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Short Wave Radio

E

eyg2181

Guest
i just bought a radio today, and it has the short wave bands 1-7 on it. i was wondering if there are by any chance, some rock stations on the short wave band....maybe on i can get in the Philadelphia area? i was just wondering, because i found a country station that as in english...most of the stations i happened to cross were another language...

any help on the short wave in general would be great... does anyone know a shortwave station i should try out? (any format as long as its english)

Thanks
 
There used to be WRNO from New Orleans that had a rock format but I haven't heard them in a while. They were Rush's short wave affiliate, but I can't confirm if they are still doing that. There used to be station from Salt Lake City that called itself Radio West that played rock too, but I think they are gone. Tbe BBC had some rock shows too. One of the guys from Jethro Tull was the host, Ian Anderson I think, plus BBC had a bunch of countdown shows and rockumentaries as well. Deutch Velle from Cologne has some rock with a techno Tuetonic falir and Radio Luxemburg had quite a bit. Radio Moscow used to have Gary Gears, who was a big voice on WLS in the late 60's and early 70s during a Boss Presentation of Iron Curtain rock mixed in with a few Yank and British bands. It was interesting. Some guys from broklyn used to lease some time on a big stick somewhere and do a thing called New York Radio International, which kind of sounded like a low buck WABC with the jingles and the echo and high energy delivery, but I think they got busted trying to broadcast on AM from a boat off the south shore of Long Island. I may be confused about the time lines on that. Short Wave has changed since the advent of the internet. More religion and Foreign language stuff than it used to be. Get a copy of the WRTH (World Radio and Television Handbook) It's available at Borders and Barnes and Noble as well as Amazon.. It list all the freqs and times for each SW broadcaster. Just about every nation does something in English for a little bit each week. You just gotta be there to get it.. The book will help.
 
New Castle said:
There used to be WRNO from New Orleans that had a rock format but I haven't heard them in a while. They were Rush's short wave affiliate, but I can't confirm if they are still doing that. There used to be station from Salt Lake City that called itself Radio West that played rock too, but I think they are gone. Tbe BBC had some rock shows too. One of the guys from Jethro Tull was the host, Ian Anderson I think, plus BBC had a bunch of countdown shows and rockumentaries as well. Deutch Velle from Cologne has some rock with a techno Tuetonic flair and Radio Luxemburg had quite a bit. Radio Moscow used to have Gary Gears, who was a big voice on WLS in the late 60's and early 70s doing a Boss Presentation of Iron Curtain rock mixed in with a few Yank and British bands mixed with anti-imperialist propaganda. It was different. Some guys from Brooklyn used to lease some time on a big stick somewhere and do a thing called New York Radio International, which kind of sounded like a low buck WABC with the jingles and the echo and high energy delivery, but I think they got busted trying to broadcast on AM from a boat off the south shore of Long Island. I may be confused about the time lines on that. Short Wave has changed since the advent of the internet. More religion and Foreign language stuff than it used to be. Get a copy of the WRTH (World Radio and Television Handbook) It's available at Borders and Barnes and Noble as well as Amazon.. It list all the freqs and times for each SW broadcaster. Just about every nation does something in English for a little bit each week. You just gotta be there to get it.. The book will help.
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eyg2181 said:
i just bought a radio today, and it has the short wave bands 1-7 on it. i was wondering if there are by any chance, some rock stations on the short wave band....maybe on i can get in the Philadelphia area? i was just wondering, because i found a country station that as in english...most of the stations i happened to cross were another language...

any help on the short wave in general would be great... does anyone know a shortwave station i should try out? (any format as long as its english)

Thanks
Click to expand...

Shortwave, by law, can't be aimed at the US audience, but a lot of stations like the old WRNO got around that limitation. I think the same thing that killed music on AM killed it on shortwave - audio quality on FM vs. AM. I almost never listen to shortwave, it seems to be used primarily for primarily rural third world type of situation where there are vast distances between the transmitter and isolated listeners. Not very entertaining if you don't speak English. Fortunately, the days of propaganda and jamming are long over, but shortwave is something of an anachronism and will be even more so as even third world nations become wired to the internet through satellite or cell phones. I just don't see it as a major player in the future.
 
rbrucecarter5 said:
Shortwave, by law, can't be aimed at the US audience, but a lot of stations like the old WRNO got around that limitation.
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Do do the bible-bangers, who (I think) are "officially" beaming towards Europe & Latin America, but also have those signals blanketing the U.S. Also, since most of them are outside the ITU- & FCC-allocated SW broadcast bands, maybe they're actually licensed as "Fixed Service" stations rather than as broadcasters. I'm not sure about that, though.

As far as WRNO goes, I think their towers were taken down in Hurricane Katrina and they're not back on the air yet. IIRC, they'd become just another religious station anyway.

I think the same thing that killed music on AM killed it on shortwave - audio quality on FM vs. AM. I almost never listen to shortwave, it seems to be used primarily for primarily rural third world type of situation where there are vast distances between the transmitter and isolated listeners. Not very entertaining if you don't speak English. Fortunately, the days of propaganda and jamming are long over, but shortwave is something of an anachronism and will be even more so as even third world nations become wired to the internet through satellite or cell phones. I just don't see it as a major player in the future.
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Most, if not all, of the major international broadcasters stream and have for many years. The BBC shut down its World Service to North America and Australia/New Zealand about 5 years ago. The Voice of America still may do away with broadcasting in English entirely, although I don't think that's been decided.

Since the average shortwave program runs between 30 and 90 minutes in length, and is repeated throughout the day other than news updates, a stream works just fine for them, and without the ionosphere screwing things up.

