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Author Topic: SW bands condition vs. number of SW stations  (Read 2063 times)

W1VT

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RE: SW bands condition vs. number of SW stations
« Reply #15 on: September 16, 2019, 01:29:53 PM »

Interrnet Radio offers immediate feedback on what your listeners like.  No sense producing content nobody listens to.
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RENTON481

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RE: SW bands condition vs. number of SW stations
« Reply #16 on: September 16, 2019, 06:20:26 PM »

Interrnet Radio offers immediate feedback on what your listeners like.  No sense producing content nobody listens to.

I wonder how many bother to 'tune in' to the international broadcasters' internet streams. I would wager it's lower numbers than the SWL's who listened to the OTA broadcasts.
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VK2NZA

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RE: SW bands condition vs. number of SW stations
« Reply #17 on: September 20, 2019, 08:05:07 AM »

In reply to Renton481.
Regarding MW stations in the Australian outback at night, night time MW is quite good, the problem for radio coverage is during the day, this is where Radio Australia on the shortwave bands provided good reception before being shut down.
The MW ABC and commercial broadcasters while having target areas are often received well albeit with some fading at times during hours of darkness, it is also often possible to receive some New Zealand MW stations on the East Coast and inland when a competing frequency Australian station fades, also some Indonesian and Malaysian stations are heard well, especially in the Northern parts of Australia.
Regional ABC stations on MW target specific areas and provide news and weather for that specific area bu again are not received well during the day in more outlying areas.
In my location approximately 80 Klm off the East coast in the rural hinterland of Far Northern NSW my night time reception of MW stations is excellent and from 530 -1710 Khz is wall to wall signals from South Australia, Victoria, NSW and Queensland, daytime maybe 4-5 reasonable MW strength signals.
Conversely day and night time FM provides me with 8 - 12 stations reliably with a good receiver and antenna due to the greater number of FM transmitted signals.
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KC6RWI

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RE: SW bands condition vs. number of SW stations
« Reply #18 on: September 21, 2019, 12:15:26 PM »

Hello NZA
How is tv reception? do you ever experiment with tv signals? Are they analog or digital? I am on a mountain side myself, and the tv transmitters are above me, but I am in the shadow of no signal and being a digital signal its not there. I can pick up stations about 120 miles away most days.
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VK2NZA

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RE: SW bands condition vs. number of SW stations
« Reply #19 on: September 22, 2019, 04:13:26 PM »

Hi RWI,
Australian TV was converted to all digital many years ago, we did have a mixed bag of analog and digital previously converting from PAL B analog as compared to USA NSTC I think.
All signals are UHF now so basically line of sight, I live in a, by American standards a rural remote mountanous area, a local repeater supplies our free to air TV and we have about 45 or so picture channels and 18-20 digital radio feeds in our area.
There is some Govt charter I believe that guarantees to supply media into all areas other than extreme remote of which there is a lot here, 25 - 26 million population in a landmass the size of the USA Conus, say minus Alaska.
We have a horizontal signal however it does vary with some vertical around the country dependent on terrain I believe.

The stations are a mix of approximately 3:1 private corporate and independently run but tax payer funded non commercial ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) 4-5 channels with a mix of British and Australian programming, SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) a unique service providing multi language news, movies and multicultural programming over 4 or 5 channels, due to Australia's highly diverse multicultural population,and NITV (National Indigenous TV) providing programming based around Australian 1st nations people and matters, but also Canadian/American 1st Nation and Maori,( New Zealand 1st nations programming) Pacific Islander etc.

Otherwise we have Stan and Netflix via telephone modem or satellite "Austar"which is a payment service.
The private media owned organisations run 3 major free to air multi-channel networks and provide commercial programming owned by international media organisations such as Murdochs's "News Limited" and the Packer press often delivering mediocre (IMO) reality/cooking. shows, current American shows, older repeat US sitcoms etc and often very Right conservative leaning news and commentry similar to USA commercial networks.

I have been unable to receive channels outside our repeater supplied ones probably due to line of sight UHF frequencies.

My club does have members who transmit pictures but I'm not one of them, I'm more an HF non contester who like to ragchew with DX and local amateurs.

all the best Ross
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K5TED

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RE: SW bands condition vs. number of SW stations
« Reply #20 on: September 23, 2019, 08:18:37 PM »

I have a Icom PCR1500 in the car, with the remote head mounted on the AC vent and a 52" whip antenna on a hatchback mount. I listen to VOA, RHC, BBC and RCI on the way to work in the morning, and WBCQ on the way home.

There are a lot of shortwave listening opportunities out there. Just have to look..
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W1VT

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RE: SW bands condition vs. number of SW stations
« Reply #21 on: September 24, 2019, 07:26:15 AM »

https://www.voanews.com/voa-broadcast-frequency-schedules
English to Africa
Southern Sudan
FM and MW affiliate stations
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HFCRUSR

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RE: SW bands condition vs. number of SW stations
« Reply #22 on: September 24, 2019, 12:01:38 PM »

Yeah it's sad. I have lots of videos catching a lot of countries that aint there no more. Back 10 years ago, they were so prolific that I had a world map up on the wall to mark my SW DXs.
But now, there are a few stations that are actually thriving amidst all this SWL decay. WRMI out of Oceechobee, Fla. on 9395 plays a ton of good old 50s-70s music. So does 5085 WTWW out of Lebanon, Tn.-that one gets my attention every evening here after dinner for a couple hours. VOA comes in real strong in English from Selebe-Phikwe, Botswana on 5925 at around 0300UTC.
Plus hams, utilities, pirates, mil, etc. all still keep me interested and still justify the existence of my pretty fancy receive-only HF shack :P
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Not a ham, but an avid hobbyist in HF world. All things, short of transmit happen in this shack.

