New Respect For Retro Reception

Sunday, January 20th, 2008

This year I got lucky. It hasn’t happened since my parents bought me one of those flip-top multi-band portables in the early 1970′s, but this year I actually got a great radio for Christmas. I was the merry recipient of a little black Grundig G5. I already knew this was a sweet receiver before I turned it on. Not just because I’ve read plenty of swell reviews, but also because I basically already have one. But now that I’ve gotten my hands the G5 itself, I can see that’s not really true. While this Grundig basically has the same electronic guts (and reception potential) as the Degen 1103 I purchased almost two years ago, the G5 is really a different animal. And in short order, it’s already become my radio of choice. I like it. And just to share the wealth, here’s a tasty bit of reception recorded just a few hours after I unwrapped this little beast.

Radio Bulgaria 9700kHz 12-26-07  0131 UTC  23:05

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By my measure, the glorious minor-key wonders of these songs is reason enough to own a shortwave radio– just to be able to capture a bit of exotic music from an exotic faraway overseas transmitter. Okay, maybe the transmitter isn’t exotic, but you catch my drift. And while there is just a little fading here and there, there is no drift in this reception, as these 31 meter radio waves bounce over 4500 miles and across the Atlantic to my new portable. I believe the announcer is speaking French, but it hardly matters. This music is haunting and rich and seeped in electrical atmospherics of the planet. It’s Earth flavored.  

The exuberant manufacturing boom in China has also provided a real revolution in shortwave radio product development. The 1103 radios (and the improved G5/E5 versions) are just a couple chapters in the canon of new and compelling Chinese world band radios coming to market. The Degen (or Kaito) 1103 is best known in radio circles for blowing minds and frustrating others with its awkward interface, although almost everyone acknowledges that the receiver is a good value. Generally available for eighty to a hundred bucks, the 1103′s are damn sensitive and selective (with dual conversion to cut back on wayward images). And it scans the dial almost as gracefully as an analog set, moving through the frequencies in 1kHz steps with NO muting and very little chuffing. And perhaps the near analog scanning capability of this radio may have led to one of the oddities of its design. Most of the LCD screen is of the 1103 is filled with a pseudo-analog multi-band display, much like you see on less expensive non-digital receivers. It’s the same trick Sony tried in the 1980′s with the ICF-7600 & 7700. While it’s kind of entertaining and somewhat informative, the fake display is not very accurate (the motion of the LCD "needle" is jumpy and very un-analog), and there’s not much room for much information other than  the frequency. And all the text is quite small to make room for the imitation analog entertainment.

But the biggest complaint has been contrary ergonomics of operating  the radio itself. The worst of it is the lack of a dedicated volume control. Before you can adjust the audio level you have to push a button, which briefly turns the tuning knob into the volume control. Likewise, when listening you have to press a "time" button to briefly change the frequency display into a digital clock. Add to that the abnormal straight line format of the frequency input number buttons, and the fact that you can’t see the frequency and the time at the same time, and it all adds up to a quirky little radio. Yet I was quite pleased with mine and got used to the eccentricities.

But I gotta tell ya, after playing with the G5 for an hour or so I was clearly impressed. Side by side with the 1103 the reception seemed on SW and AM seemed about exactly the same, but there was even less chuffing when zipping through the frequencies. And when I was really looking for something to listen to, everything happened more quickly. It made me realize that with the 1103 I really did have to pause to think when I would punch up a frequency or change the volume. It’s just a smoother operation. But when I had to choose between these two radios, the E5/G5 was almost twice the price of the 1103. And it is NOT twice as nice. But it is better and a little bit more fun. However, the E5/G5 can now be found for a little over a hundred bucks. And it’s well worth that.

Now if you’re keeping score, you may have noticed that so far I’ve been talking about two different radios (that are very similar) and they both have slightly different brand names. Well, there’s now three companies main companies that are manufacturing this new wave of portable shortwave receivers (Tecsun, Degen and Redsun) but through the idiosyncrasies of trade and profit they end up with another brand name before they wind up on American store shelves. They become Kaito radios, or Eton or Grundig or something else. While the original Chinese branded radios aren’t generally sold on the web either, there’s a loophole of sorts that’s allowed a handful of dealers in China to sell them on ebay. And from what I can tell, they must be selling thousands. They all follow the same basic formula. All their auctions are "buy it now" (fixed price, no bidding), and including the somewhat expensive shipping from China still about twenty to thirty percent cheaper. And from what I’ve seen, all these Chinese sellers have excellent ratings on ebay. I assume there’s some risk, and I accept that as part of the bargain I guess. But I’ve never had any trouble.

