The Russian invasion of Ukraine greatly upsets me, as my heart goes out to the Ukrainian people. I feel a connection because my father’s family is from Estonia, which also borders Russia and has a long, unhappy history of Russian domination. While Estonia today is a free republic, the assault on Ukraine understandably puts the people of all the Baltic nations on edge, even as they send aid to Ukraine.

Polish Radio 1 is pitching in with a Ukrainian-language news broadcast on longwave that can be heard across Europe, including Ukraine. These updates can be heard daily at 10 AM and 5 PM CET on 225 kHz.

Though not used for audio broadcasts in the Americas, longwave is a band that sits well below the mediumwave band that is home to AM radio. Longwave can travel longer distances than mediumwave, following the curvature over the earth and even over mountains. Though signals do not travel as far as some shortwave broadcasts. However, longwave’s advantage is a more stable signal with potentially slightly higher fidelity than shortwave. Ireland’s RTÉ 252 is another longwave station we’ve covered, which serves the Irish diaspora in the UK.

The BBC World Service has also added two shortwave broadcasts to Ukraine on 5875 kHz from 0800 to 1000 UTC and 15735 kHz from 0200 to 0400 UTC.

Long-distance radio broadcasts are particularly vital in times of war and conflict because reception is less dependent on stable power, or mobile or wired internet access. Longwave- and shortwave-capable radios are often more common in Europe than in North America, and many people there are more accustomed to turning to these bands for news and information.

News from Ukraine is broadcast to the world on Radio Ukraine International, available on satellite in Europe and online. According to the Official WSL Channel, WRMI Radio Miami International has resumed rebroadcasts of RUI on shortwave daily, except Friday, at 1200 – 1230 UTC on 5010 kHz.

The post Radio to and from Ukraine appeared first on Radio Survivor.

A belated happy New Year and welcome to 2022. It’s not quite a New Year’s resolution, but I want to return to regular blogging here at Radio Survivor, at least covering interesting radio stories of note, along with other radiophonic observations.

With the Super Bowl coming in just under three weeks you can look forward to my (nearly) annual how to listen to the Super Bowl on the radio post. Research has already started, so drop us a line if you know of a source beyond the usual US commercial radio affiliates.

First up is this report from Spin Magazine (it still exists!?) on Ice Radio at McMurdo Station on Antarctica. Conducted over email, writer Lukas Harnisch interviews a group of workers at the scientific outpost who volunteer at the station, broadcasting at 104.5 FM. Longtime readers and listeners will recall that we covered the station on our podcast and radio show back in 2019, talking with McMurdo broadcast engineer Elizabeth Delaquess. Nevertheless it’s nice to see the station get some press. Love this quote from Ralph Maestas, who manages TV and radio operations:

“For the last 10 years we’ve had an essay prompt on the back of the sign-up sheet to volunteer that asks them what they think it means to be a DJ in this community. Almost every response is that they want to give something back to the community.”

Next up, amid concerns that Russia plans to invade Ukraine, one or more radio hackers were reportedly jamming a Soviet-era Russian numbers station, UVB-76, this past weekend. According to Motherboard, the hackers were been broadcasting signals over the station’s frequency that appear as pictures – largely troll-inspired memes – when viewed on a spectrum analyzer.

El denominado "The Buzzer" (UVB-76) un sistema de radiocomunicaciones militares rusas desde hace casi 40 años, lleva días interferido por "piratas". Muchos vinculan esta actividad con el conflicto de Ucrania. La pasada noche se emitieron imágenes muy bizarras en su frecuencia pic.twitter.com/5QOMKPtIA1

— David Marugán (@RadioHacking) January 20, 2022

The Motherboard story somewhat inaccurately states that the rogue broadcasters “hijacked” the shortwave station. However, that implies that they’ve taken over the actual broadcast facility or transmitter, either physically or virtually. Instead, what’s happening is that they’re jamming the station by broadcasting over it.

At the moment this seems more of a curiosity than anything else. While numbers stations have long been thought to be transmitting coded messages for international espionage, it’s hard to know if the Russian station in question is still in use by actual spies (if it ever was). Of course, jamming with frequencies that show up as images in the spectrum analyzer is a clever touch, even if it seems like a there’s a pretty limited audience. Thank goodness we have social media, though, else we’d never know about it.

The post Rough Notes: Antarctic Radio Revisited & Jamming Soviet-Era Numbers appeared first on Radio Survivor.

One of life’s little pleasures is tuning around the radio dial late at night before drifting off to slumber. I especially enjoy this while traveling, touring foreign radio dials, encountering strange and distant signals.

This means that a small portable radio is my constant traveling companion. I prefer to travel light, so said radio must also be as tiny as practical. In the last couple of years the Tivdio V–115 has been my choice, given its small size, AM, FM and shortwave tuning, reasonable sensitivity and ability to record air checks to a microSD card. I’ll refer you to my YouTube review for more details.

Even so, my ears are always wandering, urging my eyes to admire other receiver suitors. About a month ago the Eton Mini Grundig Edition caught my attention, and at a sale price of less than $25 delivered. Grundig is a venerable name in radios, and the Mini has received decent reviews, so I bit.

Small and Capable

The radio lives up to its name, measuring up to about the same size as an iPhone SE, including a decent speaker and retractable antenna. It comes with a nice nylon case to help protect it in your bag.

Though the Mini includes shortwave, the coverage is more limited than my Tivdio, only covering two bands, from 5 – 10 MHz and 11.65 – 18 MHz. That said, shortwave is more of a “nice to have” than a necessity for my travel radio, so this limitation is fine with me.

Taking it along for an extended trip to New York City and northern New Jersey, I was impressed at how well it pulled in FM stations inside my Midtown Manhattan hotel. It was no problem tuning in public radio WNYC, along with college radio from NYU, Columbia University and Fordham. The same could not be said of the room’s supplied clock radio.

Though small, the Mini’s speaker is adequate for a travel radio, with pleasing sound that’s loud enough for hotel room listening. You’re not going to disturb your neighbors, and that’s probably a good thing. I also appreciate its simple thumbwheel tuning. It’s not quite as convenient as the number direct-dialing keypad on my Tivdio, but the Tivdio’s buttons are stiff and make a loud click, which can annoy others around you if you’re scanning the dial wearing headphones.

For late night listening a sleep timer is a necessity, since I’m likely to drift off, sometimes to the soothing sounds of inter-station static. The Mini comes so equipped. I also appreciate its control lock that prevents it from turning on inside my baggage, draining batteries and annoying fellow passengers.

Patience Pays for DXing

After dark is the time for AM band DXing, and here I found the Mini’s performance curious. When I first spun the dial, I was only picking up the strongest local stations. Then I started clicking through frequencies more slowly, stopping when I heard a faint signal. Leaving the radio tuned, the signal grew in volume and strength – patience paid off. I suspect this is an artifact of the DSP-based tuner, keeping the volume more muted with a weak signal so as not to assault the listener with loud static, then gradually increasing sensitivity as needed.

Moving from noisy Manhattan to the relative quiet – both in terms of noise and RF interference – of upper Passaic County, I enjoyed many fun DX finds. Keeping the gradual technique in mind, I had no problem bringing in signals from Quebec, Michigan, Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, Upstate New York and Boston. I didn’t formally log the stations because I was already tucked into bed with the lights out.

On Halloween night I dived into the shortwave band a little after dusk, wondering if I might encounter some pirates. I wasn’t hopeful, and so I wasn’t disappointed when none emerged from the ether. I was, however, pleasantly surprised when Radio Havana came blaring through at 6 MHz.

At home in Portland, Oregon, I’ve found shortwave reception inside my house to be very hit and miss, and mostly miss. I do think geography is partly to blame. New Jersey is simply closer to many more shortwave stations than Oregon. Nevertheless I was impressed with how good the Eton Mini’s indoor shortwave reception is.

On the whole, the Eton Mini Grundig Edition proved itself a capable and pleasant traveling companion. The one thing I miss is the easy ability to record airchecks direct to a memory card like my Tivdio can. However, I think the Mini outclassed it with AM sensitivity and selectivity, provided you’re patient and allow maybe a half-minute for a station to slowly come into focus through the static. Also, the Tivdio’s recording circuit can be a source of interference, which means it can thwart recordings of weak signals which will just disappear when you hit record. Moreover, if I’m listening to the Mini through the speaker I can make quick-and-dirty aircheck recordings using my smartphone or a portable voice recorder (yeah, I often travel with one of those, too).

There are better performing portable radios, and ones with more features or frequency coverage. But I don’t think I’ve encountered one this small and also this good. Carry on and tune in.

The post The Eton Mini Grundig Edition Is My New Travel Companion appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Amanda Dawn Christie is an artist enamored with radios and radio waves. The Assistant Professor, Studio Arts at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) joins us on the show to discuss her most recent transmission art project, Ghosts in the Airglow, in which she created work at the HAARP facility in Alaska.

Christie also shares with us the backstory of how she starting working with radio and radio waves, describing her fascination with radio towers and shortwave and recounting her numerous radio-related art projects.

Show Notes:

• Amanda Dawn Christie’s website
• Faculty page for Amanda Dawn Christie at Concordia University
• Spectres of Shortwave
• Spectres of Shortwave Installations
• This New Brunswick Town Was Literally Haunted by the Radio (CBC Arts)
• Podcast #92: Conspiracy Theory & Community Radio
• Podcast #168: A Time Machine for All the Radio plus Shortwave
• Spies Still Using Radio
• The Secret Machine Behind Soviet Numbers Stations
• Podcast #86: Radio Resistance from an Alternate Universe
• Resistance Radio: Mesmerizing Dystopian Pirate Radio
• Genetrix Program
• Mystery Solved: ‘Thing in the Woods’ Revealed As… (CBC News)
• Ghosts in the Air Glow
• Concordia Transmission Artist Launches a High-Frequency Project – in Alaska (Concordia University)
• Audio from Ghosts in the Air Glow

The post Podcast #190: Radio Spectrum and Transmission Art appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Nearly a decade ago I reflected on The Professor’s quest to find a decent way to record airchecks, especially from the interference-prone AM and shortwave bands. As a side note, in the intervening 10 years that wish has been granted, with the proliferation of small portable radios with MP3 recording features, like the Tivdio V–115, which I reviewed last year.

I also identified with his adventures in taming all sorts of electromagnetic and RF interference mucking up radio reception in his apartment. In the hands of a lesser scribe this could be a tedious tale. But as he relayed in his entertaining last Radio Kitchen post, after much troubleshooting, he discovered an overlooked source only when they took their leave.

While I was a fan of The Professor’s writing – and pined away for his blog to return for the last seven years – Thomas actually knew him, calling him his “radio arts mentor” in a touching eulogy.

Thomas also reminds me that The Professor had his own show on WFMU, “The Audio Kitchen,” in which he “[served] up an hour of homemade recordings freshly liberated from thrift stores and junk shops, as well as some amateur audio spirited away from the closets and computers of their creators.” Archives are still available at the station’s website.