I agree that shortwave broadcasting is an anachronism. In fact, in the next 10 years, I think the only folks that'll be using the frequencies between 1.8 and 30 MHz are hams, the military, international aircraft and maritime services (for backup in case of satellite failures), and maybe just a few broadcasters that will continue to hang on. I believe that in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, many of the 60, 90, and 120 meter broadcasters are signing off, or have already done so. They're just not necessary anymore.

This is 2008, not 1958. The ionosphere is a liability, not an asset, to today's technology. Since those frequencies have little or no monetary value, I can't see them being auctioned off like UHF-TV channels 52-69 are.
 
KUSW was the SW station at Salt Lake City. It was originally a rock format.
It was sold to Trinity Broadcasting Network, and currently relays their audio as KTBN.

According to the former owner, he had it on the market for a while and then TBN took an interest. They asked their TV viewers for pledges, and raised all the money in about one day!

If anybody from Utah remembers "Skinny Johnny Mitchell", he's the Station Manager (and usually the Operator-on-Duty).
 
Oh yeah, "Skinny Johnny Mitchell" of 'WKRP in Salt Lake City' fame! Good guy, glad to hear he's doing something interesting!
 
In third world countries, a shortwave radio may be the only link to the outside world.
If shortwave were dead before HD Radio was invented, we would have HD stations on shortwave rather than jamming the broadcast bands.
 
David67 said:
the failure,"Radio America" has got the market cornered on venom and hatred! ::)
Click to expand...

Did you mean Air America? ;D

Nick said:
In third world countries, a shortwave radio may be the only link to the outside world.
Click to expand...

There still is some truth to this. A lot depends on which country you're in and where you are in the country. Away from the big cities, much of what you'll hear on broadcast radio tends to involve a repeater of a national station or a small set of stations. Although this can be interesting for a few minutes, shortwave radio offers a lot more in the way of variety.

And, even in larger cities, there's often nothing on in English - so you can get that news update via shortwave. It still has its useful side, that's for sure. I know it seems somewhat of an anachronism here in the 'States - but once you really get out into the rest of the world, it can be a real lifeline. Some places where we went in rural Uganda had 1 or 2 FM stations broadcasting in Buganda and nothing at all on AM. So, I would catch the VOA in on certain evenings and it was really refreshing to get a few minutes of news from home. They had a great signal over there too (in 2004). And, all of the big broadcasters were well-represented with not as much Bible thumping over on that side of the world.

This also makes me wonder about remote communities in central/northern Canada and in Alaska. There's not a lot on the radio in such places either. Perhaps SW can still be an entertainer there too.
 
As far as rock on shortwave is concerned, I was listening to "This Week In Amateur Radio" on WBCQ yesterday, and instead of switching off after it ended (at 5:00 EST), I continued listening, and they had a show called "867-5309" hosted by a chick called Jen. She played some Hendrix and a James Gang two-fer. The WBCQ program guide has the show scheduled at 7:00 PM EST on Fridays (on the 7.415 transmitter), but apparently it's also on Saturdays at 5:00 (or it's been moved in the schedule?). Also, WBCQ carries one hour of the Tom and Darryl (of satellite fame) overnight show at midnight (EST) on Sundays (also on the 7.415 transmitter), although it's not really a straightforward rock show (a lot of comedy records are played, if memory serves). Does anyone know who's filling in for T&D while they remodel their studio?

I can't really think of much else rock programming on shortwave. Most of the foreign programming is either news or foreign music. Most of the domestic SW stations are religious stations (WBCQ is the major exception). Maybe CBC has something.
 
thank you all for the info

and number 6, i will definitly try to tune that station in. would i get it in PA?

this week i found 2 stations in my house with the antenna down...i had 9.99 and 7.42 (which very well may be the 7.415 you were refering to)
 
eyg2181 said:
thank you all for the info

and number 6, i will definitly try to tune that station in. would i get it in PA?

this week i found 2 stations in my house with the antenna down...i had 9.99 and 7.42 (which very well may be the 7.415 you were refering to)
Click to expand...

Propagation maps for WBCQ can be found here:

http://www.wbcq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113&Itemid=48

I live in NJ and I can get WBCQ fairly easily (although there are times when the signal becomes unlistenable); I can't imagine it would be much different for you. I think the signal is actually beamed to Mexico, but of course it covers a lot of the U.S. Perhaps someone with a little more knowledge of the nuances of shortwave propagation can shed some light on WBCQ's signal?

Also, I seem to recall one of the Passport To World Band Radio issues from a few years back had a VOA music program in its top 10 list of SW programs (I think it was a country music program). VOA may have some rock, but I'm not sure. Also, there have been some pirates playing rock on SW (I think one was on 6925 khz), so that's something you may want to check out.
 
WBCQ would be about it and they generally only run the programming you're looking for on the weekends. The shows mentioned above on 7415 are good as is "Area 51" on their 5110 frequency. Radio Timtron Worldwide is good too. Has a 70's free-form FM feel to it.

If you want to listen to rock and roll on shortwave you need buy a decent receiver and chase the pirates in the 6800-7000 khz. range. Most are low powered and many run in SSB. The better one's run modded out old boatanchor ham xmitters from the 50's-60's. They run in hi-fi AM and sound good.

Programming is ........ ummm........ eclectic.
 
Well....KTBN Shortwave is now history. It went silent on 3-30-08.

All the equipment has apparently been donated to Pastor Melissa Scott's "University Network" stations on Anguilla. And, the property is for sale.Nothing there now but an empty building.
 
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