US Domestic Shortwave

[davideduardo]

Yep, including a lot of small form 'throw-down' FM transmission facilities that could be packed into a road case and deployed on top of a local tall building. Can't do that with MW or SW.

Yep. I am consulting a group in a nation in South America that will, once the pandemic subsides, resume building an 80 station national network by installing prepackaged "stations" on rooftops or hills or mountains. The "stations" are assembled in the central facility, complete with satellite dishes, UPS and other parts. A crew can install and activate in a single day if the power is hooked up in advance.

 

[davideduardo]

Yes, I did read your original post. However, whoever plans to establish a shortwave radio operation in the US must prepare to lose a lot of money.

Yes, Costello learned that in New Orleans. And that was long enough ago that some people still knew what short wave was.

 

[davideduardo]

VOA's satellite feeds have always been open and I'd also suspect there may very well be stations taking some VOA programming and rebroadcasting and unless someone was monitoring that station, VOA Washington might not ever know about the station using VOA material.

Why would any station, in an era of fairly universal anti-Americanism that has lasted over the last 50 years or more, want to "pirate" VOA programs?

In the past, the VOA marketing reps would work with contractors in the coverage area of the affiliates and report if the VOA programming is aired on the stations being paid for the program time. Is it 100% foolproof, probably not.

That may be the case for leased facilities, but local stations that got programs to broadcast "for free" were never severely monitored.

 

[Mediafrog+]

CKZU was on 6160 kHz as was CKZN in Newfoundland. It appears, unhappily, that all the CBC shortwave stations have now closed down.

CKZU was closed about five years ago when the early 1980's vintage transmitter died, and the CBC decided not to replace it.

For CKZN a couple of years later, the CBC tried what has become a frequent experiment with some broadcasters: "Turn it off and see if anyone notices." Well, outside of the SWDX community, no one did. And since CKZN's transmitter was apparently the same make and age as the failed CKZU unit, the CBC bowed to the inevitable, and did not return the station to the air.

The CBC has numerous LPFMs in small northern communities that have replaced the need for shortwave.

Canada used to have several private SW operations, but most are long gone. CFRX is still heard nightly here in Houston. The other remaining station is CFVP 6030 in Calgary, which has spent a lot of time off the air in recent years, but still has periods of activity. At only 40 watts, it is a difficult catch outside of northwestern North America.

Of course there is still CHU, beeping the time away on three shortwave frequencies.

 

[CTListener]

The CBC has numerous LPFMs in small northern communities that have replaced the need for shortwave.

Full-power 9625 KHz (and likely other frequencies) was used years back for the CBC Northern Service, in both English and Inuit languages. It was an interesting listen for us south of the border, for whom the signal was still quite readable.

 

[kevtronics]

The other remaining station is CFVP 6030 in Calgary, which has spent a lot of time off the air in recent years, but still has periods of activity. At only 40 watts, it is a difficult catch outside of northwestern North America.

In August 2020, they repaired the transmitter and tower grounding, so presumably it's back up to its licensed power of 100 watts now:

Update on CFVP 6030 Calgary Canada

The tower grounding is replaced/fixed. The transmitter itself had issues and is now repaired and back out at the site. The next thing is to...

bclnews.blogspot.com

 

[Kelly A]

Well, that is entirely possible that VOA might be scammed by stations taking the money and not running the programming.

I could be wrong, but I don't think any programming for VOA affiliates was on dedicated satellite channels. It has been a long time since I've looked at the channels on the AFSAT package, other than a quick glance of the SES-5 listing on LyngSat, but I don't think any of those channels are devoted to affiliate operations - I believe they are all audio feeds for the VOA 24/7 transmitters in those countries. (I see one the Lyngsat listing a channel for Ghana and another channel for Accra. Don't know why there would be two feeds into the same country.)

Up until about four years ago when I left, they were leasing even more additional transponder space for 'delivering programming to affiliates'. I recommended that they go the other way, and look at scaling back their expensive satellite delivery, moving instead to a cloud-based delivery platform. For stations/locations who don't have Internet access, then keep only about one third of their satellite fleet, and schedule the feeds on certain birds for efficiency. Since they're paying these affiliates to carry the programming, the station can meet a schedule to pull down the program.

VOA's satellite feeds have always been open and I'd also suspect there may very well be stations taking some VOA programming and rebroadcasting and unless someone was monitoring that station, VOA Washington might not ever know about the station using VOA material.

Like David mentioned, I don't think someone stealing VOA programming is a problem.

In the past, the VOA marketing reps would work with contractors in the coverage area of the affiliates and report if the VOA programming is aired on the stations being paid for the program time. Is it 100% foolproof? Probably not.

I'm willing to bet it's not even 25% foolproof.

 

[Radig]

It's not that there's anything wrong with DRM, it actually works very well. DRM just never became a selected standard.

Actually DRM has been approved by the USA for shortwave. The VOA is currently transmitting DRM, from their transmitter site near Greensville, NC, with Radio Marti daily on 7345 kHz from 1700z to 0200z.

 

[Marcos_C]

Yes, Costello learned that in New Orleans. And that was long enough ago that some people still knew what shortwave was.

In fact, I was the only person in my junior high school class who knew anything about shortwave radio. While my shortwave radio adventure was fun, it was a lonely one.

 

[RadioFan2J3]

Why would any station, in an era of fairly universal anti-Americanism that has lasted over the last 50 years or more, want to "pirate" VOA programs?




That may be the case for leased facilities, but local stations that got programs to broadcast "for free" were never severely monitored.

My guess, and of course, it is only a guess, that if there were pirated VOA programming, it would most probably be VOA 1, the old Music Mix programming. I don't think USAGM has any clue as to the amount of VOA programming rebroadcast by other broadcasters outside of formal agreements.


