|
SHORTWAVE RADIO; TUNE INTO THE
WORLD |
1) What is Shortwave Radio?
·
The shortwave band falls
in between AM & FM
o
Longwave Band: 150 540
Khz
·
Navigational beacons,
European broadcast stations
o
American AM Band: 540Khz - 1,600Khz (.540Mhz - 1.6Mhz)
·
Divided into 10Khz
increments (ex. 740Khz, 750Khz, 760Khz...)
o
SW Band: 1,600Khz - 30,000Khz (1.6Mhz - 30Mhz)
·
Divided into 5Khz
increments (ex. 5960, 5965, 5970Khz...)
·
CB Band: 26.90
Mhz 27.410 Mhz
o
VHF Band: 30 Mhz
300 Mhz
·
American FM Band: 88Mhz
- 108Mhz (ex. 104 KRBE)
·
Divided into 200Khz
increments (ex. 104.100Mhz, 104.300Mhz...)
·
TV Channels 2 - 13
o
UHF Band: > 300
Mhz
·
TV Channels 14 - 20
·
Cell phones (824 - 851
Mhz)
|
* Note: 1 Mhz = 1,000 Khz = 1,000,000 Hz |
·
The shortwave radio wave
is similar to AM radio that we hear in Houston
Question: What are
some characteristics of an AM radio signal?
Answer:
____________________________________________
·
You need a specialized
radio designed to tune the shortwave broadcast bands.
·
Shortwave is used by
many countries to broadcast to its populace or to other countries.
2) Why broadcast on the Shortwave Bands?
Question: If you are driving from Houston to Dallas and
listening to AM radio how long
can you hear 740 KTRH
before you cant hear it?
Answer:
_______________________________________
Question: What about
an FM station?
Answer:
______________
·
Signal can travel great
distances; even around the world via shortwave!! The ionosphere makes
this possible.
·
Listen to your AM radio
at night. You should be able to hear stations from Mexico, the Northern US
states and even the Caribbean.
·
Regulations limit the
amount of power that U.S. AM stations can use (50 kW)
·
Shortwave Broadcast
stations transmit at power levels up to 500 kW!!! But, you can still hear SW stations that use as little as 1kW!!!
·
Poorer countries that
have a large geographic area to cover can reach everyone via a single shortwave
radio station. Radio is cheaper than T.V. and satellite.
Question: What
countries may use shortwave to reach its population?
Answer:
________________________________________________.
|
Ex. Radio Moscow used to
have their Communism Now program, Radio Beijing used to open each broadcast
with a reading from chairman Maos little red book. |
3)
Shortwave Propagation & Broadcast Bands
SHORTWAVE
BROADCAST BANDS
|
120 Meters |
2250 - 2495kHz |
|
90 Meters |
3150 - 3400kHz |
|
75 Meters |
3900 - 4000kHz |
|
60 Meters |
4750 - 5060kHz |
|
49 Meters |
5850 - 6150kHz |
|
41 Meters |
7100 - 7350kHz |
|
31 Meters |
9400 - 9900kHz |
|
25 Meters |
11600 - 12050kHz |
|
22 Meters |
13570 - 13800kHz |
|
19 Meters |
15100 - 15800kHz |
|
16 Meters |
17480 - 17900kHz |
|
15 Meters |
18900 - 19020kHz |
|
13 Meters |
21450 - 21850kHz |
|
11 Meters |
25600 - 26100kHz |
·
Ground / Surface Wave: Best on frequencies below 2 Mhz; Local AM
uses this. Dependable up to about 150-200 miles. Greater signal absorption over
rocky soil, and least over salt water.
·
Space / Direct Wave: Line of sight
·
Ionosphere: Permits long distance reception of space wave on
frequencies above 2 Mhz. Located 30-600
miles above the earths surface. Refracts,
absorbs or allows radio waves to go through into space.
1. D Layer:
30-60 miles above the earths surface.
Greatest ionization at noon and absorbs signals below 7000
Khz. Ceases to exist at night.
2. E Layer:
60-100 miles above the earths surface.
Sporadic E is the cloud-like patches of intense ionization that can form
and refract TV & FM signals. Main
impact on frequencies above 30 Mhz.
Especially strong in daytime and more absorbing of low frequencies. Main reason you cant hear many distant AM
signals in the day.
3. F Layer:
100-250 miles above the earths surface.
In daytime the F layer splits into the F1 (100-150 miles) and F2
(150-250 miles). F1 exists in the day
and is similar to the E layer. At night
it weakens and merges with the F2 layer.
