The Way We Were

Here is a classic copy of The Guide from 1999. See how much has changed, how much remains the same but above all, enjoy the nostalgia:

The Listener's Guide 1999 - INTRODUCTION

This book started out as The Lowe Listeners' Guide, first written as a place to dump a lifetime of radio thoughts and experiences. In its original form, first with a yellow cover then updated with a technical supplement by John Thorpe under grey covers, the print-run was over 15,000. It got a tremendous response and is still used today. Among the reviews was this one from the Fine Tuning group in the USA:

"Packed along with each Lowe receiver is a little gem of a book called The Lowe Listeners' Guide, which serves as an introduction to DX'ing without attempting to provide one of those frequency lists that's invariably outdated. This little book covers an awful lot in its 60 odd pages, and does it with a dry, refreshing wit. I've been DX'ing for more than 40 years, yet I found things in the little Lowe book that I'd never tried. It begins with some pointers on antennas, then moves on to a guide tour of the spectrum from ELF through 30 MHz. Here's a sample of what you'll find "off the beaten track"

"If you really want to frighten yourself, a couple of transistors and a few large coils can be cobbled into an ELF receiver. Around 10 kHz or so the action of static discharges anywhere in the atmosphere, coupled with hanges in the earth's magnetic field, create "Whistlers", not unlike the cry of a rough whale. Very eerie all this. All worthy of John Carpenter..."

While it's written from a European perspective, with a distinctly British accent, the information contained in Lowe's wonderful little Listeners' Guide is perfectly valid anywhere on earth. Like the receivers it accompanies, The Lowe Listeners' Guide is for short-wave connoisseurs. Priced at only £1.95 (about $3.50) it would make an ideal stocking stuffer for any short wave aficionado".

Top DX'er Gordon Bennett saw it as "44 pages of very useful and comprehensive information presented in a light-hearted fashion," but he admits he never made it to the end....

The Listeners Guide is out of print now but after that kind of comment plus a steady stream of feedback received since I left the industry, here we go again.

Only the name has been changed to protect the innocent:

THE GUIDE

If, for some unaccountable reason, you decide to read these notes in one sitting and it takes you day to do it, the world will have spent $3,400,000 on getting its message to you. That's only transmission costs for broadcasting stations. Add to that production costs, salaries, all the other usual commercial overheads and you can safely double it. Add in the utilities, the marine, aero and tactical, the number stations and everything else we hear between the broadcast bands and I reckon, speaking very generally, that the world's HF operations don't get much change out of $20M a day. If there is that level of investment in sending the stuff, we owe it to ourselves to listen to it. Or at least some of it...

The word Radio to us means "radiation and detection in order" or possibly "radiation and audio", the earliest definition I can find. Those were the buzz-words of the time, an era - so if they don't seem relevant today, remember only the technology changes, the mechanism that gets a station to us is locked in The Laws of Physics.

It hasn't changed.

As this is, after all, a commercial venture supporting the drive toward a better class of receiver, we will reiterate that money has to be parted with in the hope of good performance. The writer's pedigree takes him back to The Classic Collins and the world renowned AR88D. Those who follow my column in SHORTWAVE MAGAZINE here in Europe will have seen my features showing how getting to grips with these military giants gives you the best push up the radio design learning curve.

THE PRESENT

In which we finally decide that the past is another country, they did things differently there. Let's face it, it's a jumble out there...

When it came to review The Guide for this Edition, we decided to take a fresh approach. The world of radio communications and international broadcasting is changing almost daily. Some have already given up on short-wave, moving up onto satellite to reach the target country.

They will tell you this is the only future for radio.

Some continue to invest in short-wave, moving to higher frequencies to make the best of what will be improving conditions for radio for many years. They know that in under-developed countries the investment in even the simplest of portable radios takes a vast proportion of available income, so to suggest the village elders cough up for a satellite dish is out of the question.

They will tell you this is the only future for radio.

Some will continue to invest in AM Radio or medium-wave, moving against the rush for FM and DAB because these are the only frequencies becoming available for new radio formats.

They will tell you this is the only future for radio.