However the biggest distributor or these Chinese radios in the states, the Eton Corporation, has been troubled by all these alien radios crossing the border to compete with their re-branded versions. So behind the scenes they seem to have worked out some "arrangements" with their Chinese affiliates. A couple of years ago some key Chinese radios that were popular on ebay suddenly were labeled with Chinese text, not in English as they had been. And some new models (or re-models), like the E5/G5, seem to have gone straight to market in North America and Europe with no versions branded by the actual manufacturer even going on sale in China. Another reason people might have been getting the Tecsun version of these radios is that in China they’ve been selling them in bright colors– red, yellow, blue, etc. Now Eton is getting splashy with the colored plastic too. Some of their new crank up survival radios (made by Tecsun) now come in all sorts of fancy shades.

And you know, bravo to Eton for their marketing schemes, for the most part. But sometimes it gets a little silly. Like calling the Grundig S350 (or the Tecsun BCL-2000) a "retro field radio" and carrying on about its "rugged body and military-style controls.” It’s freakin’ plastic for chrissake. And military style? It all sounds like a brainstorming session gone wrong. I noticed a picture of a G5 box which also described it as a "field radio." What does that mean? It makes me think of a war utensil, a camouflaged walkie-talkie or something. While this is silly, my biggest complaint is that Eton has gone so far as to actually rebrand their own rebranded radios. Why? For example my christmas present, that Grundig G5 was originally called an Eton E5. It’s just a different color than the E5, with a different logo. And both of them remain on the market. They did the same thing with the S350DL. It was originally a Grundig radio. Now it’s either a Grundig or an Eton S350DL. Using separate brand names for regional distribution is one thing, but it seems to me that the only good reason to multi-brand an item within a given market should be to differentiate an alternate feature set in some way, not a slight change in the way it looks.

But the good news is this– thanks to these Chinese radio companies and their distributor cohorts, old crackly shortwave gadgets are still alive in this era of small and fantastic gadgetry. While serious DXers and big radio enthusiasts always have new toys and new technology (showing up in seductive trade publication ads), because they consistently are willing to pay for it.  But for shortwave dabblers and casual listeners like me (and perhaps you), the array of more affordable radios had grown quite stale through the 1990′s. In that time a number of companies had gotten out of the shortwave business, and others (like Sony) were discontinuing models left and right, and weren’t coming out with anything really new. Much like the boring car designs of the 1990′s, the layout and functionality of the shortwave radios on the market was pretty universal and grey and boring. Unfortunately, I started to get an itch to start fooling around with shortwave listening again during those dark days.

I decided I needed to go out and buy a radio of some substance. Over, the years usually had a boombox around the house with shortwave reception, or a cheap Radio Shack (Sangean rebrand) portable in a drawer somewhere. But I’ve always looked longingly at the more expensive portables on the high shelf with their tempting green screens and scientifically accurate digital readouts, and wondered what it would be like to harness such power. So, this time I decided I was going to blow some real dough (relatively speaking) and get serious and invest in a digital shortwave receiver. In retrospect, I didn’t have all that much money to play with. But after some research my choice seemed to be between the Sony ICF-SW7600GR and the Sangean ATS-505. Fiscal realities led me to the 505. The cheapest of the two.

I should have saved up for the Sony.

I remember my first meaningful evening with the Sangean at a Maine campground picnic table. I was NOT impressed. And I thought digital receivers were supposed to be better. Not necessarily so. You can’t zip through a dial. It chuffs at each stop but you have to turn the dial excruciatingly slow to actually hear something (besides silence) at each frequency. In order to adjust the tuning steps from 5kHz to 1kHz you have to press this annoying button on the tuning knob, which in mine is almost impossible to engage (…sore fingertip, etc.). And then it doesn’t lock and falls back into the 5kHz step mode consistently. It just wasn’t an organic way to explore bands or tune a radio. And so, my initial experience with digital SW tuning was less than inspirational. In fact, I bought a few shortwave radios (new and old) after the ATS-505 and they all had analog tuning. And although it wasn’t as easy to know the exact frequency you are at, they were more fun to actually use than the 505.

A couple years later, the shortwave portable scene began to get back some of the cool factor that had always been its birthright  There’s something about a small and discrete global radio that appeals to the "boy secret agent" in a lotta guys. I suspect there were contributing factors– like the passing renewed interest in world radio after the 9-11 events, combined with our ongoing lover affair with small complex gadgets. In 2002 and 2003 a number of innovative and powerful SW radios went on sale. Radios like the Degen/Kaito 1102 & 1103, and the Tecsun BCL-2000/Grundig S350 were all groundbreaking for their price, and these and other SW radios that China starting to make were user-friendly for bandscanning– combining the best elements of analog and digital tuning. And all of these sets could be found for a hundred dollars or less. Casual shortwave listener/consumers like me could get a little giddy. And since that time, more interesting SW radios in that price range have gone on sale. And the prices are dropping.  

