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[HCDX] SHORTWAVE ISN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE.
Please reply to zliangas@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.bruceatchison.blogspot.ca/2013/06/shortwave-isnt-what-it-used-to-be.html
TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 2013
SHORTWAVE ISN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE.
Eighty-one dollars was a lot of money back in 1971. Even so, I managed to convince my
mom to buy me a Sony shortwave radio. It was a dream-come-true for me. Having
discovered the joys of international broadcasts in 1966 through the classroom radio
at Jericho Hill School for the Deaf and Blind, I finally had my own receiver. I felt
overjoyed as Mom paid for it and we rode the Greyhound bus home to Fort Saskatchewan.
If my mother figured I wouldn't listen to it for long, she was sorely mistaken. I
carried that portable everywhere and listened to it for hours that summer. I remember
waking up at 5:00 A.M. one morning and tuning in Radio Australia. They played some of
the local rock bands on the show that I tuned into. I didn't think much of the music
but I felt proud that I heard songs which none of my peers had heard on 630 Ched, the
local rock station in Edmonton.
With a long wire in the basement, I was able to improve shortwave reception. Stations
from various European countries boomed in during the evenings while Asian stations
came in well each morning. Though I did hear stations from South America, only HCJB
in Quito, Ecuador had English programming.
There were plenty of jamming stations during those days too. Transmitters in the
Soviet Union transmitted noise on the same frequencies as stations from America with
programs in Russian so their people couldn't hear them. Even so,no western
governments jammed English broadcasts from Radio Moscow and those of satellite
countries behind the Iron Curtain.
As with any technology, new improvements often leave users of older technologies out.
I discovered, to my annoyance, that amateur radio operators and utility stations
transmitting voice signals from point to point used a mode called single sideband. It
was energy-efficient and took up less room on the dial. Unfortunately for me, it
sounded garbled on my AM receiver. Mom put her foot down regarding buying another
radio so I contented myself with the one she bought me.
I don't have that receiver today but I have a similar model. When I listen to
shortwave now, I find little in the way of interesting programming. Private Christian
stations in America broadcast programs ranging from ranting preachers to conspiracy
theory survivalist hucksters. Most of the European broadcasters can only be heard on
the Internet and many Asian stations have moved their too. Some have gone off the air
entirely. For most enthusiasts, the glory days of shortwave are over.
I wrote about HCJB in Quito, Ecuador in my new book called How I Was Razed: A Journey
from Cultism to Christianity. Check out the e-book version, now on sale for $3.99, at
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Virtual Bookworm Publishers. For those who like
paperbacks, visit How I Was Razed.
http://delicious.com/gr_greek1/zak (all my pages )
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