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Shepparton Experiment +5

K

kenglish

Guest
It's been almost 5 years (August 2016) since Radio Australia tried shutting down their shortwave stations, as "an experiment" to see if anyone was even listening.
They did it without any advance notice, and seemed happy to report that, after two weeks of silence, only 20 people complained.

Is it time the broadcasters in America do a similar "experiment?
Maybe require all medium-wave "AM" stations to go silent for a week or so. Stations with full-power FM simulcast or translators could stay on, and see if anyone even cares about "the AM".
Total silence (except RFI, and non-US stations) across the entire band!
A DX'ers dream. Broadband Delight. Fm or Stream, take your pick.

Would anyone even notice?
 
A few other broadcasters have tried this sort of thing. The CBC "temporarily" shut down shortwave CKZN in Newfoundland a couple of years ago to see if anyone would notice. Apparently there was no reaction, and the station never returned to the air.

In Ireland, the RTE longwave outlet on 252 kHz is currently off the air for two months, supposedly for "maintenance." But many think RTE is really seeing if anyone misses it. We shall see.
 
252 is off again?
They did a rebuild a while back, and listeners (mostly ex-Pats) were patient about it.
Calling it "Maintenance" could be a way of saying, "Don't bother asking!"
 
I work with an AM/FM combo that is mostly simulcast. The AM was off the air for about 20 minutes this morning after a power outage at the TX site. I told my supervisor that all 6 listeners who choose the to listen on AM must have been disappointed.
 
The only people who really complained when Radio Australia went off were hobbyists and most of them were far outside the target area.. and wouldnt listen to them on their smartphones or internet if (and obviously are) given the option.

They call to a travesty, etc how dare they?.. data isnt free or unlimited on the internet in rural places (gosh, dont i know that?!?!)... I get the RA shortwave purpose but somehow expect the government in this case to spend gobs of money to reach a few thousand-ish people by spending millions. There's a fine balance between cost and service.. Yes, internet can be expensive and in other countries, even mroe expensive and blocked/filtered... but at what cost do you need to keep serving those people?

These same people, if asked to contribute wouldnt do it. Lets say some broadcaster in the US had a SW Relay service for their AM.. KRLD Dallas.. i bet a few dozen ham radio/dx hobbyists would complain and if entercom said, ok put up, and donate... anything, just to show it matters to you... a beyond failing grade would donate.
 
Plenty of people complained, especially after feeling thet were duped. Shortwave isn't just for the DX hobbyists. It was used by mariners far out at sea. They needed inexpensive radio communications, often for entertainment, often for news and weather, and sometimes for emergency communications. Also, there are plenty of islands that relied on RA for the same types of information. None of these people were consulted, probably on purpose, before the plug was pulled.
Maybe the Government should build cell towers all across the ocean? That would cost far more than keeping the shortwave transmitters ever did.
 
kenglish said:
Plenty of people complained, especially after feeling thet were duped. Shortwave isn't just for the DX hobbyists. It was used by mariners far out at sea. They needed inexpensive radio communications, often for entertainment, often for news and weather, and sometimes for emergency communications. Also, there are plenty of islands that relied on RA for the same types of information. None of these people were consulted, probably on purpose, before the plug was pulled.
Maybe the Government should build cell towers all across the ocean? That would cost far more than keeping the shortwave transmitters ever did.
Click to expand...
i wonder how many of those other people and countries would contribute financially to have kept RA up and going if asked?
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
I work with an AM/FM combo that is mostly simulcast. The AM was off the air for about 20 minutes this morning after a power outage at the TX site. I told my supervisor that all 6 listeners who choose the to listen on AM must have been disappointed.
Click to expand...
Aren't you back someplace along the East Coast? Here, in the vast and mountainous west, losing the KSL-AM signal would affect a lot more than "six listeners". The FM simulcast, even from atop Farnsworth Peak, is limited by mountains and valleys, distance and power. They wouldn't be spending tens of thousands of dollars a week to keep a few farmers entertained.
 
kenglish said:
Aren't you back someplace along the East Coast? Here, in the vast and mountainous west, losing the KSL-AM signal would affect a lot more than "six listeners". The FM simulcast, even from atop Farnsworth Peak, is limited by mountains and valleys, distance and power. They wouldn't be spending tens of thousands of dollars a week to keep a few farmers entertained.
Click to expand...