And what was kind of amazing to me, is that for next to nothing ($25 or so) you can actually get a real global radio made in China, that is just about the same size as an old transistor radio. And they’re not just feeble cheap toys. For example, I bought something called a Tecsun R-912, from China on ebay. It’s a multi-band analog cheapy that exists with a quite a number of model names that have slight design and color variations. In the U.S., the same little bad boy is called a WRX911. While this is a no-frills radio with a tiny speaker and a cheap thumb-wheel tuner, you get all the major shortwave broadcasters on it and it’s not a bad DX machine on AM as well. I’ve walked around the neighborhood with mine listening to stations as far away as Africa and Asia in my headphones. If I could send one thing back in time to me when I was a kid, it would be this little cheap and global radio wonder.

Then again, If you’re looking for the cream of the current crop of new SW radios, you probably want to investigate the modern mega-portable– the Eton E1 (which curiously has no handle) Unlike the others, the E1 is actually put together in India.  The original price–  $499. But recently this price has been is falling too (rather drastically at one particular outlet), and now there’s rumors that it may (or may not) be discontinued. And once the price started to fall, I started to fantasize about picking up an E1 one day. And then I saw the new monster portable that’s about to hit the market– The Grundig Satellit 750 (or Tecsun S-2000). Oooh. The mind reels. The initial price? Only $300, or so…

Okay, that’s still too pricey for me right now. And I am still amazed by the growing list of affordable portables that are ready to receive signals from around the world for $100 or less and a set of batteries. Besides the Degen 1102, 1103, 1104 and 1102 radios, there’s the E5 &/G5 (and the coming E4 and E6 and the BCL receivers, there ‘s the rather new Redsun RP2100 (or the Kaito version), and there’s this Kchibo KK-S500 that supposed to be interesting too. And there’s more, and more coming. And as far as the old stalwarts shortwave brands like Sony and Sangean? They’re still selling the same yawner models that have been around for over a decade now.

There was a brief media storm on the internet in 2006 about a supposed radio in development– the Degen 1108. It was supposed to be a hot new SW-AM-FM portable with stereo speakers and onboard MP3 recording and playback. Lots of buzz about this radio– message boards, discussion groups and massive hype. Yet, it was all a boondoggle. It was like some big marketing experiment to extract the wish list fantasies of online radio geeks. However, something slightly like the alleged Degen 1108 came to pass, the Degen/Kaito 1121. It’s a digital shortwave radio with a built-in (and detachable) 256MB mp3 player/recorder unit that can be set up to record a number of shows with a timer.  And with my penchant for recording radio, I’ve certainly been intrigued by the 1121. But 256 megabytes of storage is needlessly stingy for onboard storage these days, and from what I’ve read online, the interface is rather convoluted. Then again, the price has dropped to around $130, so my lingering temptation continued… until I saw something very intriguing on Eton’s website.

The new Grundig G4 World Recorder, which was introduced to the world at the recent 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is scheduled to go on sale in March, 2008.  From the promo photos the G4 seems to be a tweaked version of the Degen/Kaito 1102, a receiver I have yet to play with, but one that gets a lot of affection and praise in online reviews. And the minor miracle is that they’ve built-in a 2GB MP3 recorder/player into the G4. Nothing like this has ever been done before. With that much storage you’ll be able to record a lot radio on this thing, and I’m sure it will have timer (VCR-like) recording and all that jazz. I also has a flash card slot for additional storage and USB connection to bleed the recordings onto your computer. I have to tell you, this is one of those products that I’ve wished would be invented (and produced) for years (like car cassette decks that can record from the radio and boomboxes with built-in hard drives that digitally record too).

I’ve been looking for years just to find a portable MP3 player that actually includes an AM radio, let alone one that records. While there has been one (and only one) around for a while that does record (the Pogo "Radio Your Way"), the reviews have been consistently mediocre and there’s very little storage on board. Other than that, I’m not sure if there’s been one MP3 player with an AM radio inside (try to find one…). Just FM. And although the AM band isn’t so big with the swingin’ iPod set, the real reason there are no MP3/AM radio combo toys around is because it’s kind of a hassle to make one work well. Like any little computer, the MP3 players emit a lot of RF noise in the same frequencies where you find AM & SW signals Turn on your AM radio and your MP3 player, and see how the AM reception degrades when you wave the digital anywhere near it. It’s a matter of shielding.

