Tag Archives: Radio History

Radio Waves: Who Will Pay, Ham Radio Culture, OTH Support, CarnationFM, Night of Nights, and 100 Years of Radio

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Radio Waves:  Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio

Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Richard Cuff, Dennis Dura,
David Korchin, Roger Fitzharris, David Iurescia, and NT for the following tips:

In 1924, a magazine ran a contest: “Who is to pay for broadcasting and how?” A century later, we’re still asking the same question (NiemanLab)

Radio Broadcast received close to a thousand entries to its contest — but ultimately rejected them all.

After yet another day reading about audio industry layoffs and show cancellations, or listening to podcasts about layoffs and show cancellations, I sometimes wonder, “With all this great audio being given away for free, who did we think was supposed to pay for it all?”

I find some consolation in the fact that that question is more than a century old. In the spring of 1924, Radio Broadcast posed it in a contest called “Who is to Pay for Broadcasting and How?”The monthly trade magazine offered a prize of $500 (more than $9,000 in today’s dollars) for “a workable plan which shall take into account the problems in present radio broadcasting and propose a practical solution.”

The need for such a contest more than 100 years ago is revealing enough, but the reaction of the judges to the prize-winning plan turned out to be even more so — and it says a lot about why business models for audio production and broadcast remain a struggle. [Continue reading…]

The Rich History of Ham Radio Culture (The MIT Press Reader)

Drawing on a wealth of personal accounts found in magazines, newsletters, and trade journals, historian Kristen Haring provides an inside look at ham radio culture and its impact on hobbyists’ lives.

Every night thousands of men retreat to radio stations elaborately outfitted in suburban basements or tucked into closets of city apartments to talk to local friends or to strangers on the other side of the world. They communicate by speaking into a microphone, tapping out Morse code on a telegraph key, or typing at the keyboard of a teletypewriter. In the Internet age, instantaneous, long-distance, person-to-person communication seems ordinary. But amateur radio operators have been completing such contacts since the 1910s. The hobbyists often called “hams” initially turned to radio for technical challenges and thrills. As the original form of wireless technology became more reliable and commonplace in the 1930s, ham radio continued as a leisure activity. Hams formed a community through the same general practices of other social groups. They set conditions for membership, established rules of conduct, taught values, and developed a specialized vocabulary known only to insiders. What made hams’ culture different was its basis in technology. In her book “Ham Radio’s Technical Culture,” excerpted below, historian of science and technology Kristen Haring draws on a wealth of personal accounts found in radio magazines and newsletters and from technical manuals, trade journals, and government documents to illustrate how ham radio culture rippled through hobbyists’ lives. [Continue reading…]

CarnationFM: A Decentralized Radio Playing Songs With Encrypted Hidden Messages (Coin Desk)

CarnationFM emerged from EthBerlin 2024 and won the award for Best Social Impact.

Berlin, Germany: A music-focused radio FM which allows songs to act as a transport vessel for hidden messages has emerged from EthBerlin 2024. CarnationFM was created by five hackers and a mentor as a defensive, decentralized and encrypted communication tool enabling private messaging that safeguards anonymity.

The project, which won the award for the Best Social Impact at EthBerlin 2024, is focused on creating real world use cases factoring in privacy in the aftermath of the Alexey Perstev verdict. Alexey Perstev, one of the co-founders of Tornado Cash, was sentenced to 64 months in prison in May.

The verdict rattled the decentralized community because it suggested that a coder could be held responsible for everything that happens using that code. Perstev was found guilty because his open-source mixer Tornado cash allowed North Korea’s infamous Lazarus group to launder millions in crypto. [Continue reading…]

Nation’s last Morse code station comes back to life on annual ‘Night of Nights’ in Point Reyes (The Mercury News)

KPH, established in Point Reyes and Bolinas in 1913, will exchange messages with Morse code enthusiasts around the world

On July 12, 1999, the nation’s final message in Morse code was sent out to sea from a remote Bay Area radio station. The end of an era, the room’s mood was mournful. Grizzled old men wept.

“We wish you fair winds and following seas,” it said, offering a seafarers’ traditional farewell in a staccato stream of dots and dashes. And then the station went silent.

But every July 12, the golden age of maritime radio comes back to life. [Continue reading…]

Navy researchers ask Envisioneering to support over-the-horizon radar that relies on HF radio signals (Military Aerospace Electronics)

Over-the-horizon radar typically uses HF radio signals at frequencies between 2 and 30 MHz to reach beyond the horizon in open-ocean areas.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Navy researchers needed to help develop a new prototype High Frequency (HF) over the horizon (OTH) radar system. They found a solution from Envisioneering Inc. in Alexandria, Va.