·
Allows shortwave signals
to refract over great distances. Max frequency it can refract is 20-30
Mhz although it can go up to 50 Mhz during exceptional conditions.
·
Sun Spot Activity: Most important factor affecting ionization. 11 year cycle.
·
Maximum Useable
Frequency (MUF) & Lower Useable Frequency (LUF)
·
Gary Line: Period of
semi-darkness that is created as the Earth rotates from night to day and day to
night. Radio wave propagation is affected by day/night periods at the
transmitting and receiving locations.
·
Best time to listen for
distant stations is when your location and the transmitting station are in
relative darkness. Why? __________________________________.
·
Solar Flux &
K-Index: Best
reception conditions: K<2 & Solar Flux >90
4)
Why should you listen to Shortwave?
* News, Music, Cultural info, Language learning, Sports,
Geography
o
News: may be more timely and up to date because is from
the source, but not necessarily the case. Can hear news from a
specific region of the world. (News Clips)
|
Ex. During final months of
the reign of the Shah of Iran, English broadcasts from the Voice of Iran said
nothing was really wrong. When he died shortly after this, the Voice of Iran
became the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran. |
o
Music: Voice Of America has "Music Time in
Africa", Radio Taiwan Int. has "Jade Bells and Bamboo Pipes", R.
Japan has "Pop Joins the World" (Music
Clips)
o
Cultural: China Radio Int. has "Life in China"
program, R. New Zealand has "In Touch with New Zealand", Voice of
Vietnam has "Vietnam: Land & People" (Cultural Clips) (Insight Central Asia info)
o Language Lessons: Radio Japan, Radio Taiwan Int., Radio Exterior de Espana, Duetch
Welle, China Radio Int. (Name That Language &
Language Lesson Program Clips)
o
http://www.nhk.or.jp/lesson/upload/english.html
: Radio Japan
o
http://edu.ocac.gov.tw/chcs01/contents.html :
Radio Taiwan
o
Sports: Rugby on Radio Australia, Soccer &
Cricket on BBC (Sports Clips)
o
Geography: Good for
students
* International
& Domestic broadcasts, Clandestine, Numbers stations, Pirate Radio
stations, Ham radio, Time stations, Navigational Beacons, Religious broadcasts,
Disestablishment broadcasts, etc.
*
Most major countries have an International service where they
broadcast to a particular part of the earth to reach a specific population in
their native language. (ex. Radio Japan broadcasts in 22 languages for 65 hours
a day!, VOA broadcasts in 42 languages!!, BBC, Voice of Nigeria, Vietnam,
Europe, Indonesia, Gabon, Ecuador, etc.) Higher power transmitter; up to 500
kW. (Interval Signal Clips) (Station I.D. Clips)
*
Smaller countries usually have a domestic service that broadcasts
to their inhabitants in their local language (ex. Tahiti-French,
RRI-Indonesian, Radio Pilipinas-Tagalog,
Papua New Guinea-Pidgin, Radio Cultural-Spanish, etc.) Lower power transmitter, 50kW and less. (Station I.D.
Clips)
* Propaganda/Clandestine
broadcasts: Radio Marti, Radio
Farda, Radio Free Asis. Usually broadcast from abroad by a revolutionary group
using propaganda with the aim to influence and incite the population in the
target country. Used in WWII. Jamming
may be common on these broadcasts. (Radio Marti
Jamming Clip & info, Radio Farda Clip & info)
o
http://www.dxing.com/clandest.htm
*
Numbers stations: Many in
Spanish usually a female speaker repeating numbers in groups of 4 or 5. Is it a spy? Drug dealer? Transmitter test?
Not sure, but many suspect govt. usage of these stations to send coded
messages. Coming from Cuba or Washington D.C. area? (Spanish
Numbers Station Clip)
o
http://www.dxing.com/numbers.htm
o
www.npr.org ("All Things
Considered" Program on Friday, May 26th, 2000 called "Lost
and Found Sound: Numbers".)
* Pirates:
Hobby broadcasting. Most in NE USA.
o
http://www.dxing.com/pirate.htm
* Ham
radio: (AFRTS Clip)
o
http://www.dxing.com/whatham.htm
* Time
stations: WWV, WWVH, CHU. Broadcast UTC time 24 hrs a day from atomic
clocks. (CHU and WWV Clips)
·
WWV: 5, 10, 15, 20 Mhz
·
CHU: 7335 Khz
* Utilities:
CW, RTTY, FAX, Multiplex, SSTV (Utility Clips)
·
Need special decoder H/W
or computer S/W
5) Types of Shortwave Listeners
* General listeners:
Listen mostly to high power broadcasts for news, sports, music, etc.