All that said, I have yet to read a review of the Grundig G4 online yet. Just hype. But if the G4 does all they say it will, and does it well, I’m betting this gadget might make a big splash, at least for a shortwave radio. And maybe it will start a trend of including onboard MP3 recording on more portable receivers. I hope so. Meanwhile, I think I’m starting to get a crush on this G4. The idea of being able to record a bandscan without a cassette rig attached, and having TiVo-like capability with a multi-band radio is kind of exciting. It’s almost enough to make me imagine that amplitude modulation shortwave radio itself might have one last era of glory before its probable path to oblivion. 

Note: The Grundig G4 has already been discontinued. You can read about that and find more information about radio/recorders in the follow-up to this post here.

Posted in International Radio, Radio, shortwave | 19 Comments »

Adventures In Amplitude Modulation – Part 10

Monday, February 20th, 2006

Bcl2000wbcq As promised, this post is a continuation from last week’s shortwave listening sessions from September 2004. These radio recordings offered here were received on a Tecsun BCL-2000, and the location of reception was a small town on the Hudson River not too far from Albany, New York.

As before, after the jump you’ll find more MP3 samples of shortwave reception to sample, but first I want to talk specifically about the radio that I used to make these recordings. It’s a practical gadget that’s not too expensive.

The BCL-2000 itself can only be purchased in the U.S. via ebay. However, a couple of almost identical radios under the Grundig (or Eton) name are available in North America at a somewhat higher price and are only slightly different . Just to avoid confusion, from here on in I’ll describe these receivers as the BCL series of radios, and point out differences when appropriate.

The BCL series is a recent invention, developed and built in China and first released in 2002 (the American version, the Grundig S350 went on sale in 2003). Just like almost every other new electronic gadget, most shortwave radios are now made in China. While purists loudly bemoan the loss of new European and American receivers in the marketplace, the Chinese are making some damn good radios these days and often at an affordable price. Although the trend in shortwave has been toward digital tuning for years, the BCL radios buck this trend and have proven a popular alternative to the abundance of digital shortwave sets for sale.

While they don’t really have any features that haven’t been seen before, the BCL radios offer a unique combination of options that make it a lotta fun to scan the bands. The main difference between these radios and any other affordable receivers available today is that they offer analog tuning WITH a digital display. And the LED display is also relatively large and there’s a switch to lock the display light in the on position on these radios, which makes it great tool for searching out distant frequencies in the dark.De1103

And some will ask, if the display is digital why not just get a digital radio? Well, when I bought my first digital shortwave receiver a few years ago I quickly began to realize how much I appreciated analog tuning. Going through each 5 KHz step with a digital tuner gets tedious very quickly. And then if you want to zip across the band and get a feel for the reception available, forget it. Each step requires a fraction of a second to be heard, with a “phhht” sound as the radio renders each frequency up, and I believe it adds a bit of background noise as well. The alternative you get is a scan function, which silently automates the scanning process and the turner will stop when the radio’s software decides there might be a broadcast at that frequency. It ain’t the same. And as you might imagine, weak signals can be easily skipped and stray RF can be mistaken for a radio station.

Okay, I know that with better digital tuners some of these problems aren’t as bad, and miserable Sangean ATS-505 isn’t the best example. However, I’d still rather do the scanning very manually sometimes.

Ats505 That’s not to say that digital radios aren’t amazing in other ways. Many have hundreds of presets, and if you know the frequency you’re looking for you can usually punch it up immediately. And for the most part, the best shortwave receivers made have been all-digital for quite a while now. While BCL radios are NOT the very best receivers in any technical sense, they are very easy to use and reasonably priced.

Besides not having presets, the BCL radios also don’t have another feature dedicated listeners desire– SSB. While I’m not going to get into a technical discussion I’m not qualified to offer, I’ll just say that SSB (Single-sideband modulation) is another way of broadcasting other than amplitude modulation which is more efficient in long-distance transmission and is popular with ham operators and some international broadcast services. Some listeners love to eavesdrop on the hams (if you don’t know what "ham" is, look here), and others just like to have all the options.

Tecsun_factory_1_1 The truth is, the BCL radio design borrows a lot of its layout and operation from a popular analog receiver from the 1970′s, the Panasonic RF-2200. While the RF-2200 did not offer a digital display, the template for the radio’s controls is very similar. And both are very good medium and shortwave receivers. Ideally, I would hope that future versions of the BCL radios would incorporate more of what made the RF-2200 great– like SSB, as well as the pop-up rotating antenna for AM, and dual conversion circuitry that would reduce the one other big complaint about the BCL radios, “images” from strong broadcasts popping up on other locations on the band.

