End of Shortwave?

[jerryjg]

I am a shortwave radio collecter with several nice Transoceanics, no hallicrafters anymore, but a Satellit Grundig and a Heathkit tube. I am wondering when digital will put an end to shortwave propogation? It seems that we would be able to feed all stations into satelitte for download for a subscription world radio service. I personaly welcome this, but wonder what the hell is taking so damn long. Lets get this world radio into all our homes with 100% static free 24 hour digital reception!

[radioactive]

Lets get this world radio into all our homes with 100% static free 24 hour digital reception!

lets not .part of the fun is in sitting down and trying to tune in the different stations.having it go digital will take all the fun out of it in my opinion.think im going to go try some dxing with my drake r8.

[DaWoofer]

Having that personal system that can reach out is what I loved about it all. Thats why "chatting" online will never give me that feeling I use to get with my own antenna setup and rig. I love to DX.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by DaWoofer

Having that personal system that can reach out is what I loved about it all. Thats why "chatting" online will never give me that feeling I use to get with my own antenna setup and rig. I love to DX.

Me too. I had a setup where I used to live that let me talk to almost all 50 states and a handful of foreign countries. I brought my equipment with me when I moved, but now, living in a first-floor apartment with no outdoor antennas allowed, my equipment doesn't work half as well. The noise level in the apartment building makes listening to local AM almost impossible, although FM reception here is excellent with indoor antennas. The problem with AM is made ten times worse by the fact that I am in a weak-signal area for Cleveland AM reception. The 50-kW stations come in fairly well most of the time, but Cleveland has a small handful of smaller stations that fade into the noise at night on every radio I own except my Zenith C845. One suburban station runs 0.5kW (500 watts) in daytime, but cuts its power to 0.042kW (42 watts) at night and probably goes sharply directional at that time as well, so I don't hear it after dark either. Just as well, as it is a talk station, and one of the engineers told me (in response to an email I sent the station in reference to their nighttime signal) that their signal is not intended to reach the town where I live anyway.

I won't give up on my amateur radio setup, however. I should be able to get it to work fairly well, even with an indoor antenna. I would rather get that system going than use the chat rooms on the Internet. I like communicating via CW (Morse code) on the ham bands, which is not possible online--yet, anyhow.

BTW: I'm curious. Your post to this thread leads me to believe you are or were an amateur radio operator. What is or was your call sign, and why did you give it up? Ham radio is one of the greatest hobbies on this earth (I've been licensed almost 34 years), which is why I am trying my best to stay active in it (I am a member of a local ham club and use their 2-meter repeater regularly).

I don't think shortwave will disappear even if all commercial broadcasting eventually goes digital, as there will always be ham radio operators. Many hams are using digital modes such as radioteletype (RTTY) and another mode known as PSK31 which is related to packet radio, the latter being a digital mode as well. I had a packet setup at my former residence, using a Commodore 64, an AEA multi-mode interface unit, and an old Zenith TV as a monitor, with my Midland 2-meter FM rig serving to transmit and receive the signals. It worked well for ten years, but when I moved, the space limitations of my small apartment forced me to dispose of all my packet gear except the 2m rig. I hated to do it, but I only have room in this apartment for my Icom IC725 HF (high-frequency, 3-30 MHz) transceiver. The desk I have my equipment on is just large enough for the HF setup as well. When I check in to a local 2-meter roundtable my radio club has each Thursday evening at 7 p.m. EST, I put my handheld on the end table next to my easy chair in the living room and use an MFJ boom-mike headset. Much more comfortable than even the chair in front of my computer.


Good luck, and I do hope you find some way to get back on the air. If you have at least a Technician class license, you can get on 2-meter FM with a small handheld transceiver if you are within range of one or more repeaters. My own Icom IC-T22A 1.5-watt HT lets me talk through a local repeater five miles away just fine. Two meters won't let you work DX unless you do it on simplex [direct] frequencies like .52, .51, et al. and have a very good antenna (in fact, "repeater DXing" is frowned upon by most repeater clubs), but talking to the locals through repeaters is much better than just letting your license sit unused. There is also a way you could use linked repeaters to talk beyond the normal limits of single 2m repeaters (and no objections to repeater DXing), but that's a topic for another thread.

