Ken Foote's Radio/TV Files: Shortwave Radio
Texans have always been fascinated with other forms of radio transmission, such as amateur and CB radio. I still have the old C.W. McCall song "Convoy" in my mind, a song that has a CB radio user talking. I also played it on my radio show on Country Legends 921 FM. My cousin from Albany, Texas, Glen McIver, helped drive me out to North Carolina in 1978 for my first TV job, and he was a master of the CB! Our neighbor next door in Dallas, Carl Service, worked for Collins Radio and was a licensed ham operator. He talked to people all over the world without having to have a 50,000 watt transmitter in his house! And my former colleague at KDFW FOX 4, the late Ronnie Basham, the station's transmitter supervisor, was talking me into getting a ham radio license.
It was those things that got me fascinated with shortwave radio. Shortwave stations operate in the 1800-30000 kHz band spectrum. It's called shortwave because its wavelengths are shorter than 200 meters crest to crest. Shortwave has many applications where the behavior of radio waves in the Earth's atmosphere make long-range communication possible. It can be used for broadcasting of voice and music, and long-distance communication to ships and aircraft, or to remote areas out of reach of wired communication or other radio services.
I have a shortwave radio at home and the stations that one can pick is incredible. These stations operate with power far greater than authorized for domestic radio in the U.S., i.e. 50, 000 watts being the max for AM Radio. These stations can operate with as much at 250,000 watts. Depending on the time of day, you can hear the latest international news from BBC World Service or alternative points of view from stations like Radio Moscow, Radio Beijing and Radio Havana.
One of the reasons I selected this topic is that today is the 70th anniversary of The Voice Of America, which is the U.S.'s international shortwave service to the world. Simply known as VOA and headquartered in Washington D.C., VOA started as a service to closed or war-torn areas, but now embraces all new media such as Facebook and Twitter. President Ford signed the VOA Charter in 1976 which permitted VOA to broadcast in all languages and platforms. VOA provides the latest international news for 1500 hours a week in 43 languages.
Have a great weekend and I will talk to you on Monday!
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