Category Archives: Articles

Charles Caudill believes in the power of shortwave radio

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Charles Caudill, is president & CEO of World Christian Broadcasting. This week, he wrote a piece in Radio World about why his organization still firmly believes in shortwave radio.

(Source: Radio World)

In order to make [our] budget go as far as possible, there is no question that we can reach more people on a regular basis with shortwave than with any other method. With an annual budget of something over $3 million, we will be able to broadcast 50 to 60 hours daily from our two broadcast facilities. Those 50 to 60 hours will be produced by six different services: English, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Latin American and African.

Obviously, we cannot do everything on that limited budget, but we can literally talk to millions of people using shortwave. We don’t have the luxury of being able to cut $40 million or even $14 million from our budget as some international broadcasters can. Our idea is that God has given us the ionosphere. Our job is to make use of it.

There are millions of analog receivers in the world — some say 600 million, some say 1.5 billion, some say as many as three billion. Regardless of the number, those receivers will not be turned off tomorrow. Those receivers will have listeners for years and years.

Look around; even though technology advances with great rapidity, there are still newspapers. I receive mine every morning. There are still AM radios and FM receivers and they are still making more. And you can still buy books. They are still being published. Even though Amazon is making a fortune selling electronic digital reading devices, they still sell books.

[…]My point is, no medium disappears overnight. Our belief is that shortwave will be here for a long, long time.

Read Caudill’s full article on Radio World’s website.

Chucho Valdés: Inspiration from VOA Jazz Hours

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(Source: Kim Elliott via the Hartford Courant)

24 Jan 2012, Owen McNally: “Still very much an irrepressible life-force at 70, Chucho Valdés, the renowned Cuban pianist, composer and bandleader, is on a winter tour of the United States that sets down for high-energy maneuvers … at the cabaret series at the University of Connecticut’s Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. … The title track [of his new CD], ‘Chucho’s Steps,’ … is a 50-bar adventure in challenging harmony in which he pays tribute to John Coltrane’s intimidating masterpiece, ‘Giant Steps.’ Valdés notes that as a young man in Cuba he would listen on short-wave radio to a program called ‘The Jazz Hour’ on The Voice of America, an experience that opened his ears to Coltrane’s innovations and the creative fervor of the new, iconoclastic music that was fermenting in the States.”

NSA declassifies “Receiver Dynamics” primer

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The Watkins-Johnson HF-1000 (and NSA version, WJ-8711) are mentioned in this article

On January 11, 2012 the National Security Agency (NSA) released a pre-1995 article entitled “Receiver Dynamics” from its classified internal magazine, Cryptologic Quarterly. It contains an excellent, well-written explanation of the specifications of shortwave receivers used by some of NSA’s K4 divisions.

Download the article here (PDF).

Thanks to Ed in the SWLfest list for the tip!

Shortwave radios keep Burmese informed

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Filed under our ever-growing tag, “why shortwave radio“:

(Source: The Guardian, via Kim Andrew Elliot)

Zigon does, however, have electricity – unlike 90% of Burmese villages – installed by the government late last year. This has meant a number of changes. One of the more significant is the arrival of television. A satellite dish has now been installed at the village tea shop, largely used to watch state TV networks and Premier League football.

Though censorship has been eased in recent months, information is still tightly controlled. News of the Arab revolts last year was blocked for weeks – though millions use cheap Chinese-made radios to listen to the BBC, Voice of America or other networks broadcasting in local languages.

Radio Literacy program in Zabul

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(Source: DVIDS via Kim Andrew Elliot)

(Photo credit: DVIDS)

FORWARD OPERATING BASE LAGMAN, Afghanistan – It’s said that education is power and nowhere is that truer than in Zabul province, Afghanistan, where for a time the Taliban controlled the populace by means of intimidation which included preventing people there from working at, or having their children attend school. The end-result was an undereducated, illiterate people who were powerless to prevent their schools from being under-populated, underfunded and undermanned, which in-turn allowed the Taliban to control the dissemination of knowledge – and therefore power – in Zabul province.

