what has been happening. They argue with their soldiers about the state of the invasion, astonished and confused when told that Ukraine hasn't been overrun and denazified yet.
The only solution here is time. A year from now and 100,000 dead Russian solders will eventually start raising questions in the minds of these people. Until then any attempt to convey reality to them, via shortwave or otherwise, will be dismissed as enemy propaganda. They're that far gone.
Perhaps so, but even if they dismiss such messages as enemy propaganda now they don't forget them. Later, after events change, that latent information can come to the fore and be relevant.
Radio, especially low-tech AM radio, has been one of the most effective propaganda mediums of all time. One should never forget how truly and horribly effective Goebbels' propaganda was in the 1930s and during the War at galvanizing the German people.
As that lesson taught us radio propaganda works and works par excellence if done well. All that's need this instant is people who understand that and who can put the medium to work forthwith.
"In other words, shortwave was great but it’s not the option you’re looking for. The audience won’t be there. "
That isn't to say we shouldn't try short-wave, but expectations should be tempered.
I was a volunteer in rural Central America from 1998-2000 and shortwave radio was an important news source for me (but already a VERY niche medium, even then). Nights I dialed in VOA and then found a lot of other interesting things too, from Cuba to broadcasts from Spain, Germany, and Indonesia. It was all fun and exciting.
Ten years later I began a decade of work overseas in rural West Africa. I dutifully brought my shortwave with me, only this time I found close to nothing on the airwaves. Some crazy religious broadcasts here and there, but nothing. I looked around and can confirm that in ten years of living in Africa (with a lot of West African friends and colleagues) not a single one of them had or used shortwave, or even really had any awareness that it existed. The number one media source even then was FM radio tuned in over cheap Chinese FM radios or over FM radio apps on cell phones.
I've still got a shortwave and occasionally scan the frequencies from my hammock here in North Carolina. But there is really not much there (religious stuff still being one exception). I ask myself, if rural West Africans aren't listening to shortwave anymore, really who is?
This article answers it: a few pockets remain, like Nigeria and Myanmar. But the shortwave era ended: everyone who left shortwave never came back, even when newer methods failed. Guess it was fun while it lasted :)
My shortwave broke in transit home, but I picked up a new one around 2000, just in time for the BBC to end its broadcasts to North America. That really signaled the beginning of the end as other broadcasters cut back or eliminated their broadcasts.
(There are a couple of comments now - including the author’s response - but it was pretty clear which one you meant. )
Note, it's a lot of work.
Applying for a license, public hearing etc. complying with regulations etc., getting the station running - studio, transmitter, antenna location etc. requires a group of dedicated people with a wide variety of skills to pull the whole operation together.
I know, as I've done it. Years ago, not only was I involved in helping getting a community FM station running but back then where I live there was no FM service and we had to petition government to hold a commission of enquiry just to get the FM service approved. And that even meant having interlopers who were then occupying the international 88-108MHz FM band evicted.
If that weren't enough we even built our stereo exciter and transmitter from scratch.
Out of curiosity, if you don't mind divulging, what general area was it operating? Alaska?
No, we've been notoriously inept at documenting our own history (and without pushing our barrow too far, I'd say some of it is milestone stuff that ought to rate higher in the history books on broadcasting). A number of our people have tried and there is lots documentation of sorts but nothing by way of a 'how-to' book. As is often usual with founders (especially techie ones), documentation is usually disorganized and rates a poor second to everything else. And we're no exception.
Not sure what you'd need exactly (I'd roughly have to know your expertise, resources, human and otherwise and so on). BTW, there are many groups who've done this before so my group isn't unique by any stretch.
I've no objection to providing you with some info from time to time if I can so long as it doesn't bog me down in too much work.
"...if you don't mind divulging, what general area was it operating? Alaska?"
No it's not Alaska, in fact Alaska would have already had FM services by the time we'd started (at least I think it did). I'd prefer not to divulge specific details here - not because of any secrecy or such but because it'd only further improve Google's indexing of me which I find irksome. I've no objection to contacting you by other ways if possible. I'll say this much I'm not in the US (however I'm familiar with and have visited the stations mentioned immediately below).
In the meantime/for starters try these links, our listener-supported radio is similar to these services, albeit somewhat smaller:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KQED_Inc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBAI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacifica_Foundation
First, note the age of these stations, this is quite relevant. It's unlikely you'll get any help from them directly as by now their founders will have either retired or have died (my experience is that the second generation of people is much more interested in talking on the radio than creating a radio station (in fact, there is a stark difference in attitude). Moreover, this later generation usually has little interest in the station's history so they actually know very little about how it started or came into existence.
Nevertheless, you should get the flavor of things if you chase down rabbit holes and crevices in these or related links.
Good luck.
> In other words, shortwave was great but it’s not the option you’re looking for. The audience won’t be there.
The audience left because it was, at the time, interested in commercial and cultural content. Times have changed...
I recently bought a shortwave receiver for the first time in my life. I specifically wanted something useful for when the "always-connected" stuff fails.
I completely embraced being online ever since BBSes of the early 90s. Been watching it become consolidated and controlled by an ever shrinking list of ever growing corporate influence. The internet of today is garbage compared to what we had in the late 90s.
I think there's massive potential for a resurgence of shortwave in the 2020s, a medium that can't be controlled, can reach across borders, and has become so obscure that there's no real risk of corporatization
Imagine yourself sitting in the bomb shelter. You need a strong signal there for reception not the Mickey-Mouse attempt relying VOA via WMRI from lake Okeechobee. Apparently VOA doesn't think it's worth the effort.
It's really crappy that we have all this spectrum and all of it goes to these multibillion dollar telecoms while the citizens get less than crumbs.
The one thing which keeps the "multibillion dollar telecoms" out of the SW bands in that encryption is not allowed.
And how would your "citizens" even be able to listen to the new digital services if they were encrypted?
Whatever, these frequency bands are so narrow that it makes wide-band digital services utterly impractical.
Needless to say there are a group of trolls who are constantly pushing this idea on behalf of the greedy commercial players.