Shortwave Radio and The PC

An anonymous reader writes "Ars Technica has an indepth guide on the Ten Tec RX-320, a shortwave radio receiver that connects to the PC and is controlled by software (both Linux and Windows). The article goes into depth on different high frequency modes, broadcast shortwave, and even a bit on ham radio and new digital modes."

The Point?

But internet radio is taking over shortwave, this is a pointless product! And besides, won't the pc cause interference with the radio?

Re:How about the internet over short wave?

Amateur radio support (aka AX.25) is already present in the Linux kernel and has been for some time.

Re:How about the internet over short wave?

Sure, you can even have Internet over Carrier Pigeon [ietf.org], just don't expect it to perform very well! Much more interesting is Shortwave Radio over the Internet [chilton.com].

When I played around w/ Packet Radio there were a lot of problems, collisions, weak transmitters come and go, the retries and lag time is tremendous - the buzz at the time was: don't expect to be able to d/l PacMan video games using Packet! Whats the max packet baud rate these days? 9600? On HF it's even lower.

At work I can ping a remote site and get a response in about 70 milliseconds, going thru about 20 routers. Packet radio can't touch that.

Look into PSK31, it's an interesting active mode these days for point-to-point qso's, an HF chat room if you will.

Shortwave + Internet problems

I had the same problems with packet that you mentioned. I was doing 1200 bps on the 2m band. It was pretty much useless for anything beyond quickie text messages. I heard about people doing 110 bps on shortwave. The ability of shortwave signals to bounce off the ionosphere was much more useful before we had all these communications satellites and global fiber optic networks.

I don't think we will ever see the stability or bandwidth to make shortwave support anything that geeks would consider useful. Ham satellites are a little more promising. If we had a Wifi via Ham satellite, now THAT would be fun.

Re:The Point?

Whether the PC causes RF problems with reception depends on the PC. I was using a Mac alongside a ICOM receiver between 1989 and 2001 with no problem whatsoever -- from the Mac. The neighbor's microwave oven was another matter entirely. I always knew when they were defrosting stuff. I don't know about other PC's -- maybe someone else can comment on that?

Internet radio taking over shortwave, maybe, in some ways. They really are two different media, though, with different strengths. And there are still places in the world where not that many people have access to a computer or an ISP, but they still may have an old SW set to listen to the BBC.

(And for the romanticist, there's nothing like listening to a cricket match between Fiji and the Solomon Islands teams over Solomon Islands radio, commented in Pidgin English, by the glow of shimmering tubes!)

Icom do them, too

The Javaradio (http://www.javaradio.com [javaradio.com]) setup is based around the Icom PCR-100 or PCR-1000. If I recall correctly, Yaesu do one too.

Possible apps...

1. Weather alerts - Global reach, software controllable as well. Should be ideal to get local alerts. Specially suited for /ers who spend hours in front of their PCs blissfully unaware of the weather!

2. Terror alerts - need we say more?

3. Service Pack alerts! the best of the lot. We could have daily bulletins, sponsored programs by virus writers, chat shows with hackers etc.

Good stuff.

Re:Possible apps...

1. Weather alerts

I have a weather alert device adjacent to my computer. Despite being called a 'window', it hasn't crashed yet, although as I'm in England, I do regularly get the grey screen of dampness from it.

Interesting

But I always wonder if the Internet could be carried by short wave radio. I mean, if you digitize the packets and send them via short wave, couldn't you just have a world wide wireless internet?

Just wondering, I am not an expert on this field.

Packet and TCP/IP

TCP/IP can be routed over packet.

Of course, the issue is "Would you want to" on HF. (aka shortwave)

The answer is No, unless you're on some remote island in the South Pacific where there are no phone lines and satellite connections are multiple $$$ per minute, in which case a 1200 (or slower) bps connection is a godsend.