73 (best of regards),

[stereofisher]

Originally Posted by DaWoofer

Having that personal system that can reach out is what I loved about it all. Thats why "chatting" online will never give me that feeling I use to get with my own antenna setup and rig. I love to DX.

Since I started playing with port radios I like to DX too! Several of my sets are AM only. Love to see how far away stations are. Loads of fun Eric

[Charlie]

I agree with keeping radio as it is... although I'm sure it will slowly die out in several years. I don't listen to shortwave very often... just once in a while to play with the dial. I do, however, listen to AM radio quite often at night just to see what I can pull in. Now and then, I find something actually playing tunes.

I think having crystal clear programming at the touch of a button 24/7 is nice, but kinda takes away some of the pleasure. Besides... pay a subscription for radio? Geez... before long, we'll be paying a subscription for everytime we walk out the front door!

[OvenMaster]

I used to be a huge shortwave listener since my childhood, starting with radios my Dad bought, then buying my own Panasonic RF-2200 (still own it) and then a RatShack DX-440. I finally put the 440 away because of two factors: local power line noise made listening near-impossible, 24/7, and the stations I listened to on a regular basis sounded a whole lot better streamed on the internet. I figured the first signs of shortwave dying was when the BBC stopped beaming the World Service to North America.
Tom

[devoid]

Killing shortwave communication would be absolutely ignorant. The equipment is relatively simple to build and operate and just works when frail technological infrastructure hiccups. I'd like to see anyone build a microcontroller and write firmware from scratch and talk around the globe on one watt of power.

[piece-it pete]

Originally Posted by devoid

Killing shortwave communication would be absolutely ignorant. The equipment is relatively simple to build and operate and just works when frail technological infrastructure hiccups. I'd like to see anyone build a microcontroller and write firmware from scratch and talk around the globe on one watt of power.

Amen to this, bro. I don't know much about shortwave but I know enough to hope it sticks around. Same reason I won't give up my land line phone, altho VoIP is cheaper in my area. Heck with 'puters running the land line I'm probably no better off, anyway.

BTW, since it's called a "ham" radio, do you rate the quality of the units by cuts of pork? Say, you picked up a real cheapie, would you say you picked up some chitlins??

Pete

[Lefty]

"End of Shortwave? "

Oh great, that's when Sandy will decide to give me one of his R-390s for just the shipping cost

Lefty

[Sandy G]

Another of the many advantages of the R-390 series is that, being all "hollow-state", it would not be subject to EMP damage like all the "rice-box" wonders of today.As long as it wasn't melted by a fireball, or stressed in some other way, an R-390A should continue to function as long as AC power remained available. In my opinion, broadcast-based shortwave will be around for quite awhile, because in most of the rest of the world, there are literally MILLIONS of radios out there that receive it. Some countries use SW as we use AM, especially places where distances are great,& sparsely populated.

[KB9KXH]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

broadcast-based shortwave will be around for quite awhile, because in most of the rest of the world, there are literally MILLIONS of radios out there that receive it. Some countries use SW as we use AM, especially places where distances are great,& sparsely populated.

That is exactly why shortwave will remain viable, many countries rely on distant radio stations for news and entertainment. Although ive been a ham for several years, i enjoy shortwave listening and have for over 40 years.The reception of a distant culture is more of a pleasure to me than the reception of signal strengths,antenna types, or contesting for ego gratification. i would not miss cw but i would miss shortwaves cultural programming,news,and the fun of hunting that elusive station swimming in the sea of noise.

Randy KB9KXH

[superdeez]

Originally Posted by jerryjg

It seems that we would be able to feed all stations into satelitte for download for a subscription world radio service. I personaly welcome this, but wonder what the hell is taking so damn long. Lets get this world radio into all our homes with 100% static free 24 hour digital reception!

I sure as hell would never subscribe to that. I'm considering giving up on TV after the 2009 DTV conversion and only watching VHS and the occational DVD. I;ve already started making random VHS recordings for playback later... One intertesting rumor I've heard about the DTV switch is that possibly we might have to pay like $25/month and subscribe to a service just to watch broadcast TV??

The technology is already here to do a literal pay-per-play system, where a chip in our audio hardware would record the song title/artist, and we would have to pay a royalty just to listen to pre-recorded music! Sadly, I'll bet within 30 years, we'll be paying some trivial amount whenever we listen to ANYthing.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by superdeez

One intertesting rumor I've heard about the DTV switch is that possibly we might have to pay like $25/month and subscribe to a service just to watch broadcast TV??

