I only have a portable shortwave radio (Grundig Yacht Boy 400) that I have
had for about 15 years. (It replaced a Grundig 2000 which was a real nice
radio in its day.) When I first got it there was stuff on there not only in
the bands but in between. There were about 10 places to hear the BBC and
VOA. Now I can tune the radio all night and maybe pick up a few Christian
broadcasts and one or two Spanish stations. I usually just end up listening
to the AM and FM stations. Even Hams are sort of rare. If this keeps up,
in a year or two there won't be anything on SW. Or is there something wrong
with my radio? Ric in Wisconsin.

Ric Trexell wrote:
I only have a portable shortwave radio (Grundig Yacht Boy 400) that I have
had for about 15 years. (It replaced a Grundig 2000 which was a real nice
radio in its day.) When I first got it there was stuff on there not only in
the bands but in between. There were about 10 places to hear the BBC and
VOA. Now I can tune the radio all night and maybe pick up a few Christian
broadcasts and one or two Spanish stations. I usually just end up listening
to the AM and FM stations. Even Hams are sort of rare. If this keeps up,
in a year or two there won't be anything on SW. Or is there something wrong
with my radio? Ric in Wisconsin.

No, there are several things that have happened. One is that shortwave radio
signals bounce off the top of the athmosphere (the ionosphere). That's why you
can hear them being too far away for ground wave signals (the ones that travel
along the surface of the earth).

The number one thing that controls the ionosphere is the sun. When there is
sunlight, the ionosphere bounces higher frequency radio signals, which is
why some bands work better during the day and others at night.

The second thing is the number of sunspots. The more sunspots the more the
ionosphere is "charged". Sunspots follow an eleven year cycle, 15 years ago
we were just ending a peak. Now we are at the bottom of a cycle. This bottom
is rare, there have been so many months with no sunspots and so little recovery
that it may be the worst cycle since people have been keeping track (1700's).

Things are so bad that many people are predicting another "little ice age"
(look it up).

So radio propigation (the spreading of signals) is much less than it was
15 years ago, and the frequencies that spread are much lower.

The next problem is noise. I live in a medium sized city (Jerusalem). All around
me are computers, wireless networks, telephones, etc. This puts me in a cloud
of electrical noise that covers over radio signals. 4 mHz and below is unusable
to me.

That's how I tell if an (infrequent) power outage is just my building, or
the entire neighborhood. If I can receive the BBC on 1323kHz (AM broadcast
band) from Cyprus with a portable radio, the outage is more than just right
around me. If you have a radio tuned to it an on when the power is restored,
you can hear the devices all starting up.

Things have also changed with shortwave broadcasting. Between the internet,
satellite delivery of broadcast material, and paid subscriptions (NPR pays
the BBC to give you BBC news) stations are abandoning North America.

Signals are still out there, but in a lot of cases you are not getting
them beamed to you directly, you are hearing a signal aimed at someone else.
These signals are much weaker and you may need a better radio, a better
antenna or more patience to receive them.

Since the end of the cold war, political broadcasting almost stopped. Radio
Moscow, Radio Habana (Cuba), and the soviet satellites dropped or reduced
their programing. The US policial stations (VOA, Radio Marti, Radio Liberty,
etc) scaled back their programming or left the air entirely.

In that area things are changing. China (the PRC), Russia (now a rising world
power trying to fill the vacuum), and so on are hitting the shortwaves big.
However they are not going after you, although programs aimed at the
developed countries are broadcast, but they deliver over the internet too.

The reality of the situation is that no matter how what people can use to
get their information, nothing is as hard to stop, or as cheap to receive
with no infrastructure than shortwave boradcasting.

I'll bet as I write this, (Dec 29, 2009) there are a lot of people in Iran
who wished they had shortwave radios.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or
understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation.
i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.

Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:

Things have also changed with shortwave broadcasting. Between the internet,
satellite delivery of broadcast material, and paid subscriptions (NPR pays
the BBC to give you BBC news) stations are abandoning North America.


Actually, Bill and Melinda Gates; and Medtronic; pay PRI to distribute
the BBC World Service in N. Am.

I listen at vpr.org

Much nicer than all that swishy shortwave.

A lot of amateurs don't own a microphone, and use digital modes to talk
around the world on less power than a TV set. You'll need something
more stable than a Yacht Boy to decode that.

"dave" wrote in message
...
Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:

Things have also changed with shortwave broadcasting. Between the
internet,
satellite delivery of broadcast material, and paid subscriptions (NPR
pays
the BBC to give you BBC news) stations are abandoning North America.


Actually, Bill and Melinda Gates; and Medtronic; pay PRI to distribute the
BBC World Service in N. Am.

I listen at vpr.org

Much nicer than all that swishy shortwave.

A lot of amateurs don't own a microphone, and use digital modes to talk
around the world on less power than a TV set. You'll need something more
stable than a Yacht Boy to decode that.

You're completely wrong. The amount of people using QRP and CW
is nowhere near those using SSB. No one uses AM apart from on 160m,
the rest is SSB. You can use programs with a PC soundcard to decode
data modes - even CW which isn't used much now. The requirement to
get a full Class A licence in the UK and other countries does away with
the need to do a morse test. Shame it wasn't sooner as I had to learn it.
There is also DRM about on SW.

Yup Ric, it really has declined. Even the mighty "Radio Moscow world
service" that was on 20 different freqs 24 hours a day 20 years ago is
now down to a few hours a day with one hour of original programming
via the Voice of Russia. The BBC no longer targets North America. VOA
has never targeted North America by law but they have also cut back
and have turned to more local broadcasting for their information in
foreign countries.

You can still get the BBC or VOA, especially in the afternoon on
shortwave, but it's questionable quality at best, and almost anyone
who really wants to listen to those will just listen on their
computer.

