General – Page 48 – Engineering Radio

I will listen to the shortwave broadcast, but not the web stream

Here’s a secret to all those broadcasters that think streaming online is the answer to all the world’s problems: It isn’t all that. I used to like listening to Radio Netherlands (Radio Nederland) on the shortwave. They have some excellent programs like The State We’re In. One problem, the only way to get it these days here in the US is via Webstream.

The same for many other world broadcasters like the BBC, CBC, HCJB, et. al. Most of these former big shortwave broadcasters have greatly reduced their operating hours or left the airwaves all together.

Streaming content on the world wide web is not broadcasting, nor can the quality and reliability be compared. Web streaming is far less reliable and offers lower quality than does HF broadcasting. The former broadcasters who have abandoned the airwaves to the likes of Radio China International will say otherwise, but that is their spin on the situation. Of course, using and maintaining high-powered broadcast transmitters is expensive, especially for governments that are faced with tough financial decisions.

First and foremost, streaming requires that I use my computer as a radio while I am trying to do other things on it. I bit of background on my computer; I have an 8-year-old Dell Inspiron 5150 that I purchased when I was working on my degree. When I got it, I asked our IT department guys what was the best course for buying a new computer. Their answer was to get the best, fastest processor available because everything else can be replaced/upgraded. I did just that, with a 3.06 GHz intel mobile P4. I have replaced the hard drive with a 200 GB unit and upgraded the RAM to 2.2 GB. The keys have most of the letters worn off, it has very distinctive wear marks on the case where I place my hands, etc. It has lived up to my expectations for serviceability and then some.

Even so, it does have its limitations. Listening to streaming audio of watching streaming video is not one of its strong points, especially when engaged in other tasks. Often, when listening to streaming, there are dropouts and other interruptions and the audio just doesn’t sound great coming from the computer speakers. Even external speakers leave something to be desired, quality-wise. Something about the digitized sliced and diced bit reduced stream that I find annoying and worse yet, fatiguing.

We live out in the sticks. Our local phone company, in spite of being the largest dial tone provider in the nation, has some reliability issues when it comes to their DSL service. Several times, the DSL goes out for no apparent reason, returning several hours or days later without comment from TELCO. If you call in an outage, they always act like they never heard of the problem.

Listening to my shortwave receivers offers better reliability and quality than streamed audio. I know I am not alone in this regard as several others have made the same comments. Listening to shortwave is listening to real radio, listening to tinny-thin audio over a computer or smartphone is crap.

There is an ever-dwindling selection of English shortwave broadcasters listenable in North America. Nature, as is said, abhors a vacuum. Therefore, income the religious broadcasters, false prophets, anti-government crackpots, hucksters, other governments with money like China and Russia, pirates, and others to fill the void. That is all well and good I suppose, but I do miss that day that I could get BBC news at the top of the hour on 15400 KHz.

Secretly, I like it when things break, sort of

Not that I am a glutton for punishment or anything, but I enjoy troubleshooting. There is a certain satisfaction in the analytical aspect of tracking down a problem and fixing it, hopefully in a permanent fashion. Figuring out where a problem is requires a good bit of detective work;

Examining the clues; what happened before the failure, what are the fault indications, are there any external factors
Round up the usual suspects; a good maintenance log is helpful here to track re-occurring failures. If the failure cannot be attributed to an external source (such as a power surge or lightning storm), what was the last thing that was changed or worked on?
Following the trail back to the origin; Often the first failed part found is a symptom, not the actual problem. It takes some skill in reading schematics and making sense of a failure to trace it back to the real problem.

It can sometimes be exciting, like turning on the 25 KV high voltage supply and having big blue flashes issue forth from the top of the transmitter. Sometimes it can be quite frustrating, like when the station owners refuse to spend money to fix a problem. Sometimes it can be dull, like fixing the same problem over and over again because of the previously stated money problem. It’s also disheartening when the problem was caused by the stupid DJ spilling soda in the console. Not that all DJs are stupid, just the ones that spill things into consoles.

The challenge of finding the root cause can often be enlightening. I have often discovered unrelated problems waiting in the wings while investigating the why of an outage. It is great to fix those things before they burn the house down, but this approach often goes unnoticed by the ownership or management. Lately, for some reason, an ounce of prevention goes unnoticed or unappreciated.

