Adventures in Amplitude Modulation - Part 12

Well, it’s been a frustrating week here at my little Brooklyn Radio HQ. The main reason is that AM & shortwave reception has been just TERRIBLE. To be honest, I haven’t really dug into the shortwave frequencies much over this last week or so, but several stations I expected to quickly find haven’t been there and others are barely readable. And I can tell you definitively that reception on the AM band has been really awful. Dependable clear channel stations across the dial from places like Louisville, Baltimore, Toronto and Charlotte have been sadly difficult to discern out of the noise. Then again, there also seems to be a number of competing stations stepping on these AM giants, and barely audible stations I’m not familiar with have been showing up at other spots on the dial too. As I've made clear, I’m no radio scientist and I've decided not to spend a bunch of hours researching what's going on out there so I might seem to know what I’m talking about. But what I can tell you is that for the last week or two there’s been a BIG change in radio propagation out there on medium and shortwave, but I'm sure that will all change again soon. If you’re interested, there may be some information on what’s been happening in outer space that’s altering radio reception here and perhaps at a few of these links here as well.

Then again, this is what makes listening to SW and AM interesting and drives some listeners crazy as well. It’s unpredictable. When some dependable stations can’t be found, often others that are often impossible to hear can be received. It’s an old and sometimes unreliable technology. You’ve gotta love it somehow to participate, and here in the short attention span US of A you’re in a minority if you do. If you care, go ahead and celebrate yourself. By the way, I also found an interesting primer on shortwave listening this week on the web here. And this guy had an interesting DX blog that he seems to have unfortunately abandoned which is still worth checking out. And here's another interesting radio blog that someone sent me a link to as well.

The idea of this particular arc of this blog series has been to go through some of the popular shortwave bands (from Brooklyn) and ascertain the source of each frequency. Which brings me to my other big frustration-- the research to make this happen.

These days the established shortwave bands have expanded a bit, and you find broadcasts before and after the official allotment for each band on the radio dial. In this post, the last station logged (Radio Tirana in Albania) is actually just past the high end of the 49 meter band (6200 kHz). I also logged a number of frequencies after that, however I spent WAY too many hours last night attempting to identify several stations and found nothing on the might internet that could assist me in any way. The radio I was using, the BCL-2000 is a single conversion receiver infamous for picking up distorted or weakened “images” of more powerful frequencies on erroneous spots on the dial. However, I’ve only experienced this problem in an obvious way on the AM dial, and I’m not sure if I could pick up a series of these images in a row on shortwave. So, if any of you more experienced SW listeners could assist me in getting an idea of what I might have picked up Wednesday night, March 1 between 7 and 8 p.m. EST at 6250 or 6295 (in Spanish), or 6375 (unknown language), 6415 (German), and 6555 (English probably from the U.S.) please send me an email here, or post a comment on this post. Any information or ideas would be greatly appreciated. And in general, please correct me if I've made some dumb error in my logging in this post. While I do the best I can, I'm an amateur at best and I'm not ashamed to get a little guidance from better informed radio folks. Again, you can email me here.

Anyway, here’s the rest of the 49 meter band scan recording from early evening 03-01-06 recorded here in NYC with my BCL-2000 (part one can be found here). I’m just using the whip antenna it came with and the recording is unedited. Nothing astounding here, just a typical night on the 49 meter band that almost anybody in the eastern U.S. could have picked up with an inexpensive shortwave set that evening. Unless I get some further elucidation on the frequencies I mentioned in the previous paragraph I’ll go on to another shortwave band next week.

Segment 2-49 Meter Band (5920 to 6215 kHz) 03-01-06 (MP3)

6075 - Deutsche Welle

Broadcasting in German, from Germany. They also broadcast from seven different relay sites around the world, and in many languages. It’s the news, apparently talking about our fearless leader visiting India.

6085 - WYFR (Family Radio)

Another one of those Christian wastes of bandspace on the shortwave dial, broadcasting from Florida USA. All you get here is a snippet of churchy singing. Hallelujah, amen and all that.

6090 - The Carribean Beacon (on the island of Anguilla)

It’s Dr. Gene Scott, who you can almost ALWAYS find on shortwave, usually on a few frequencies. Which is quite a feat considering he’s not really alive these days.