The original BCL-2000 was released in China in two colors, black and a bright and cheery red shade. The U.S. version, the Grundig S350 was only offered in a utilitarian gadget silver. The initial release was plagued with “drifting” issues, as the tuning is a string and pulley affair where physics are at play on the variable capacitors and once you’ve settled on a frequency the radio would tend to drift off signal eventually. The Chinese Tecsun versions addressed this issue early on, and that fact combined with the more appealing casing colors made the Chinese version a popular item on ebay in the U.S., despite the fact they aren’t available in the stores here.

What’s interesting is how this radio was marketed in the U.S. BCL stands for “Broadcast Listening,” and that’s what the radio was meant to do, provide easy access to the old broadcast bands. In fact, the Tecsun version says “Enjoy Broadcasting” right on the face. The Grundig however, was called a “field radio” and was promoted for it’s “military” and “retro” look. Which makes you wonder why it didn’t come out in “camouflage” pattern, or at least in army green. Could the military marketing approach had anything to do with the current obsession with warfare and patriotism in the states? Makes you wonder.

Tecsun_factory_2_1 However, things have changed. While the original radios are still for sale, there are new versions available which have addressed the “drifting” problems in a more direct way. In America, the new radio is called the Eton (not Grundig, but it’s just a nameplate anyway) S350DL. Instead of adding all the technical features real radio fans might desire, (SSB, dual conversion) they’ve again gone for a more superficial approach. The radio is slightly bigger, with a larger speaker AND it comes with a set of headphones. And guess what? The S350DLs aren’t silver at all, but are RED or BLACK, just like the Tecsun versions. However, the knobs are silver now, instead of black. Not exactly an improvement.

The new Chinese version is no bigger and has no headphones. It’s called the BCL-3000, and now only comes in black. From everything I’ve read, these radios are no more sensitive than the previous model. There is a technical solution to the drifting problem which I’ve heard is problematic. When you stop on a station, the frequency locks. However, the locking is buggy and can be a pain in the ass when you’re trying to tune something in incremental knob nudges and the tuning locks up or jerks at inopportune moments. I’d rather deal with the slight bit of drifting myself.

While the BCL-3000 is still roughly the same price, around fifty bucks plus shipping from China (roughly 80 some dollars total). The S350DL however, is now $150 dollars, a jump or fifty bucks from the list price for the S350. And just to keep your radio buyin’ eyes off of China, there’s been some arm twisting over at Tecsun headquarters and all newly manufactured BCL-2000 and BCL-3000 radios are no longer labeled in English. They’re covered with Chinese text, and you may need to refer to the translated manual to figure out the knobs and switches. The controls aren’t that complicated, but it is an annoyance for the non-Chinese radio consumer.

IS350dl_2 ’ve not only gone in detail about these radios because I happen to like them, but I also think they are very good entry level DX radios. The AM performance is actually a little better than shortwave and FM reception is very good. But what they do offer the shortwave listener is an intuitive analog interface to the tuning, while providing an accurate digital readout of the frequency in real time, which can be strategic in trying to identify a station in the shortwave jumble of frequencies. No presets, it’s true. But a little knob twisting will get you anywhere you want to go. One other plus– these radios run forever on 4 D cell batteries. The digital portables suck power at a much higher rate.

Okay, on to the audio clips. These stations were received in the evening in upstate New York on the weekend of September 11, 2004. And although I was using my BCL-2000 I did not make notes of the actual frequencies received. I’ve never been one to keep logs, or collect QSL cards. But all my respect to those who do. Suffice to say most of the signals received were probably in the 49, 41 01 – Sweden Todaand 31 meter band. Possibly the 25 meter band as well.

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01 – Sweden TodaySweden_2  4:09

It’s Radio Sweden International broadcasting in English for North America at 6010 KHz in the 49 meter band. (Thanks Mr. Announcer) It’s a news magazine program and the lead story is about one of the unexpected side-effects of the European Union– more intoxicated Swedes.

02 – Voice Of Turkey  18:08

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While Radio Sweden notes a unplanned downside to being a part of the European Union, on the Voice Of Turkey broadcast you hear repeated references to how strong the desire is for the Turks to merge their country into the EU. Over and over again in this extended segment you can hear how Turkey has been bending over backwards to satisfy their European’s neighbors that they are worthy of Turkey_logo_2membership in the Union. It’s not only mentioned in every element of this extended clip, but there’s even a regular segment here specifically focusing on the latest news regarding Turkey’s application to join the EU. It is so odd in this era to hear such yearning on  behalf of a Muslim nation to join into such an intimate relationship with western powers.Turkey’s shortwave service runs a strong transmission to North America, and I’ve heard some great music there more than once. The reception on this recording requires a little patience, but it’s all there. And it’s traveling over 5000 miles.