First reading The Professor’s “Adventures in Amplitude Modulation” posts some 14 years ago (and four years before Radio Survivor began) I knew I’d found a kindred spirit, the likes of whom I likely would never have encountered offline. Such was the rush of connecting to people with shared niche interests in those earlyish internet days, before social media and always-online smartphones, and before we took such niches for granted. It’s a testament to his spirit that my memories are so strong all these years later, despite never having met him. I’m sad to learn he’s gone, but glad to know that The SWLing post intends to keep some of his legacy alive.

The post R.I.P. Radio Adventurer ‘The Professor’ appeared first on Radio Survivor.

While updating the 2004 podcast entries for my old radio show “mediageek” I was reminded that I used to post the episodes in both a 64kbps mono “broadcast quality” MP3 and a 16kbps.

The reason why I posted such a low bitrate file, containing relatively low fidelity, was to make the show accessible to listeners who did not have access to broadband internet, or whose access was limited. You see, in 2004 broadband penetration in the United States was just barely approaching 50%, meaning that half of households with internet were still using dial-up modems.

In the best case scenario, it would take a 56kbps modem user about 35 to 40 minutes to download the weekly half-hour “broadcast quality” MP3. That’s longer than real-time, and assumes a very quiet phone line, good connection and no internet multi-tasking, like checking email or surfing the web while downloading. Though I actually had DSL broadband when I launched the show in 2002 and began posting shows online, listeners from around the world had emailed me asking for smaller files.

I first settled on 16kbps because the typical show was about 3.5 MB, or about a fifth the size of the “broadcast quality version.” That file could be downloaded in nine or ten minutes by a modem user.

As I alluded, the sound quality of that 16kbps file isn’t great. But, it’s also perfectly intelligible. Fidelity-wise I’d compare it to shortwave radio, and utterly adequate for a talk program, which is what “mediageek” was.

Hear 16kbps for yourself:

I quit posting those low bitrate files in the middle of 2005, in part because of the extra effort it required, and in part because I assumed that listeners’ internet connections were improving. Turns out, I was mistaken on the latter point. I received several emails telling me that only having bigger 64kbps files was making the show inaccessible, with one listener suggesting that 24kbps files would be an acceptable compromise between file size and fidelity. The sound was more like AM radio than shortwave. So I resumed creating smaller files at this bitrate.

Here’s what one of those 24kbps files sounds like:

The Magic of Shortwave, Online

As I mentioned in my post about the history of internet radio, this is the kind of sound quality I was accustomed to when streaming audio from around the world in the mid- and late–90s over my home dial-up connection. The experience then was very much like the first time I used a shortwave radio as a child. It was pure magic to hear live radio from thousands of miles away, or on-demand recorded shows that I’d never otherwise have the opportunity to hear before.

Though the fidelity was shortwave-quality, the listening experience was more rock-solid. No signal fades, static or lightning strikes intruded on those early internet broadcasts, provided nobody else picked up the phone. I happened to live alone in a one-bedroom grad student apartment, and so was lucky not to have to compete for the line.

Since that time most people with internet access are now accustomed to getting better bandwidth oner 4G mobile connections than we did with modems or even early 2000s cable and DSL home broadband. It’s no problem to stream high quality stereo music from Spotify or Pandora on the go. Certainly makes those 16kbps MP3s seem obsolete.

Or are they?

Low Bitrate Streaming Today

Internet bandwidth is not unlimited, especially over mobile connections. Many folks either pay by the gigabyte or have firm bandwidth limits every month with stiff charges for going over limit. Until this past October my own mobile plan limited my wife and me to 2 GB combined, which required me to limit the podcasts and music I streamed or downloaded over mobile broadband. Podcast files clocking in at 50 MB or more really do add up quickly.

I wonder how many listeners would gladly trade in some loss in fidelity in order to moderate their bandwidth usage? Moreover, many rural communities across the U.S. are still considered “broadband deserts” where home and mobile speeds are very slow, or where dial-up is still the only option. Bitrate and file size can still be a matter of accessibility.

Offering lower bitrates is less of a sonic compromise today than it was 15 years ago, due to advances in codec technologies. MP3 is relatively ancient compared to the more modern AAC, which has many variants, including a “high efficiency” (HE) version designed specifically for low bandwidth applications. This is great for streaming, but still not so hot for podcasting. That’s because MP3 is pretty much the de facto standard for the medium – for a variety of reasons – and while most modern podcast players can play other file types, MP3 guarantees the broadest compatibility.

But sticking with MP3 significantly limits low bandwidth sound quality, which is why I’m reluctant to reduce the bitrate for the Radio Survivor podcast in order to get smaller file sizes (right now the show averages around 26 MB).

However, I recently noticed that Mixcloud, which streams DJ mixes, radio shows and podcasts, uses AAC-HE, likely for the purpose of conserving bandwidth costs. A recent episode of Radio Survivor hosted there is actually re-encoded to 49kbps variable bitrate mono AAC-HE file; our normal MP3 podcast file is 64kbps mono. It sounds just fine to my ears:

I don’t know if the platform adjusts bitrates for lower bandwidth users – I tend to doubt it. However that 49kbps bitrate is just low enough that you can probably stream it over a modem or 2G mobile connection, perhaps with some initial buffering. (That’s not something I can test, since I don’t have a modem or landline.)

Where Are the Low Bitrate Stations?

To see if there appears to be any demand for low bitrate internet radio I checked out the directory at Shoutcast, which is one of the only directories where you can easily sort stations by bitrate. Just looking at the top stations list I can see more than three dozen stations streaming at under 64kbps, with 32kbps seeming to be the most popular low bitrate, using both MP3 and AAC. Looking only at talk radio stations, there are even more low bitrate streams.

It’s not just about accessibility. It also helps to control bandwidth costs for the station. But seeing the wide availability of these streams tells me there are still people listening to them. They may not be specifically looking for low bitrates. They might just be selecting particular streams based upon whether or not they play readily and easily over their connection.

True to my analogy, many international shortwave broadcasters offer low bitrate streams. For instance, the BBC World Service offers streams as low as 48kbps.

In any event, while low bitrate streaming may not be much needed by many of us with always-on broadband connections, there still seems to be a need, even if the format flies mostly under the radar. The ability to squeeze down an audio signal into a tiny stream means we can still get internet radio broadcast from far away places or receive it in places where internet is still a limited commodity.

In that way, the spirit of shortwave radio is still alive on the internet today.

The post The Shortwave Radio of the Internet: Low Bitrate Streaming appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Back in March I released a video review of the Tivdio V-115 portable digital radio. I praised it for being very nice sounding – especially for being so small – having decent reception, and for being able to record airchecks to a microSD card.

After using the radio during some travels I decided to record a follow-up review based on its performance. While it’s been a good travel companion for listening to strong local stations, I wasn’t able to tune in some of the smaller, funkier little local stations that I hoped to record air checks of. Earlier I had heard some of these stations with an analog receiver, the Kaito WRX-911.

That isn’t a deal killer; I still use this radio nearly every day. But I thought it was worth a follow-up. I’ve also purchased another little radio with similar features, the Kaito KA29, which I will test out on my next trip to see if it performs any better. Already I’ve heard some results that make me optimistic.

Learn all about it in this video follow-up review:

The post Radio Review Follow-Up: The Tivdio V-115 – Still Great, But Not a DX Champ appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On a trip last fall visiting my parents in northern New Jersey, during the evening the I tuned around the AM dial and encountered some fascinatingly unique local stations. I wished I could record some airchecks but didn’t have any easy way to do so, and I couldn’t find any sort of online program archives.

That set me looking for a portable radio with recording capability, and I found the Tivdio V-115, which received some good reviews from other radio nerds, a number of which can be found at the SWLing Post. It turns out to be a powerhouse of a little radio, available for under $20 on Amazon here in the U.S.

Here is my video review, followed by my review summary:

Pros:

• Very compact and portable
• Receives AM, FM and Shortwave
• Digital tuning with DSP
• Fantastic sound for a small radio
• Records radio to MP3 on microSD cards
• Will function like an MP3 player with better speaker sound than most smartphones
• Rechargeable battery, powered by USB
• Sleep timer

Cons:

• Headphone sound is sub-par and doesn’t work with smartphone headphones that have an integrated microphone
• Buttons are stiff and make a loud click when pressed
• Only the strongest shortwave stations come in with the short built-in antenna

As mentioned in the video, here’s our podcast interview with Radio Jay Allen with his advice for improving your radio reception, and his FM radio recommendations: https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2017/03/14/podcast-84-improving-radio-reception/

The post Radio Review: The Tivdio V-115 Records Airchecks on the Go appeared first on Radio Survivor.

As I continue to mine the deeply embedded treasures of YouTube, I’ve dug up another diamond in the rough, a 27 year-old documentary on unlicensed shortwave broadcasting radio. Titled “Inside Pirate Radio,” this hour-long video visits the studio of Radio Wolf International during one broadcast, interspersed with an interview with Andrew Yoder, one of the foremost authorities on shortwave pirates, and the author of several books on the topic, including Pirate Radio Stations: Tuning in to Underground Broadcasts and Pirate Radio Operations.

Credited to the Franklin Video Group of Franklin, Indiana, this low-budget DIY video is less a documentary than a slice-of-life document. What’s most fascinating is that it’s a snapshot of the scene from the pre-internet days, when communication between broadcasters and listeners was mediated through magazine columns, printed newsletters and mail correspondence.

The appeal of shortwave pirate broadcasting is that the signals travel long distances, across continents and oceans. To understand the power of this medium one has to recognize that in 1990 few people outside the military or research universities had internet access. Long distance or international communication via phone was very expensive, and via mail it was slow.

That’s why Yoder dispels the notion that pirate shortwave broadcasting is all that exciting, explaining that there’s “no immediate thrill” in hearing from your audience. Unlike a DJ in the studio of licensed station, shortwave pirates didn’t give out phone numbers for fear of leading the FCC to their doorstep.

Instead, shortwave pirates received reception reports from listeners through the mail. But this process could take weeks, because most stations got their letters via mail drops, third parties who would forward mail back-and-forth on behalf of broadcasters in order to keep their locations secret.

In exchange for sending a reception report, listeners could expect to receive a QSL card. It’s a postcard specifically designed by the station confirming that the listener heard an actual broadcast. Shortwave pirate listeners collect and covet these cards, and Yoder shows off his album of them in this film.

Mail drops and QSL cards still exist today, just as shortwave pirate broadcasters continue to seize the international airwaves. Message boards and social media help some broadcasters more quickly publicize their broadcasts, and some also accept email reception reports, accelerating the exchange.