Actually, Dr. Scott just left the planet last year, and for a few months I was hearing a woman (which I believe was his most recent wife, Melissa Pastore) continuing his... ah, work on the radio. But lately, it seems that his organization has decided to carry on his worldwide ministry with recordings of the wacky old guy himself. Going through the dial at night, you can hear Scott hale and hearty on one frequency, and croaky and near death on another. From the grave Dr. Scott is still shouting at his listeners to “GET ON THE PHONE!” and pledge him some dough.

And hell, nobody could really replace Gene Scott, not even his porn star turned evangelist widow. When he wasn’t talkin’ about the lord and savior, he might lecture for a while about UFO’s or discuss the mysteries of the pyramids at Giza (Just LOOK at his website, where you’ll find no reference to his death either). Besides being a bit of a crackpot who made his living sapping cash from his followers, he was also a loud-mouthed vulgar hard drinking "man’s man" kind of guy, and at times a rather likable one in some strange way. If you’re not familiar with Dr. Scott, download this video of Scott in his TV heyday featuring the “FCC Monkey Band.” Or check all sorts of anecdotes that were posted on the web after his passing here ,here and here. More Gene Scott blogging and links can be found here, and more clips from his TV show are available at this site. Werner Herzog did an excellent documentary on Dr. Scott back in 1980, and is worth searching out as well.

And although I’ve gone on here at length about Dr. Scott's career, the clip of him in this scan is woefully short (a half minute) and in very poor fidelity. I’m not even sure what he’s talking about. Sorry. I heard him SO often on shortwave, and over the last few years he had taken to droning on and on more than shouting and misbehaving in any real entertaining fashion. My general habit has been to keep scanning when I come across his voice on the dial, and that's what happened here. I’m sure I have a some more compelling radio recordings of Dr. Scott around here somewhere.When and if I find one I’ll try to post it here. He was an interesting character.

6100 - Radio Canada International

It’s French. Something about television.

6110 - BBC World Service

Broadcasting from their relay at Ascension Island in South Atlantic. Language unknown (to me).  Strange reverb on this one.

6135 - Deutsche Welle

In in German again. However, this time it’s coming from one of their relay sites in Portugal. Coming in clearly. Talking about Bosnia-Herzegovina...

6145 - NHK (Japan’s world service)

In English. Just the sound of this intrigued me right away. The sunny naivety of this woman at first made me think I was tuning into another Christian broadcast, but I was wrong. It’s the last episode of a monthly feature on Japan’s shortwave service– “Love and Hope For the Children.”

You hear just the beginning of this feature, introduced by Agnes Chan of UNICEF. Lots of reverb and sweetness. It’s all about flowers in your heart. It would be easy to cynical or turn on the irony receptor when you hear somebody so earnestly discuss the concerns about children around the world in trouble. I mean, when you hear a politician invoke the concerns of children you KNOW there’s an ulterior agenda. However, despite Ms. Chan’s almost unbearable sweetness, the topic is quite serious. There are many children all over the world in horrible circumstances. Yet, when I hear her say on the radio that it’s nice to see me again and thanking me for listening to this “show” over the whole year, I have to wonder why she either wasn’t coached on the realities of radio, or utilized on this series as a guest instead of a presenter. Nonetheless, she’s more real than just about anyone you’ll hear here in the USA. And that’s a good thing, to me.

6165 - Radio Netherlands

A review of the news and the beginning of a documentary in English. Radio Netherlands is a comprehensive international service in the mold of the BBC World Service. I’ve heard some great documentaries on shortwave (in English!) from Radio Netherlands over the years. They’re impressive, and one of the few international broadcasters that still make shortwave listening an informative and pleasant pastime.

Before the documentary on ethnic prejudice kicks in, they’re discussing a new scandal in the Dutch royal family. Apparently, a “princess” has returned to the fold after making secret tape recordings of conversations and arguments with the queen and apologized for making them. It all sounds rather seedy and a bit sad. As an American, I have a hard time understanding why some western democracies continue to embrace “royal” families and give a rat’s ass about what they say or do. In general, I’m all for tradition, but the ongoing narratives concerning kings, queens, princes and princesses seem so irrelevant and lacking in news value that I gotta wonder why anybody cares.

6180  - Radio Nacional Amazonia (Brazil)?

