NEW WAVE SHORT WAVE

REWIRE YOURSELF

NEW WAVE SHORT WAVE

by

Richard Robinson

Once upon a time the reception of radio and television broadcasts had a quasi-mystical aura to it. In the pioneer days of broadcasting, those interested in snatching sound and pictures out of the air often had to build their own radios and TV sets to do so. The actual fact of broadcasting, of the wireless, had an inherent excitement to it. Folks huddled around the first radios and TV sets as much in awe of the very fact of their existence as in the novelty of the messages received.

Well, repeater satellites, cable networks, and mass produced circuitry have eliminated the awe and novelty of the radio and TV broadcast. Today we not only take it for granted, we believe it; accepting its existence as part of the current natural order of things. Boxes of metal, glass, and plastic are considered a source of reality.

If there is any mystique left to broadcasting it is shortwave, the bands of radio frequencies used around the world by broadcasters to send out signals capable of reception thousands of miles away.

The excitement of shortwave lies in its elusiveness, in its decidedly foreign content, in its unorthodox nature. The majority of shortwave radio stations are propaganda outlets of one form or another. You're probably familiar with some of them already, like The Voice Of America and Radio Moscow. Almost every country in the world has a shortwave station which broadcasts its point of view into ihe ozone and hopes that disgruntled shortwave listeners in other countries will be persuaded that white is black, lies are truth, and subversion is patriotism. Or the opposite, depending whose side you're on.

Among these many stations are a number which are light on politics and heavy on entertainment and information, one of the best being the British Broadcasting Corporation's World Service.

Until recently, shortwave radios have generally been expensive and rather massive in appearance. One reason for this is that most of the best shortwaves were American made, the Japanese having more or less ignored shortwave radios in their drive to sell each of us a car and color TV set.

But this has changed, with Sony, Panasonic, and other Japanese firms now offering relatively inexpensive ($100 to $200) shortwaves with advanced features and ease of use that will put the capability of shortwave reception in the hands of any interested consumer.

Shortwave band reception has been added to the AM/FM Stereo Cassette machines sold by many manufacturers. Panasonic's RX-5011 (about $120 discounted) has two shortwave bands as does Toshiba's RT-200S (about $199 discounted) and Sanyo's M9916K (about $105 discounted).

If you're buying a AM/FM Stereo Cassette recorder, you might want to consider any of these models since they cost no more than comparable units without the shortwave bands. But don't expect that these cassette radios will provide the type of shortwave reception tht a radio designed specifically for shortwave will provide. These cassette radios usually have only SW 1 and SW 2, the first two short wave bands, which limits the number of Stations and time of day these shortwave features will be effective.

Sony appears to be the most committed of all the Japanese electronics manufacturers when it comes to inexpensive shortwave radios. Sony has always had a few shortwave sets in its catalog, but until last year, these sets were quite expensive. Then Sony introduced their ICF 7600, a compact radio with five shortwave bands. The discounted price was about $100. This was followed by Sony's ICF 2001 shortwave, selling for $200 or less with discounts, which was a revolutionary technological breakthrough in shortwave sets with its digital tuning and frequency memory which made it possible for the listener, to locate a favorite shortwave station by simply punching up its frequency on a calculator-type keyboard. Now Sony has added yet another shortwave to their, line with an upgraded version of the ICF 7600, the ICF 7600A. Selling for about $100, the 7600A is an extremely compact, portable radio with nine shortwave bands and quartz tuning for accuracy.

No shortwave set has reached the point where you can just switch it on and pull-in every station instantly. Sun spots and other atmospheric conditions, your location and the location of the station you're trying to receive, the time of day and time of year... these are among the factors that will affect the quality of the shortwave reception. They are also part of the adventure of shortwave. But it isn't impossible to get good shortwave reception. For instance, in New York City, without any elaborate aerial or complicated band searching, the BBC World Service can be tuned in every day with the touch of the dial. And if you have trouble, you can write to the BBC and they'll send you suggestions for getting the best possible reception.

In an era of instant communications, shortwave is one of the few user adventures left. It allows the listener to search the stratosphere for the hundreds of radio signals bouncing around up there. And despite the high quality and sophistication of satellites, and cable, shortwave is about the only form of mass communication that isn't limited by national boundaries. With current technology it would be possible for every person with a TV set to have access to all TV broadcasts no matter where they originate—be it New York, London, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Moscow, or Peking. But it unlikely that such a situation will ever be allowed by those who stomp down the corridors of power: In the meantime, however, there's shortwave, which for all its technical fine points and propaganda laden signals does provide a sense of the world out there which current conventional radio and TV broadcasts do not.