Although I’ve been aware of pirate shortwave culture since the mid 1990s, watching this video I was reminded of how community and social exchange forms the backbone of the broadcasting and listening aspects of the hobby. I see parallels to cassette culture—as I wrote about a week ago—in which the exchange of home-recorded and reproduced tapes was facilitated by ads and reviews in ’zines and magazines, alongside shows on college and community radio stations. Listeners had to send away for tapes, for which they paid a small amount of money, or sent their own home recordings in trade.

As long-time DJ and musician Don Campau explained, through the exchange of letters and cassettes, “[t]ape culture also offered a way to create relationships with people, too.”

Andrew Yoder is still active as a shortwave pirate listener, documenting stations he finds at his Hobby Broadcasting Blog.

The post Glimpse Behind the Scenes at Shortwave Pirate Radio in 1990 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Monday night at midnight Eastern Time is the much anticipated return of Art Bell. Though originally planned to be an online-only show on the Dark Matter network, 21 AM and FM stations and two shortwave stations have now picked it up. Most of the stations are outside major markets, with the exception of affiliates in Salt Lake City, Toronto and my city, Portland, Oregon.

I was happy to learn about KXL-FM signing on to Midnight in the Desert. When I first reported on the new show, I noted that while I welcome Bell’s return to broadcasting, I prefer being able to simply tune it in on my bedside radio rather than having to use my smartphone or laptop. Now I’ll be able to do that here in Portland. *Midnight in the Desert* will replace two hours of the paranormal themed Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis, which is based at KXL.

Last Tuesday Bell participated in a Reddit Ask Me Anything. Although most of the questions were about past interviews and other paranormal topics, he did field some about his new show, and radio in general.

The biggest reveal is that he plans a test show for Sunday night, where the central question is, “what do you want to see?” Odds are that most of the show will be listener calls on just that topic. He also assured that all calls to Midnight in the Desert will not be screened, and that Fridays will be “open lines,” meaning that listener calls will make up most of the show.

One reader asked him what he thinks of iconic radio host Phil Hendrie’s impression of him. Bell said he “loved” them, and that “they really are funny.” For the equipment geeks, he shared that he uses a Beyerdynamic microphone (he didn’t specify a model, but I’d guess it’s the M99) and a Symetrix vocal processor.

Responding to a question about what inspired him to get into radio, Bell said that he got started with ham radio at age 12, and was on commercial broadcast by 13.

First radio job, small FM on top of a mountain in Franklin, NJ. Religious FM. Read the news every hour. Station manager didn’t like people too close to the mic. So he’d come in and yank the chair out from under you while live on the air!

And, certainly to the delight of his fans, Bell also made clear his opinion on the condition of his old show Coast to Coast AM. “I think the current host of that show does it a disservice,” he said. "The current state of that program is the genesis for Midnight in the Desert.

I’ll definitely be tuning in for Sunday’s test show–though I’m not sure it will be on broadcast–as well as Monday night Midnight in the Desert debut. I will also report back my impressions of the new show.

The post Art Bell Returns Monday Night, Possible Test Show on Sunday Night appeared first on Radio Survivor.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Art Bell. As a former overnight DJ and grad student who kept relatively nocturnal hours for a good portion of the 90s, I admired Bell’s unique ability to engage guests and callers in topics that ranged from scientifically plausible (the theory that there have been multiple Big Bangs) to hilariously absurd (blood-sucking Chupacabra) with equanimity.

While some critics pilloried him for uncritically harboring all manner of superstition and psuedoscience, I enjoyed his Coast to Coast AM as a sort of straight-faced performance art that provided an entertaining alternative to most late night commercial radio, offering stimulating company to night shift workers across North America. Heck, I remember tuning in for a show tackling pirate radio, in which he discussing the topic straightforwardly, neither treating it as enticingly taboo nor recklessly dangerous. (In fact, Bell was himself a radio pirate in the 1960s while serving in the Air Force at the Amarillo air base.)

Bell held court over nationwide nocturnal amplitude modulation for some fifteen years before going into semi-retirement in 2003, handing over the weeknight reins to current Coast to Coast host George Noory. Bell then took the mic for weekends until 2007, then doing occasional fill-in slots until 2010 when he retired. That first retirement only lasted until 2013, when he had a brief foray into satellite radio with Art Bell’s Dark Matter on SiriusXM for six weeks.

July 20 is when Bell will return to broadcasting once again, according to a FAQ posted to his own website. This time he’ll be on the internet station Dark Matter Radio with a live weeknight program called Midnight in the Desert, airing midnight to 3 AM Eastern Time. The show won’t be on terrestrial broadcast, with one exception. Apparently Tennessee-based Christian shortwave station WTWW will broadcast Bell live to the world.

As much as I like and use internet radio, I have to admit it’s a little disappointing that Bell won’t be back on AM. I have fond memories of road trips over the Midwest interstates where I listened to Coast to Coast, hitting the seek button when one station faded, knowing I’d soon encounter another transmitting the show. It’s unlikely I’ll go through the trouble of tuning my shortwave receiver just to recreate the experience.

Nevertheless, I will probably check out Midnight in the Desert, although at 9 PM Pacific Time it’s on a few hours too early here in Oregon. I’d go for the podcast to timeshift it after midnight, but on-demand episodes will be reserved for paid subscribers, and I’m not that much of a fan (though DAR.fm might do the trick). Anyway, on-demand isn’t really the proper Art Bell experience–he’s really meant to be stumbled upon, in the middle of a nearly inscrutable interview that you’re surprised comes slowly into focus.

I’m sure there are Radio Survivor readers who will scrunch their noses at my praise for Art Bell. I get it–his nutty melange of guests and strange blend of libertarian, conservative and occasionally progressive political stances (pro-gun and anti-abortion, but pro same-sex marriage) is admittedly out of step with much of the radio we normally highlight. But, again, it’s a mistake to take him a face value. He may never actually wink at us, but neither did Andy Kaufman.

Plus, c’mon, he did this commercial:

The post Art Bell Returns (Again) appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In the days since the disastrous earthquake in Nepal amateur radio operators have been lending critical communications assistance, especially in places where power, telephone, wireless and internet service has been interrupted. Nepal has only 99 licensed amateur radio operators, which is why hams from other countries have traveled to the country to help.

The country’s government reportedly is trying to speed approval for international radio amateurs to transmit legally. Otherwise, only those working with official government rescue teams are authorized. On Monday the Computer Association of Nepal-USA called on the Nepal government to release amateur radio equipment that is currently being held in customs.

Amateur radio transceivers can operate at low power levels using gasoline generators, batteries, or even hand-cranked generators, while still broadcasting over relatively large distances. Transmitting in morse code, rather than audio, also improves power efficiency. This makes ham radio particularly well suited for emergency communications.

Nepalese and foreign operators have been maintaining both local and international lines of communication. Operators based in neighboring countries like India and China have been monitoring transmissions from Nepal and relaying messages to and from the rest of the world. Many of these are from families checking on and reporting the welfare of relatives.

Amateur radio operators coordinate through the International Amateur Radio Union and national groups which do a significant amount of advance planning for disaster response. According to the IARU one Nepalese ham has even been using the slow-scan TV protocol to send images over shortwave to relief groups.

On Sunday Greg Mossup, an Emergency Communications Coordinator with the IARU, talked with the CBC for a story on the communications situation in Nepal. He explained that radio amateurs work with government emergency services agencies to plan for critical emergency response. He also noted that the engineering expertise of hams makes them a valuable asset when working with search and rescue teams, especially with regard to repairing and restoring communications infrastructure.

Shortwave broadcasting also provides a critical lifeline to people in Nepal. The BBC World Service has expanded English and Nepalese broadcasts to Nepal and Northern India. Guam-based Christian shortwave station KTWR announced a daily 1-hour block of programming for Nepal containing, “disaster relief counseling, teaching, and music breaks.”

The post Radio Amateurs & Shortwave Broadcasters Assist Nepal Earthquake Relief appeared first on Radio Survivor.

A Hammarlund HQ-150 receiver plugged into a PC for Radiogram reception.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the Voice of America and other such services, has issued a report on short wave radio. Bottom line: it isn’t looking great for the BBG’s commitment to the service. From the report:

“The BBG must use shortwave where it is most effective. In the past, shortwave audiences were larger with greater dependency on the platform. However, many shortwave consumers today do not use the medium exclusively. As other platforms, such as FM, television, and the Internet, become available, shortwave users demonstrably migrate quickly to these newly preferred mediums. Today, the audiences are waning and the BBG is faced with diminishing returns in a more restrictive budget environment.”

Bennett Z. Kobb among others has noted that the report does not mention the VOA Radiogram project, which is perfecting the art of using short wave to send texts across the world. We’ve been following Radiogram here for a while, and I hope that the BBG/Voice of America continues to support it. Much VOA activity is about dispensing the USA foreign policy line around the globe, whatever that happens to be the moment. But supporting Radiogram sends a clearer message: ‘Here is a text based technology that you, whoever you are, wherever you are, can use to circumvent dictators, or to get around weather disasters or other impediments to communication. By continuing to fund Radiogram, we support the promulgation of as many platforms as are necessary to maintain transparency, communication, and freedom in all contexts around the world.’

Speaking personally, I think it’s a more enduring message than this week’s official line on Ukraine.

Kobb and librarian Christopher Rumbaugh have filed their own joint statement with the BBG. Here’s an excerpt:

BBG should:

1. Capitalize on Radiogram as a circumvention tool, readily consumable by mobile devices. It should integrate Radiogram into its media strategy and networks.

2. Retain, but reconfigure as necessary its HF [shortwave band] facilities in view of the potentially lower costs and greater efficiency of Radiogram when compared to conventional sound broadcasting.

3. Support the development and wide distribution of simple, usable, open-source Radiogram decoding applications for popular mobile devices and platforms (Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux), derived from the free Fldigi software used worldwide

More from the SWLing Post.

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I was in a local independent book and magazine shop this weekend when a nicely designed magazine on a display table immediately drew my attention. I had never seen Uppercase Magazine before. But the sleek cover art mixing up a radio with knitting needles as the antenna and a stylized ball of yarn as the speaker called me to pick it up.

Uppercase bills itself as “a magazine for the creative and curious,” and hails from Calgary, Alberta. According to publisher Janine Vangool issue #20 is about broadcasting. In her first page letter to readers she writes, “My broad interpretation of this term includes the sharing of ideas graphically and publicly through posters, social media and public art, and also encompasses amateur radio, graphic novels and collecting vintage advertising posters.” I was sold.

Uppercase #20’s QSL Card Spread

Uppercase is really more of a journal than magazine, published on heavy matte paper, without ads. At $18 this also means it’s not cheap, at least by magazine standards. But because of it’s visual appeal, I’m already finding myself thumbing through it more than an issue of Time or the Atlantic. For the radio, broadcasting or design enthusiast it’s definitely worth checking out.

Here’s a video preview of this issue:

UPPERCASE magazine – issue #20 from uppercasemag on Vimeo.