03 – Deutsche Welle-Inside Europe  25:06

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Deutschewelle1 More on EU issues in this clip as well. Not the kind of news you’re likely to hear much about in American media. Deutsche Welle offers an excellent English service, and sadly they recently made the same decision as the BBC World Service made a few years ago– to dramatically curtail their broadcasts to North America. The statistics of U.S. shortwave radio listenership aren’t exactly a motivating influence for international broadcasters. And cutbacks in funding toward broadcasting to North America from overseas has made the Christian-crazy packed U.S. shortwave scene a little less interesting lately. It’s a goddamn shame.

The big story here is about halfway into this file. While Turkey is jumping through flaming hoops to entice the EU to let them in, while the Prime Minister, a devout Muslim, was trying to pass a law at the time making adultery a crime. See the conflict? If you just heard the Turkish broadcast before this you might guess what happened next. There’s a couple small drifting/tuning issues in this recording. The off-frequency moments are brief. The reception is fair.

 04 – Catholics & Protestants  2:20

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Ewtn_sisterMost of the Christian prescience on shortwave is decidedly Protestant. A lot of King James Version faithful who offer you the choice between the fluffy clouds of heaven and the fiery pits of hell. However, EWTN’s Global Catholic Network is a little more chatty than their Protestant counterparts. Instead of preaching, they talk about stuff on EWTN. On this clip you hear the spiritual wisdom of “Dan.” He sounds like he’s at least 17 years-old. And then two more Protestant type stations. A hymn and little pulpit thunder.

05 – Parking Lot Miracle – Ukraine Signs Off  4:33

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Jesus_cracks_up Here’s little slice of band-scanning, going through some Jesus-casters and ending up overseas. It starts off with a mind-blowing miracle involving God expanding a church parking lot just in the nick of time. Also some gospel passion and World Harvest Radio’s offer to ship you a free Bible so you can play along at home.

And then there’s Radio Ukraine International signing off at the end of their broadcast to North America. While I can’t speak authoritatively about Ukraine’s English shortwave service, I always love hearing it. There’s something home-baked about it, lots of Ukrainian culture, history and music, and it sounds like radio from decades ago. For some reason, it’s like radio comfort food for me, and hearing it on the internet just wouldn’t be the same.

06 – (Unknown Station) Christian Election Advice  2:28

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Bush_kerry_2 This saddened me at the time. It’s some type of Christian talk show, slightly paranoid in the shortwave tradition. Talking about the upcoming Presidential election, one co-host remarks to the other that voting for the “lesser of two evils” is wrong for Christians.  And while I could have been pleased with concept of Christians boycotting an election en masse, the idea of telling people not to vote because each candidate is imperfect just plays into the hands of political smear tactics in general. Like so many ideas brought up every day on Christian radio it’s the product of immature thinking and lacks moral clarity.

 07 – WBCQ-More Timtron  14:28

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Last week I featured a bit of Radio Timtron Worldwide, arguably one of the best shows on shortwave radio, broadcast on WBCQ in Maine. This is part of another show (The Real Amateur Radio Show/Piss & Moan ) he hosts which is always some discussion of his life in radio, and a few tips and tricks for listeners as well. And it’s like nothing you’ll hear anywhere else.

Another show on WBCQ that offers colloquial details on the outlaw-fringe side of radio broadcasting is “Allan Weiner Worldwide,” hosted by WBCQ founder Allan Weiner. Allan’s program is an informal “around the house” kind of talk show, with Allan talking about the station, the state of radio, or whatever’s going on in his life. And he does take calls, but it sounds like it’s really just a small group of chronic middle-aged geeks who haunt the phones. But when you listen to these shows you become privy to the realities of seat-of-the-pants broadcasting that is both  infectious and inspiring. They both have GREAT stories of both their pirate radio days as well as anecdotes about the everyday goings on with maintaining WBCQ. Just the offbeat techno-slang and vernacular they use when they talk about their years of pirate radio shenanigans, or relate the behind the scenes details of maintaining a bunch of high-power transmitters. Just listening makes you feel like your part of things up there in Maine, and in the process you learn a few things about the business and science of radio.

