BBC ends shortwave broadcasts [telecom]

BBC ends shortwave broadcasts [telecom]
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Subject Author Date
BBC ends shortwave broadcasts [telecom] hancock4 02-19-2008
Posted by on February 19, 2008, 5:12 pm
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The NYT reported that this 75 year old service has been discontinued.
See:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/business/media/19beeb.html

I mention this because it is an example of changing technology. The
reason this is discontinued is that listeners have access to other
stations, including satellites and AM/FM, and it is expensive to run
the transmitters. (Article has details).

In the WW II story, A Bell for Adano (written during the war), one of
the residents of the Italian town had a radio and they listened to
music from different countries.

Remember the Bell System was a pionner in broadcast radio. It's
original overseas calls used long wave, then short wave. Until the
undersea cable, it continued to use both methods, choosing one or the
other depending upon prevailing atmospheric conditions. It appears
technicians had to constantly monitor the signal and make adjustments
as needed.

Years ago shortwave radios were sold; indeed, some places still
advertise shortwave sets to get special broadcasts. I'm not sure what
shortwave stations are out there these days.

I don't know if the "Radio Free Europe" or "Voice of America" stations
still exist.


Pure Networks
Posted by Sam Spade on February 20, 2008, 3:21 pm
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hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

> I don't know if the "Radio Free Europe" or "Voice of America" stations
> still exist.
>

Voice of America still exists with lots of HF frequencies.

Checked their web sit.


Posted by Steven Lichter on February 20, 2008, 3:25 pm
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hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> The NYT reported that this 75 year old service has been discontinued.
> See:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/business/media/19beeb.html
>
> I mention this because it is an example of changing technology. The
> reason this is discontinued is that listeners have access to other
> stations, including satellites and AM/FM, and it is expensive to run
> the transmitters. (Article has details).
>
> In the WW II story, A Bell for Adano (written during the war), one of
> the residents of the Italian town had a radio and they listened to
> music from different countries.
>
> Remember the Bell System was a pionner in broadcast radio. It's
> original overseas calls used long wave, then short wave. Until the
> undersea cable, it continued to use both methods, choosing one or the
> other depending upon prevailing atmospheric conditions. It appears
> technicians had to constantly monitor the signal and make adjustments
> as needed.
>
> Years ago shortwave radios were sold; indeed, some places still
> advertise shortwave sets to get special broadcasts. I'm not sure what
> shortwave stations are out there these days.
>
> I don't know if the "Radio Free Europe" or "Voice of America" stations
> still exist.
>
There are still a fw broadcasting, NHK (Radio Japan) for one. I have
done SWL for as long as I can remember with my trusty old shortwave,
though now I do a lot of it with computer streaming, but one in a while
I fire it up,I like finding that one station that is rally hard to get,
like years ago, I picked up the South African Broadcasting Commission
before they had an International Service, sent them a tape of it, got
the QSL in the form of a letter since they did not do that at the time,
also got a tape back from them with local music, converted it to CD some
years ago,don't do much Ham radio though, pretty much gave that up a few
years ago, no time.

--
The Only Good Spammer is a Dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2008 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot In Hell Co.


Posted by mc on February 20, 2008, 3:26 pm
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What the BBC ended was shortwave broadcasting in English to Europe. They
ended broadcasts to North America a while back, but I still listen to their
service to the Caribbean on 5.975 MHz every evening as I drive home. I have
a Sony car radio with shortwave.

Shortwave today isn't what it used to be. The BBC mainly serves Africa and
Asia. The Voice of America is still there, but, again, mostly in languages
of underserved countries, not English. Radio Netherlands and Radio Exterior
de Espaqa are still going as strong as ever. North America has sprouted a
handful of offbeat religious broadcasters, as well as some mainstream ones.
HCJB no longer broadcasts in English.

Of course, Radio Habana Cuba is as powerful as ever. Which reminds me, I
want to listen to their news broadcast tonight...


Posted by Mark Crispin on February 20, 2008, 3:28 pm
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On Tue, 19 Feb 2008, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com posted:
> Years ago shortwave radios were sold; indeed, some places still
> advertise shortwave sets to get special broadcasts. I'm not sure what
> shortwave stations are out there these days.

As a child in the 1960s, I was quite a fan of shortwave radio, and
collected QSL cards from broadcasters around the world. My absolute
favorite station was Radio Nederland; remember "Happy Station" and the
"His and Hers" Show with Dody and Jerry Cowan? A close second was
Deutsche Welle.

Then there was Radio Peking and its daily quotation from Chairman Mao.

Or Radio Moscow and its "interesting" news. They couldn't ignore the US
moon landing; for that mission the US had a massive (and successful)
effort to overwhelm the East Bloc jammers. Radio Moscow's July 20, 1969
news broadcast covered everything else until the very end... "At this
moment, two Americans have just landed on the moon; and that's the end of
the news from Radio Moscow."

I turned to other hobbies when I went to college in the 1970s and forgot
about shortwave for a long time.

In the 1990s, I bought a shortwave radio; a nice one with a digital tuner.
One of the reasons was to have a way of knowing what is going on in the
outside world when in a remote wilderness location with no local AM/FM
broadcasters (and certainly no TV, Internet, or cell phones!).

I was disappointed to discover that shortwave broadcast radio had become a
complete wasteland, with a few exceptions such as BBC. Pretty much the
only time I use it now is to tune in WWV when I need to set some clocks
and don't have a GPS or NTP synchronized computer on hand.

Fortunately, satellite radio has filled the need; it can be received even
in the far north.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.


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