I'm just east of gods creation nowhere Alaska.

Comparing one market and one transmitter which costs alot less to operate is different then multiple shortwave transmitters which are way more expensive and covering many thousands and thousands and thousands of miles.. .two seperate things.
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
i wonder how many of those other people and countries would contribute financially to have kept RA up and going if asked?
Click to expand...
The citizens of Australia and their entities pay taxes. Even the maritimers. Australia and NZ feel a duty to offer service to the smaller countries nearby.
How much is human life worth? Not sure if anyone has ever decided.
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
I'm just east of gods creation nowhere Alaska.

Comparing one market and one transmitter which costs alot less to operate is different then multiple shortwave transmitters which are way more expensive and covering many thousands and thousands and thousands of miles.. .two seperate things.
Click to expand...
I sort of know where you are...we chatted on-line last night. I was replying to PTBO, who I think is around the Maryland area.
KSL, being the dominant news station in Utah and portions of the surrounding states, would not be able to build-out a network of low-power FM translators equal to the coverage of a 50 KW AM, even if the spectrum was available.
TV coverage in Utah depends on 125+ translator sites. FM coverage would require even more. So, we're talking more than six listeners on the AM, especially when news and weather info is critical.
But, the intent of this thread was to ask, "If no one is listening, would a clandestine outage prove anything?"
 
Another thing I was going to mention...
turning off everything at once, without forewarning, wasn't fair. It left most folks figuring some technical or weather-related event just happened, and would be fixed soon. Few would have called, especially if out of cell/internet range.
I had to take most all of the FM stations in the Salt Lake market off the air one evening. No one had much advance notice, and only a couple of stations even had a live body in-house to warn the listeners. Most folks just switched to AM, or their phone, for the rest of the night.
 
kenglish said:
Aren't you back someplace along the East Coast? Here, in the vast and mountainous west, losing the KSL-AM signal would affect a lot more than "six listeners".
Click to expand...
KSL AM surely has more than six listeners, but I'm not talking about KSL. I'm talking about a Class D AM station licensed to a city of about 5,000 population, very little coverage beyond that city, and an FM simulcast early on a Saturday morning.
 
kenglish said:
Here's a case where a bigger country helps a smaller one, without regards to remuneration:

reliefweb.int

Japan delivers radio transmission facility for disaster risk management to Solomon Islands - Solomon Islands

News and Press Release in English on Solomon Islands and 1 other country about Contributions, Disaster Management, Earthquake, Technological Disaster and more; published on 27 Jul 2014 by Govt. Solomon Islands
reliefweb.int reliefweb.int

Sort of like Australia helping keep people safe in their neighborhood.
Click to expand...

And the system has deteriorated.. I can hear SIBC's 5020khz carrier here, but there's rarely useable audio... and its not because of a lack of signal.
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
And the system has deteriorated.. I can hear SIBC's 5020khz carrier here, but there's rarely useable audio... and its not because of a lack of signal.
Click to expand...
I read your comments from 2016 on swling.com
Has it been bad all this time? Did anyone hear anything from them? Their engineer might like to know.
 
kenglish said:
I read your comments from 2016 on swling.com
Has it been bad all this time? Did anyone hear anything from them? Their engineer might like to know.
Click to expand...

Both SIBC and VBTC in Vanuatu were good when systems got replaced but they deteriorate quickly.. lack of parts, lack of preventitive maintenance.. etc

SIBC has had good audio in the past.

VBTC's 3945 khz transmission have also been emitting a 3rd harmonic for over a year
 
More apples and oranges: The U.S. has licensed businesses that own/program AM stations and associated physical assets. The U.S. government can't just tell them to go silent as some sort of an experiment.

In Australia and many places in Europe, MW and SW stations are owned by the government or province. If the government there wants to see whether there is any return on their public tax-dollar investment, it makes sense to pull the plug and confirm.
 
Kelly A said:
More apples and oranges: The U.S. has licensed businesses that own/program AM stations and associated physical assets. The U.S. government can't just tell them to go silent as some sort of an experiment.
Click to expand...
Then, why am I not getting analog TV any more? šŸ˜
 
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