KQ4O

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Re: SW bands condition vs. number of SW stations
« Reply #23 on: October 27, 2019, 04:44:54 PM »

Actually, it's a comination of both fewer broadcasters and the sunspot cycle being at minimum.  In a couple of years the sunspot number will improve and HF will be interesting again, but it's very frustrating waiting for it...

There are still enough stations on the air to keep me happy, they just aren't usually in English. I don't mind that as hearing music from other parts of the world was always one of my favorite things about SWL. I've also discovered utility DXing due to Radio Netherlands, Australia etc pulling the plug. Never had interest before, now I'm hunting them (or was, and will be again when propagation improves).
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UTESWL

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Re: RE: SW bands condition vs. number of SW stations
« Reply #24 on: October 29, 2019, 11:54:22 PM »

Interrnet Radio offers immediate feedback on what your listeners like.  No sense producing content nobody listens to.

I wonder how many bother to 'tune in' to the international broadcasters' internet streams. I would wager it's lower numbers than the SWL's who listened to the OTA broadcasts.

It's more which is why more stations are going off the air on Shortwave. It just doesn't make sense narrowcasting to a niche audience when everyone has the internet on their phones.
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RENTON481

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Re: RE: SW bands condition vs. number of SW stations
« Reply #25 on: October 30, 2019, 09:51:47 PM »

Interrnet Radio offers immediate feedback on what your listeners like.  No sense producing content nobody listens to.

I wonder how many bother to 'tune in' to the international broadcasters' internet streams. I would wager it's lower numbers than the SWL's who listened to the OTA broadcasts.

It's more which is why more stations are going off the air on Shortwave. It just doesn't make sense narrowcasting to a niche audience when everyone has the internet on their phones.

Just curious where you got your data on online, ex-SW station listenership vs. when they broadcasted over the airwaves. I did a couple searches on it and came up empty handed.
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ALPARD

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Re: SW bands condition vs. number of SW stations
« Reply #26 on: November 09, 2019, 01:25:27 PM »

SWL had been always done by fraction of the population wherever country it was.  Majority of population were either ignorant or disinterested in the activity even in the 1970s - 1990s.

I don't think the trend is much different even now.

So it is unreasonable decisions by the SW broadcast companies to shut down the services under the excuse of the increased popularity of the Internet streaming, which may not be true reality.

I never tune to the Internet streaming of anything - there is no point or fun in that.

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W1VT

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Re: SW bands condition vs. number of SW stations
« Reply #27 on: November 09, 2019, 05:27:36 PM »

If you can make it to the greater Philadephia PA area at the end of February you can ask the broadcasters.

http://www.swlfest.com/broadcasters/
Representatives of these broadcasters have attended the gathering of the faithful in years past, and have enjoyed the meetings. If you are a broadcaster representative, we invite you to participate on the panel in the broadcasters’ forum. Please join us. Your listeners would like to meet you.

The Winter SWL Fest is a conference of radio hobbyists of all stripes, from DC to daylight.

Word of warning.  Check the weather before heading out.  The roads can be very dangerous at this time of year.
« Last Edit: November 09, 2019, 05:29:47 PM by W1VT »
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UTESWL

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Re: SW bands condition vs. number of SW stations
« Reply #28 on: November 30, 2019, 08:53:23 AM »

SWL had been always done by fraction of the population wherever country it was.  Majority of population were either ignorant or disinterested in the activity even in the 1970s - 1990s.

I don't think the trend is much different even now.

So it is unreasonable decisions by the SW broadcast companies to shut down the services under the excuse of the increased popularity of the Internet streaming, which may not be true reality.

This will probably come as a shock to you but the main reasons for radio's popularity were news and entertainment. As of 2019 the majority of people get news from a diverse set of online channels via streaming, Youtube, etc. Also as of 2019 the majority of music revenue comes via streaming services like Spotify and Pandora. Streaming now accounts for 80% of the music business's revenue: https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/6/20852568/streaming-revenue-growth-spotify-apple-music-industry-ariana-grande-drake-taylor-swift

Like it or not legacy media like AM/FM broadcasting, shortwave and cable TV are basically trying their best to stay relevant. What isn't dead is on life support. And that's ok. Technology moves on. We as hams/SWLers should know that better than anyone but I get the feeling a lot of people here live in a sort of denial due to nostalgia. There will always be a use for shortwave but news and entertainment is not likely going to be one of them a decade from now.

Quote
I never tune to the Internet streaming of anything - there is no point or fun in that.
Because you're in a niche hobby. I don't expect anyone to cater to my niche hobby.
« Last Edit: November 30, 2019, 08:56:20 AM by UTESWL »
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ALPARD

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Re: SW bands condition vs. number of SW stations
« Reply #29 on: November 30, 2019, 09:07:16 AM »


Because you're in a niche hobby. I don't expect anyone to cater to my niche hobby.

Yup, I have tried different hobbies, but they all have been boring or felt meaningless.  I have not watched TV for a few years now. I don't listen to music either.  No films no cinemas.  I don't care about politics or top pop charts on Radio one.

What I like is DIY repairs on radios and home brewing electronics,  SWLing, Ham radio contacts, gardening and blues guitar playing and going out for hill walking.  All other activities and hobbies are waste of time and meaningless to me.

SWL and Ham Radio is great because it is activity that makes me to focus on the radios, antennas and the propagation condition.  The content is also quite informative recently. I learnt a lot by listening to CRI (China Radio International), Radio Romania and IRRS.  They discuss a lot of problems about technology, economics and social issues in the region as well as world wide trends on the topics.

I managed to find VOA service too.  Cannot recall the freq, time on the air, and they were just ending the program schedule for the day. It was good to know that VOA is still with us on the SW bands.
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