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Family Radio’s Shortwave Map (photo: J. Waits)

Family Radio-owned shortwave radio station WYFR is slated to resume broadcasts on December 1, following the sale of the station facility to Radio Miami International (WRMI). As we reported earlier this year, WYFR ceased broadcasts on June 30, 2013. Many in the shortwave community were saddened by the loss of this historic station, as it was the descendent of a station that dated back to 1927.

Owned by Family Radio since 1973, WYFR’s shutdown and subsequent sale is the latest in a number of cost-cutting moves, including station sales, by the Christian radio network during the past year. Founded by Harold Camping, Family Radio gained mainstream attention with its media blitz following Camping’s predictions about Judgment Day and the end of the world in 2011.

Programming from the Christian radio network will once again broadcast internationally over shortwave as part of Family Radio’s deal with Radio Miami International. According to a statement posted on Shortwave Central,

“Family Radio programming for the Caribbean and South America will return to shortwave via the Okeechobee site, and Radio Miami’s programming currently aired on WRMI in Miami will switch over to the Okeechobee facility.  The station will also carry programs for other international broadcasters, including Pan American Broadcasting’s Radio Africa network.  A target date of December 1, 2013 has been set for the resumption of broadcasts.  The current WRMI transmission site in Miami will be closed, and the WRMI call letters will be transferred to Okeechobee.”

According to a piece in Radio World, shortwave practitioners are heartened by the news that shortwave is once again expanding its presence out of the Florida facility.

The post Family Radio to Sell Shortwave Radio Station WYFR to Radio Miami International appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Photo credit: flickr / Nomadic Lass

“Turn on your radio anytime today, but especially around twilight and tune between 6,920 – 6,980 kHz. Pirates broadcast on both AM and SSB; you’re bound to hear a few.”
Many wind-up and emergency radios from brands like Eton have shortwave band capability, so you might even have a shortwave radio without realizing it. However, these radios, and most inexpensive receivers, will only get AM shortwave broadcasts (not to be confused with the AM band), which require higher power from the broadcaster.

Because they broadcast with low power and often without warning, hunting shortwave pirate broadcasts requires some patience. The Pirate’s Week podcast producer Ragnar Daneskjold often tweets the pirates he receives. So an interested listener is advised to follow him. Also, I’ll bet he’ll play some highlights he records tonight on a future show.

Informal counts indicate that the government shutdown period from October 1 – 13 saw a surge in shortwave pirate activity. Because shortwave broadcasts easily propagate over large areas, it requires more active monitoring to track down their origination. With FCC agents on furlough there were no government officials on duty to do this tracking, greatly lowering the likelihood of pirates getting caught then.

It will be interesting to see if Halloween 2013 will rival the shutdown for shortwave pirate activity. As the Commission plays catch-up from the 13-day furlough, sniffing out shortwave pirates may not be at the top be at the top of their agenda today.

As John Anderson at DIYMedia points out, the FCC was engaged in very active enforcement of FM pirates in New York City from June 1 to September 5. Very little has been registered since September, though that doesn’t mean that Commission offices aren’t readying lists of unlicensed broadcasters to track down. However, again, shortwave pirates require more active hunting, simultaneous with their broadcasts.

Are you tuning in some Halloween pirate broadcasts? Let us know in the Forums.

The post Halloween is a pirate radio holiday appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The SWLing Post tips us off to a changing of the guard in one corner of the radio publication world. Monitoring Times is the magazine that has served enthusiasts tuning in to all manner of radio signals, from shortwave, AM and FM to the obscure territories of longwave, amateur satellite and military communications. After 33 years of publication, Monitoring Times’ last issue will be December 2013. The closure is prompted by the retirement of its publisher and founder Bob Grove.

Taking its place beginning January 2014 is The Spectrum Monitor, a monthly electronic magazine in PDF format that will be edited and published by Monitoring Times former managing editor, Ken Reitz. He announced the new publication in the November issue of Monitoring Times, writing, “all readers, regardless of how long they had been subscribers, expressed sadness and dismay at the closure of the magazine. I came to believe that there might be enough interest to warrant continuing the publication in some other form.”

According to its website, The Spectrum Monitor will “deliver full-spectrum coverage of amateur radio, long wave and shortwave listening, public service scanning, AM/FM/TV broadcasting, satellites, WiFi radio, vintage radio and more.”

While I’ve never been a subscriber, I have picked up many issues of Monitoring Times over the years. Especially in the years before blogging and social media lowered the bar for entry to internet publishing, MT was one of the most reliable sources for news and information about pirate, unlicensed and clandestine radio. I held on to the May 1996 issue which featured a profile of then three year-old Free Radio Berkeley and its founder Stephen Dunifer at a time when the unlicensed micropower radio movement was beginning to take off around the country.

Even since then the magazine has provided a forum for radio enthusiasts interested in tuning in to signals missed by most audiences, in addition to covering the national and global policies affecting broadcasting and receiving. So it’s good to see that Reitz is willing to pick up the mantle.

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As I publish this piece Wednesday evening it is increasingly likely there will be military attacks on Syria by the US, Britain and allies in response to evidence that the Syrian government carried out chemical weapons attacks on its own citizens.

It is certainly a tense situation, and for the people of Syria the situation must be getting only more frightening. Media inside the country is tightly controlled by the government which exclusively airs the Assad regime’s viewpoint, and so it must be difficult to know what the true threat is, and what to expect.

I have been trying assess what outside information resources are available to the people of Syria, particularly radio, since it is inexpensive to receive and more difficult to block.

Inside many war-torn countries outside news and information is available via shortwave radio. Global broadcasters like the BBC and Deutsche Welle can be important sources of information and international political debate. Often there are broadcasts from political opponents, as is the case with Zimbabwe. However, Radio Free Syria, the last known anti-Assad shortwave broadcaster, hasn’t been heard from since about 2004. As well, like in Europe and North America, it appears that shortwave is not particularly popular inside Syria.

Satellite broadcasts, however, are popular in the Middle East where both international television and radio services are available. Due to their wide regional footprint satellite broadcasts easily cross borders, as long as local residents have reception equipment. In 2012 the Assad government was accused by the European Broadcasting Union of jamming the BBC, France 24, Deutsche Welle and the Voice of America. It is unclear if that jamming continues.

There are a couple of internet radio broadcasts for Syrians, originating outside of the country. We previously reported on Radio Rozana, which originates from Paris and plans to launch a satellite channel. Deutsche Welle recently reported on Baladna FM, staffed by exiled reporters in neighboring Jordan. Baladna is internet only at the moment.

Because there are methods for internet users in Syria to evade government filtering, determined listeners inside the country can find ways to tune in these independent broadcasts. But that still makes them less accessible than if they were on satellite or shortwave.

I would appreciate it if any readers with information about media and information availability inside Syria would email us to share.

Speaking for myself, I do not look forward to any military attacks on Syria. I have deep sympathy for the innocent Syrian people caught in their nation’s civil war, subject to brutal attacks from their own government, and now fearing attacks from western powers.

The post What outside radio and information are available to the people of Syria? appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Meet the latest innovation in digital communications technology: a radio receiver built the year that Disney released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It is a 1938 Philco console rigged by shortwave operator Gerhard, W6XH to pick up a Voice of America Radiogram. These radiograms are basically radio propelled text messages transmitted via the multiple-frequency shift keying method. The Philco has some help, of course; it is hooked up to a Radiogram software equipped laptop PC.

The result is something that looks like an e-mail, sort of (see below).

Why is this important? Project supervisor Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott explains: “We are doing this because shortwave transmitters might be a useful link when the Internet is disrupted by disasters [or] dictators. . . . Sometimes it’s useful to have news and information in text format, and occasionally in poor shortwave reception conditions, when the announcer’s voice is difficult to understand, text might get through with much greater reliability.”

Of course, dictators can try to block shortwave or AM too if they like (or they can try to ban the use of shortwave radios). But the more complicated we make it for them, the better.

Hat tip to Bennett Z. Kobb for bringing this to our attention.

The post The 1938 radio receiver that picks up text appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The New York Times has an interesting profile of former BBC journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown, a prominent voice in the struggle against deforestation in Malaysia. The daughter of a colonial era Malaysian police officer, Brown contributes to Radio Free Sarawak, a shortwave operation with an estimated ten thousand listeners.

“If you have a problem in your village or if someone is taking your land, logging, planting or polluting your area let your voice be heard and tell the world about it through Radio Free Sarawak!” RFS’s website advises.

Sarawak is a Malaysian governed state on the island of Borneo (Brunei and Indonesia control other portions of the land mass). The organization Global Witness says that the region has a higher deforestation rate than all other big timber producers in tropical areas. RFS has just released a radio report about Sarawak’s Murum Dam, which the group charges is being flooded “far from the eyes of the outside world.”

The dispatch discusses:

“the desperate situation of the native Penan people of the area, who have been left hoping that the government will fulfil vague promises to provide them enough land for their next generation. The hunter gatherers have seen their entire forest flattened and they have been moved to a new longhouse in the centre of an oil palm plantation, where they can find no food. All the job opportunities have been given to foreign workers . . . “

Radio Free Sarawak is run by Christina Suntai and Peter John Jaban, two Iban speaking journalists and indigenous rights advocates. They aren’t the only deforestation activists in Southeast Asia. There is also Mam Sonando of Cambodia. Sonando’s Bee Hive radio outlet protests the huge timber land grabs being orchestrated by Cambodian government top brass. Bee Hive, situated in Phnom Penh, broadcasts at 105 FM. Cambodian courts released Sonando from his third stretch in prison in March.

As for Radio Free Sarawak, if you’ve got a shortwave receiver, you can tune in via the frequency 15420 kHz between 7 and 8.30 pm Borneo time, which is situated in the West Indonesia time zone—or just follow and download the radio posts on the site.

The post Radio Free Sarawak and the fight against deforestation in Borneo appeared first on Radio Survivor.

While it can be a strong force for information freedom, events in the Middle East over the last four years have also demonstrated how easily a repressive regime can shut down the internet inside its borders and choke off news that the government wishes to suppress. When this happens radio can be ready to step in and transmit information from the outside world.

The Verge reports on Radio Rozana, a new Paris-based radio station that broadcasts into war-torn Syria via satellite, which is a dominant broadcast medium in the Middle East, and internet. Founded by Syrian journlists in exile and funded by the French government, Radio Netherlands and NGOs like Reporters Sans Frontieres, the station also plans FM and shortwave broadcasts from bordering countries.

Radio Rozana’s program editor Lina Chawaf told Reuters that, “The priority is to hear the voice of Syrians inside Syria. They are suffering and being killed every day. We want to support them.”

While radio transmissions can be jammed by a government intent on blocking its signal, if the station is otherwise unlicensed by that government it can change its frequency and location with more agility than an established international broadcaster like the BBC.

Shortwave radio has been an effective tool for bringing outside news and information into Zimbabwe, such that earlier this year the Mugabe government banned the use of shortwave radios. Non-government media voices have become particularly vital in that country in the run up to national elections scheduled for later this month.