Officials of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington announced a $45.4 million contract to Envisioneering Inc. on Monday for design, development and integration of a mobile over-the-horizon radar (MOTHR).

Over-the-horizon radar typically uses HF radio signals at frequencies between 2 and 30 MHz to reach beyond the horizon in open-ocean areas. HF signals bounce off the ionosphere to achieve long distances and operate beyond the curvature of the Earth.

Envisioneering will work alongside the NRL research team to support key areas such as refinement of system requirements; system and subsystem design; mechanical analysis; specifying and procuring long-lead items; integration; testing; and signal processing. [Continue reading…]

100 Years of 100 Things: Radio (WNYC)

Continuing our centennial series 100 Years of 100 Things, Matthew Barton, curator of recorded sound at the Library of Congress, walks us through the history of radio.

100 Years of 100 Things is part of WNYC’s centennial celebration. Each week, we’ll take listeners through a century’s worth of history of things that shape our politics, our lives and our world. Topics will include everything from immigration policy to political conventions, American capitalism to American socialism, the Jersey Shore to the Catskills, baseball to ice cream.

Click hee to listen via WNYC.

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Why Schenectady?

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Meara who writes:

Thomas:

SWLing Post readers might like this one.

Ramakrishnan sent me the Smithsonian article. It is very nice, and helps answer — I think — the question about why so many old SW radio dials have “Schenectady” on them. Steinmetz seems like a great guy.

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-wizard-of-schenectady-charles.html

73 Bill

I love these bits of radio history, Bill! Thank you for sharing.

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“The Intercept Watch”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Meara who writes:

Thomas: I found this in an old radio magazine. SWLPost is on The Intercept Watch!

Radio. July 1934

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio/30s/Radio-1934-07.pdf

73 Bill

How cool! Thank you for sharing, Bill!

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“100 years of radio in South Africa – and still going strong”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, John Green (ZS1JHG), who shares the following article from Tech Central:

100 years of radio in South Africa – and still going strong

Radio in South Africa turns 100 years old today. But advances in technology mean the medium is not standing still.

Today – Monday, 18 December 2023 – marks 100 years since radio was introduced in South Africa, with the first experimental broadcast going out from Railway Headquarters in Johannesburg on 18 December 1923.

Radio broadcasting began under the auspices of South African Railways, followed by the licensing of three more services: the Association of Scientific and Technical Societies in Johannesburg, the Cape Peninsular Publicity Association in Cape Town and the Durban Corporation, which began broadcasting in 1924.

These merged into the African Broadcasting Company in 1927, owned by a wealthy businessman, IW Schlesinger, but on 1 August 1936, they were sold to the SABC, established that year through an act of parliament.

The SABC took over the African Broadcasting Company’s staff and assets and maintained a state monopoly on radio until the launch in December 1979 of Capital Radio 604, and then Radio 702 in 1980.

In most of the world, reliance on the radio for communication came to an end in the 1950s and early 1960s with the advent of television – but in South Africa, where television broadcasting was not adopted until 1976 because the Nationalist government of the time considered it a threat to Afrikaner culture, reliance on radio lasted nearly two decades longer. This meant that South African programming could take advantage of the newest technological and production advances.

SABC stations included the English and Afrikaans language channels – eventually becoming SAfm and Radio Sonder Grense (RSG), respectively. Programming included news, plays and British content, and in 1950, the SABC launched Springbok Radio as a commercial, for-profit but still state-owned service. [Continue reading…]

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Back When You Had to Pay: Radio Receiving Licences in Canada

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Many thanks to SWLing Post and SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following guest post:

THE DAY YOU HAD TO PAY: Radio Receiving Licences in Canada

by Dan Greenall

MANY of us who are licensed [Canadian] amateurs can appreciate the fact that we are no longer subject to an annual licence renewal fee. As of April 1, 2000, that practice was discontinued by Industry Canada as a new streamlined authorization procedure was put in place for the amateur radio service. This came as a pleasant surprise to many who were paying $24 per annum per licence up until that point.

What many of us may not realize is that, prior to 1953, Canada had a licensing system in place for your radio receiver. Under the Radiotelegraph Act of 1913, a government minister (for most of this period, the Minister of Marine and Fisheries) had the power to license radio broadcasting stations and to charge a $1 licence fee on each receiving set. By 1929 three hundred thousand licenses were bought at $1.00 each.