* Dxers: Try to listen to as many stations/countries
as possible. The lower power/weaker the signal the better.
6) What else can you do by listening to
Shortwave?
o
Reception reports to
stations, QSL cards, Pennants, Stickers, broadcast schedules, newspapers, pins,
pocket calendars, contests, prizes, trips
o
Reception reports: Send to stations with time, freq, date, signal
quality, and details. Cost now is Airmail stamp ($.80 + return postage). May
have to write in language of that country (Spanish, Indonesian, French, etc.).
May be harder to get replies from domestic stations because may not care if
broadcasts heard outside broadcast region.
§
SINPO: Signal, Interference, Noise, Propagation/Fading,
Overall
Scale from
1-5, with 5 denoting the best possible condition and 1 the worst
·
IRC: International Reply Coupon
·
Customs Declaration
Form 2976: Needed if sending a parcel
or mailer
§
http://www.dxing.com/reportin.htm
§
http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/practical/html/receptionreports.html
§
http://cbssp.rti.com.tw/ReceptionReport/English.aspx
: Radio Taiwan online
o
QSL Cards: Stations
replies to your Reception report with a QSL card.
§
http://www.antique-corner.com/SWLQSL/index.htm
§
http://www.schoechi.de/qip-link.html
§
http://www.oocities.org/berean_315/qsl.htm
o
NASWA: North American Shortwave Association has contests
& awards
7) Time and Shortwave broadcasts
o
Coordinated Universal
Time (UTC) is used by stations. Greenwich, England is on the prime meridian
(zero degrees longitude) and world time is calculated from this point.
(Old name for UTC was GMT)
o
Uses the 0 degree
meridian as the standard reference for defining time throughout the world. You
will have to add or subtract hours from/ to UTC to determine local time
equivalent of UTC
o
UTC uses the 24-hour or
military system of time notation. In UTC, midnight is given as 0000 UTC. The
next hour, or 1:00am at the Greenwich meridian , is written as 0100 UTC.
§
For CST subtract 6
hrs from UTC (ex. 0100 UTC=1900hrs (7:00pm)
§
For CDT subtract 5
hrs from UTC (ex. 0100 UTC=2000hrs (8:00pm)
**NOTE** If a station schedule says it will
broadcast a certain program for example at 0100 UTC on Sunday, in Houston it
will actually be heard on Saturday evening due to the fact we are 5 or 6
hours behind that of Greenwich, England.
**NOTE
(Time and Freq
Clip from Radio Korea)
8) How can I find resources?
§
Books &
magazines
o
Passport to World Band
Radio √
·
Can download two pdf
files titled "Getting Started in World Band Radio" and "How
to Choose a Radio"
o
World Radio T.V.
Handbook
o
Monitoring Times
magazine √
§
http://www.monitoringtimes.com/
·
Available electronically
and as hardcopy
o
Popular Communications
magazine
§
http://www.popular-communications.com/
o
The Complete Shortwave
Listener's Handbook by Andrew Yoder √
§
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0079130100/ref=ase_nexusinternation/107-5201134-8537324
·
Radio Monitoring: The
How-To Guide by T.J. "Skip" Arey
§
Shortwave Clubs
o
North American ShortWave
Association (NASWA) Journal
o
Ontario DX Association
§
Internet
o
Webpages
§
http://www.passband.com/pdf_files/GettingStarted.pdf
§
http://www.cybercomm.net/~slapshot/speedx.html
§
http://www.angelfire.com/de/swlconnection/
§
http://shortwave.hfradio.org/
§
http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~vk5vka/software.htm
§
http://www.oocities.org/Colosseum/Park/3232/dxlinks/index.htm
§
http://www.intervalsignals.net/
§
http://www.jfainc.com/grundig_faq.html
§
http://www.aoruk.com/guide/topics.htm
o
rec.radio.shortwave
(newsgroup)
§
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&group=rec.radio.shortwave
o
Shortwave Groups
o
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ShortwaveAddicts
o
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Satellit800
o
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shortwaves
o
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shortwavedxing
o
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thebasicsofshortwave
o
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ShortwaveRadios
o
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shortwavedxing
o
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shortwave-radio
o
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/odxa
o
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grundig-S-350
o
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globe-radio-dx
o
Shortwave Logging
Software, Schedules and Databases
o
http://www.sillett.us.eu.org/swlog/
o
http://www.fineware-swl.com/rldb.html
o
http://www.ilgradio.com/ilgradio.htm
o
http://www.hfcc.org/index.html
o
http://www.fcc.gov/ib/sand/neg/hf_web/seasons.html
§
DX Programs
o
Wavescan (Adventist
World Radio)
§
http://english.awr.org/wavescan/
o
World of Radio
§
http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/
o
DX Party Line
o
DXing with Cumbre
o
DXers Unlimited
§
http://www.radiohc.org/Distributions/arnie.html
9) What radio do I use and where can I get
one?