At the end of June a Zimbabwe member of parliament questioned Co-Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone about the policy of confiscating solar-powered shortwave radios. Legislator Simon Hove said, “People have a right to know what is happening around them and beyond. Besides radios do not tune themselves, individuals navigate through several stations before they select a particular station to listen to.”

Markone defended the confiscations, saying, “The radios are not the problem, but the peddling of hate speech, and the police will also confiscate illegally imported radios. The threat is found when citizens are being set against each other.”

Below is a short video about Radio Rozana from Canal France International Media Cooperation:

The post Radio broadcasters challenge government repression in Syria and elsewhere appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Daily Telegraph reports on an exclusive look at the BBC World Service’s annual audience numbers, and they’re looking quite good for the British international broadcaster. Worldwide the service reaches 192 million people a week across all media types, up 11.8 million from last year.

The World Service’s Persian and Arabic TV services have over 40 million viewers combined, which contribute to the overall increase.

This success comes despite cuts in the BBC’s budget from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

On the radio side, the Beeb cut shortwave and medium wave (AM) broadcasts in English, and eliminated shortwave broadcasts in Arabic. This likely contributed to an overall loss of 300,000 listeners to radio services.

The BBC Trust manages the service’s funding from license fees paid by the British pubic. The Trust just released a draft paper confirming that the World Service will have a budget of £245 million for 2014–14.

However, it also recommended that the service should pursue other funding, including commercial funding, “where appropriate and within regulatory requirements.” Such funding could come from licensing programming to other broadcasters, such as how many US public broadcasters carry the World Service.

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Family Radio’s Shortwave Wave (photo: J. Waits)

Shortwave Central is reporting that Christian broadcasting network Family Radio will cease operations from its Florida-based shortwave radio station WYFR at the end of June.

According to a message posted from WYFR Station Manager Dan Elyea, “We regretfully inform you that the final day of operation for WYFR will be June 30, 2013.” No reason was given for the station closure, but Family Radio has made a number of cost-cutting moves in the past year. Founded by Harold Camping, Family Radio gained mainstream attention when it blanketed the media with Camping’s predictions about both Judgment Day (May 21, 2011) the end of the world (October 21, 2011) two years ago.

In addition to hosting a talk show for more than 50 years out of his California headquarters, Camping has also been a savvy radio station owner, expanding his network of stations not only across the country, but all over the world through shortwave radio.

Family Radio Stickers on a Door at the Network Headquarters (photo: J. Waits)

Family Radio has owned WYFR (which originated in 1927 as an experimental shortwave station out of Boston) since October, 1973. In an account of the history of the station, Jim Cumbie said that station was moved to Florida in 1976 and broadcasts to Europe and South America were made from the new location beginning in 1977. Cumbie wrote, “In 1977, WYFR received 13,000 letters in one year from Latin America alone. The owners knew at that point, that their ministry was expanding. Cuba was then added to the listening range; and by 1978, Family Radio was the strongest signal heard in that Communist country.”

Although an archived Family Radio web page from 2011 lists shortwave broadcasts into Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Africa, China, Korea, Myanmar, Russia, Brazil, Vietnam, and Central America in a huge array of languages, current listings on the Family Radio website indicate a smaller line-up of international broadcasts in English, Chinese, Portugese, Russian, Spanish, and Southeast Asian languages (Tagalog, Burmese, Indonesian, and Vietnamese).

An article, “The World’s Shift from Shortwave to DTH – Direct to Home TV” in the Family Radio newsletter, Open Line (PDF) seems to indicate that the network is moving much of its international broadcasts to satellite services. The article states,

“Family Radio continues to broadcast programming via shortwave to Asia, and Central and South America. However, over the course of the last 36 years, the world has been shifting from its use of shortwave to DTH – Direct To Home – TV. To better serve countries where DTH use dominates the airwaves, and where access to the Internet is beyond the means of a typical overseas resident, Family Radio is pursuing DTH as a means to reach the people of these countries…

This growth of the DTH industries presents a readily available way to transmit the Gospel to a lot of the world without requiring the use of radios or radio stations…Family Radio has been in the DTH industry for many years…Family Radio is available on satellite television at no cost to the DTH user in Europe and North Africa. Family Radio now broadcasts three separate, 24-hours-a-day, channels for our satellite outreach…”

The article makes no mention of the future of shortwave for Family Radio. Here’s a clip of a Spanish language broadcast from shortwave station WYFR.

The post Family Radio to Cease Shortwave Operations from Historic WYFR appeared first on Radio Survivor.

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A Radiogram downloaded via shortwave receiver in Italy.

One of my favorite correspondents has brought the Voice of America’s Radiogram project to my attention. The venture experiments with transmitting digital text and images via shortwave broadcasting. Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott is running the show with some technical assistance from my aforementioned contact: Bennett Kobb.

“These experiments are intended to establish the best mode for transmission of text via international AM broadcast,” Kobb told me. The resultant data modes “are more robust against intentional and unintentional interference than is speech. Ultimately, simple software will be distributed that will enable nontechnical persons to decode the news broadcasts even where they are jammed or too weak to hear otherwise.”

As Dr. Elliott puts in one of his experimental broadcasts:

We are doing this because shortwave transmitters might be a useful link when the Internet is disrupted by disasters [or] dictators. . . . Sometimes it’s useful to have news and information in text format, and occasionally in poor shortwave reception conditions, when the announcer’s voice is difficult to understand, text might get through with much greater reliability.”

Receivers of these text transmissions can decode them themselves via a shortwave radio, a basic personal computer, a patchcord to connect the earphone jack of the radio to the microphone input of the PC, and some decoding software

Here are some fun YouTube videos of the reception process in various experiments.

The post Dictator blocking your Internet? Try a Radiogram appeared first on Radio Survivor.

State broadcasters around the world have been cutting back on their shortwave transmissions over the last few years, typically attributing the reductions to a combination of budget challenges and declining listenership. With the start of April and the beginning of the 2nd quarter the Voice of America and BBC just trimmed shortwave broadcasts.

Citing budget cuts brought on by the sequestration, the VOA is curtailing shortwave and medium wave (AM) broadcasts to Albania, Georgia, Iran and Latin America, as well as English language broadcasts to the Middle East and Afghanistan.This cutback will allow the VOA to avoid furloughs of staff members. The VOA says that listeners in these regions will still be able to receive broadcasts by affiliate stations, satellite and online streams. At the same time, radio broadcasts will continue to serve regions with large audiences or that are not easily reached by technologies other than radio.

Also responding to budget cuts, the BBC’s World Service English schedule over shortwave and AM are reduced to a minimum of six hours a day. As part of the change, a new program called The Newsroom will replace World Briefing, and the Outlook program will be extended to an hour-long format.

More significantly, the Beeb is ending all Arabic broadcasts over shortwave, which the service estimates will reduce its audience by 800,000 listeners. Arabic language broadcasts will continue over a network of FM stations, a television channel and the BBC Arabic website.

While it is true that an increasing number of global listeners can now listen to internet broadcasts, it is also the case that shortwave broadcasts are much less susceptible to interference by government censorship or utility outages that more easily affect satellite television and internet service. I’m certain that the management of state broadcasters do not take these service reductions lightly, and it is good to see that they continue to prioritize broadcasts to regions that are particularly dependent on radio, whether due to development or political challenges.

Nevertheless, radio fans should be wary of the overall equivocation between broadcast radio and internet that these changes represent. Even as broadband via wi-fi and mobile data becomes more ubiquitous, there still aren’t any hand-cranked cell towers.

Related: Dutch government to slash Radio Netherlands Worldwide, focus on regions needing “free speech”

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Looking for an alternative perspective on world news on your FM dial? If you live in Chicago or Washington, DC you can now tune in the Russian government’s Voice of Russia service, which began broadcasting English language programming at the beginning of March on the HD2 channel of WTOP-FM in DC, a news-talk station, and WILV-FM in Chicago, which airs the adult hits format.

These stations add to AM stations in New York City and Washington DC that carry the service, as well as WKIS-HD2 in Miami, which has country music on its main analog signal.

Tuning in Thursday evening to WILV-HD2 in the far north side Chicago neighborhood of Rogers Park the channel comes in clearly. I listened to news headlines at the bottom of the hour followed by an interesting longer documentary piece on the Folk Box program about the Sami people, who speak a Finno-Uralic langauge in the far northwest of Russia.

The BBC World Service is broadcast on several public stations’ HD2 channels and Radio Netherland’s Spanish-language Ahora service is also broadcast on some public radio HD2 signals. Otherwise the VOR is the only other international state broadcaster that I’ve heard of broadcasting full-time on a US HD Radio signal.

While HD Radio may still be a niche service, it still may be a good way for VOR to reach more US listeners than shortwave. According to a recent Arbitron report there are 3.6 million people over age 12 in listening to HD Radio multicasts every week. This is quite small compared to the overall radio audience of 242 million listeners weekly. Nevertheless, I’d bet that 3.6 million compares favorably to the number of weekly shortwave listeners in the US.

Like most international broadcasters, the Voice of Russia is available for online streaming as well.

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There are reports from Zimbabwe indicating that the crackdown on independent radio is stepping up. Shortwave station SW Radio Africa reports that police in the town of Rusape went on raids of opposition party supporters looking for shortwave radios (via SWLing post). However a member of parliament said that the police found no radios.

According to UK-based New Zimbabwe the community FM station Radio Dialogue, based in Bulawayo, was raided by police on March 1. The station’s lawyer says, “the charges are along the lines of having radios that have not been declared.” The station’s editor Zenzele Ndebele was arrested, and 180 radios were seized.

Ndebele was due to appear in court on Tuesday, but the appearance was cancelled. The cancellation is seen as indication that the police know they will have a difficult time making their case in court.

Ironically, on Monday, the state-owned Chronicle newspaper, also based in Bulawayo, ran an editorial in support of community radio. Author Emmanuel Ndlovu reports that the Minister of Media, Information and Publicity said that the government is “committed to opening up airwaves particularly for community radios,” as part of remarks made in honor of World Radio Day last month. No mention is made in this piece about Radio Dialogue or the action against shortwave receivers.

The government effort to seize shortwave radios and suppress independent media voices comes ahead of a constitutional referendum later this month and a general election later in the year. Shortwave stations not controlled by President Mugabe’s government broadcast from outside the country’s borders, airing voices critical government which are not heard on state-owned media or newly established independent commercial stations which are aligned with Mugabe.

The post Zimbabwe government crackdown on independent radio continues appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Is this an illegal radio?

Last week police in Zimbabwe banned the use of so-called “specially designed radios” capable of receiving shortwave broadcasts from outside the country, not just FM broadcasts from the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Company which is loyal to President Robert Mugabe’s party. According to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) the law is aimed at hand-cranked and solar powered shortwave radios that pro-democracy groups and foreign NOGs plan to distribute ahead of a referendum on a new constitution in March and forthcoming elections. MISA says that the ban is not supported by the law and that the police have been vague in defining exactly which radios are banned.

