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RSID:
<<2016-08-08T20:00Z
MFSK-32 @ 6070000+1500>>
Hello and welcome to DigiDX 24, a
weekly review of the latest shortwave
and DX news broadcast mainly in MFSK32 mode. This broadcast includes
shortwave news, an article on the Evolution of Shortwave Radio by James
Careless from RadioWorld and the e-QSL card,
DigiDX weekly schedule:
Sunday 2130 - 15770kHz via WRMI (Okeechobee, FL, USA)
Sunday 2330 - 11580kHz via WRMI (Okeechobee, FL, USA)
Monday 2000 - 6070kHz via Channel 292 (Rohrbach Wall, DE)
Thanks very much to listeners Oscar Marazzini, Alan Gale, Jordan
Heyburn, Fred Albertson, Mike Stapp, Mark Braunstein and Richard Langley
for contributing via Paypal or to the Patreon campaign.
Latest Shortwave News:
Last ever Wavescan DX Contest - Grand Finale 2016
PCJ Radio special broadcast
Vatican Radio ending Rosary and Latin Mass broadcasts on Shortwave
Last ever Wavescan DX Contest - Grand Finale 2016
WaveScan have announced that their 2016 DX Contest will be the last ever
and will be titled “The Grand Finale” . The contest is based on
listening to all Adventist World Radio’s transmitter sites and has run
since 1971. For more information on the contest running in August and
September go to http://goo.gl/O3bXst
PCJ Radio special broadcast
August 21st and 22nd PCJ Radio International will present part 2 of From
The Radio Netherlands Archives.
The focus will be on news and documentaries. You will hear Ginger Da
Silva, Eric Beauchemin, Pete Myers and more.
There will be a special E-QSL issued for this program presented by
Paulette MacQuarrie.
August 21, 2016 : Europe: 0600 to 0800UTC – Frequency 7570kHz
August 22, 2016 : North America: 0100 to 0300UTC – Frequency 7780kHz
Vatican ending Rosary and Latin Mass broadcasts on Shortwave
Vatican Radio are ending their daily Rosary and Latin Mass broadcasts on
shortwave which previously were broadcast on frequencies 3975kHz,
6070kHz, 7250kHz and 15595kHz at 0530 and 1830. The 6070 broadcast
clashed with Channel 292 and gave DigiDX a chance to broadcast at this
time and test different modes against interference from Vatican Radio.
However these extra DigiDX broadcasts will now no longer take place
daily as they have done for the last few months. Thanks to Merkouris for
putting these broadcasts together and I’m sure some of the experiments
he has done can now move into regular DigiDX broadcasts over the coming
months.
Now follows an article called The Evolution of Shortwave Radio by James Careless
from Radio World.
To see the full article with images
go to
http://www.radioworld.com/article/the-evolution-of-shortwave-radio/279335
OTTAWA, Ontario — With the advent of radio in the 20th century, the
shortwave band (1710–30,000 kHz) soon became a hotbed of long-distance
radio broadcasting. Used primarily by state-run international
broadcasters, plus ham radio operators and ship-to-shore radio
communications, the shortwave band was prized due to its astoundingly
broad reach.
That reach was — and is still — made possible by the tendency of
ground-based shortwave radio transmissions to bounce off the ionosphere
and back to earth; allowing shortwave broadcasts to “hop”
repeatedly, increasing a broadcast’s range while minimizing its decay.
This writer once heard BBC World Service on 6175 kHz coming to him from
both directions at once; a phenomenon proven by the “echo” he heard
caused by the “around the world” shortwave signal arriving at his
receiver slightly later than the “direct path” signal.
At the height of the Cold War, the shortwave bands were packed with
content as the Voice of America and West Germany’s Deutsche Welle
(Voice of Germany) traded ideological punches with Radio Moscow and East
Germany’s Radio Berlin International. This is because analog shortwave
radio broadcasting was the only way for both sides to make their
political cases cross international borders: There was no satellite TV,
let alone any internet.
