Short Wave Not Dead Yet

[flintstone mop]

I just heard on a local FM that Trans World Radio is increasing power to 250KW.
And there was mention of going digital. The announcement also mentions that countries with big flame throwers are also considering digital broadcast.....not iBiquity...the DRM way.

[W3GMS]

Fred,

A good friend of mine, NA3CW just left TWR a few years ago.  He spent around 20 years with them starting in Guam as Chief Engineer and ultimately became director of engineering, I believe.  He traveled the world and saw a lot during those 20 some years.  Ultimately, he came back to his hometown area and now is just down the road from me.  He now is working for a company that Johnson and Johnson owns and now he is in the insulin pump design engineering group.  We have had a lot of good talks about those big transmitters and antenna's that TWR has.  

Joe, W3GMS      

[k4kyv]

Are their main transmitters still located in Monaco? As I recall they were essentially an English-speaking border blaster, originally transmitting from one of the north African countries towards Europe, until political unrest forced them out, and then they were allowed to set up shop in Monaco, a semi-autonomous entity that, while not totally independent from France, allows them to circumvent French telecommunications laws. An interesting bit of radio history that reminds me of XER/XERA/XERF, but I don't think they quite the sleaze-bags that many of the Mexican blasters were. I hadn't heard anything about them setting up transmitters in Guam. I used to pick them on short wave up back in the 60s and 70s, but I remember they were never outstandingly strong in N. America.

Germany tried DRM on 3995, wiping out the top 10 kc/s of 75m every evening for  several years, but now they appear to have returned to normal AM, causing much less interference.  I haven't heard much about short-wave DRM lately, so I had the impression that maybe it was going the way of AM stereo in the MW broadcast band, probably for the same reason: the dearth of receivers capable of decoding it.

I just hope they keep DRM out of the SWBC bands that share frequencies with amateurs, since it generates a 10 kc/s wide swathe of devastating interference that pretty much precludes sharing the channel with anyone else.

[Sam KS2AM]

Are their main transmitters still located in Monaco? As I recall they were essentially an English-speaking border blaster, originally transmitting from one of the north African countries towards Europe, until political unrest forced them out, and then they were allowed to set up shop in Monaco, a semi-autonomous entity that, while not totally independent from France, allows them to circumvent French telecommunications laws. An interesting bit of radio history that reminds me of XER/XERA/XERF, but I don't think they quite the sleaze-bags that many of the Mexican blasters were. I hadn't heard anything about them setting up transmitters in Guam. I used to pick them on short wave up back in the 60s and 70s, but I remember they were never outstandingly strong in N. America.

They are still in Monaco although I wouldn't call it their main transmitter site.  They are about as distributed as you can get for their coverage area. ministrywatch.com says "Trans World Radio broadcasts to more than 160 countries via more than 2,000 broadcast outlets. It utilizes 40 transmitters from 14 primary sites worldwide and transmits by satellite to three continents."   Theres a TWR brochure here http://www.twr.org/pdfs/TWR-At-A-Glance-201104.pdf that shows their target area and where they broadcast from.

My favorite TWR outlet was the 500 kw 800 kc transmitter on Bonaire which I was able to hear regularly on a car radio until they reduced power and (I think) redirected their pattern.  Haven't heard that transmitter in a long time.

Sam

[Sam KS2AM]

I just heard on a local FM that Trans World Radio is increasing power to 250KW.
And there was mention of going digital. The announcement also mentions that countries with big flame throwers are also considering digital broadcast.....not iBiquity...the DRM way.

I think this announcement has to do with their two new 250KW transmitters on Guam.

The dedication of the new transmitters is tomorrow (Friday) at 8:30 AM Eastern, i.e 1330 UTC.   More info here:  http://www.twr.org/news_and_blogs/2011/11-15/live-dedication-of-guam-transmitters .  The event will be simulcast on the Internet and via two other radio stations but strangely the announcement doesn't indicate that the event will be broadcast via the Guam transmitter itself ... odd.

[kb3ouk]

i'd say most people receiving DRM are using software on a computer to decode it, and using either an SDR or some regular receiver that was modified, because i think for that to work properly, you need to pick the signal off right as it comes out of the IF. there are some recievers that have DRM built in, but they are few in number.

[Sam KS2AM]

For you SWL types ....

Apparently the dedication of the two new (refurbished) transmitters will be broadcast from the new transmitter tomorrow (Friday) at 8:30 AM Eastern, i.e 1330 UTC on 15.400 mc.


Sam

[ab3al]

look up shortwave television.  its in testing via drm  they even have receiver sets in produciton.  low res 320x240 but still impressive for 12-18 khz bw

[kb3ouk]

the article i found from about a year ago says it can do 8 frames a second.

[flintstone mop]

THanks for the freq Sam, I will not be able to monitor, but 15.400 should make it here from Guam.
I have a hang-up for any Ham activity or SW in that part of the world. My wife is from the Philippines and the entire country is a challenge. Their economy keeps most hams down to small compromised antennas and low power, even though their NTC (?) allows 2.5KW PEP!!
The low bands, even 40, is usually S-10 over with static from the tropical climate. There were quiet nights, believe it or not.
Fred

[Sam KS2AM]

I did hear the broadcast from Guam this morning here in New Jersey. Rough copy but mostly due to some local noise.

The 250KW transmitters are DRM capable and I believe that they have plans to use DRM.

There are a couple of interesting quotes from the president of TWR regarding digital broadcasting and receivers here:  http://www.mnnonline.org/article/16477

re DRM "Frankly it sounds just about like FM radio. And India, China and Russia are rebuilding all of their broadcast platforms right now to go digital on both shortwave and what we call the 'AM band.' ".
re the problem of the availability of receivers "That has basically been solved. There will be receivers under $20 in the next few years distributed, in many cases, by the countries because they want people to listen to digital"


So notwithstanding the DRM hash that sounds positive for shortwave broadcasting.

[k4kyv]

the article i found from about a year ago says it can do 8 frames a second.

Do they use mechanical disc scanning too?   

re the problem of the availability of receivers "That has basically been solved. There will be receivers under $20 in the next few years distributed, in many cases, by the countries because they want people to listen to digital"

Wonder if they will be available in this country.  If not, maybe one will be able to order them on line.

In many of the "developing" countries where SWBC is still widely used, most of the inhabitants could never dream of owning a personal computer, and in some of those countries the government wouldn't allow it even one could afford it, unless, of course, you are a "party member" in good standing.