A shortwave guide for 2013?

[wildbilll]

I'm very disappointed that "Passport to World Band Radio" has gone out of business. What a fantastic handbook! I don't care for the WRTH book but I'm wondering if anyone has found something other than that and just as good as Passport? What are YOU using to identify shortwave radio signals?

[bmlure]

I use Short-Wave.Info all the time. Very good website.

[ka3jjz]

We have several places with downloadable schedule information (including the master NASWA spreadsheet) linked in this article...remember the data is only as good as often as it's updated...

SWL Broadcast - The RadioReference Wiki

Feel free to add worthy sites to this list...Mike

[wildbilll]

thanks guys!!
those are both great sites, but anyone have any handbook recommendations for this year?

[majoco]

While WRTH and Passport were good in what they did, by the time they got into print the info was out of date. Frequencies and times change on a daily basis depending on sunspot cycles and propogation difficulties which cannot be forecast months in advance. I use...

S H O R T W A V E S T U F F

...which you can see was updated yesterday 28th December. You can't get more up-to-date info than that.

[Boombox]

I use two websites, and have found them both to be equally accurate, the first one a bit more useful:

Short-Wave Frequency Schedule for BBC in ENGLISH at 10:11GMT

excellent user interface and the grey line map at the top is useful also.

...and Eibi, a German site. The link is a listing of whatever's on the shortwave broadcast bands for the next quarter:

http://www.eibispace.de/dx/freq-b12.txt

[ka3jjz]

Originally Posted by wildbilll

thanks guys!!
those are both great sites, but anyone have any handbook recommendations for this year?

Apart from the WRTH, those days are LONG gone. Printed material gets out of date very quickly - so much so, that the WRTH staff posts PDF files with updates every so often.

Mike

[kc2kth]

How about MT magazine? They used to publish a monthly guide with MUF and LUF as well as frequency and stations. Arguably that would be more focused and potentially have better info than websites that are updated sporadically. I've been wondering about this myself.

[ka3jjz]

Keep in mind that mags that publish lists have a minimum of a 30 day lag between when the data is sent to the printers and when it's actually put out for sale.

These days, a heckuva lot of changes can occur in a month.

Mike

[trsundstrom]

Wirelessly posted (Moto Droid Bionic: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.0.4; en-us; DROID BIONIC Build/6.7.2-223_DBN_M4-23) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30)

The WRTH is not only a listener's guide but a one-stop industry reference for worldwide broadcasting and related professions. The book includes addresses, phone, fax, personnel, web sites, transmitter sites, all authorized frequencies and schedules for the winter season. You can probably find a lot of information scattered throughout the web, but professionals don' t waste their time searching the web.

PWBR was oriented toward listeners, but the web over the years made it increasingly difficult to turn a profit. Whereas the WRTH shows authorized frequencies, the thing that bothered me about PWBR was the "opined" frequencies. Educated guesses, some were good and some not so good.

Both publications served the differing readership well -- I have a complete set of PWBRs and most of the WRTHs from 1970 on (missing 2 or 3 editions from the 70s -- and both are useful in researching history.

FWIW I used to write for the WRTH. See the bio on my web site.

HTH.

[k9rzz]

So, I guess technology has advanced (?) to the point where you can't listen to shortwave broadcasting without some form of computer running in front of you.

That's sad.

[kc2kth]

Originally Posted by ka3jjz

Keep in mind that mags that publish lists have a minimum of a 30 day lag between when the data is sent to the printers and when it's actually put out for sale.

These days, a heckuva lot of changes can occur in a month.

Mike

Agreed, but many if not most of the SWL focused sites I've looked at over the past few days either haven't been updated recently or have gone dark. With MT they need to keep their information updated in each issue, allowing for the lag time between submission and publication, in order to keep people paying for the product.

Funny how if someone is trying to make a living doing something they typically do it better than if they are doing it for free, right?

[ka3jjz]

Actually the NASWA master spreadsheet was just updated, and includes the aforementioned EiBi, Aoki, HFCC and other lists, and a lot of other sources as well. While these sources aren't updated nearly as often, Dan (the keeper of this spreadsheet) does a pretty good job of keeping things up to date. The link is in majoco's message 5 of this thread. He also lists when at least some of these lists have been recently updated, which gives you a pretty darn good idea of how up to date the data happens to be.