Shortwave stations like SW Radio Africa and the Voice of America’s Studio 7 for Zimbabwe offer popular programming and reporting from across the border that is not subject to government control.

In an article that is likely timed to coincide with the radio ban, the government-owned Herald newspaper claims another station, Voice of the People, is “in turmoil” due to being behind in paying its employees, and “faces collapse.” The article also accuses the station of being pirate and broadcasting “hate speech.”

Human rights advocates would take issue with that characterization. In 2006 the station won a One World Media award in recognition of its brave efforts to broadcast independent news from inside Zimbabwe in the face of government oppression and violence. In 2011 Radio VOP applied for a license with the Zimbabwe government and was denied. So far licenses have only been granted to Mugabe loyalists.

There are no other corroborating reports of this “turmoil” at Radio VOP in any other independent news outlets. Thus this story seems intended to sow some public anxiety over the independent station’s operations.

The Zimbabwe government’s suppressive response to outside broadcasts demonstrates just how vital radio communications are for modern democracy. Repressive regimes can more easily filter and block internet and phone communications than they can block international shortwave radio signals. Using a solar or wind-up radio, the listener doesn’t even need electricity, which could also be interrupted. These are qualities that those of us in the industrialized west can easily overlook, but should not.

The post Zimbabwe government bans radios, sees independent shortwave broadcasts as a threat appeared first on Radio Survivor.

If you’ve ever found yourself scanning the AM dial during a late night road trip on the highways of North America, then you’ve probably encountered one of the radio networks that serves truckers with country music, call-in shows, and information tailored to long-haul professional drivers. They rely on the long-distance capacity of AM to serve road dogs for hundreds of miles without changing stations.

Of course, shortwave radio broadcasts can outrun AM, covering thousands of miles. But it never occurred to me that there would be a shortwave station serving truckers.

Thanks to the Shortwave Listening Post I learned about The Mighty KBC which is a European shortwave station that blasts out rock n’ roll oldies and classic rock to truckers across the continent. Historically, shortwave has been more popular in Europe than North America, and there are still car and truck radios with shortwave reception available. So it makes perfect sense that an enterprising broadcaster would choose this band to serve an audience traveling across countries and across the continent.

In the US many truckers have migrated to satellite radio, since it offers nationwide coverage in addition to its own trucker channel. But there has yet to be a successful satellite radio service in Europe.

Featuring an international lineup of DJs from the UK, US and Holland, KBC is also quite proud of its rebroadcasts of border-blaster legend Wolfman Jack. The station also carries Trucker Radio (formerly the Driver Show), a syndicated Canadian program targeted to professional drivers, built on a foundation of country music.

KBC is the brainchild of former pirate broadcaster Eric van Willegen, who says he used to broadcast from Dutch high-rise apartments and ships at sea until he grew tired of being raided by the authorities. Van Willegen is also president of Holland-based KBC Import-Export, which sells consumer electronics, specializing in citizen band, police band, marine and shortwave radios.

The current incarnation of the Mighty KBC went on the air from a transmitter in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2009, broadcasting in English at 6095 KHz. Recently the station has been running test broadcasts aimed at North America on 9450 KHz, which they claim originates from an old Soviet transmitter based in Bulgaria. The SWL Post recorded a 2-hour aircheck of last weekend’s transmission and uploaded it to the Internet Archive.

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An interesting piece in the Toronto Star laments the recent cuts to Radio Canada International. And the protest comes from an American—Thomas Witherspoon, who staffs Ears to our World. The non-profit sets up short wave band radio networks in developing areas.

“Sadly, many Canadians must not be aware of RCI, or of its valiant but unsung role in international relations,” Witherspoon writes. “Radio Canada International is an arm of the CBC that stretches across the world with international news and programming, offering a uniquely Canadian perspective on world events to millions of listeners, who await these broadcasts every day.”

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation announced cutbacks to RCI in early April. There will be less shortwave service and more web based streaming. The service’s Russian and Brazilian departments will close, with more focus on the core languages spoken by Canadian audiences: French, English, Spanish, Arabic, and Mandarin.

Witherspoon continues:

If I could speak on behalf of the millions who listen to RCI in the dark of night, I’d say a mouthful. Here on the overly-lit, information-saturated North American continent, it’s easy to forget that an estimated 1.6 billion human beings –  a full one quarter of us –  still lack access to reliable power and to the Internet.  In remote, impoverished, often war-torn regions, radio has become a familiar voice in the darkness.  Without radio broadcasters such as RCI – and the light of information they can relay – the night can become very dark, indeed.

“Please, Canada, find a way to avoid severing your own tongue,” the commentary concludes.  “The world is listening to you.”

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Paper Radio

It’s been over a year since I’ve profiled a Radio Obsessive for Radio Survivor and I’m glad to say that I couldn’t resist the opportunity to learn more about DJ Frederick and his Paper Radio ‘zine. According to the Paper Radio blog, “Paper Radio is about shortwave listening, free radio, community radio, DIY media and evolves from there.”

Fellow Radio Survivor Paul Riismandel recently reported on Paper Radio and it reminded me that I’d interacted with DJ Frederick last year when he asked to reproduce my feature about Lew Houston’s work to document the history of college radio station WRKU. After taking a look at DJ Frederick’s latest output, it was clear that he deserved full-on Radio Obsessive treatment.

DJ Frederick (aka Frederick Moe) is a long-time radio DJ and has been publishing ‘zines for about a decade. His fascination with radio extends across numerous categories, including college radio, pirate radio, and shortwave radio. His first radio gig was in 1976 at WUNH and these days he has does the show “Radio Thrift Shop” at Colby-Sawyer College radio station WSCS.

Paper Radio covers a wide range of DJ Frederick’s interests. Earlier versions of the ‘zine (under a different name) even included a CD sampler featuring a range of snippets of radio broadcasts. The latest issue of Paper Radio (#9) just came out a few weeks back with stories about famed DJ John Peel, The Amateur Radio Hurricane Network, Occupy Shortwave, and the Voice of Next Thursday radio show/blog. To get more insight into the man behind the ‘zine, I recently conducted an interview with DJ Frederick over email about his radio obsession. Thanks so much to DJ Frederick for chatting with me about his fascination with radio.

Jennifer Waits: What’s the goal of Paper Radio and how often do you publish it?
 
Frederick Moe: My hope with Paper Radio is to turn people on to the diversity and magic that radio offers us. I am hoping that media geeks and novices alike will read the zine and learn about something different. I have published Paper Radio three or four times a year for the past several years. It’s a grueling schedule for a solitary zinester.

Jennifer: What prompted you to start writing about radio and when did you begin with your first ‘zine? How did Paper Radio evolve from your other ‘zine projects?

Frederick: In 1999 I reconnected with radio in a major way, started listening to shortwave, became a DJ at my local college radio station. Around the same time I reconnected with both reading and writing zines. It seemed that radio and its endless varieties was an unexplored topic in the zine world. Pirate radio and shortwave listening have always been central to the zine projects. My earlier zines were called the /wave project and each had a title: short/wave, air/waves and so on. This was in the very early 2000s. Around 2007, I started calling the zine project Signals and in 2011 someone wrote that reading my zine was like listening to a radio show on paper. Eureka! A new title was born.

Signals No. 2

Jennifer: I thought it was cool that a copy of your early ‘zine included a CD with tidbits from pirate radio stations. Do you still incorporate audio into any of your issues?

Frederick: The audio CDs were a lot more work than I expected! There were five variations of the CD that included audio from pirate stations KIPM, Undercover Radio, Mystery Science Radio, WMYN, and The Purple Nucleus of Creation. I abandoned the notion of including CDs after including them with a couple of issues and receiving no encouraging feedback. At some point in the future if I feel inspired I might release an all audio version (sans print) of Paper Radio on CD or mp3. 

Jennifer: How do you find story ideas for Paper Radio?

Frederick: The story ideas seem to find me in moments when I’m not looking. There are dozens left to do – favorite dj heroes, the first song you remember hearing on the radio, the weirdest thing you’ve ever heard on the radio, how to build a transmitter, etc. I’ve been lucky that a few people have submitted their work including articles, reviews, and a couple of short fiction pieces. Anything related to media and radio is welcomed.
 
Jennifer: How long have you been a DJ and at what stations? Also, I’d love to hear more about your current show on WSCS.
 
Frederick: My first venture onto the airwaves was in 1976 on WUNH 90.3 in Durham NH. After listening to great tunes for weeks and hearing no announcing (just endless music, sort of like automation today) I drifted into the station one ninety degree day and found a guy sleeping in the back room. I woke him up and asked him if I could play records and he agreed! Since then I did a brief stint on WKBR (1250 AM) in Manchester NH in the late 1970s, almost went to work at New Hampshire Public Radio as a folk DJ (long story), then went on a two decade hiatus until stumbling upon WSCS (90.9 Colby-Sawyer College) practically in my back yard. Since then I’ve also DJ’ed on WNEC 91.7 Henniker NH, The Pirate Ship 105.1, Jolly Roger Radio International in Ireland, WBCQ shortwave, WRMI shortwave and Radio 501 in Europe.

Every few years I change it up at WSCS with a new show. The latest two are The Village Green: A New England Music Sampler (self explanatory) and Radio Thrift Shop (not very original – I learned recently that Laura Cantrell hosted a show of the same name on WFMU). Radio Thrift Shop is about exploring the recorded sound of the past century, which leaves the playlist wide open. I might mix old country 78s from the 1930s with psychedelic music from the 1960s. It’s mostly about the sound – castaway, elapsed, hazy, overlooked. Radio Thrift Shop is also broadcast on low power Part 15 station Troubadour 1700 and they’re archived at radio4all.net.

Paper Radio 6

Jennifer: Why do you love radio?

Frederick: This has been expressed a million times before, but there is no medium as intimate as radio. I love the immediacy and the atmospheres that can be painted through sound. Radio sits close to our psyche, our imaginations. When I was a child, I was elated by the simple yet mysterious act of turning a dial of a dusty Zenith shortwave in my father’s workshop and hearing music from all over the world. My father had been a singing cowboy on WFEA 1370 in the late 1930s so he influenced my love for radio as well.

Jennifer: Who do you consider your colleagues in the world of documenting radio?
 
Frederick: I’m such a hermit, totally low-tech and an imperfectionist that I’m not sure I have any colleagues! Paper Radio is like my radio shows – no trappings, warts & all, mistakes, bloopers, everything is left in, because that’s what life is like. Exceptional radio reflects life back at us.

Jennifer: Any suggestions for the next Radio Obsessive profile?

Frederick: If you can get him to agree, Glenn Hauser! Or Keith Perron from PCJ Media!

