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Bring Back Shortwave

spectator.co.uk

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Re: Bring Back Shortwave

#61

Post by DrillShopper »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #57
baskinator wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A ham technician license is pretty easy to obtain in the US, and a handheld radio can be had for cheap. HF takes a little more hardware though.

And I believe you don't even need a technician license for just listening in.

You do not!

You can get started for as little as $17: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074XPB313

For the other amateur radio operators on the site, the UV-5Rs from the main Amazon seller all comply with spurious emissions regs - the ones from AliExpress are hit or miss. Plus searching YouTube with 'Baofeng UV5R' will turn up a ton of material including explaining why people should care about the spurious emissions.

Re: Bring Back Shortwave

#62

Post by Cthulhu_ »

II2II wrote: post #45
JKCalhoun wrote: post #28

> Britain and most western countries have put all their eggs in one large basket: that of digital communications. In a time of global conflict, this could be a risky and painful prospect. There's a scene in The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970) where a man (Jewish) is listening to the events of WWII play-out over shortwave. He is living at the moment in relative safety but he understands from what he hears that cha…

There is a difference between being prepared and being a prepper. Having the means to receive outside information is being prepared. Listening to it day and night because you think your government is out to get you is being a prepper.[1] [1] Unfortunately, many exceptions apply.

The Dutch government updated their "prepper" guide the other day, basically asking everyone to make sure they'll be alright for up to 3 days (was 2) in case of calamities - weather events, utility outages, etc. It's pretty standard stuff - water (3 liters/day/person), food, radio / powerbank, flashlight, candles, first aid kit, blankets, hygienic products, etc.

Re: Bring Back Shortwave

#63

Post by TheAlchemist »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #9
euroderf wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read (but not tried) that what works is a verrry loooong wire strung up like between trees or in a barn.

It's not a bad choice, but the tiny tecsun radio I have has a telescopic antenna that is about 3 ft long when extended. It receives shortwave very well. If there is some distant broadcast (maybe overseas) that you want to receive you can definitely build a very efficient antenna system for that broadcaster's frequency. Be prepared to shell out well over $10,000 for this.

What kind of equipement one would need for that ?

Also interested in what kind of equipment broadcasters use - it's some off the shelf stuff ?

Re: Bring Back Shortwave

#64

Post by cloudbonsai »

AnonymousPlanet wrote: post #29
y33t wrote: post #21

I love the idea of shortwave but all I ever pick up are Jesus channels.

I'm in Europe, so it's mostly Chinese propaganda in various languages that you pick up on shortwave around here. There's exactly one American broadcast you can get here and that is, you guessed it, a Jesus channel.

It would be funny if a prepper spent $100+ on an emergency radio receiver, and took all the trouble to ensure it's reliably working. Then, when the apocalypus day finally comes, all they can listen to is a jesus channel.

Re: Bring Back Shortwave

#65

Post by digitalsankhara »

hilbert42 wrote: post #19

Those who've had experience with either transmitting or receiving on the HF band and or lower frequencies (≤30MHz) and who've knowledge of ionospheric propagation just know that short, medium and longwave RF bands are still essential in this digital/cable/satellite era for reasons that when all other communications systems have failed then communications on these frequencies will still be reliable. Moreover, in warti…

You covered all the points I was going to make. As part of the pre-internet generation that grew up with radio and a ham radio operator since my school years this is second nature and common sense to me.

It is interesting that governments have long recognised the power of shortwave such that they have restricted what a citizen can do with it. In wartime, ham radio is usually made illegal. The recipient of a broadcast cannot be detected (save some very local factors - meters range) which is why governments around the world still use shortwave number stations to transmit coded instructions to spies.

I suspect the removal of AM radio in EVs is also because the cost to RF shield the car against EM emissions in that frequency range was deemed too high for the audience it would address, and maybe just lazy or engineering too. Agree, very short sighted.

Hell, even the BBC in the UK is closing down local AM transmitters on cost grounds (but I suspect there is political pressure to move the masses to digital UHF infrastructure).

A medium wave/shortwave transmitter is the ultimate in post apocalyptic film memes!

Re: Bring Back Shortwave

#66

Post by Cthulhu_ »

ggm wrote: post #31

I used to get the woodpecker, and some very ominous semi-continuous monotonous hums in human hearing ranges with occasional tweedle. And the lincolnshire poacher. Or, something very like it. This was 70s Edinburgh, with a long-line antenna strung from my window to a tree about 50m away. I tried to make a dipole out of it, not sure it really worked. The radio was WW2 bomber surplus store, about 15U high and probably s…

QSL cards (just looked it up) look like a fun hobby to send or receive, but probably moreso if you live somewhere remote or exotic (not me, I live in peak Dutch suburbia).

Re: Bring Back Shortwave

#67

Post by Cthulhu_ »

CraigJPerry wrote: post #54

This seems like a pretty silly article. A shortwave radio station is a single point of failure. You can either physically interrupt the transmitter - conveniently it tells you exactly where it is the whole time it is transmitting. Or, you can broadcast interference. The internet or digital communications does not share that same single point of failure.

Interference is a problem for sure, but that's only in one potential scenario (open warfare with troops / interference broadcasting nearby); for all the other scenarios it's good to have a backup.

Re: Bring Back Shortwave

#69

Post by dalke »

digitalsankhara wrote: post #65
hilbert42 wrote: post #19

Those who've had experience with either transmitting or receiving on the HF band and or lower frequencies (≤30MHz) and who've knowledge of ionospheric propagation just know that short, medium and longwave RF bands are still essential in this digital/cable/satellite era for reasons that when all other communications systems have failed then communications on these frequencies will still be reliable. Moreover, in warti…

You covered all the points I was going to make. As part of the pre-internet generation that grew up with radio and a ham radio operator since my school years this is second nature and common sense to me. It is interesting that governments have long recognised the power of shortwave such that they have restricted what a citizen can do with it. In wartime, ham radio is usually made illegal. The recipient of a broadcast…

> such that they have restricted what a citizen can do with it

My grandfather, born in Canada and later naturalized as a US citizen, got his ham ticket back in the 1960s, but, as he wrote: "This was O.K. for one year but to renew & become general I would have to obtain more than just a US passport; It would be necessary to get a certificate of citizenship. This took years and during those years I landed up in the Dom. Republic & got my Ham ticket there without it, HI3XRD."

He later moved to Miami. When Hurricane David came through the D.R. in 1979, he was one of the ham volunteers who helped handle communications from the island.

Oh, and he never got Extra because while he could manage 13 wpm for General or Advanced, he couldn't manage the 20 wpm for Extra.

Re: Bring Back Shortwave

#70

Post by lormayna »

CraigJPerry wrote: post #54

This seems like a pretty silly article. A shortwave radio station is a single point of failure. You can either physically interrupt the transmitter - conveniently it tells you exactly where it is the whole time it is transmitting. Or, you can broadcast interference. The internet or digital communications does not share that same single point of failure.

It's not exactly like this. The localization is not easy, because the distances are huge (several thousands of kilometers) and shortwaves are bouncing over the atmosphere. Think about the number stations, that are still not localized after years.

And even jamming it's not always easy: the Turkish government usually jam the Kurdish shortwave stations like Denge Welat targeting Europe, but they are moving up or down in frequency to avoid the jamming. Moreover, you need a lot of power to jam another station.

Another advantage of the shortwave is that it don't require a complex hardware neither infrastructure to receive them: a rudimentary AM receiver is very simple to implement and can work also on battery for long time.

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