[…]Villagers that participate in the project receive one Radio Literacy handbook per family – sometimes two if theirs is a large family – which includes 15 weekly modules, and forty-some odd lessons, all of which are very rudimentary.

[…]In addition to the Radio Literacy handbook, participating villagers also receive 1 hand-crank radio per family which can receive AM and FM frequencies, as well as shortwave 1 and shortwave 2. Shortwave radio, more commonly known as ham radio in the United States, is able to reach areas where AM and FM frequencies cannot.

Read the full article here.

New Kindle eBook – “How to Listen To The World”

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Ken Reitz (KS4ZR), features editor at Monitoring Times, has released a Kindle eBook called How To Listen To The World. It focuses on almost all aspects of listening to international broadcasts–see full table of contents in the press release below.

This would make a nice, inexpensive last-minute Christmas or birthday gift that can be delivered instantly.

At $2.99, it’s an easy decision! Click here to buy on Amazon. Note that you will either need an Amazon Kindle device or a Kindle application in order to read this book.

(Below: Full Press Release for How To Listen To The World)

“How to Listen to the World” by Ken Reitz KS4ZR is an introduction to shortwave listening, amateur radio, Free-to-Air satellite TV/radio, AM-FM DX, Internet radio and the new phenomenon of cord-cutting; getting off the addiction to cable and satellite-TV.

Much of the material is from columns and feature articles written by the author over the last two years for Monitoring Times, a national monthly magazine about all things radio, now in its thirty-first year. Each section has been updated to include the latest information available with over 100 links to the most important websites for each topic. Previously unpublished material has also been added to give a fuller understanding of each topic. Kindle e-books can be read on any e-reader, laptop, desktop, or smartphone.

About the Author:

A freelance writer since 1988, Ken Reitz has written hundreds of feature articles and columns covering radio and television for several national consumer magazines. He has interviewed many of the top industry leaders and reviewed dozens of new products in this field. He has also earlier enjoyed a five year career in commercial AM and FM broadcasting and has been an amateur radio operator for the last 24 years holding an Extra Class license under the call sign KS4ZR. He is currently the features editor at Monitoring Times for which also he writes the Communications and Beginner’s Corner columns.

“How to Listen to the World” Table of Contents

  • Getting Started in Shortwave Listening
  • Buying Your First Shortwave Radio
  • Chasing DRM: The Elusive Dream of Digital Audio on Shortwave
  • A Look at Three New Shortwave Radios
  • The Best of the Cheap Shortwave Portables
  • Listening to Shortwave Radio in Your Car
  • Weather Facsimile via Shortwave on Your iPad
  • Radio Pirates: The intriguing world of unlicensed broadcasting
  • Amateur Radio for Everybody: Getting Your License
  • Getting Started on HF Part I
  • Getting Started on HF Part 2: Chasing DX
  • Getting Started on HF Part 3: QSL those Contacts!
  • Shortwave and Ham Antennas for the less Financially Endowed
  • Loop your way to HF DX Success
  • The Joys of Ten Meters
  • Digital Operating on the Ham Bands
  • Tuning in to the International Space Station
  • Whatever Happened to TVRO?
  • The Newest FTA Receiver: Manhattan RS1933
  • AM-FM-TV DX
  • FM-HD: A Long and Winding Road
  • A Cord-Cutter’s Primer
  • Internet Radio Listening in a Non-FiOS Home

John Allen keeps radio history alive

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(Source: Delmarva Now)

A fat and sassy black cat purrs in John Allen’s lap. Relaxing in his favorite chair, Allen’s fingers vanished into the silky fur as he stroked his cat while listening to the Big Band sounds coming through a 1930s radio.

With its warm wood finish and the soft yellow glow of light from the dial, the vintage radio is as soothing as the thin shadows in the room.

[…]Stacked neatly in his living room are a dozen or so radios from the past. The sets are piled several deep. Other are stored in his shop, tucked tightly on shelves.

[…]”Maybe if you count the regular radios, the military radios, and the spy radios, I might have a little more than 200,” he said.

That’s right, he said “spy radios.”

Click hear to read the full story on Delmarva Now. If you like this sort of article, you have to check out the BBC radio documentary on Gerry Wells.