The legal limit on channel bandwidth in most HF bands is on the order of 3-6 kHz (Enough for SSB voice). Since there's lots of noise on HF, advanced modulation schemes that allow you to stick more than 1 bps per Hertz usually don't work. Most HF data connections are 2400 bps or less. (300 bps is quite common, and currently the most popular digital mode is PSK31 at 31 bps, due to its bandwidth being narrower than Morse and having superior noise immunity to any faster data mode.)

SW is not Dead! (Yet)

To all those who thought that SW went out with Churchill and Franklin D.: SW is not dead.

In some countries like Africa, SW radio is the only medium that a population that might not be able to read can rely on for information/education. See hoe the success of the Clockwork radios depended on Charitable organisations using them in continents where electricity supplies were rare.

SW radio is still the only way you can listen to radio in some places, simply because of the durability of the signal over long distances, and the relatively low cost of equipment.

Hang on, then why the hell would I want to attach one to a PC? Surely even the pleasure of DXing doesn't get augmented with use of the PC.

Now where's my morse-button...?

Digital SW

A new digital standard for SW/LW/MW will officially launch this time next week, DRM [drm.org] is based upon COFDM (as per DTV in Europe, 802.11a/g etc) and uses the AAC codec at around 30kbps, it doesn't sound much but it's an amazing improvement upon analogue shortwave and will really bring it back to life again, instead of being the preserve of nutters living in huts in Montana.

Anyway, checkout the samples [drm.org], not bad for a signal that has travelled to and from the extreme of Europe.

Newer PC-controlled receivers

TenTec's RX-320 is a solid rig, but a bit dated. Newer receivers, such as the Icom PCR1000 [icomamerica.com], outperform the RX-320 in every way (VFO speed, frequency coverage, receive modes, sensitivity, filters, notch, etc). Of course it costs more than twice as much, but you get more than 1 Ghz additional receive coverage (100 kHz - 1.3 GHz), which allows it to be used as a scanner, and not just a SWR.

Dan East

It's all been done...WinRadio

WinRadio [winradio.com] has been doing this for years, as least in a reception sense. I had one back in 1996 or so. It's a radio that either plugs in as a PCI card, or can hook up to a serial, USB, or PCMCIA slot. It's a wonderful piece of equipment. Biggest problem: Noise from your computer and/or monitor. But it's manageable, and beats those old fiddly push-button radios by a mile. It's Australian in origin, and since the American dollar is in the dumps don't count on getting one for less than $500 US or so.

LinRadio

Thanks to Hemos for the TenTec info. Check out the following sites for info on PC controlled receivers that do not suffer from internally generated noise. These guys have done a great job. http://www.linradio.com/ and http://www.winradio.com/ The g303i is the receiver to go for if you just want HF reception. Other units go to 4GHz! Some receivers are external and some internal ie they mount in your PC! http://www.winradio.com/home/g303i.htm You may recognise some of their kit from the Paris Safe House in The Bourne Identity. Note the open software development unlike better known oriental brands.

Couple of good technical articles..

..on this receiver, and the dirt on the underlying technology in Electronics and Wireless World, earlier this year. I've a list of URLs somewhere I can post for folks who are interested.

New Ham / Interesting Article!

Thanks to Hemos and the Anonymous Reader for posting this article. I was introduced to the world of Amateur Radio late last year and took a class for (and passed) my Technician Class exam a week ago. My new callsign (KC8WVJ) showed up in the FCC database just a few days ago. I mostly use 2-meter FM voice to communicate, but this article sheds light on other ways to communicate world-wide. I for one would be interested in reading more articles of this nature. Thanks ./!

Forget computer-controlled radios, go SDR!

Why settle for an HF radio that's merely computer-controlled when you can make the computer the radio. Gerald Youngblood's SDR-1000 [flex-radio.com] is a full-blown Software Defined Radio (SDR) that blows away most ham rigs. The demo Gerald did at Dayton was very impressive. The best part is that if you want your radio to have a new feature, all you have to do is write the code to do it...

--zawada

What's Good on Shortwave?

