Dear Hue,

it could be worse!

Here in DL all AM stations on Mediumwave were shut down some years ago. 

All Longwave stations, yes we had two, were shut down as well. The large tower of one of theses stations was cut down. I do not know what happened to the other. 

The transmitters on Shortwave for Deutsche Welle were switched off and are partially used for other services now, as some of these were given into private hands.

My QTH is in the state with its border next to Denmark, the upmost North of DL. A few weeks ago I read in the newspaper (yes we still read on paper) that they will switch off the FM broadcast transmitter chains as there already is a parallel network of DAB+ transmitters. Just a very small oercentage uses of the citizens uses DAB+. This net us vy far not covering the whole state!

I confess, I came into rage after reading this. Millions of radios would be totally useless. I wrote a letter to this newspaper and my letter was printet 1:1 in the first position of the reader's letters section. Friends and neighbours congratulated for this letter I had written. They have the same opinion and wrote letters as well. You can be sure, really a lot of citizens think in the same way...

I am really concerned that they keep absolutely no fall back system alive here, by which the government could send uncorrupted information to the people. They only see the costs but do not see the security of the nation. I see that most people will NOT buy a new radio. They already use their smartphones in this role, which allow to see, read and listen to news and entertainment, all this based upon the WWW. But how do "officials" reach the "masses" if the WWW fails due to intense hybrid warfare? We have had a wide access problem in the WWW here a few weeks ago. What does happen if well prepared fake news cause a panic in the masses like the broadcasted play from Orson Wells did, just infect a lot more people? How could we stop such a run of the masses? 
What happened in G during the last weeks of unrest gives just a very small bitter taste of what could happen - even with all comms networks alive...

The nations surrounding DL still have AM stations and keep their Longwave station(s) working (F, SP and G for example) or at least alive (OZ has a short transmission in the morning). Longwave has the advantage that one transmitter would be sufficient to cover the whole nation in daytine and even whole Europe in nighttime.

I want to mention, that most radio stations here are held by (large!) public radio institutions, financed by some kind of broadcast tax everyone or every household has to pay if they have a radio, a TV or use the WWW. So the finacial factor of adertising is a lot reduced and as financing is done anyway, how do these organisations fufill their duties in the future if just a few percent listen to their program but listen to Spotify or watch Netflix? 

I am really concerned. At least one fall back structure should be kept running, preferably covering whole Europe. The government needs to accept (no, this verb is not correct: they need to see and understand) that such a structure is urgently needed. But concerning this topic, there seem to be no experts at work actually. What a pitty!

All this sounds a bit pessimistic, I confess. But what I have listed in at the beginning is reality. It is a LOT better to keep such a structure alive than having a large incident without a possibility to inform the whole nation.

73 Andy



Gesendet von Outlook für Android
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Hubert Miller <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, August 25, 2024 4:04:50 AM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] [ARC5] [MRCA] CW Keying Wheel
 
I do listen to AM radio when i can, and i try to keep up with the state of that medium. I live in coastal Oregon. If i long distance drive after dark, i often
check out KOMO Seattle, my old home town, or KNX LA CA. These stations have better, more informative programming than local AM stations, i feel.
There is only one AM station within an hour drive from where i am. The three AM station network went belly up, bankrupt, January 1 of this year.
I notice when i listen that the big city stations have more actual "real" ads, ads from large, viable, continuing firms, while the small market stations
have "flakier" ads, like a capsule that contains 30 nutrients extracted, so you don't have to bother with eating the actual vegetables and so on, or flaky
short time loans for young folks with shot credit. And downhill from there. So it does seem that downmarket stations will continue to exit, while the
metropolis stations, at least some of them, will continue to be moneymakers. I notice that also, some smaller stations unable to make it with
conventional formats have come to have minority population formats which seem to still work. Like KKHI out of California; i remember for many
years it was classical music ( on the AM band, imagine that ! ) and now they're Hindi language and music. From Portland OR i have heard a station that
has Russian language and sometimes Chinese. I imagine AM will go on a decade more, maybe more, but to cope with EVs maybe the modulation mode
will have to change to deal with the noise level. But what do I know ? 

Another thing about AM band: this has to be the Golden Age for 'crystal radio' experimenting. We have Litz wire in any insane formulation you  could
want; excellent detectors, and piezo headphones; the parts are optimized over what was available decades ago

I sometimes consider that i am the only person on my block, my apartment building, in the crowd at a store, and so on, who actually knows what the
AM band is, its limits, and its present and past. I don't think any student at a high school here knows what the AM band is.

OH- i just recalled what i was trying to remember: AM i heard besides "ancient modulation" called "approved modulation", which cracked me up.
"FM" of course, everyone knows it refers to "Fine Music" or for ham radio, "Fun Mode".
-Hue Miller
______________________________________________________________
Milsurplus mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:[email protected]

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html