Yes, I would agree with you that affiliates who broadcast VOA programming without a financial agreement weren't and aren't monitored, in terms of programming, simply because there is no financial cost to VOA for placement of that programming.

 

[Radig]

Yes, Costello learned that in New Orleans. And that was long enough ago that some people still knew what short wave was.

Yet Allan Weiner seems to have done just fine with his WBCQ multi-transmitter station, still going in Monticello, Maine!

 

[RadioFan2J3]

Up until about four years ago when I left, they were leasing even more additional transponder space for 'delivering programming to affiliates'. I recommended that they go the other way, and look at scaling back their expensive satellite delivery, moving instead to a cloud-based delivery platform. For stations/locations who don't have Internet access, then keep only about one third of their satellite fleet, and schedule the feeds on certain birds for efficiency. Since they're paying these affiliates to carry the programming, the station can meet a schedule to pull down the program.

I don't have a complete view of the current satellite usage, as I no longer see the sat schedules. I understand the AFSAT package is still up (fed from Washington) as well as the feed from Washington to the Atlantic Ocean Relay, for the transmitting stations and the feed from Washington to the Indian Ocean Relay, plus as back up for the AOR, for the stations which can see both. The last time I was at a transmitting station, the program feed was from the AOR satellite. All C-Band.


(The naming convention was from the general location of the actual satellite, and if the contracts changed birds, VOA did not have rename the satellite feeds, which we'd have to deal with, if we used the actual satellite name. The Pacific Ocean Relay, which was part of the early satellite network, was discontinued about the time VOA closed the Delano Transmitting Station and the Indian Ocean Relay is typically uplinked from the Philippines. I am sure Kelly knows this, just an explanation for other readers.)

Not all affiliates are paid - I'd submit most affiliates are not paid by VOA to carry programming.

Yes, I am aware there were some cloud-based initiatives, but as best as I remember, the concerns were the bandwidth required and costs for high reliability internet service, to achieve the same circuit reliability of the satellite circuits.

Some of the transponder rental, especially Middle East, Asia and Africa was for the direct to home audience, free packages for anyone with a dish and a $20 receiver. These are almost always Ku-band.

Like David mentioned, I don't think someone stealing VOA programming is a problem.

I agree with you, that is isn't a problem. I don't think anyone within USAGM considers it a problem. Any broadcaster willing to downlink the signal could rebroadcast it. I seriously doubt anyone has concrete information on the number of hours per week that might be in that category.

I'm willing to bet it's not even 25% foolproof.

I don't know.

 

[davideduardo]

Yet Allan Weiner seems to have done just fine with his WBCQ multi-transmitter station, still going in Monticello, Maine!

But that is a brokered station, while the New Orleans station was an International Top 40 station trying to sell spot advertising.

And the Weiner station is bottom feeding with really despicable paid religion and extremists.

 

[davideduardo]

Actually DRM has been approved by the USA for shortwave. The VOA is currently transmitting DRM, from their transmitter site near Greensville, NC, with Radio Marti daily on 7345 kHz from 1700z to 0200z.

I can't understand the Radio Martí DRM broadcast, since it appears that no DRM receivers are available in Cuba. I'm guessing they thought that Cuba could not jam the DRM broadcasts, but if nobody can listen, what might be the theory?

 

[Marcos_C]

But that is a brokered station, while the New Orleans station was an International Top 40 station trying to sell spot advertising.

WRNO Worldwide, like its sister FM station, was primarily a rock station; however, it did air an oldies station that played a wider variety of music. "The WRNO Hall of Fame", which originated from WRNO-FM, aired from noon to 1:00 pm Central Time and marked the beginning of WRNO Worldwide's 12-hour broadcast day.

 

[davideduardo]

WRNO Worldwide, like its sister FM station, was primarily a rock station; however, it did air an oldies station that played a wider variety of music. "The WRNO Hall of Fame", which originated from WRNO-FM, aired from noon to 1:00 pm Central Time and marked the beginning of WRNO Worldwide's 12-hour broadcast day.

That was not a separate station... it was just a specialty show within a format, like a throwback show on a Top 40 station on the weekends.

 

[Marcos_C]

That was not a separate station... it was just a specialty show within a format, like a throwback show on a Top 40 station on the weekends.

I was just trying to guess why you thought that WRNO, "The Rock of the World," was a Top 40 station. As I mentioned earlier, the call sign WRNO stood for "Rock of New Orleans."

 

[Mediafrog+]

Yet Allan Weiner seems to have done just fine with his WBCQ multi-transmitter station, still going in Monticello, Maine!

That fact that the station is "still going" does not mean it is doing well. It is likely barely scraping by.

In 2018 Weiner appealed for $500,000 in donations to keep the station going. Apparently he raised less than $5,000.

The main source of income is probably from the "World's Last Chance" religious group that financed and programs the 500kw transmitter on 9330.

The remaining transmitters are ancient, often operating erratically, and appear to be running far less than the claimed 50kw.

Weiner is reported to frequently complain about "there's no money in radio" during his weeknight talk show.

 

[Mediafrog+]

And the Weiner station is bottom feeding with really despicable paid religion and extremists.

The same thing can be said about most of the U.S. private SW broadcasters.

 

[Mediafrog+]

I can't understand the Radio Martí DRM broadcast, since it appears that no DRM receivers are available in Cuba. I'm guessing they thought that Cuba could not jam the DRM broadcasts, but if nobody can listen, what might be the theory?

Only thing I can think of is that the received signal is fed into a computer with software that decodes the DRM datastream.