The Chinese are probably the only ones who even attempt to target
North America most of the day and night in English via relay in
Sackville in Canada. Radio Havana out of Cuba you can catch from
around 8pm local until 2am local.

Now with that being said, there still is some good ones out there but
not on 24 hours a day. I enjoy Radio Romania the best myself and they
come in several times a night in 30 minute segments.

The Hams are less but still there, especially on 3700-4000mhz and
7000-7250mhz, usually in lower sideband.

The lack of sunspots makes daytime listening almost a waste now.

But yea, the Harold Camping's, Brother Stair's, Melissa Scott, and
countless other non-traditional preachers dominate the airwaves.

But the golden days of shortwave are long gone....

Ric...

I'm in Wisconsin too (near the U.P.) and having a ball with shortwave. Don't
listen to the baloney that the "golden days of shortwave are gone." Several
shortwave stations have went on the air this past year and numerous are
expanding their coverage. There is still a lot there but you'll need more
than a telescopic whip to do it. Telescopic whips NEVER were much of a
performer. Alligator clip a longwire...any length more than 20 feet and see
what you get. Everybody seems to have bought into the "if it's digital it is
an outstandinga piece of gear" crap. A lot of digital SW receivers are just
as deaf as their earlier ancestors which needed more than a bicycle spoke as
an antenna. You need to capture RF with something more than a whip.

Mr. Mendleson's explanation was the most accurate. We're in a period of
horrific sunspot inactivity and all the bands are dead.

As for hams, there's plenty of action from 3500 to 4000 kc with the
3500-3600 loaded every night with CW.
By the way, I can decode digital modes with my lowly little Grundig Yacht
Boy 400PE although the audio is, well, like most things of the cell phone
era are on music and voice; so I use old stuff.

Good luck and...enjoy...

WPE9GHF

On Dec 29, 5:36*pm, "SX-25" wrote:
Ric...

I'm in Wisconsin too (near the U.P.) and having a ball with shortwave. Don't
listen to the baloney that the "golden days of shortwave are gone." Several
shortwave stations have went on the air this past year and numerous are
expanding their coverage.

Disagree in the polite way. Who went ON the air in 2009? Who expanded
their coverage to North America in 2009? Poland, France, Germany,
Canada, Netherlands, Prague, Mighty KBC radio, Radio Japan, and many
others cut back broadcasting in 2009 in English. Even the Cubans cut
back in 2009 giving up parts of 6000khz at night. Come on man.....

The golden days are long gone my friend. Sorry. There is always going
to be types who say it isn't dying, or the types who will claim
shortwave radios of the 70s were the best and everything made today is
junk. Hams of course will say it is a growing hobby but it's not.

Try buying a shortwave radio at Walmart, Kmart, sears etc... They
don't stock them. It's because the market isn't there anymore. Not
even Best Buy stocks them in their stores. Circuit City when they were
around last year no longer stocked them. Radio Shack still has them
but no high end models and only portables.

Also most shortwave owners are Dxer's.... which is not what
broadcasters want.. Broadcasters want people to tune in and listen,
not just say "I heard Radio Prague" and then tune right off to dx the
next station.

Still plenty out there but BBC and many others didn't cut back because
they hate shortwave. They cut back because it simply wasn't
economically viable to keep targeting North America on shortwave with
no one listening.

Thanks to all that replied to my question. It seems like it is another
result of the switch to digital and fiber optics or sattelites. Too bad, it
was fun to hear those far off places. I got my first shortwave when my dad
was looking at a boat and the owner had an old wooden tube radio sitting by
the road for the junk man. He got it for nothing and I had to buy a tube
for it. That was in the days of jamming stations and Cuba, the Soviet Union
and all those communists broadcasting all that stuff that you never heard
about. The smell of a radio cooking the wood to give off a burnt varnish
smell with a little burnt dust mixed in. Plus they glowed in the dark Not
the same as the modern plastic, cold as ice radios of today. Well,
everything has its time I guess. Maybe some day it will come back. The
programs were getting rather boring at times. Those two hour or more talks
about the flowers grown in some valley or how some people made their wine
didn't cut it after about a half hour. Oh well. Ric in Wisconsin.

LOL!!! Yea, the days when the Soviets jammed anything aimed toward
them. Good memories in a weird way.

The Cubans still jam today, especially against spanish programs from
the states like Radio Marti and WRMI aimed toward Cuba. That swoosh
sound is how the Cubans jam those today. Tune your radio from 9700 to
9955mhz and you'll probably hear at least one Cuban jamming signal.

The Chinese use something called Firedrake where they will jam signals
they don't like with a constant stream of Chinese ethnic music. You
don't hear it much in the states but from what I understand, it's big
in the Far East. I think North and South Korea still play a jamming
game against each from time to time.

Cheers.

On Dec 29, 5:25*pm, SC Dxing wrote:
LOL!!! Yea, the days when the Soviets jammed anything aimed toward
them. Good memories in a weird way.

The Cubans still jam today, especially against spanish programs from
the states like Radio Marti and WRMI aimed toward Cuba. That swoosh
sound is how the Cubans jam those today. Tune your radio from 9700 to
9955mhz and you'll probably hear at least one Cuban jamming signal.

The Chinese use something called Firedrake where they will jam signals
they don't like with a constant stream of Chinese ethnic music. You
don't hear it much in the states but from what I understand, it's big
in the Far East. I think North and South Korea still play a jamming
game against each from time to time.

Cheers.

I hear Firedrake a lot daytimes here in California, terrifically
annoying when it covers signals on a dozen different freqs. I was
just noticing, even with the A and K indices at rock bottom tonight,
the bands are unpleasantly quiet. Sad.

Bruce