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:

NOTES TO THE FREQUENCY LISTS

As a listener in Western Europe, it will show an obvious bias to my corner of the world.

Every observation from here on in was made in the last two years on a range of radios with a "traditional" long-wire antenna running out about 20 metres. The list is compiled in ascending frequency order as this is the first prompt the listener gets from his set. All frequencies are in kilohertz.

The station name is the one the station was using at the time the observation was made on that particular frequency. World politics and international border changes means we hear of a station name change every two weeks, so this or any other frequency guide is only correct at the time of going to press. This is, after all, only a guide.

All stations listed are standard AM, the normal broadcasting mode:

AM

Amplitude Modulation, AM, is made up of two parts. The radio frequency part that determines where the station will be on the radio dial and how strong it will be. It is this part that moves the Signal Meter, if you have one. Not having one does not make you a bad person. The other part is the audio frequency that we eventually hear after the radio has recovered it from the RF, the radio frequency part sometimes called "the carrier".

Dealing with SSB

Try this as a concept. Imagine you are able to stand on the carrier and look up and down the radio band. You will see the audio has produced two identical sidebands on each side of you which hold what we want to hear. It is the radios ability to deal with these sidebands which will determine our listening enjoyment.

If we go back to the idea of standing on the carrier wave and we are happy that in an ideal world the two sidebands are the same, we can save up to half the power by only sending one. We can make greater savings by reducing or suppressing the carrier altogether, sending only the Lower Side Band or LSB. The radio will put the carrier wave back in again to render the voices clear.

Fine tuning is required for Single Side Band or SSB work, any error showing up as a voice pitch change from Paul Robeson to Minnie Mouse. Some portables may only have an SSB button. Use this. The most used mode for point-to-point communications is Upper Sideband or USB.

Returning to the concept of standing on the carrier wave, the theory is the same for LSB but here only the upper sideband is being sent, the lower sideband and the carrier being suppressed. In reality, there is always some leakage of the unwanted parts of the signal. These are usually only one millionth part of the whole signal, a mere bagatelle dismissed by the professionals and talked about endlessly by the amateurs. With no carrier to hold the signal meter steady, the needle responds to the energy in the wanted sideband.

Accountants cheer when they learn that if we have got rid of half the signal, then we can deliver twice the power in the wanted half. This piece of economics makes USB the mode for all professional communicators.

What's ISB?

SB is an Independent Sideband transmission with two entirely different services, one on each sideband. As the radio is expected to work very well in SSB but also receive two stations in less bandwidth taken up by an AM station, ISB is the province of the more costly receiver. ISB is now mostly a back-up to a satellite feed where two language services are sent to the same relay station.

Many textbooks have been written on radio theory, our mind-expanding concept of standing on the carrier peering into the sidebands tending to generalize large areas of engineering practice. Remember, if anyone offers you that kind of mushroom again, just say no.

Fax

Although this Guide deals mostly with voice circuits, pressure was put on the writer to include some fax frequencies. These are included in a new UTILITIES LISTING. Most decoders use the audio output from the radio. They either stand-alone (like the author) or connect to a computer. The receiver offers carrier-insertion, usually USB, to provide the two tones used by the decoder to result in readable text.

Careful tuning is needed and your frequency readout may differ from the figures listed at the end of The Guide. This is due to your configuration of the tone set-up. Getting it right comes with experience. As long as the decode is consistent, don't worry about the least significant figure on the display.

Radio Seasons

Shortwave radio is split into broadcasting seasons. Traditionally, there are two major seasons, Winter and Summer, with two smaller ones centered around each vernal equinox. We DX'ers love the variable conditions an equinox can bring but to a Transmission Planner, a nightmare.

All the stations try to get frequency allocations in all the bands so they can move to lower frequencies in Winter in a desperate attempt to be heard in the target country. Conditions during the compilation of the HF Guide have been so unreliable as to warrant mid-season changes. Like those for Derby County, they have had limited success.

The letter shown in the last column provides an indication of the broadcasting season and the year the station was heard:

M represents March and April.

J represents May, June, July, and August.

S represents September and October.

D represents November, December, January and February.

From this we can see that "2000D." is a station heard at eight in the evening UK time during a broadcaster's Winter Season and that a "2001D" is a SONY™.

Our receiver is an AR7030 based in the English Midlands, so forgive a European bias.

Station names are subject to change without notice.

Reporting Time

Here in the UK, we have traditionally used Greenwich Mean Time. Around the world, this is referred to as Universal Time Co-ordinated or UTC, sometimes quoted on-air as just "UT".

UTC is the same as GMT which is one hour behind BST. QED.