An article appearing on the Friends of Canadian Broad- casting website a few years ago stated that the annual licence fee for receiving sets doubled to $2.00 in 1930. It was also noted that this was a lot of money during the Depression days that followed and two bucks could buy more than 40 loaves of bread. As a result, so the story goes, “harassed citizens” would try to outwit approaching government collectors by passing word along in time for their neighbours to shut off their radios and lock their doors.

During much of this period, radios that were made in Canada bore a “Warning” sticker such as the one in the accompanying photo. It stated that anyone convicted of operating the receiving set without first having obtained the proper licence could be liable to be fined for up to $25 and have their equipment confiscated. As noted in the book Radios of Canada by Lloyd Swackhammer, the penalty in 1924 was $50.

As you can see from the attached copies, such licences were being issued by the Department of Marine Radio Branch in 1936. In 1937, it was the responsibility of the Department of Transport – Radio Division.

Then in 1938, the DOT upped the fee to $2.50. It was another 15 years until this practice was finally abandoned.

So the next time you sit back and flip on the switch of your receiver, you might now have a greater appreciation of a privilege that most of us now take for granted.

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Radio Waves: WWFD All Digital, End of CBC Long Dash, HD Aviation Interference, NC Broadcast History Museum Plans, and Ukrainian Radio Resistant to Jamming

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Radio Waves:  Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio

Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Dennis Dura, Mark Koskinen, Stuart Smolkin, and Ron Chester for the following tips:

AM Digital WWFD Concludes Its Test Phase (Radio World)

The Hubbard station now is a full-time, all-digital operation

WWFD in Frederick, Md., has concluded the experimental phase of its MA3 HD Radio operation. It has notified the FCC that after five years, it will now continue to operate as a full-time all-digital AM station as is allowed under commission rules.

Dave Kolesar at a meeting of SBE Chapter 37 in Wheaton, Md.
The Hubbard-owned facility was the first AM station in the United States to convert to the MA3 mode, doing so under experimental authority in 2018.

Dave Kolesar, the engineer and program director who spearheaded the initiative and has given numerous presentations at engineering conferences about it, tells me that Hubbard recently asked the FCC to conclude the special temporary authority. [Continue reading…]

The end of the long dash: CBC stops broadcasting official time signal (CBC)

Segment connected Canadians, kept the country on time for over 80 years

The beginning of the long dash indicates exactly 1 o’clock eastern standard time.

For more than 80 years the beeps and tones of the National Research Council (NRC) time signal have connected Canadians at exactly 1 p.m. ET.

But as of Monday, CBC Radio One audiences won’t be listening for the beginning of the long dash — they’ll have listened to the end of it.

Variations of the daily message and the “pips” that sound along with it have played over CBC’s airwaves since Nov. 5, 1939 — forming a link that connects Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

CBC and Radio-Canada have announced they’ll no longer carry the National Research Council (NRC) time signal.

Monday marked the last time it was broadcast, ending the longest running segment on CBC Radio.  [Continue reading and listen to the report on the CBC...]

Xperi Discussing HD Radio Power Boost Proposal With Aviation Groups (Radio World)

The Aerospace Industry Association and the Air Line Pilots Association International have voiced interference concerns

Several aviation groups have recently expressed concern about the potential for interference on navigation systems if a proposal to increase power for digital FM stations in the United States is adopted. Now, HD Radio developer Xperi said it is working to address those concerns.

In comments filed with the FCC (MB Docket 22-405), the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and the Air Line Pilots Association International (ALPA) raised the possibility of interference between HD Radio stations at 107.9 MHz and the adjacent Aeronautical Radio Navigation Service (ARNS) band operating from 108.0 – 117.975 MHz.

The ARNS band is occupied by safety critical navigation and landing systems essential for safety of flight, according to the groups. They include Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) needed for landing during low visibility conditions at night and during inclement weather. [Continue reading…]

State Broadcast Leaders Announce Plans for Broadcast History Museum in North Carolina (Beasley Media)

State broadcast leaders have unveiled details of a North Carolina Broadcast History Museum. Details were announced during a press conference that took place on Friday, October 13th at the Governor’s Mansion in Raleigh, NC.

The museum initiative is a 501(c) 3 non-profit corporation dedicated to preserving North Carolina’s broadcasting legacy.

