Making Sense of the Static...

Welcome to the first of what I hope is many articles about radio - all things radio including analog and digital broadcasting, ham, shortwave and utility transmissions, as well as public safety and scanning receivers.

Radio seems to be what I do for fun, and a large part of who I am.

For the past five years, I've been posting articles to Examiner.com, as the "Hartford Hobby Radio Examiner," a deceptive title, in that the articles have everything to do with radio and very little to do with Hartford, or any other specific city. Examiner.com recently announced its permanent closing, apparently a victim of tough economics and diminished readership.

Radio is obviously a very old medium, so how is it relevant today? Broadcast radio is having an identity crisis. Traditional AM has been seeing a mass exodus of listeners for many years now, to the point that almost no one under 55 years old listens anymore. FM, which gained by leaps and bounds at the expense of AM, is now fighting its own battle, with the popularity of Internet streaming and digital downloads. 

Shortwave spectrum, also more than a century old (since it was discovered) is still alive with transmissions, although many of the powerful broadcasters that resided there have pulled the plug for newer and less expensive modes. (Obviously it costs big bucks to power a half-million watt HF station and support an array of antennas.)

Speaking of shortwave, America's own Voice of America has been experimenting with digital transmissions for the past few years, but only on weekends and only on a few frequencies.

Keep watching this blog for an interview with Dr. Kim Andrew Elliot, the man behind VOA Radiogram. He'll explain what it is and how you can decode it with free software and a basic shortwave radio and computer.

73 for now!

Pete Miller