§
Need a radio that can
tune the Shortwave bands. Radio Shack, Circuit City, Universal Radio, Grove
Radio, C. Crane Co.
§
Look for a radio with digital
readout of frequency, and a narrow/wide filter as the two main
features.
|
Passport to World Band
Radio has a shortwave radio review that is very good. (receiver specifics
such as sensitivity, selectivity, filter bandwidths, dynamic range, readout
accuracy, etc.) Also see websites below. |
·
Portable vs. Desktop
·
Digital vs. Analog
·
Sync Detection
·
Single Side Band (SSB) /
Beat Frequency Oscillator (BFO)
·
Single, Double, Triple
Conversion Receivers
·
Frequency coverage
·
Tuning / Multiple tuning
rates
·
Sensitivity
1. Describes how well a radio can respond to faint radio
signals & produce audio. Defined as
the input signal level (in microvolts) necessary to give a Signal +
Atmospheric Noise output from the receiver at 10dB above the internal noise
produced within the receiver itself.
2. 3 dB increase = doubling of power
3. 10 dB increase = 10 times increase in power
4. Ex.: 0.5 uV for 10 dB S+N/N means:
A
0.5 microvolt signal fed to the receiver by the antenna will produce an audio
output in which the radio signal + actual atmospheric noise is 10 times
stronger than the internal noise produced by the receiver itself.
·
Selectivity
1. Describes how well a radio can reject signals on frequencies
other than the one you want to listen to.
2. Degree to which an interfering signal is rejected is
expressed in dB, & the width of a receiver's bandpass (range where
interfering signal located so many Hz or Khz away from desired frequency range
is rejected) is given as the points at which the interfering signal is:
a.
reduced by 6 dB (approx.
¼ of the original strength)
b.
reduced by 60 dB
(approx. 0.0000001% of the original strength)
1. Ex.: 6 Khz at 6dB down (for a signal on 9500 Khz)
means:
Any
signal located outside the 9497 to 9503 Khz range will be reduced by at least 6
dB.
2. Bandwidth
CW: Few
hundred Hz
AM: 3 Khz +
on both sides of the carrier frequency
·
Good Shortwave Radios:
o
Kaito 1101 ($70.00)
o
Sangean ATS-808A
($120.00)
o
Sangean ATS-818
($150.00)
o
Sangean ATS-909
($240.00)
o
Grundig Yachtboy 400PE
($150.00)
o
Grundig Satellite 800
($500.00)
o
Sony ICF-SW7600GR
($170.00)
o
http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/rx_index.html
o
http://www.radiointel.com/reviews.htm
10)
Antennas
§
The built in whip
antenna that comes with the radio provides good reception, but an external
antenna will provide better reception on weaker signals.
§
For an external antenna
the longer the better, but an antenna of even 30 to 40 ft. will provide improved
reception on weaker signals than the built in whip.
·
Two common antennas used
by shortwave listeners are the long wire and dipole. (Longwire vs. Whip Clip)
|
Antennas: Active, reel,
longwire, random wire, dipole, apartment vs. house, connecting to the radio,
stranded copper #12 or #14 gauge |
o
http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/practical/html/antenna_advice.html
11) What should my listening post consist of?
* Radio
* Headphones
* Antenna (external if
possible)
* Log book
* Notepad and pen (to record
program details for QSL)
* Tape recorder
* PC audio recording software
* 24hr clock
* Resource material (books,
magazines, program schedules)
* Speaker
* World map / Atlas
12) Listening techniques
* Tune directly to a specific
station and frequency
* Scan starting at the top or
bottom of a particular shortwave band
* If station has interference
from another station, switch the filter from wide to narrow. This should cut
down some of the adjacent signal interference.
* Turn on synchronous
detector if equipped to check for clearest signal on either upper or lower
sideband (Sync Detector Clip)
* Move off-center of the
signal you are listening to by 1 Khz to help reduce the adjacent station
interference.
* Use the tone control
(treble/bass) to obtain the clearest sounding audio
* Develop the ability to
recognize/distinguish between various languages.
13)
Question & Answer, etc.