I haven't been able to find anything interesting on shortwave. It's neat to be able to hear stations from all over the world, but that novelty wears out pretty quick. All I hear are religious and non-English shows. Are all the good shows non-English? Dang it, another $200 bucks down the toilet. Maybe I can buy a few more and make a beowulf cluster...

Clear Channel

The bad news is if these leads to a shortwave resurgence Clear Channel will buy up all the shortwave stations so they can broadcast crap music to the ends of the Earth.

Bah.

My laptop works fine as a radio without this. Why, I can just plug in these speakers and pick up a local country station using my laptop as an antenna! Unfortunately, the frequency isn't quite right, and there's no way to control the volume, so I'm stuck listening to staticy country music whenever my speakers are plugged in.

RE: All the threads about SW radio Internet Router

OK, first of all let's define SW. For the sake of this post I'll consider SW to include the 6 Meter HAM band (about 50 MHz) and lower. Yes, it would be possible to reallocate the frequency plans so that a few, high-bandwidth (for this I'm only saying a couple of Mbps) internet routers would exist. However this would tie up so much of the available radio spectrum that most other SW would be unable to function. As I personaly think being to communicate world events to third world contries is more important than giving a single third world contriy e-mail. It probably isn't feasable.

However, if you use the UHF, VHF, and microwave bands. (WiFi btw is basicly just what we're already talking about on the microwave bands) then a lot more spectrum opens up. The problem with these bands is they do not skip the way the SW bands do so cannot cross long distances. Your maximum range is about 10% beyond the horizon. However, if you stratigicly placed routers/repeaters over a country, you might be able to give that entire country a wireless computer network, just don't do peer-to-peer filesharing or other high bandwidth tasks on it please. Interfearence could be partial overcome by using many, many different bands so that traffic could be spread out over 20-50 different frequencies or so.

73
KG4WWN

Shortwave Array

Anybody built a short-wave array antenna?

My favorite computer controlled short wave radio.

Take a look at this - http://www.icomamerica.com/brochures/IC-7800_pre-r elease.pdf Ok so its not just a radio, its a transciever for amateur radio operators, but omg look at this thing, 7" TFT display, usb and VGA out (you can operate the radio with keyboard/mouse/monitor WITHOUT the pc!) - compact flash slot to store settings and digital transmissions, DUAL recievers, the list goes on and on.

In any case, expect to pay $5000 and be a licences amateur radio operator to enjoy it. I just wanted to link to the brochure because if you've never seen a radio like this, you NEED to-- you owe it to your inner geek :)

Day of the dead.

Two things that are certainly NOT dead: Shortwave and BSD. Visit the page at: DSP radio for LINUX on Intel platforms [nitehawk.com]

It's a beautifully documented, state of the art, software-defined, digital signal processor. It's downloadable and it's free! (Yeah, I know that Linux is not BSD, and vice versa. But this radio runs under both. Okay?)

Review Missed VoA: Voice of America

Thats another great radio station. Have grown up on staple of BBC, VoA, Radio Australia and (what was then) Radio Moscow during childhood in India. Didn't understand communist/capitalist propoganda back then, but the Russian english accept sure was closer to Americal accent than British. Australian accent was, well Australian. Also heard bits of Dueshe Welle.

Remember waking up at nights to listen to brtish top 20 charts on BBC, and Billboard top 10 on VoA. VoA was hosted by Ray macdonald (if I remember correctly) who got married to a Calcutta girl. Then cam MTV which destroyed the snob-value of tracking charts ...

DXing is as addictive as Slashdot.

Transmit

What no transmit!? How are we supposed to troll then?

Stand-alone _and_ PC-controlled?

I haven't used shortwave for years, but I'd love to have it again in a handy portable version (for travel in Africa) that could be connected to the computer (for recording at home)...