This is a bit of mess, but adjusting the antenna I believe I’m receiving some domestic shortwave from Brazil. Some singing here. It sure ain’t English. Very faint, by the way.

6215 - Radio Tirana (Albania)

From what I can tell, this is a broadcast in Albanian from Albania. I recently read a rumor online that Radio Tirana was getting rid of their English broadcasts on shortwave. I hope that’s not true. Albania, we need you!-- in some small Balkan way.

Other posts in this series can be found here.

Thanks for listening.

Comments

[john]

I've really enjoyed "Adventures in Amplitude Modulation." You inspired me to pull the old Radio Shack DX 392 (Sangean 818CS) down off the shelf and make some recordings of my own. I look forward to future installments of this series.

[ralph]

Most, if not all, of the stations you were hearing above 49 meters were probably images from strong stations on 41 meters. I wasn't able to find exactly what the intermediate frequency of a BCL-2000 is, but the vast majority of radios have an IF of 455 kHz. A few have IFs of 450 kHz. A single-conversion receiver like the BCL-2000 is susceptible to receiving images of stations at two times the IF above and below the transmitted frequency. 2 x 455 = 910. 6415 + 910 = 7425 kHz; Radio Austria International broadcasts in German on that frequency at that hour. 6555 + 910 = 7465; Brother Stair broadcasts on that frequency at that hour via WWCR Nashville. 6375 + 910 = 7285; Voice of Croatia broadcasts via Juelich, Germany, on that frequency at that hour. 6250 + 910 = 7160; China Radio International broadcasts in Spanish at that hour on that frequency.

I couldn't find a listing for 6295 + 910 = 7205. Probably someone has moved on to that frequency since my references were published. 6295 - 910 is 5385, an unlikely source for a broadcast image.

[Dale Hazelton]

Hey, Professor.According to the latest issue of Passport to World Band Radio, the only Spanish language station around 00:00 GMT at 6249 is "Radio La Voz" from Peru. Nothing being broadcast to the Eastern US should be in the 6375 area, although there is a AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio) station broadcasting from Pearl Harbor at that time, however their site shows them broadcasting on upper sideband only. 6415 could be "Radio Bluebell", a German pirate station that normally airs around 11:00 GMT. And the 6555 area should be devoid of English broadcast. Obviously books published at the end of last year like Passport And WRTH should be used as a guide only. If you're really hardcore, check out Glenn Hauser's World of Radio (http://www.angelfire.com/ok/worldofradio/).

[Bas van Dam]

Big QSL from the Netherlands Professor! I'm an electronics engineer. And I do antennas. Not royalty flagpoles. Love your radio series!

[Nikishka]

Hello Professor!

QSL from Halifax, Canada. HF has been dead here for the past couple of weeks except for a brief opening on 80 meters Friday night. Do you think the current prediction models for a highly active solar cycle have any creedance?

- Nikishka (in VE1 land...)

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/03/17/4/?nc=1

[The Professor]

Thanks for all the responses! It really makes spending all the time working on this project worth it for me. It’s great to know this blog series is being read and even appreciated. While I hope to pass on my personal passion for tuning through the short and medium wave bands, doing this has also been a learning experience and comments from some of you more experienced listeners is very helpful in that regard.

And boy, while I would love to see a big bright aurora some time (whenever I’m away from the city on a clear night, I’ll step out at least once or twice and look toward the north just to see if there might be one gracing the sky), the exact effects of auroras, sunspots, and space weather on radio transmission and reception in general seems a little complicated to my little brain. From what I seem to recall, propagation on some bands is improved and propagation is dulled on other bands during certain levels of activity out there. I have yet to read an explanation or report on these topics in language that I can clearly understand.

While I have bought the World Radio & TV Handbook a few times, the fluid and changing world of shortwave broadcasting times and frequencies can be tracked in a much more up to date fashion via the web these days. But there doesn’t seem to be any one source that serves as a guide, but between the bigger shortwave and DX sites and the many individual logs and blogs out there spending a bit of time searching seems to yield some good results. I do indeed look through Glenn Hauser’s expansive webpages for information and frequencies. When all else fails I’ve been doing advanced Google searches through his DX Listening Guides.

