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Bring Back Shortwave

spectator.co.uk

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Re: Bring Back Shortwave

#111

Post by hilbert42 »

dalke wrote: post #69
digitalsankhara wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

"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.""

Thank you very much for pointing that out. I'm in Australia and I've often pointed to the fact that many countries restricted access to the radio spectrum for many reasons—to limit EMI, for state security and strategic reasons, ensure secrecy of communications, etc.

For example, when I got my amateur ticket whilst still at school in the 1960s I had to sign a Declaration of Secrecy and have it witnessed by a registered JP. The reason was that people such as us could come across important transmissions (messages) of a strategic nature that should not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands.

Come mobile phones, WiFi etc. that changed without any real public discussion whatsoever.

What I find absolutely amazing is how—by sleight-of-hand—Big Tech sideslipped both very tight telephony and radiocommunications laws to violate say privacy on smartphones, and the fact that they've gotten away with it. The smartphone generation hasn't a clue about any of this stuff. Right, once the privacy of telephonic communications was inviolable, now it's a fucking joke.

On the matter of the declaration of secrecy, amateurs could possibly come across unencrypted telephonic communications, ship-to-shore etc., and as deemed secret, they (rightly) were not allowed to act on that information in any way, in fact jail-time penalties applied if laws were violated.

Incidentally, as my Declaration of Secrecy has never been rescinded I'm still bound by its conditions.

Re: Bring Back Shortwave

#112

Post by hilbert42 »

digitalsankhara wrote: post #84
BoxOfRain wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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). Yeah in a couple of years it'll just be Radio Caroline and various small-time pirates on AM. Even the venerable longwave transmitter for Radio 4 is getting shut down in a couple of months sadly. Can't help feeling this is all a bit short-sig…

Totally agree. Thought about this myself, as a way of having true community radio. A simple hobby broadcast license of low cost might be pooled to cover copyright music only to prevent the types raids of seen on pirate stations (leaving aside what politics can be read into that enforcement). Maybe that would not be such an issue these days, but anyway, there is a lot of Creative Commons content out there. I love list…

"I love listening to the North Sea pirates on medium wave. So diverse and ecletic!"

I lived on the other side of the planet the 1960s when Radio Caroline began transmission so I was deprived of the somewhat 'illicit' fun of listening to it.

Instead I'd come home from school turn on my shortwave radio and witness Radio Moscow and Radio Peking battling it out for the position of which could produce the most outrageous and over-the-top propaganda. It was hilarious, even this naïve school kid wasn't taken in by any of it.

That was at the height of the Cold War (Cuban Missile Crisis, etc.) and especially Radio Moscow could be heard splattered all over the dial—it seemed that no matter where one tuned, it came in at strength 5/9+, its signal was enormous.

I'd love to hear some recording of those broadcasts again and I reckon I'd still be amused (I've not searched but I'd bet there are recording of them in archives somewhere).

Re: Bring Back Shortwave

#113

Post by hilbert42 »

kube-system wrote: post #102
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…

> ionospheric propagation [...] will still be reliable. ...for varying definitions of 'reliable' :)

Yep, an issue with 'old fashioned' comms.

But modern comms will switch bands or 'glide' frequencies in sympathy with the changing ['fading'] MUF, etc. and can do so automatically (using OWF in conjunction with IPS also helps). Combine that with modern encoding/digital modulation and say DRM of the right kind—Digital Radio Mondiale—for audio etc. and it's pretty damn reliable.

Want better? Diversity TX/RX and or multichannel via in-band and or cross-band into comparators etc.

Re: Bring Back Shortwave

#114

Post by nubinetwork »

_def wrote: post #34
JKCalhoun wrote: post #30

SDR has started me on the path of exploring the radio spectrum, I encourage anyone who is interested in radio who has not tried it to get a cheap SDR dongle and give it a spin.

You can even try some websdr servers, it can be really fun, even/especially(?) if you don't really know what you are doing

A lot of publicly available websdr's have a limited frequency range due to the hardware used, or political reasons, I wound up buying a limesdr myself because nobody nearby has the ranges I want.

Re: Bring Back Shortwave

#115

Post by digitalsankhara »

hilbert42 wrote: post #112
digitalsankhara wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree. Thought about this myself, as a way of having true community radio. A simple hobby broadcast license of low cost might be pooled to cover copyright music only to prevent the types raids of seen on pirate stations (leaving aside what politics can be read into that enforcement). Maybe that would not be such an issue these days, but anyway, there is a lot of Creative Commons content out there. I love list…

"I love listening to the North Sea pirates on medium wave. So diverse and ecletic!" I lived on the other side of the planet the 1960s when Radio Caroline began transmission so I was deprived of the somewhat 'illicit' fun of listening to it. Instead I'd come home from school turn on my shortwave radio and witness Radio Moscow and Radio Peking battling it out for the position of which could produce the most outrageous…

It's interesting that today Radio China International is everywhere on shortwave.
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