Previous Radio Obsessive Profiles:

#1: Garrett Wollman’s Radio Tower Quest

#2: Jose Fritz’s Arcane Radio Trivia

#3: Radio Sticker of the Day curator Greg Blouch

#4: Seattle Radio Theater founder Feliks Banel

#5: Herculodge’s Jeff McMahon – The Man Who Loved Radios Too Much

#6 & #7: Jonathan Winter and John Jenkins of American Museum of Radio and Electricity

#8: Beloit College Radio Historian Dave de Anguera

#9: Engineering Radio’s Paul Thurst

#10: College Radio ‘Zinester Lew Houston

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Jason Scott is an archivist and historian of computer and internet history behind such great projects as textfiles.com, which preserves the wonders of the pre-web internet, as well as documentaries on pre-internet BBSs (bulletin-board systems) and text adventure games. Appropriately enough, he now works at the Internet Archive, and while catching up on his blog I came upon a post about a collection of shortwave pirate radio recordings hosted at the archive.

If radio tends to be an ephemeral medium, then shortwave pirate radio is especially ephemeral, heard by a very small audience, even if it is scattered across the globe. Shortwave pirate listeners tend to be dedicated, and recording airchecks is often part of the hobby. However, it’s one thing to record a shortwave pirate broadcast, and a whole other thing to catalog and preserve it. Luckily for us an enthusiast who goes by the name Sealord did just that, and then digitized the recordings and uploaded them to share.

Radio Metallica Worldwide QSL card

The collection spans the mid-90s through to September 2011. I was pleased to find a couple of recordings from a station that called itself Radio Metallica Worldwide, which broadcast in the late 90s and mid-2000s. I remember this station well because it transmitted with a tremendous amount of power for a pirate and could be heard very clearly across most of North America. Back in 1996 and 1997, in my little apartment in Champaign, Illinois, I listened to the station many times on my Radio Shack Patrolman SW-60 radio that I’d had since I was a kid. Only with lots of effort and patience was I able to pick up any other pirate stations with that rig. But Radio Metallica Worldwide came in loud and clear (for shortwave, that is). In the October 26, 1997 recording the proprietor, Dr. Tornado, brags of using “10,000 watts of pure awesome audio power.” If true that would outclass most pirates by a factor of 100 or so. The station was so infamous that it merited an entry in Andrew Yoder’s 2001 book on Pirate Radio listening.

There’s plenty of interesting listening to be found, even if shortwave pirates tend to be unimaginative music programmers, too often falling back on tired classic and hard rock tunes that don’t fall too far afield of FM radio standards. And there have been archives of shortwave pirate recordings on the web pretty much since uploading audio to the internet became practical in the 1990s. In fact, I’m pretty sure I heard my first shortwave pirate programs on the internet (in RealAudio!), which then spurred me to try tuning in the broadcasts on the airwaves.

Listening to these recordings only makes me wish there were a similar collection of FM and AM pirates.

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Page from the UVB-76 station log dated 2005.

Anyone who has spent some quality time scanning the shortwave radio bands has likely come upon what are known as numbers stations. To the uninitiated the stations air what the name describes, someone reading of a sequence of numbers. They can be in any language, but most commonly are in English, Spanish or Russian. They are believed to transmit secret coded messages to agents overseas, but nobody really knows for sure what they’re purpose is.

The Russian shortwave station UVB-76 is a peculiar example of a numbers station, mostly because it is known to air a wide variety of noises and sounds besides numbers. Thanks to an Estonian blogger (full disclosure: I’m half Estonian) the Russian station has become somewhat of an internet sensation. Or at least more of a sensation than most shortwave stations that aren’t streamed on the internet.

The October issue of Wired magazine features an article on the station and the mystery surrounding it, as well as an interview with blogger and tech entrepreneur Andrus Aaslaid who decided to start streaming the station.

I can really identify with Aaslaid when he tells Wired,

“I’ve spent nights just randomly browsing and sometimes getting really, really drunk,” Aaslaid says. (His drink of choice is Aberlour A’bunadh, a single-malt Scotch.) “In the era of the Internet and corporations, people’s lives are so well planned and predictable,” he says. “In some ways, UVB-76 represents the good kind of unpredictability and mystery.” …

 

“Imagine somebody with a Morse key or a reel-to-reel tape deck in the middle of the Namibia desert, running a shortwave transmitter off a diesel generator and sending music or messages toward the ionosphere. In the middle of the night, it does not get any more spiritual than that.”

Reading that makes me want to stay up late with the lights off, wearing headphones, scanning the shortwave dial.

Damn, I’ve got work in the morning.

More on point, on Tuesday Aaslaid posted that supposed pages from a logbook used at the station in 2005 have surfaced in a Russian radio online forum. It even includes a mention of the station’s guard dog, noted to be on duty at 18:30 on October 4.

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Hurricane Irene on Aug. 24

I was listening to NPR this morning as I got ready for work and during the headlines at the top of the hour heard a short story about communities preparing for Hurricane Irene. It featured a quick actuality from a sheriff in South Carolina saying that a battery operated radio will be a vital tool to stay informed when Irene’s force hits. To me that advice sounds obvious, and not just because I’m such a radio enthusiast. Growing up on the East Coast it seems like I always heard about having a radio and plenty of batteries on hand whenever a severe storm threatened. As well, when I moved to the Midwest in the 1990s having a portable radio with fresh batteries on hand was advised to be ready for a tornado.

However, now that we rely so heavily on cell phones and other networked devices it’s easy to forget that they’re much more susceptible to failure during power outages brought on by natural disasters. Even if your mobile phone still has battery life, the closest cell tower might not. No power in the house probably means no power for your cable modem or wireless router, either. Of course, radio transmitters also require power, but many broadcasters maintain backup generators so that they can remain on air during blackouts and emergencies.

Unlike other natural disasters, a hurricane can be predicted days before it hits, giving responsible broadcasters an opportunity to prepare. The radio industry site All Access talked to several stations along the coast about their plans. One station group in Norfolk Beach, VA said it is sure to have accommodations for staff and their families so they can remain working on-air. Another station in South Carolina said that it’s prepared to “all hands on deck 24/7,” along with airing simulcasts from an affiliated TV station. Going “24/7” is now exceptional for the majority of commercial stations, since most are automated at least part of the day, especially overnights.

Even if not every radio station is able to remain on air during a severe storm, the odds are high that at least one will keep broadcasting. Very powerful stations further inland with broadcast ranges of 100 miles or more can provide vital emergency info to coastal areas that are harder hit.

Luckily a perfectly capable portable AM/FM radio that runs on inexpensive AA batteries can still be had for under $20 at discount and department stores, as well as major drug store chains. It’s an even better idea to buy one of the emergency radios that can be powered by a crank or solar energy. Then you can stay reliably tuned in even if you run out of batteries.

Outside the broadcast band, for nearly a century amateur radio operators have provided vital assistance to communities and civil authorities during disasters. A Wall Street Journal story notes that, “Maine has squads of amateur-radio clubs statewide ready to provide back-up communication if cell towers topple.”

Since 1965 the Hurricane Watch Net has organized radio amateurs to operate and provide communication lines during every hurricane that threatens land in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Participating HWN operators transmit and relay information on 14.325 MHz, asking other operators not to use that frequency when an alert is activated. In particular HWN provides important weather info, like local wind speed, to the National Hurricane Center, which monitors that frequency.

Fundamentally, radio is a comparatively inexpensive, robust and proven communications technology. Having internet and digital mobile communications will undoubtedly provide great assistance to first responders and average people during this hurricane. But when the power is out for more than a few hours that radio will provide important communication and solace. When wired lines are cut by falling trees, wireless radio communications will still transmit through the air. I’m certainly glad that radio is still a viable, living technology.

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Dutch Prime Ministher Mark Rutte announces changes to Radio Netherlands

As part of a government austerity program, the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced plans to make significant cuts in the budget of shortwave broadcaster Radio Netherlands Worldwide. RNW has been relied upon by both Dutch expatriates and other listeners around the world for a unique take on world events, in addition to news from the Netherlands.

In a press conference Rutte praised the service and articulated its revised mission:

“Radio Netherlands Worldwide will limit itself to one role, promoting free speech. I think the other tasks RNW performs are nice, valuable, but not enough to finance them with public money.”

As part of this plan RNW will be moved into the government’s Foreign Ministry.

The cuts at RNW come at the same time as other international broadcasters are scaling back as well. Germany’s Deutsche Welle is ending shortwave and mediumwave (AM) broadcasts while Radio Australia is also phasing out shortwave in favor of internet broadcasting. In general governments have cited the ability to reach listeners more easily over the internet as a significant reason for ending terrestrial international broadcasts. The Dutch government’s revised focus for RNW reflects this trend to retain terrestrial broadcasts only to regions that still rely on shortwave for international news and information.

However, that doesn’t mean that RNW and other prominent supporters will go down without a fight. The network has assembled testimony from a variety of prominent international voices in support the station and retaining its full broadcast service. Dutch national Willem Sools discusses the important role RNW played for him while being held hostage in Somalia in 2008:

“The whole time, we were able to listen regularly to a little radio, to stations including Radio Netherlands Worldwide. I wanted to thank you, even though you weren’t aware of it. I was able to hear everything about the Netherlands: interviews, documentaries, the news and, at Yuletide, typically Dutch stories about Saint Nicholas and Christmas – fantastic. Your broadcasts strengthened me a lot. Thanks.”

As the BBC and Deutsche Welle have phased our their broadcast service to North America, Radio Netherlands Worldwide has remained one of the stations that I could reliably tune in for high-quality world news in English on the shortwave band. Admittedly, shortwave radio is not a primary information service for me at this point in time, nor is it for most people in North America. However, I’ve appreciated the service in times when I was traveling and there wasn’t another good news source on the AM or FM dial, or when there’s been a power outage and I’m tired of hearing “traffic and weather on the 8s.”

I suppose it is a good thing that the Dutch government seems to want to maintain broadcasts to the developing world and regions where it wishes to promote free speech. However, it is hard not to lament that the era of ubiquitous global shortwave broadcasting is coming to an end.

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When the Egyptian government shut down internet access over a week ago in order to compromise the opposition movement’s ability to communicate there were several press reports that ham radio operators were stepping in to fill the information void. On the surface it seems a very credible story. Amateur radio operators have stepped in to assist with most major natural disasters, providing a communications lifeline with phone, cell and internet lines are down. But things get a little murkier when the circumstances are a political, rather than natural, emergency. Furthermore, while ham radio has a strong history in much of the West, it is not necessarily so pervasive in all nations.

The Amateur Radio Newsline decided to investigate the claim of ham action in Egypt, and fails to find evidence to support it. First off, reporter Norm Seeley, KI7UP, notes that none of the reception reports of Egyptian hams have been attributed to a named licensed amateur operator with a call sign. Moreover, Seeley says that technically skilled hams in nearby countries like Israel would certainly be filing reception reports if there were transmissions from the Egyptian opposition, but none have surfaced.