And I gotta tell you Ralph, your formula does make sense for a couple of those images I seem to have come across. While I didn’t hear spooky old Brother Stair at 6555, which you said could be an image of WWCR at 7465. What I did pick up was a USA Radio News Program, which according to their current schedule does INDEED play at that time on WWCR’s 7465 transmitter! While I can’t easily verify it, I suspect that you are also right about the Radio Austria International, and the Croatian station as well. Thanks a lot Ralph for some useful information. You are making me smarter, and I’ll keep that formula in mind when I come across image suspects on the BCL from here on in. The feedback I’ve gotten here from you and Dale as I’ve been doing this really has contributed to this whole series.

I really do like many things about the BCL radio, but I do hope that Tecsun takes on the complaints of many DXers and comes out with a dual conversion upgrade of the thing with a number of other improvements that would really make it the analog portable to get as an alternative to the many digital sets out there. Speaking of that, until I can get together the bucks for the Sony ICF-2010 one day I’m seriously considering picking up a Degen DE1103 (also known as the Kaito KA1103) to add a dependable digital receiver to my collection. I’ve read plenty of good to glowing reviews of the thing online, and I’m wondering if any readers out there have any personal experience with this radio. The Sangean ATS 505 I picked up a few years back has been a big disappointment. As I think I said before, every Sangean product I’ve ever purchased has let me down.

Anyway, my humble appreciation again for the comments. It is good to hear from you.

[htt]

My pleasure, Professor.

It's easy to get lost in the science behind propagation, but there are a few simple rules of thumb you can use to help understand the basics. Solar Flux is related to the number of sunspots, and affects which frequencies are generally audible. Solar Flux doesn't generally go below about 70; if it's below 100, lower frequencies will work better than higher frequencies. If it's above 150, higher frequencies will open. The numbers vary, but in general there's an 11 year cycle, and you'll be more likely to see low numbers at the bottom of the cycle and high numbers at the top of the cycle. Right now we're end the bottom of a cycle, and the Solar Flux right now is 77, which means that lower frequencies work better. This is a great time to DX mediumwave. In about five years, we'll probably be near the top of the cycle, making the upper reaches of shortwave good for DXing (and sometimes this even extends into TV channels 2-6 and the FM band).

There's another number you can pay attention to, the K-index. It's released every three hours, and it varies between 0 and 9. If the K-index is 0 or 1 for a few periods in a row, you can expect to hear stations that are normally weak or in someway problematic at somewhat stronger levels. You may hear a few stations that are normally inaudible at weak levels. If the K-index is between 2 and 4, conditions are pretty much normal. If the K-index is 5 or above, there's a geomagnetic storm. The higher the K-index, the more disturbed conditions are. The more disturbed conditions are, the more likely you are to see an aurora. Auroras are caused by high levels of ionization in the ionosphere. Ionization is also what causes shortwave and mediumwave signals to reflect back to Earth. When ionization levels are high as reflected by a high K-index, signals closer to the polar regions are swallowed up by the ionosphere rather than reflected. So when the K-index is high, you will often find that stations you normally hear are inaudible, particularly ones from northern locations, and stations from tropical regions that are normally covered up are now audible. Occasionally, conditions are so stormy that all of shortwave will seem empty and blacked out for an hour or two. That's not happening so much now, but will probably happen more often in a few years.

You can find out these numbers in a few ways. WWV broadcasts them at 18 minutes past every hour. You can read the text of the WWV broadcasts at any time from the NOAA site. And you can get a graph of the K-index for the last 3 days from the NOAA site. There's even a browser extension for Firefox that continuously displays the numbers in your status bar.

This is a little longer than I intended, but the basic things to remember are 1) Solar Flux gives a basic idea of which frequencies work and which don't; higher numbers mean higher frequencies, and 2) the K-index is the current weather report, and higher numbers mean stormier conditions and more unpredictable reception.

[ralph]

Hrm, don't know what happened to my name there, but that previous comment about propagation was mine....

[JoseFritz]

gracias for the link.

[weatherall]

After reading your post, I watched this Gene Scott video on youtube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=J6Fqms_Iw8M

"Keep your *** **** opinions to yourself, you ******* from Australia!"

Now I know a bit more about what's on the radio. Your post made me curious enough to tune in to the Caribbean Beacon despite my previous rule of ignoring religious content on shortwave.