North Carolina has a rich broadcast history, dating back to March 1902, when radio pioneer Reginald Fessenden transmitted a 127-word voice message from his Cape Hatteras transmitter tower to Roanoke Island. Then fast forward to July 23, 1996, when WRAL-TV became the first television station in the United States to broadcast a digital television signal. The state has been and continues to be a wealth of pioneers and innovators in industry.

North Carolina has been and continues to be a wealth of pioneers and innovators in industry. The State has numerous famous broadcast personalities, including Andy Griffith (born in Mount Airy), Charles Kuralt and David Brinkley (both from Wilmington), National Sportscaster Jim Nantz (from Charlotte), and National Public Radio Newscaster Carl Kasell (from Goldsboro).

The Museum is seeking assistance from the public and people who worked in broadcasting to collect artifacts, documents, photographs and recordings that chronicle the history of prominent radio and television stations, broadcasters, programs and events. Through exhibits and collections, the Museum seeks to highlight the contributions made by North Carolina Broadcasters in shaping the industry and the state’s culture landscape.

The Museum is guided by a distinguished group of broadcast professionals that include Caroline Beasley, CEO, Beasley Media Group; Don Curtis, CEO, Curtis Media Group; Jim Goodmon, CEO, Capitol Broadcasting Co.; Wade Hargrove, media lawyer; Harold Ballard, Broadcast Engineer; Carl Venters, Jr., Broadcast Executive; David Crabtree, CEO, North

Carolina Public Media, Dr James Carson, Broadcast Executive; Jim Babb, Broadcast Executive, Cullie Tarleton, Broadcast Executive, and former member of the NC House of Representatives; Dave Lingafelt, Broadcast Executive, Carl Davis, Jr., Broadcast Engineer, Jim Heavner,

Broadcast Executive, and Mike Weeks, Broadcast Executive.

The North Carolina Broadcast History Museum web site will serve as a digital repository accessible by the public that will grow in content and importance as items are gathered and

displayed. The museum web site is under construction and currently available online at www.NCBMuseum.com. Future plans include a brick-and-mortar facility for education, inspiration and enjoyment.

For more information, please contact Michael Weeks, North Carolina Broadcast History Museum Board Trustees Chairman, at [email protected] or call 252-721-0470.

Ukraine claims to have invented a new radio that’s immune to Russian jamming (Business Insider)

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced on Tuesday the launch of radio technology that “cannot” be blocked by Russian jamming.

Fedorov, who also serves as Ukraine’s Minister for Digital Transformation, wrote on Telegram that the Himera radio is “a unique technology that works despite enemy electronic warfare,” according to Ukrainska Pravda’s translation.

“The Russians cannot block the radio’s signals or decrypt it,” he said, adding: “The radio can also be integrated into a situational awareness system or used as a GPS tracker to search for and evacuate soldiers.”

Russia’s electronic warfare capabilities have long proved a thorn in Ukraine’s side, as Michael Peck previously reported for Insider.

Russia has managed to achieve “real time interception and decryption” of the Motorola walkie-talkie systems in widespread use by Ukraine, according to a May report by the Royal United Services Institute. [Continue reading…]

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Radio Waves: Binghamton Wireless Landmark, Broadcast Intrusions, LICWC on the BBC, and Blocking Radio Waves

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Radio Waves:  Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio

Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Dennis Dura (K2DCD), Ulis (K3LU), Blake (K8LSU) for the following tips:

Radio history was made in Binghamton and one landmark still stands (Press Connects)

It was 1913, the year of the Binghamton Clothing Company Fire, and the year after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and the sinking of the Titanic.

Several major disasters that had left the region and the nation reeling from the loss of human life amidst a growing industrial base in the country. Thousands of immigrants were arriving to find new lives and work among the huddling masses. Many of those would make their way to the Binghamton area to find employment in the many cigar and shoe factories scattered on the landscape.

It was important to find a feel-good moment in the ever-rapidly increasing technology world that was changing the way we performed our work and lived our lives. Communication growth was one aspect of those changes. The number of newspapers and their influence was important, but so was the development of what we today call radio – originally known as wireless telegraphy, using radio waves to transmit telegraphic signals from point to point.