And that’s what you get here with Timtron, technical talk with attitude and a bent sense of humor. Maybe only on shortwave would the esoteric musings of radio engineer be so appropriate and so entertaining. He makes advanced radio engineering sound as easy as putting together a high school science project. Just another reason to check out WBCQ. By the way, online archives of WBCQ programs can be found here.

 Thanks for listening.

(This post originally appeared in Beware of the Blog.)

Posted in Crazy Religion, International Radio, Propaganda, Radio, dxing, shortwave, talk radio | No Comments »

Adventures In Amplitude Modulation – Part 9

Monday, February 13th, 2006

Bcl2000_1 My original intention was to get to the end of that medium wave band scan I’ve been featuring the last three bandscan posts, but I’ve changed my mind. I want to get back to talking about shortwave again. While AM DXing is fun, the shortwave bands are inherently more exotic. However, navigating these frequencies something does require something not everyone has these days– a shortwave radio. And just so you know, it’s not nearly as difficult or expensive as you might think. I just received a new tiny shortwave radio the other day that I had purchased on ebay for twenty six bucks. The next afternoon it was sitting on the table next to my computer offering a readable signal of All India Radio out of its little speaker. Here in Brooklyn, with the sun shining through the front windows– I was impressed. The subcontinent really is on the other side of the world.

As with other posts in this series featuring shortwave, I’ll be offering highlights of particular broadcasts, rather than contiguous band scans as I have with the AM posts. The main reason is that while I’ve recorded these listening sessions as band scans the same way, but there are so many foreign language stations, tedious Christians, unreadable signals and a wide variety of static and noise in between the English language programs that I can easily identify (and that you might find interesting). And besides all that, how much Christian propaganda can you handle?

Bcl200_guts So, I’ve been combing through the shortwave radio I recorded while on a weekend trip to upstate New York in September of 2004. And in the process I’ve excised a number of lo-fi radio nuggets for your listening pleasure. As I’ve mentioned before in these posts, late at night is not the best time to DX shortwave. While China, Russia, Cuba and a few other stations offer English broadcasts after midnight, most shortwave transmissions to the US in our native tongue can be heard from late afternoon until 10 or so Eastern Time. And during this trip I was able to squirrel away some hours during that part of the day to listen. Of course, if you wanna hear about the opinions of mythical Jesus and all his miracles, there’s a couple dozen stations here in the U.S. who offer that kind of programming on shortwave every hour of every day, in English and some other languages as well. They want your soul. (What were you going to do with it anyway?)

Tecsun_factory The radio I used to make these recordings was a Tecsun BCL-2000, otherwise know as the Grundig S350. While not perfect, it’s a great tool for scanning the bands. It’s sensitive, cute and offers something hard to find– analog tuning with a digital display. This is great for shortwave, because analog operation gives you a much better feel for what’s out there while the digital display gives you an accurate readout of where you actually are on the dial. I’d recommend it as a starter radio for anybody willing to spend 80 to 100 dollars to invest in a decent AM/shortwave receiver that’s easy to use.

Okay, and now to my friend’s front porch twenty miles outside of Albany back in 2004. It was the weekend of the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The porch was well furnished, and the batteries were fresh. Most of the reception I was digging into was from the broadcast bands that are the most lively at night– the 49 meter band (5.9-6.2 MHz), the 41 meter band (7.1-7.35 MHz) and possibly the 31 meter band (9.4-9.9 kHz).

Next week I’ll continue this radio excursion, but I hope to do some DXing in the near future and offer you some current shortwave reception again. I’ve recently purchased a couple of radios that I’m anxious to take for a ride, and perhaps I’ll post some SW unedited band explorations here too, just to offer up some flavor of what a jaunt across a shortwave broadcast band really sounds like– including static, foreign tongues, non-stop loony bible-beaters and everything else in between.

01 – The Voice of Russia – Moscow Mailbag  08:43

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Joe_adamov_1 As long as I’ve been alive, Joe Adamov has been the host of “Moscow Mailbag” on the English service of Radio Moscow, which is now called “The Voice of Russia.” Anybody who listened to the Soviet Union via shortwave from the U.S. over the years has heard Joe answer all sorts of listener’s questions about the goings on in the U.S.S.R. And although it seems a bit quaint these days to hear old Joe respond in detail to a listener’s question about the most popular breeds of dogs in Russia, you have to remember the realities of the cold war era that gave birth to this program. To Americans, much of everyday life behind the “iron curtain” was a big mystery, especially in the grey and repressive Soviet Union. In those days, the jovial Mr. Adamov offered curious listeners a peek behind the curtain that both informed and ultimately served as a propaganda tool of the Soviet government as well.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Adamov spoke openly on his program about what he could and couldn’t say during the Communist era, and his role as a friendly propagandist during that time. Before and after glasnost, Moscow Mailbag was always an entertaining listen, both for Adamov’s breezy warm style and the questions from listeners around the world– from the most mundane topics, to some serious political subject matter. While Moscow Mailbag continues on the Voice of Russia, Adamov is no longer around to give us his insights on Russian life. He passed away in 2005. However, archives of some of his broadcasts can be found on this webpage.

