I’ve recently been enjoying the book The Art and Skill of Radio-Telegraphy. Written by the late William G. Pierpont N0HFF, it can also be read online here.

The book is largely about learning Morse code, with chapters such as “Practice To Gain Proficiency,” “Common Errors and What to Do About Them,” and “How Long Will It Take to Learn?” But there is also a lot of historical information about early radio and Morse code, including some great anecdotes such as this one:

In 1856 seven year-old John O’Brian delivered telegrams for his brother Richard, who at age 15 was the telegrapher for the local RR office. After two years of this John prevailed upon his brother to teach him how to operate. So, while still only nine years of age John became a good operator and was eager to have a job of his own. The RR offered him the position at a nearby town, and he snapped it up. People in those days were used to seeing young telegraphers, but not this young! Very soon, however, they became so pleased with his work that no more questions were asked.

This book looks like an excellent resource for anyone who wants to learn more about Morse code.

I’m sure this move makes financial sense for Radio Netherlands, just as I’m sure dropping shortwave broadcasts to North America made financial sense for the BBC. There are no broadcasters with budgets large enough to transmit to everywhere in the world and it only makes sense to allocate limited resources to areas deemed most important. But it’s still sad to watch the steady decline of shortwave services to North America.

The Radio Netherlands website puts a positive spin on the move:

Radio Netherlands Worldwide’s English broadcasts are available in North America in an increasing variety of ways. More and more partner stations are taking our programming (a growing number of NPR stations in the US and CBC in Canada) and there are now a wide range of satellite options (including Sirius satellite radio).

The programmes are also available live, on-demand and via podcast.

The number of alternatives for listeners in North America is such that we have decided to end our shortwave broadcasts to the region.

They do list four different ways for North Americans to continue to listen to Radio Netherlands:

1. on the internet at http://www.radionetherlands.nl/
2. on the AMC 4 satellite 24 hours a day
3. as part of the CBC overnight service at 1:05 AM
4. on WRN as found on the Galaxy 25 satellite or on Sirius satellite radio

Unfortunately, no single option is a perfect alternative to shortwave and each has disadvantages:

1. Listening to Radio Netherlands on the internet is pretty close to a perfect alternative, but only for those with broadband internet access. Broadband internet is increasingly common, but not ubiquitous.
2. Listening to the AMC 4 satellite requires receiver hardware that most people don’t have, not to mention a clear view of the satellite.
3. The CBC overnight service is an option only for those who live in Canada or near the border. The late-night schedule is also not very convenient.
4. Most people don’t have satellite receivers or satellite radios capable of receiving WRN.

The United States Senate recently passed a bill which granted a brief reprieve to online radio stations in the United States. The House of Representatives had already unanimously passed the same bill three days earlier. The bill now goes to the President for his signature.

The bill itself doesn’t set any royalty rates for radio stations. What it does do is allow the online radio stations and the copyright holders to negotiate without requiring Congress to approve the final deal. The two sides still need to come to an agreement before February 15, 2009.

If online radio in the United States is shut down, that still won’t affect radio in the rest of the world. I’ve found that people are far more willing to listen to foreign radio stations, even some odd ones, than I think they would have been in the past. Perhaps years of truly dreadful radio has made them more open to experimentation. But I think it will be a shame if online radio innovation is relegated to outside the United States.

As part of the plan, most AM radio stations in the country would move to the expanded FM channels and broadcast in digital mode (presumably DRM+). The new band would be divided to allow for the former AM stations, low power stations, and other uses. The AM band, now free from overcrowding, could be used for fewer station or for some other purpose.

This is just a proposal and probably nothing will come of it. Some see it as competition to the 26MHz.us proposal, although I don’t see why the two couldn’t coexist. I’m unsure whether I think the BMC plan would be a good idea or whether it would create more problems than it solved.

Radio World has two good articles about the proposal:

• Engineers’ Group Has an Idea: Move AMs to Channels 5 & 6
• Nuts and Bolts of BMC’s AM Migration Plan.

I have written about HD Radio before, and still have mixed feelings on the subject. Although many radio stations have installed the technology, people have been relatively slow to buy the radios. This is how the problem strikes me:

• People will buy HD Radios only if they can be convinced of the advantages.
• There will be advantages only if there are HD Radio stations in their area and only if the signals are strong enough to receive reliably at their location.
• The only way for them to determine if there are any strong signals at their location is to buy a HD Radio.
• But people will buy HD Radios only if they can be convinced of the advantages.

A bit of a chicken and egg problem, isn’t it?

A recent thunderstorm knocked out our electrical power for over six hours. One of the few good things about a power outage is that it eliminates nearly all of the electrical interference that plagues radio reception. I always make it a point to test reception when that happens, so I used a battery-powered shortwave radio (a Sangean ATS-909) to tune the radio dial. I heard two of those those longwave beacons once again. It occurred to me that I ought to be able to use the internet to determine what they really are. I wrote down the frequencies and the repeated letters so that I could look them up later.

I quickly found this list of North American longwave beacons and found to my surprise that both of the beacons are at nearby airports. They are called non-directional beacons and are used by planes and boats for navigation. Apparently, you can plot your position on a map just by receiving two beacons with a directional antenna. I was a bit disappointed to learn that those “distant” longwave signals are actually quite local.

If you’re looking for more information about longwave DXing, Longwave DXing and An Introduction to Longwave DX by Paul Ormandy look like two good introductions. If I keep trying, perhaps someday I can receive a longwave signal from more than ten miles away!

I was looking at this proposal by U.S. Electronics (you can see the original here). The core of their proposal involves four conditions. The first three are pretty basic:

• The new company should make available pricing choices such as a la carte or tiered programming;
• The new company should make 5% of its channel capacity available to non-commercial educational and informational programming over which it has no editorial control;
• The new company should agree not to raise prices for its combined programming package (as opposed to each individual company’s current programming package) for three years after the merger is approved;

But to me the fourth condition is a bit more interesting:

• The new company should make the technical specifications of its devices and network open and available to allow device manufacturers to develop, and consumers to use, any device they choose without interference. Pursuant to Commission rules, these devices must be certified by the FCC for receiving signals on the frequencies licensed to the merged entity and be subject to a minimum “do-no-harm” requirement.

Open devices on satellite radio might sound unworkable at first, but consider this: what if one company controlled the manufacture of all AM and FM radios? What variety of radios do you think would be available? Yet that situation is the rough equivalent of today’s satellite radio market.

I don’t expect the FCC to add an open device condition (XM and Sirius are very much against it), but it’s an interesting idea just the same.