The first practical incarnation of wireless telegraphy was created by Guglielmo Marconi of Italy. The discovery of those waves had been made only about two decades prior to his use of those to transmit telegraph signals. In 1897, he formed the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company in the United Kingdom. The company would later be called the Marconi Wireless Company, and continued to work on the ability to send these wireless signals farther and farther. Eventually, he also worked to see if these signals could be transmitted and received by moving objects, such as ships at sea and railroad trains. [Continue reading…]

Broadcast Signal Intrusions: When TV or Radio Stations Get Hacked (96.1 The Eagle)

Orson Welles’ contrived The War of the Worlds news bulletin “interrupted” a radio broadcast in 1938 to advise terrified listeners that aliens had invaded the Earth. As many as 12 million people were tuned in, according to NPR – and perhaps a million of them apparently worried that it was actually happening.

We’ve gained historical perspective on the stunt, even while the way we consume media has vastly changed over the decades that followed. Critics would later downplay the impact of The War of the Worlds, with some arguing that newspapers purposely over-sensationalized the broadcast to cast doubts on the trustworthiness of then-new technology that was siphoning off ad revenue.

What’s clear is that signal intrusions – including unauthorized hijacking of radio, television or satellite feeds – have continued ever since. They’ve served a variety of purposes, as you’ll see on the following list. Many were a form of political protest, while others were just looking to have a little fun. All of them trace back in some way to Welles’ fateful “interruption.”

Southern Television Broadcast
Nov. 26, 1977, England

Viewers of an early evening Southern Television broadcast in England were alarmed when an electronic voice purported to represent the “Ashtar Galactic Command” overtook the audio of a news segment for a full six minutes. The message, which was accompanied by a pulsating sound and eerie distortions, said: “For many years, you have seen us as lights in the sky. We speak to you now in peace and wisdom as we have done to your brothers and sisters all over this, your planet Earth.” This strange voice went on to advise humanity to “abandon its weapons” in order to participate in a “future awakening” and “achieve a higher state of evolution.” It also warned viewers that government officials weren’t who they claimed to be, and that they were leading the unwitting public into a New World Order. The hack ended with a final message: “Have no fear, seek only to know yourselves, and live in harmony with the ways of your planet Earth. We hear at the Ashtar Galactic Command thank you for your attention. We are now leaving the planes of your existence. May you be blessed by the supreme love and truth of the cosmos.” The interruption prompted a flood of phone calls from an understandably concerned audience then living under the threat of Cold War. A local newspaper said “thousands” of viewers were horrified; one man described the experience as “very eerie indeed” and said it “sounded very authentic.” A woman said she had to call her friends to make sure she wasn’t “hearing things,” adding that “it sounded like a genuine voice from outer space and was quite frightening.” An investigation revealed the Independent Broadcasting Authority’s Hannington transmitter had rebroadcast the signal from a nearby, unauthorized transmitter. The mastermind behind it all was never identified.

Read More: Broadcast Signal Intrusions: When TV or Radio Stations Get Hacked.

Long Island CW Club on BBC Radio 4

Howard (WB2UZE) with the Long Island CW Club was interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 program PM.

Although the show has already aired, you can listn to it for the next few weeks on BBC Sounds by clicking here.

Note that the segment with Howard starts at 51:42.

Keith (GW4OKT) captured the live, off-air recording of this segment via his Icom IC-705:

Click here to listen on YouTube.

Blocking radio waves and electromagnetic interference with the flip of a switch (Phys.org)

Researchers in Drexel University’s College of Engineering have developed a thin film device, fabricated by spray coating, that can block electromagnetic radiation with the flip of a switch. The breakthrough, enabled by versatile two-dimensional materials called MXenes, could adjust the performance of electronic devices, strengthen wireless connections and secure mobile communications against intrusion.

The team, led by Yury Gogotsi, Ph.D., Distinguished University and Bach professor in Drexel’s College of Engineering, previously demonstrated that the two-dimensional layered MXene materials, discovered just over a decade ago, when combined with an electrolyte solution, can be turned into a potent active shield against electromagnetic waves.

This latest MXene discovery, reported in Nature Nanotechnology, shows how this shielding can be tuned when a small voltage—less than that produced by an alkaline battery—is applied.

“Dynamic control of electromagnetic wave jamming has been a significant technological challenge for protecting electronic devices working at gigahertz frequencies and a variety of other communications technologies,” Gogotsi said.

“As the number of wireless devices being used in industrial and private sectors has increased by orders of magnitude over the past decade, the urgency of this challenge has grown accordingly. This is why our discovery—which would dynamically mitigate the effect of electromagnetic interference on these devices—could have a broad impact.”

[Continue reading at Phys.org…]

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