By the way, if we have any Perseus users reading this, there's a version of these schedules specifically for your use on that same website.

By contrast, the DX Asia and Prime Time SW sites haven't been updated since last month, and the SW info site mentioned before seems to be a bit better (their last update was mid December). Things have changed quite a bit in the interim Mike

[wildbilll]

what is PWBR?

[ka3jjz]

An old publication, once published by noted DXer Larry Magne known as Passport to World Band Radio or PWBR for short.

What was unique about it was that it had a number of articles with reviews - the WRTH has them too, but to a much lesser extent. The PWBR reviews were (supposedly) objective evaluations - and they also published extremely detailed White Papers on some desktop receivers. Some of these are still available from Universal Radio. However, you should note that they are very technical in nature; perhaps too much so for the average joe.

It fell prey to publishing costs, and could not keep up with the number of resources on the Internet. Many folks - myself included - tried to get Larry to make it an eBook, so he would only need to update the sections that needed it. Ultimately, he folded, and it's been gone ever since

Mike

[wildbilll]

Originally Posted by ka3jjz

An old publication, once published by noted DXer Larry Magne known as Passport to World Band Radio or PWBR for short.

What was unique about it was that it had a number of articles with reviews - the WRTH has them too, but to a much lesser extent. The PWBR reviews were (supposedly) objective evaluations - and they also published extremely detailed White Papers on some desktop receivers. Some of these are still available from Universal Radio. However, you should note that they are very technical in nature; perhaps too much so for the average joe.

It fell prey to publishing costs, and could not keep up with the number of resources on the Internet. Many folks - myself included - tried to get Larry to make it an eBook, so he would only need to update the sections that needed it. Ultimately, he folded, and it's been gone ever since

Mike

i only got PWBR for a few years, but i REALLY liked it. i'll always be disappointed that they are gone but i'm also on the lookout for a suitable replacement. unfortunately WRTH just doesn't cut it for me. what are your feelings on klingenfus?

[ka3jjz]

Herr Klingenfuss has a well-known bias against American broadcasters - however, for other listings, his data is hard to beat particularly in the Utilities world.

But you're really beating around the bush here. The Net is a much faster resource than having a book that may (as the WRTH does from time to time) or may not (I don't believe Klingenfuss issues updates in PDF form like the WRTH does). There are many very good Yahoo groups that get the news out fast - the DXLD group run by Glenn Hauser is one of the best. Constantly gets new sked information, and there's always someone reporting a change that hasn't been picked up yet. And, of course, the UDXF has been around a long time (old timers may remember it as the WUN or World Utility Newsletter).

Dan gets the NASWA spreadsheet (which, as noted in another thread, is now under a password system due to some reported abuses) updated as fast as he can, but he can't match a good mailing list for speed.

Books get out of date too quickly these days - kudos to the WRTH for even supplying updates in PDF form, but that's just a stopgap. If you're serious about getting up to date info, join the various Yahoo groups (I'm sure there are others on other services).

Mike

[wildbilll]

well, thanks for all the info. and guidance. you sure are a wealth of knowledge.
-bill

[ai8o]

I buy WRTH every year, but the data gets out of sync after each seasonal change in October and March.

I just print my own SW guidebook using the data found at:

HTTP:// www.eibispace.de

There are listings of SW stations by frequency, and by UTC time, in several formats.

This listing is updated twice a year in spring and fall; soon after the new HFCC data is posted.

I just download the PDF versions of the Frequency and the UTC time versions, print both on 8.5 by11 inch paper, punch holes on the edge of the pages, and bind them into a booklet using "pocket" folders like kids use in school. I bind the printouts using the built in three hole binding spine inside the folders.
.
When I print the pages I use four different colored papers for the different bands (for example White for MW and 120m, blue for 90m,orange for 75m,yellow for 60m,and then repeat for each broadcast band all the way to 11m.

This color coding makes it easier to find a certain frequency band quickly.
I do the same with the time listing, I just change the paper color for every two hours.

PendaFlex "Pocket" or Oxford "ESSELTE" folders are the two brand names of folders I currently use.

This make a nice compact, guide book that you can easily carry with you, and use without having to fire up a computer.


Also I save the listings after they are upgraded>
Some times a broadcast agency lists new frequencies on the HFCC database, but continues on with old schedule, or goes back to old frequencies when they encounter QRM.

73
Dan
AI8O