Fast forward to 2016. Today, shortwave and its often scratchy,
interference-ridden, fading mono transmissions have been trumped by
other higher-performing, content-rich delivery platforms. As a result,
“A large part of the audience that would formerly listen to
international broadcasters can now get the same information from
websites and/or satellite TV,” said Andy Sennitt, former editor of the
World Radio Television Handbook and shortwave correspondent with the now
defunct Radio Netherlands International radio service. “The regular
audiences in Europe, North America and parts of Asia are now a tiny
fraction of what they once were,” Sennitt noted. “In parts of Africa
and South Asia there are still significant shortwave audiences, but even
those are gradually declining.”
At the same time, Western broadcasters such as the BBC World Service and
others have found it cheaper to distribute their content to domestic FM
broadcasters in target countries, as well as by satellite TV and the
web. Add the end of the Cold War (or at least the first one) with fall
of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and cash-strapped Western governments no
longer see a reason to spend millions operating 100 kW shortwave
transmitters and their attendant large antenna farms.
This is why the BBC World Service, Voice of America, and others have
substantially reduced their international shortwave broadcasts, with the
former going as far as ending transmissions to North America, Europe,
and Australia and parts of Asia. Meanwhile, once popular Western
shortwave broadcasters such as Radio Canada International, Radio
Netherlands, Swiss Radio International, and Radio Sweden International
ceased shortwave broadcasts altogether. Some of the former shortwave
stations now stream their content on the web.
“In the past 10 years, the majority of legacy government-sponsored
shortwave radio stations have either closed down or dramatically reduced
their services,” observed Thomas Witherspoon, editor of the popular
shortwave news site SWLingPost.com. “Very few shortwave broadcasters
still target North America and Europe.”
SAME USAGE, CHANGING PLAYERS Given the reduction and/or demise of so
many international shortwave broadcasters, one might expect that the
world’s shortwave spectrum would be far quieter in 2016. But this is
not the case. Based on recent data compiled by the High Frequency
Coordination Conference, the International Telecommunications Union
committee that coordinates the allocation of specific shortwave
frequencies among nations, “There is about as much broadcast activity
on the shortwave band today as there was in the past,” said Nigel Fry,
head of Distribution for the BBC World Service Group.
“What has changed is who is using the band. As once-dominant Western
broadcasters have scaled back or shut down their transmissions, others
have taken their place, particularly by taking over the frequencies that
are most effective at reaching large parts of the globe reliably and
relatively clearly. Meanwhile, in those areas where shortwave remains
the best way to reach people — such as in Africa and parts of Asia —
the BBC World Service and other broadcasters are still relying on it.”
A case in point: The BBC World Service’s 5975 and 6175 kHz frequencies
— once the foundation of the BBC World Service’s evening service to
North America — is now being used by China Radio International and the
Voice of Vietnam. Radio Netherlands’ one-time popular 6165 kHz North
American channel is now being used by Radio Havana Cuba.
When it comes to state-run shortwave broadcasters today, “by far the
most dominant is China Radio International,” said Sennitt. “Soft
power [e.g. wooing international listeners to a given state-run
broadcaster’s political position] is being used by the Chinese much
more effectively than by any other nation. They also use satellite TV
and, in some countries, domestic radio. In the U.S. there are a number
of stations owned by Chinese companies in major cities, even Washington.
China Radio International is carried on these stations for all or part
of the time. But their audience is minuscule,” he said.
As well, much of shortwave’s relinquished bandwidth has been taken up
by donation-funded religious radio stations, plus private broadcasters.
In the second category, “WRMI is the first station that comes to mind.
This U.S. station experienced a significant expansion in late 2013,”
said Witherspoon. “After WRMI purchased the [former] WYFR transmission
site [in Okeechobee, Florida], they thought they would begin with one or
two transmitters on the air and perhaps expand slowly. But at last
report WRMI general manager Jeff White told me they now have all 14 of
their transmitters on the air, most up to 24 hours a day.” WRMI makes
its living by renting airtime to third-party religious, political, and
state broadcasters.