There is quite a bit of science to troubleshooting, but there is some combination of personal traits that make a good troubleshooter. These are:

Inquiring or curious disposition. It is fairly easy to get to the first failed module or part. Discovering the reasons behind the failure and or getting down to the component level takes a good deal more effort.
Patience. This goes with the second part above, it takes some stick-to-it-tive-ness to trace out the not readily apparent problem.
Good analytical skills. Often failures generate a cause-and-effect scenario. The effects can be startlingly distractive and mask the causes and the underlying problem.
Ability to view the large picture. This is critical to discover outside influences and other issues that are indirectly connected to the system or issue at hand.
Ability to analyze the system design. This requires background training and experience to look at a circuit diagram and discover non-error-tolerant systems. Sometimes these systems can be modified for better fault tolerance.

Poorly designed equipment is the bane of the broadcast engineer. Equipment manufacturers can sometimes fail to follow two key principles: KISS and maintainability. KISS stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. There is no better design criteria than the KISS principle. Adding layers of complexity increases the failure expectations. Maintenance can be something as simple as cleaning or changing air filters. Making maintenance tasks difficult almost ensures that they will not be done.

Eventually, all things wear out. It also takes some large-picture skills to know when it is time to replace equipment and that can vary greatly from situation to situation.

Stay tuned, 1994 redux

In case you haven’t heard, May 21, 2011, will mark the beginning of the end of the world. It is on this date, according to Harold Camping, the rapture will begin. For those not versed in bible lore, this is when God will take all of the saved souls directly to heaven, body, and all. Further research reveals that it will begin at 6 pm local time, in every time zone.

I’d imagine you can listen for updates on Family Radio stations or shortwave if there aren’t any local stations to listen to. Those on the west coast may want to tune into the shortwave broadcast (transmitters are in Okeechobee, Florida) for a preview of coming events. You can try:

5950 KHz 22:00 through 0100 UT (6 pm through 11 pm EDT)
11470 KHz 22:00 through 23:45 UT
15440 KHz 22:00 through 23:59 UT

The full shortwave schedule is available here. I am setting my clock so I can tune in and see what happens because I am curious; dead air? Does the station sign off? I really want to know how a station plans for the end of the world. Hopefully, it will be marked by some program, announcement, or something special. Operations as usual would be very boring, as most Family Radio programming is mundane and predictable.

Frankly, Camping has made these predictions before, the last was September 6, 1994, when the faithful gathered in the Alameda’s Veterans Memorial Building, bibles open, hands outstretched, awaiting the moment. After a while, it became clear that something was amiss and everyone went home, wondering what went wrong. There have been many religious-based predictions for the world ending: 1806; October 1844; December 21, 1956; November 1982; January 1, 2000: etc. The Jehovah’s Witnesses alone have predicted the end coming in 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975, and 1994.

It’s either a really good radio stunt, which would go down as one of the greats of all time or they actually believe it’s the end of the world. In the case of the latter, does this mean they will be selling their radio stations? There are several around here that I’d be interested in getting my hands on. I’d even give a fair price, considering the circumstances and all.

Update: How do radio stations prepare for the end of the world? T -40 minutes and the answer appears to be play canned programming, or in other words, business as usual.

Rants

Keeping Public Radio Public has a good one.

And the lame-stream press — how dare they be called the “liberal media”! — only parrot the script prepared by the puppet masters, as corporate “largesse” and control has turned the media into toothless old watchdogs. They make good company for the regulatory agencies once charged with protecting the public from the excesses of corporate greed. They’re good dogs now, too.

Exactly why independent media outlets are not just a nice feature of a democracy. If one were to read the entire constitution of the United States, a theme, loosely known as “checks and balances” becomes apparent. You could also call that theme “Trust Not.” I recommend anyone who is interested in freedom read the Federalist Papers. Even with the watered-down press, US Congress has a 9% (Rasmussen, April 2011) approval rating. Surely, the public understands that something is amiss and needs to be fixed.

While the internet and new media are great, it is too easy to mess with the internet. True independent media needs to have independent distribution, and not be beholden to corporate ISPs, search engines, data centers, and so forth. Radio fits that bill, to the extent that it is not broadcasting homogenized safe, automated, faceless music formats programmed from afar or content from The Borg-like collective of NPR. Independent radio still exists in small pockets scattered here and there. Where it exists, it often thrives in spite of corporate conglomerates.

Of course, consolidation has reduced the radio business to a shell of its former self. The FCC has no interest in reigning in those corporations, or, so it seems, enforcing many of its own existing regulations. Money talks, screw the public.

What is the answer? Get involved. Don’t buy into the lies. Use your God-given senses and do some research. Draw your own conclusions. Make noise. Confront the corporatists with the facts. Use every means possible to get the word out. Write your representative or senator (after you register to vote). Talk to co-workers, friends, family people on the street, etc. It’s time, in fact, it’s now or never.