So what can we expect? The truth is when it comes to home entertainment, we have been spoiled rotten. We expect digital quality sound from our CD hi-fi, NICAM stereo from our televisions, surround sound in our cars with the value-added luxury of MegaBass and all our favourite radio stations in glorious FM Stereo. Transmitter processing will have left us with false perceptions of loudness and tonal balance. We can say from the outset that short-wave will not live up to this. Reception will vary from the quality of the worst international phone line right up to what we have come to expect from a pre-recorded cassette - if that is a good example - stopping at all points in between.

It's not all gloomy.

Recent developments in radio design can get the best out of steam wireless. Point-to-point communication channels that once required the constant attention of a radio operator are easy pickings from a favourite armchair, thanks to the receiver designer's commitment to synthesizer and detector design. My generation remembers Tony Hancock and would like to think his outlook is, at last, quite redundant. Or is it?

They say that travel broadens the mind. Now, for about the cost of an airline ticket to somewhere half decent, a radio can be bought that will take you almost anywhere on the surface of the globe. If you can live without the Air Miles, the world can be your oyster.

A modern receiver can have the capacity to deal with the specialised transmissions used in air traffic control, coastal radio, navigation and ship-to-shore communications. For a few extra pounds, the world is your whelk.

World travel without the airport delays. If there are any, you'll hear about them first. Armchair travel broadens the behind. (My therapist advises it is best, at this early stage, to let me get these old gags out of my system.)

So, who is listening?

The broadest range of people imaginable. From the new listener who has just heard Moscow for the first time on something marked "SW1" on his ghetto-blaster, to the professional monitor reporting back world events to his government.

Ex-patriots wanting news from home while reading a four-day old copy of The Daily Mail.

People on ships, on expeditions or on holiday. World leaders and policy makers wanting to know how the world sees them and how they see the world.

The armchair traveller who wants to know just a little bit more.

In oppressed countries where media is strictly controlled, short-wave can be the only source of uncorrupted news. It can also be the catalyst that sparks the revolution.

In India and Africa where one radio serves an entire community.

And the just plain nosey. If you have ever felt the need to mute the sound on the TV to check up on the unholy row going on next door, then this is the hobby for you...

If you already have a radio, The Guide is designed - if that isn't too grand a term - to be used as the colour supplement to your Instruction Manual. If you are new to the hobby, we hope this Guide will give you a valuable insight into the radio world that lives somewhere between the AM and FM bands on your average ghetto-blaster and if it eventually causes you to call an radio outlet, all the better. There is a downside to everything - we did say this is a commercial venture...

Siting The Set

If you are taking the traditional route to the hobby, the radio room - or shack, in Hamspeak - should be warm, dry and out of direct sunlight as the Manual advises. People also perform well under these conditions, the microprocessors and logic lines that operate a modern wireless objecting to cold and damp, just as much as we do.

A base station radio will usually mean an outside antenna, so site it where the downlead - a bit of wire or coax used to make the connection between set and aerial - is as short as possible. Not only will this keep the losses down, but that bit of wire is also acting as an antenna to any interference radiating from the house. We now have many clever ways to get a "clean" signal to your radio via low-loss cables and matching baluns, but more on this later.

PLAY SAFE: All receivers have the correct power connector for the destination country. If making any changes to power cables, seek qualified advice. When replacing the fuse in the plug, the UK standard 13A fuse will offer no protection. A 2 amp fuse brings safety and peace of mind. If the radio is part of a transmitting station, pay special attention to the fuse values suggested in the Book of Words. Radio manufacturers and engineers - especially this one - know what they are doing - this Guide upholds all that is written there on the subject of safety.

During the writers chequered career as an engineer with a once-respected radio engineering company in the Derbyshire Peaks, he would stand back in amazement at the state of the plugs fitted to sets requiring servicing. Loose cord grips, loose or badly oxidised fuses, loose pin screws and cracked casings lead to a rash of reported microprocessor "crashes", violent intermittent interference and a range of "it only does it once a month" faults that caused the guys in Service to age three years for every one spent in a normal environment. When we can get them out of therapy, they will lend a little reassurance that receivers and their Owners require the least attention compared to those who transmit.

"Our text today is it is better to receive than to send..."