Meanwhile, shortwave’s ability to cover large areas economically (if
not with great audio quality) makes it a natural for Third World
countries. For example, South Sudan has recently added shortwave to
complement it Eye Radio FM broadcasts. The shortwave broadcast, which
began April 26, covers “the whole of South Sudan including remote
areas in which communities are not able to access FM radio stations,”
said Stephen Omiri, CEO of Eye Media, Eye Radio’s parent company.
“KVOH in Los Angeles — a Christian broadcaster known the Voice of
Hope — has recently put the Christian Vision shortwave station in
Zambia back on the air,” added Witherspoon. “I also learned from
Radio World that World Christian Broadcasting launched its second
shortwave station, Madagascar World Voice, in late March.”
As well, according to Fry, the BBC is planning to start broadcasts to
Ethiopia and North Korea this fall. “So some regions that especially
need the service shortwave provides will be receiving it, at least in
some measure,” Witherspoon said.
“Another expansion involves low-power (10 kW or less) shortwave
broadcasters in Europe, particularly in Germany,” said Kim Andrew
Elliott, audience research analyst with the Voice of America.
“Examples include Channel 292 on 6070 kHz, and Radio 700 on 3985,
6005, and 7310 kHz. They are like LPFM in the United States, except the
European low-power shortwave stations can sell time and have very low
rates. This encourages participation by niche program makers. Other
low-powered shortwave stations in Europe are not licensed, i.e. they are
pirates. Most are found on frequencies just above 6200 kHz.”
DIGITAL SHORTWAVE RADIO The local/regional push to bring digital radio
to the MW (AM) and FM broadcast bands through DAB and (in the U.S.) HD
Radio does have an all-band (including shortwave) counterpart. Known as
Digital Radio Mondiale and operated in test broadcast mode for many
years by numerous shortwave broadcasters, DRM “offers an excellent
option for delivering the great advantages of long-distance,
wide-coverage shortwave broadcasting in excellent audio quality with
extra features and multimedia data,” said Ruxandra Obreja, chairman of
the DRM Consortium, an international group driving DRM’s worldwide
campaign for deployment.
Even in its current test mode, “about half of the world population is
within range of a DRM signal,” Obreja noted. “BBC, All India Radio,
Radio Vatican, Voice of Nigeria, RNZI, and Radio Romania are regularly
broadcasting in DRM shortwave,” she said. “The value of these
services is beyond any doubt. What they need is receivers or receiver
solutions.”
Fortunately for DRM, All India Radio’s decision to update its
shortwave and MW analog transmitters to DRM digital transmission is
giving this format the big push the consortium has been hoping for. The
1.25 billion people living in India is large enough “to support
indigenous DRM radio receiver production; both portables and in-car
units,” said the BBC’s Fry.
“This is creating a product base of DRM radios that can be sold into
other countries, should they decide to embrace DRM.” The made-in-India
Avion stereo portable DRM radio — known as the AV-DR-2401 — was
shown at IBC2015 and is available for purchase at
www.avionelectronics.in
for US$189.
“There are rumors in the DRM community that a Chinese manufacturer is
plotting to release a DRM portable by end of 2016,” said Witherspoon.
“This might make sense as there could potentially be a substantial
market in India if the receivers are effective and affordable.”
Conventional radio broadcasting isn’t the only possible use for DRM.
For instance, the German navy is using DRM to deliver audio, video and
data to its ships and personnel around the world,” said Obreja. “The
U.S. Coast Guard is also considering using DRM in the same way for
services to the far north.” Meanwhile, Radio New Zealand is using DRM
to backhaul audio content to the Pacific Islands, “where the digitized
programs are reconverted to FM” for conventional analog transmission,
she said.