Finally, Seeley reports that there are only about two dozen amateur radio operators licensed by the Egyptian government. While it is certainly plausible that there are unlicensed transceivers in the country, Seeley posits that someone familiar with shortwave would be associated with the military and therefore not necessarily sympathetic to the opposition, and also aware of the risks involved in being detected.

On the broadcast bands it is also true that we’ve seen unlicensed broadcasters take to the air during both natural disasters and political crises. So one might also wonder if there are any unlicensed broadcasts supporting the opposition in Egypt.

At this point there is just one report of any kind of unlicensed radio activity in Egypt, coming from a report by the Russian Federation state news agency RIA Novosti. An article dated Friday says that the opposition movement has started a single-sheet newspaper called Maidan Tahrir and is setting up a radio station.

I must admit that I do not know enough about RIA Novosti to critically evaluate the quality of its reportage. Furthermore, I know nothing about Egyptian broadcast regulation. In particular, given the Egyptian army’s strong role in national affairs, I don’t know if it would involve itself in shutting down unlicensed stations, regardless of their political persuasion.

As a believer in the power of radio to help mobilize in times of crisis, it would be romantic to think hams or unlicensed broadcasters were stepping up to support democracy in Egypt. However, it may also be true that doing so may be riskier than other types of action.

At this point, especially as the opposition enters talks with the government, I think the best we can say about whether radio has been employed by the opposition is, “maybe.” I’ll stay on the lookout for additional reports, and we would certainly appreciate any tips our intrepid readers can pass along.

The post What is the role of radio in the Egyptian uprising? appeared first on Radio Survivor.

I own and use all of the radios I’m recommending here, so my comments on each one come from actual listening experience.

Killer Kompact for the Traveler

Tuning in local stations when visiting somewhere far from home can be a great way to learn about a place, hearing about what’s going on and tuning in some native culture. While most hotel rooms have some kind of clock radio, I find the quality of reception can be variable, often receiving only the strongest stations. That’s why I usually travel with my own small radio.

My current favorite travel radio is the Kaito WRX 911. Measuring about 4″ wide by 2″ tall and 1″ deep, it’s just a little bigger than an iPod or digital camera. It tunes in not just AM and FM, but also nine shortwave bands. It also has a metal whip antenna which extends and rotates making it much easier to tweak reception.

With such a small speaker the sound quality is nothing incredible, but it’s at least as good as a clock radio. And there’s a headphone jack for when you don’t want to disturb others. However, reception, is where the Kaito shines. I’ve had great luck tuning in low powered college, community and public stations in many cities, in addition to more powerful commercial stations. It won’t work miracles. Its selectivity–the ability to tune in less powerful stations that are next to more powerful ones–isn’t outstanding, but it’s outperformed most small portable radios I’ve ever owned. At just $20 it really can’t be beat.

Both Style and Performance

I lusted after the Tivoli Model One radio the minute it was announced some ten years ago. Its combination of understated good looks and the promise of a simple, but very well designed analog tuner set it apart from the garish plastic boomboxes and compact stereos out there at the time. Designed by the serial audio innovator Henry Kloss, the Tivoli also extracts impressively rich sound out of its relatively compact cabinet.

I bought my Tivoli eight years ago, and it has served as the primary radio in my house for everyday listening. It sounds great for voice, with a very balanced, pleasing tone. Even though it’s mono with just a single full-range music, music sounds nice as well. It’s better suited for background music than critical listening.

Its FM reception is hard to beat, and it will even accept an external antenna if you want to boost reception even more. The Tivoli’s AM reception is very good, but not world-beating for distant signals. However it does a capable job at minimizing interference and noise on the AM band, ensuring the stations you do tune in sound as good as they can.

The Tivoli Model One was so innovative that it sparked a revival in attractive, high-performance table radios. Admittedly, it’s not the cheapest radio out there. But if you told me I could only have one radio, I would not hesitate to choose the Tivoli.

For the HD Ready

When I embarked on my HD Radio journey several months ago I took the leap with the small Sony XDRF1HD HD Radio Tuner. It’s not a standalone radio, but rather a tuner that requires an amp and speakers. Yet it provides FM radio reception–both analog and HD–that rivals tuners costing much, much more.

On the analog side, it picks up both local and distant FM stations better than any radio in my house, except my Tivoli Model One, which it equals. The Sony’s sound quality exhibits the full range of what analog stereo FM is capable of. If you’re not getting satisfying fidelity, it’s more likely due to your amp and speakers, not the tuner.

I can’t really compare its HD performance since I haven’t spent any significant time with another HD radio or tuner. However, I can say that I’m able to tune in the HD channels of every station I should reasonably expect to receive. HD fidelity depends heavily on how much bandwidth the station dedicates to the HD channel. HD-1 channels sound as good as analog, if a touch quieter and noiseless. Many HD-2 channels sound quite pleasing, though not as good as either the analog signal or the HD-1 channel. I suspect that the XDR-F1HD delivers as much fidelity as the source station can offer.

Honestly, HD Radio is not a must-have. However, if you know someone who wants to hear a specific HD channel or just try it out, you can hardly do better for eighty bucks. Even just functioning as an analog tuner it’s a very good performer.

Portable Performance

While I really do love my little Kaito WRX 911, sometimes I’m willing to sacrifice compactness for a little more performance. For this I recommend yet another Tivoli radio, the company’s first portable radio, called the Songbook. This is my newest radio, which I bought just a few months ago so that I could have a radio in the office at work that I could also drag around with me as necessary.

Now, I work inside an early 1970s concrete monstrosity of a building. My office is in the interior and has no windows. Suffice it to say that it’s an extremely hostile environment for radio listening. Nevertheless, the Songbook performs very well, tuning in the stations I want to listen to most frequently. On several occasions colleagues have come into my office while it’s on and been surprised that I’m getting any kind of radio reception, nevermind such a clear signal.

The Songbook is a portable radio, using either battery or AC power, but it’s not especially small. True to its name, the Songbook is about the size of an average hardcover book. It is a very sturdy radio, covered in a rubber-like material that adds to an overall sense of solidity. Not nearly as packable as the Kaito, it’s easy to tote around. If I still owned a house it would be the radio I’d carry around with me while I did yard work.

Unlike its brother the Model One, the Songbook has a digital tuner. Still, it performs very well. However I do occasionally miss the ability to finely tune in a distant signal that is just a little more staticky with the slightly rougher digital tuner. Also like the Model One it’s not a cheap radio, but it is a piece of equipment that will likely outlast many cheaper radios by quite a margin.

So these are my holiday gift recommendations, starting as low as twenty bucks. I think any radio listener would be pleased to find any of these radios giftwrapped with her name on it. Plus, if you buy one using our Amazon links, a few shekels will go to help Radio Survivor keep surviving, at no additional cost to you. These are the gifts that keep on giving.

The post Paul’s Recommended Radios for Holiday Gifty Time appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Could this be a tool of international espionage?

Numbers stations have been part of radio lore for decades. If you’ve ever listened to much shortwave radio at some point you would have come across an unidentified station broadcasting only a person reading off numbers, like an endless lotto feed: “21 99 36….” Sometimes this is in English, and often in Spanish or other languages.

The origin and purpose of these stations has been the subject of much debate amongst radioheads. In recent years there has been a growing consensus that at least one purpose was to communicate secret information, probably to foreign agents or spies. However, it the age of email and cell phone you’d think that would make listening to sequences of numbers on a shortwave broadcast obsolete. Apparently not.

A recent Slate article reports that the ten alleged Russian spies arrested two weeks ago–recently swapped in exchange for US agents in Russian custody–were indeed listening to shortwave numbers stations in order to receive information from home. According to the FBI’s complaint against the alleged spies, those arrested

To further the aims of the conspiracy, Moscow Center has arranged for the defendants clandestinely to
communicate with the Russian Federation. In particular, the conspirators have used, among others, the secret communications methods described below – steganography and radiograms.

As evidence that such “radiograms” were received, the complaint goes on to state that

Furthermore, during the 2006 Seattle Search, law-enforcement agents entered the Seattle Apartment and observed there a radio that can be used for receiving short-wave radio transmissions. In addition, agents observed and photographed spiral notebooks, some pages of which contain apparently random columns of numbers. Based on my training, experience, and participation in this investigation, I believe that the radio in the Seattle Apartment was used by the Seattle Conspirators to receive radiograms – and that the spiral notebook contains codes used to decipher radiograms as they came in.

As someone who has tuned in numbers stations since getting my first shortwave radio as a kid at ten years old, I find this all incredibly fascinating. At the same time, using coded one-way radio broadcasts still makes sense if you want to communicate to a person without having to know exactly where he is or accidentally giving away his location. As Slate’s Brett Sokol observes,

even if you locate a spy station’s transmitter, you have no idea who’s tuning in across the hemisphere. Unlike telephone or Internet connections, receiving a radio signal leaves no fingerprint, no traceable phone connection, no IP address, and no other hint as to where the recipient might be.

In fact, according to the article Great Britain’s spy agency also has admitted to using numbers stations, and stations have been tracked down in Israel and the US, although the latter ceased broadcasting in the 1990s.

While I don’t necessarily endorse international espionage, this just provides another reason why the particular qualities of radio makes it so suited for one-way communication, often over long distances. While you can achieve this over the internet or over phones, radio still requires only the most basic equipment to receive messages, whether they’re secret codes or emergency information. No cell tower, ethernet port, or even power outlet required (if you have batteries or a crank radio).

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Live streaming local TV from Terremoto, Chile

According to Communications Quarterly news posted today, there are several frequencies being used in the amateur shortwave bands:

SSB frequencies: 10 meters – 28.300, 28.500 MHz 15 meters – 21.200, 21.350 MHz 20 meters – 14.200, 14.350 MHz 40 meters – 7.050, 7.095 MHz 80 meters – 3.738, 3.750 MHz (via CQ Public Service Editor Richard Fisher, KI6SN)

Chilean hams and emergency service agencies are asking that other amateurs keep these frequencies clear so that emergency communications are not impeded.

The communications on these frequencies may be difficult to hear on many radios because they’ll be using SSB, or single-sideband, a power-saving mode often used by hams to transmit longer distances using less power. These broadcasts will sound distorted on a regular shortwave radio, and require the use of a receiver that features SSB reception. I have such a radio, but in the RF interference zone of my Chicago apartment I’m having difficulty getting any clear reception.

I’ve been trying to hunt down some frequencies for Chile-based broadcast stations that use AM/normal mode on shortwave, but I am coming up empty. The only station I’m coming up with is Voice of Chile at 11,890 KHz listed at Radio Shack’s shortwave radio guide.

The National Hurricane Center is broadcasting tsunami updates at 14.300 MHz. I’m able to tune this in, but I’m getting too much interference to hear clearly. With luck people in Hawaii and elsewhere in the Pacific who need this information are receiving it better.

On the internet Ustream is offering a live stream of several local TV channels from Chile and Hawaii.

Thanks to NW7US and RadioGeek who have been providing emergency shortwave information on Twitter.

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