Just how much is left on short wave?

[Stylo N M]

Hi,

I've oftern wondered over the last few years, and ineeded even more so just recently, just what exactly is left on short wave? it apears to be totaly blank, apart from just a few broardcasts here and there, throughout all of the metre bands even during the hours of darkness.

Paul.

[paulsherwin]

There is poor propagation at the moment, but as you say there's much less available in Europe than there used to be, especially using modest equipment. You have to pull in stuff from Africa and Asia.

[Jon_G4MDC]

Impulse reply - power supply crud -mostly.

[ms660]

Plenty of Hams on 40 metres as I post, also a couple of stateside Hams up on 20.

Lawrence.

[Stylo N M]

That's right Paul, we seem to be loosing everything, thanks Lawrence I will see if i can spot anything.

Paul.

[m0cemdave]

Originally Posted by Stylo N M

... even during the hours of darkness.

Many international HF broadcasters have closed down, now that the internet is ubiquitous.

But regardless of that, you can expect the higher bands to be dead during the hours of darkness (except perhaps during a sunspot maximum, which won't be for another 7 years or so).

If you want to view the full HF spectrum to get an idea of activity, this is a good site:
http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

[colourking]

This page may be of interest:

http://www.shortwavetimes.com/


which has current SW listening guides (.pdf files) for North West Europe

[Paul_RK]

A quarter of an hour of casual browsing just now yielded Radio Saudi from Riyadh, the Voice of Turkey in both English and Turkish (music on both frequencies, the latter, 9460 kHz, with much better reception): Radio Romania International, the Voice of Iran and, inevitably, China Radio International. That's on the Panasonic RF9000 with its own telescopic aerial -

http://www.shortwaveschedule.com/

makes identification generally straightforward when frequencies are known. As often happens, the Turkish music still has my attention.

Paul

[Stylo N M]

Thank you to everyone for your input, and thank's for posting the links, they've been very helpfull.
thanks

Paul.

[Sparks]

This will be obscure, I know, but I remember hearing some kind of test tones on shortwave about thirty years ago. Four distinct tones of the same duration, starting low then climbing three tones up then down in tone steps back to the beginning ( I hope this makes sense) and repeated ad infinitum. Maybe some sort of long range navigation system.

For anyone who is familiar with a tune called Les Professionels by the French duo Air, this features a sample of some radiotelephone tones often heard in northern Europe. I only mention it because it's NOT the same as what I used to hear.

[Radio Wrangler]

About thirty years ago when SW broadcasting was quite congested, stations used to transmit tones and music boxes etc to keep a toehold on the frequency, else someone else would sometimes nick it.

We still have a few numbers stations, the mystery buzzer and various conspiracy theory items.

Amateur radio is quieter than it used to be. There are fewer active operators and some bands only get lively in contests.

Aviation has to keep testing its HF gear just in case of... and there are Volmet transmissions like Brize Norton and 'Shanwick'

David

[russell_w_b]

HF broadcast stations broadcast 'interval signal' preceding a programme, for identification purposes, unless subject to a 'crash start'. The BBC was the 'V' signal and 'ding-ding-dong'; Radio Moscow was a few bars of 'Midnight in Moscow', etc... The musical notations were usually published in the World Radio and TV Handbook.

[dave walsh]

You are not the first person to ask this question Paul. After Hurricane Katrina, I suddenly realised that I was right in
asserting that restoring vintage kit may be a form of future insurance, not just a bizarre hobby activity. When Mobile Phone and Internet services go down [or are actively switched off all at once due to demand] Short Wave Comms eg Raynet the US Amateur Radio Emergency Service are suddenly in demand. There's nothing else. I suppose it's eggs in one basket really! The emotional dependency level on phones and Facebook now-thirteen years on-is phenomenal. It's my impression that there is still a fair amount of SW activity, especially going East but I've not listened very much recently.

Dave W

[Sideband]

I actually sold my comms receiver a few years ago after enjoying around 30 years of SW listening (the receiver wasn't 30 years old). There is so much QRM (man-made noise) from all the electronic gadgets and gizmo's that we have I found it getting progressively worse to hear anything meaningful (I listened mainly to the Ham bands) and that was even experimenting with various aerials, filtered mains supplies (in an effort to get rid of mains crud) and various different locations. It has to be said that remote coastal locations appeared to give the best results but hardly ideal if you just want to have a listen around the ham bands on a Sunday morning......

The comms receiver is now being used somewhere in the Highlands of Scotland by it's new owner who claims it is working very well......

So maybe we should relocate to remote areas to continue our SWL-ing!

[boxdoctor]

Re russell W.B. (post 11) This can be handy for I.D.'ing stations. http://www.intervalsignals.net/
Lots of station I.D.s with recordings.
My personal favourite was Swiss Radio International - The first one I ever encountered in 1951. They still used the same one until final close-down in about 2014!
Still some suprises pop up, especially in areas of "unrest" around the world. Tony

[russell_w_b]

Originally Posted by boxdoctor

Re russell W.B. (post 11) This can be handy for I.D.'ing stations. http://www.intervalsignals.net/
Lots of station I.D.s with recordings.

Thanks for that, Tony. I envisage an enjoyable evening! I liked Radio Sweden International's interval sig. Some of them are rather 'ice-cream-van-esque'!

[russell_w_b]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

'...stations used to transmit tones and music boxes etc to keep a toehold on the frequency, else someone else would sometimes nick it.'

We never had test-loads* at Skelton 'A' and 'B' (OSE8 and OSE9) so we used to do performance tests into aerial on night shifts. We would be allocated specific test frequencies / time windows each schedule, and so the listener may have heard, say, ten minutes of swept audio from 40Hz to 6kHz at varying levels of modulation, as well as two-tone intermod tests.

I suspect other broadcasters did the same. Not everyone had a test load.

Each sender had a couple of switches on it whereby 1kHz tone at 40% or 100% mod could be applied at will, usually after maintenance. So occasionally the broadcast bands would be populated with bursts of test-tone (permissable, of course, as we were mindful of synchronised transmissions from elsewhere and heaven forbid we disrupted them!).

WE got a T/L at Skelton 'A' about 2009 but it was only available to a couple of senders.

[MurphyNut]

I've never got into short wave myself, many of my radios have it and can pick up stations clearly but the drifting out of tune just renders it too frustrating to enjoy. Perhaps I need a better aerial.

[emeritus]

I tried short wave on my 1970's Sony portable around midnight last night when all the local switch mode power supply stuff had been turned off. Other than China radio in a number of languages, all I found was a Turkish station broadcasting a German language programme. Medium wave was more productive, with a French and a Spanish station in the gaps between UK stations.

[MrBungle]

I get quite a few SW broadcast stations on my HF transceiver. Got a rather large half wave 20/40 dipole at 9m high though.

Having some fun on 20m (14MHz). Propagation is dire due to the solar cycle but periodically I can still go East to the Ukraine, South to Greece and Northern Africa, North to Northern Finland etc on only a couple of watts! Nearly fell off my chair a couple of times in surprise but persistence appears to work. Sure it's the same for SWL.

If everyone puts their feet up to 2021-2028 it'll all be good again! Patience!