However, Sennitt is skeptical that DRM will be able to leverage its
India deployment to global success. “If you believe the DRM
Consortium, it’s just a matter of time (until this occurs). But they
have been saying that for well over a decade,” Sennitt told RWI. “In
my opinion, DRM is now a niche technology that was devised 10 years too
late. The major receiver manufacturers have ignored it, and the few
radios that have been produced in small quantities were too expensive
and performed poorly. So there’s absolutely no consumer demand. Only a
tiny proportion of shortwave transmissions use DRM, and most shortwave
listeners can’t receive them.”
Perhaps DRM’s ongoing rise to prominence in India will change this
situation globally; perhaps not. In the meantime, the Voice of America
is running its own digital transmission tests over analog shortwave, on
the “VOA Radiogram” show hosted by VOA’s Kim Andrew Elliott. In
this program Elliott — one of shortwave’s most respected
researchers/broadcasters — sends out digital images and text to
listeners. To decipher these broadcasts, each listener must have a
shortwave radio with an audio connection to a PC loaded with decoding
software such as Fldigi, MixW, MultiPSK, or DM780.
“Kim Andrew Elliott has amassed a sizable audience of listeners around
the world who decode his mostly digital broadcasts which originate at
the Edward R. Murrow transmitter site in Greenville, North Carolina,”
said Witherspoon. “Elliott regularly receives (proof of) decoded
images and text files from across the globe, and it’s important to
note that his transmissions can more easily penetrate jamming than
analog AM broadcasts.”
According to Elliott, his VOA Radiogram digital text/image transmissions
have proven that such information “can be broadcast by any shortwave
transmitter, with no need for modification, and received on any
shortwave radio, even inexpensive portables with no single sideband
capability,” he said. “We have found that text is received
successfully in conditions where an analog voice broadcast would be
difficult to understand. So while DRM reduces the capability of
shortwave, digital modes via analog radio actually extends the
capability of shortwave.”
LONG-TERM VIEW
Type “Is shortwave dead?” into Google, and you will receive pages of
websites arguing on both sides of the issue. The reason this is such a
contentious question is due to the demise of Western shortwave
broadcasters and their broadcasts to North America and Europe. The end
of these broadcasts disenchanted many formerly avid shortwave fans
(including this writer), causing them to mourn the loss of what had been
an interesting and challenging listening hobby and look elsewhere for
diversion.
That said, the research that went into this article suggests that the
shortwave band is sufficiently alive to be still evolving. The retreat
of the BBC World Service and other Western broadcasters from the band
has left space for other countries and private companies to grab their
frequencies, while DRM’s win in India has given this digital shortwave
format its first credible chance at going global.
But does this evolution mean that shortwave has a future? On this
crucial point, the experts disagree.
On the positive side, “shortwave remains the most accessible
international communications medium that still provides listeners with
the protection of complete anonymity,” said Witherspoon. “I still
see a place for shortwave in the 21st century, especially for reaching
areas of the world that are prone to natural disasters that destroy
local broadcasting and Internet infrastructure,” added Fry.
On the negative, “shortwave is a legacy technology, which is expensive
and environmentally unfriendly,” said Sennitt. “A few countries are
hanging on to it, but most have faced up to the fact that the glory days
of shortwave have gone. Religious broadcasters will still use it because
they are not too concerned with listening figures,” he said.
“China Radio International, I am reliably informed by someone who
worked there, gets a huge budget and has not so far been under any
pressure to cut costs, but as growth in the Chinese economy starts to
slow down it will be interesting to see how long this situation
continues; especially given the other soft propaganda platforms already
used by the Chinese.”
So what will happen to shortwave in the years ahead? The only reasonable
advice is — stay tuned!
James Careless reports on the industry for Radio World from Ottawa,
Ontario.
Now we have the e-QSL card for reception reports from last weeks
broadcast, this week we are back to MFSK32 for the image
Sending Pic:466x266;
Thank you for listening, please send reports, comments and shortwave related
news or articles to reports@digidx.uk