If you have cable (analog or digital), you are already paying a monthly fee for the service. I have Comcast digital cable and pay close to $60 monthly for not only the standard broadcast channels, but all analog cable channels and the digital ones as well.

Some of us don't have a choice when it comes to cable. If you are in an area that has poor or no TV reception with an antenna (I live in an apartment building in such an area; the NBC station in Cleveland doesn't reach here at all without cable--the reception on the other six or so channels, with the sole exceptions of CBS channel 19, UPN 43 and WB55, not to mention Univision 61, is fair to poor at best with rabbit ears), cable or satellite is your only option if you want city-grade TV pictures.

The monthly cable fee doesn't bother me. I like certain shows on TV such as NBC's Law and Order, et al. so I wouldn't want to be without cable. I don't have HBO or any other movie channels; for movies I have a VCR and a DVD player, with a subscription to Netflix.com (and a rack full of old movies and '70s-'80s TV series I taped on VHS, some of them from AMC, TCM, TBS and other cable channels). Netflix has DVDs of all the old shows and movies I watched when I was growing up in the '60s and '70s; this alone is worth the small price I pay for the service, and believe me, I enjoy watching those older shows a lot more than much of what is on regular TV today.

Your comment as to giving up broadcast TV in 2009 when the standards change to all digital is interesting. That is certainly your right, and considering that much of what comes from the networks these days isn't nearly as good (IMO) as the stuff they had, say, 20-30+ years ago (as I've thought since about the late 1980s or so, when NBC was sold from RCA to GE and the other two networks followed suit shortly thereafter), you won't miss much. Cable, VCR and DVD offer viewers much more flexibility and programming choices than we had when I was growing up 35 years ago. With the popularity of DVD and on-demand video on cable, people now have the power to choose what they want to watch, when they want to see it; if you have a VCR and/or a DVD recorder or TiVo, you aren't bound by the networks' time constraints either--just set the timer, have the system record the program(s) you want to watch, and it/they will be available for you to see at your convenience, not when the networks dictate you must watch them. I do this all the time with my VCR; between that and my Netflix subscription, I now find TV watching more enjoyable than ever. If Comcast raises its rates for standard digital cable service much more than what I'm paying now, I might just cancel my cable when everything goes digital. Many nights all I watch on standard TV is the evening news, with the rest of my evening's viewing coming from DVD. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if more viewers do the same thing when digital comes along and replaces analog in 18 months or so, even if they still have their old analog TVs. Those people who can afford a big plasma/LCD set will probably still get the full cable package with broadcast channels, etc. but those of us on tight budgets, such as myself, will either forego cable or else simply subscribe to basic service. However, with the new FCC ruling stating that all TVs manufactured after a certain date in 2007 must have ATSC (digital) tuners in addition to the standard NTSC tuners, and new LCD/plasma sets coming down in price almost daily, not to mention RCA's line of SDTV (standard definition TV) receivers now available at very reasonable prices and the availability now of used HD and other widescreen TVs at, in many cases, almost dirt-cheap prices on ebay (I've seen opening bids on some smaller flat-panel sets as low as one dollar), more folks will probably be getting either SDTV or digital widescreen in the very near future, so it is probably safe to say that the days of analog TV are numbered.

Enjoy your old analog CRT set if and as long as it works well for you (even if it means using a digital cable box ahead of it), but be aware as well that the set which replaces it (if your analog set goes bad within the next three years) will be some form of digital or standard-definition set. I personally can see a day coming when CRT-based televisions will be museum pieces; if the FCC has its way (and they already have had their way about it, considering that there is now a definite date--early February 2009--for the full switch to digital TV) the old CRT-based analog television receiver will soon be a rarity.

As the old song says, "the times they are a-changin'" -- isn't that the truth!

[devoid]

Well I'm in no good mood to start with so screw jerryjg and head up arse insight. When I was worried cause my cat didn't come home he said he'd be happy if it were dead. How's that for humanity, which SW is capable of meshing. I know, little off topic, but I feel better now. I'm glad to see so many people who realize the potential of SW and how little "high tech" it needs to work.