|
Termyn8or -> RE: How do I listen to shortwave? (3/24/2009 9:47:44 PM)
|
"Of course, they might be forbidden bands for a reason...those bands may be used for other radio services, radio services in other countries, and even radio astronomy; not a conspiracy to deprive you of programming."
Nope that isn't it. Mind you things may have changed lately but how it has been for years has to do with international treaty. The spirit of this set of international laws is that broadcasts are specifically intended for audiences outside the country of origin. Specifically.
In the old days you would see them on the US market, and they would by necessity have multiple bands, this was a technical issue, But if you looked a bit more closeley you would see that the next band did not necessarily pick up right where the last one left off. At that time this factor made the reciever easier to align and cost a bit less. Since the goal of SW is in fact to communicate with other countries, so far so good. It may smell a bit like a conspiracy but I will not call it one.
With the advent of the digital recievers the manufacturers, in cooperation with the powers that be, omitted the domestic bands voluntarily even though the reciever was well capable of recieving them. In many there are some jumpers to simply cut to restore this capability. Again, smells like a conspiracy but I am NOT saying that it is.
There is not, nor ever was any law against recieving what I referred to as the forbidden bands. They are simply meant for foreign ears, by treaty. However if you want to buy a SW reciever in the US that picks them up, expect to pay 3-4 times the price.
Now if one wants to broadcast on SW, the license is not all that easy to get, however once you have it, there is no limit on the content. You can be as racist and politically incorrect, even rude and disgusting, but within the bounds of normal decency. Other than that there are no bounds at all. You are allowed to transmit with substantial power to cover the globe, and the license mainly means that someone knows what they're doing and won't interfere with commercial broadcast outlets.
The content could be quite radical and it can be anything, even any data you can fit within your assigned channel, like WWV used to be pretty much a time beacon for most of the world. But that was before GPS and self setting phones and all that. Long before.
As far as content, the govt picked on an outfit called Radio Free America years ago for content, but all they could charge was that the content was intended for US audiences. Other than that the content is pretty much untouchable. Also, IIRC RFA won the case hands down and is still on the air.
Note that SW is very low frequency, a part of it lower than AM radio. Therefore there is not all that much bandwidth, and it is very susceptable to interference.It is very difficult to recieve the lower bands in urban areas due to this. A bigger antenna will also pick up more noise.
Because in relation to it's whole, the band itself is so wide, the radio must have multiple bands due to the fact that it must switch intermediate frequencies. Howstuffworks.com can explain it quite well. Just where the bands end and begin needs to be chosen for each country. Again there is no law stating this anywhere.
It used to be a big hit in the US. Many a clothesline was made of copper wire and acted as an antenna. Several decades ago recent immigrants to the US would listen to their country's broadcasts intently.
Now don't start to think I am THAT old !
T
|
|
|
|