02 – WHRI (World Harvest Radio) – Radio Liberty  14:11

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Dr_stanley_monteith Stanley Monteith does a lot of radio– like five hours a day, five days a week. He’s retired physician, and his show covers some serious topics and some arguably kooky ones as well. With a good-natured yet righteous style, Monteith is more or less a right-wing Christian talk host. However, in the shortwave realm that can mean something much different than the lock-step Republican AM talk radio hosts who pollute the airwaves across America. Listen to Monteith talk some serious common sense with this caller about the idiocy and futility of the Iraq War.

While you’ve heard me speak in disgust regarding the mundane and dogmatic nature of Christian programming all over shortwave, that’s not to say that an avid Christian can’t be an enlightened and spiritually mature broadcaster. In this clip you’ll hear Monteith explain how he was a member of some Christian group who anointed Bush as the official Jesus candidate for the 2000 Presidential election. It’s heartening to hear that he and one other member of that group didn’t buy into Bush then, or his supposed Christianity. In general, it’s refreshing to discover a Christian talk host who doesn’t blindly accept authority and one who talks openly about the horror of war and our current government’s policies of death, destruction and despair. And I have to say I’ve never heard any proselytizing or threats of the lake of fire on Radio Liberty, Instead, in this clip you’lI hear plenty of insight and some important facts about this insane Iraq war.

03  – WWCR – Karen Mortimer  01:45

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Now, here’s some more typical Christian shortwave radio. The manic and rabid Ms. Mortimer is ready to convert the world. And martyrdom? Bring it on baby!

04 – (Unknown Station) Flag Worship  03:11

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Flag_2 Grab a Hostess apple pie, put your hand over your heart. This jingoistic rant on the American flag. Kind of makes you wanna wrap yourself in the red, white and blue and kill some foreigners somewhere. And what’s interesting about this broadcast, and other “patriotic” programming that emanates from Christian shortwave stations in this country is that the FCC considers all shortwave outlets here to be “international radio stations” and the FCC is very specific about the rules for programming on such a station. To be exact– “It should be noted that an international broadcasting station is intended for broadcasting to a foreign country and is not intended for broadcasting solely to the United States.” Look it up.

Kind of a strange rule, I know. But if some moron is going to be SO blatant about breaking the law, maybe somebody should turn him in.

05 – Radio Prague  03:40

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A Czech doctor had bet a bunch of money that George Bush was going to win the upcoming 2004 election. Maybe he has some friends at Diebold. This little clip features the end of the Radio Prague news and the beginning of a news magazine program. Nothing amazing, but fairly representative of the standard European shortwave broadcast you might hear in English– chatty, upbeat, and focused on regional issues and people.

06 – WBCQ – Radio Timtron Worldwide  08:49

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A while back, there was a comment left on one of these posts asking why doesn’t a station like WFMU start a shortwave service. Well, there’s about 245 reasons, but if there is any equivalent to WFMU on shortwave it would have to be WBCQ, every once in a while..and just a little bit.

I’ve talked about WBCQ here because it is (at least potentially) the most interesting shortwave radio station in America. They feature a wacky live talk show from Brooklyn, a program that features old Edison cylinders, reruns of old Jean Shepherd shows and a number of other strange and eccentric radio shows. They also feature a lot of crap. Why? Money.

While WBCQ has a few self-produced shows, just like the Christian shortwave stations they sell their broadcast time to pay their bills and perhaps make a small profit. For better or worse, most of the people who are interested in broadcasting on American shortwave are crazy Jesus people, or just plain crazy.

Timtron_2003_1 Radio Timtron Worldwide comes the closest to freeform radio than anything else I’ve heard on WBCQ. It’s nice to know that his program is reaching the jungles of Africa and South America and the frozen shores of Greenland, as well as other exotic locales like Florida and San Marino. I wish there was more programming like this on WBCQ. Go ahead and check the current schedule for all four of WBCQ’s transmitters here.

More of this collection of shortwave reception from September 2004 will be featured here in the next installment.

Thanks for listening.

(This post originally appeared in Beware of the Blog.)

Posted in Crazy Religion, Flying Monkeys, Propaganda, dxing, shortwave, talk radio | No Comments »