I've done a quick search for this, but not found anything. And, since I've been out of the loop for so long, I don't even know what companies are respected and recommended. Any /. Hams out there have some tips for me?

and another cool thing you can do with this radio

Granted, you can do this with any audio source, but since my rx-320 is already connected to my computer, I'll use it as an example.

Using Winamp and the Shoutcast plugin, I can stream AM broadcast programming over shoutcast and the internet. This is very nice for my sister and her boyfriend who are big area sports fans (Big City USA), but obviously can't listen to the games on radio (as they live in germany). I simply setup the radio during a game, and they can listen to their heart's content. Like i said, I know you can do this with any audio source, but the ten-tec is a nice solution, and another example of the fun you can have with a radio attached to a p.c.

And yes i know all about the "illegal to rebroadcast or retransmit..." stuff they announce before a broadcast. I limit the connected users to "1", disguise the channel as something irrelevant, and assume the liklihood of it being picked up by anyone other than my sis to be pretty small.

Open-Source TEN_TEC Trasceiver

My favorite is the Ten-Tec Pegasus. Why? Because you can receive AND TRANSMIT (with appropropriate Ham license) on all the frequencies using your computer and the interface box. Heck, they even include source code! The product name is "Pegasus". Check it out: http://www.tentec.com/TT550.htm

What about Linux though??

I've been a shortwave listener on and off for years now. I moved to a new home about two years ago and shortwave reception kind of fell by the wayside, my radio broke in the move.

I'd like to see about getting one of these cool radios and throw up an antenna but I refuse to use any windows stuff in my house. Does the company have a version of Linux??

Lightning, Computers, Morse Code

Is there a Text-to-Morse realtime converter? So we can do "Messaging"? Now just pop over to systran [systransoft.com] or babel fish [altavista.com] and hook in the automatic translation services between your text and the traslation to morse code... I think I have the recipe for a disaster or a comedy. I should sell this idea to Hollywood; Hacker in Pacoima starts Panic in Kinshasa!

When lightning hits your antenna, you could lose your SW radio. Your computer, however, is (or should be) more expensive. Of course modem lines pose a similar threat, but without the big lightning rod on your roof being connected to your PC. With a little bad luck, you could take out your entire network.

Give one a try...

You can try this radio out by visiting N2JEU's website [ralabs.com] and clicking the link [ralabs.com] for the web-controlled Ten-Tec.

Requires Real Audio to listen in. Plenty of links to established programing for those who don't know which frequencies to pick as well.

Re:Shortwave ?? It still exists ??

My favourite shortwave phenomenon was always the numbers stations [spynumbers.com]. Where else can you listen to real-life spy messages, even if there's not a hope in hell you'll ever be able to decode them?

As I recall there was always a ton of mysterious signals on shortwave - wierd humming stations, modem-ish tone stations (in the 70's)and all sorts of strange, intelligent-sounding clicks and pops. Shortwave is a peculiar little world.

Re:Macintosh? Solutions!

WorldStation [freshmeat.net] is Java-program and it's listed as Mac OS X-software, so I think there's only problem that those RX-320 boxes have serial ports. There are some USB-to-Serial-converters for Macs, so it's not big deal either.

Remember that Macs can run Linux as well. And another solution is to run VirtualPC-emulation for Windows.

And if those system ever hit mainstream, there will be native Mac solutions as well, but that's not likely.

Yes, shortwave is thriving

Primarily because its inexpensive and effective.

The BBC World Service, Deutsche Welles and a host of other national services give a good world opinion on the state of affairs, which seems to contrast with local news during periods of heightened global tension.

Its also fun to listen to the angry broadcasts of small angry countries like Cuba and NK, although the hey-dey for this kind of rhetoric was the cold war.

Now whether or not a PC is the most effective way to listen to shortwave is debatable, but the value of shortwave is not. For $250-300 you can get an excellent portable shortwave radio that will entertain you far longer than the latest hot video card.

Re:Macintosh? What's that?

Hmm yeah, maybe we should think twice before buying into a closed hardware standard.

Re:Next story...

Well, it's not under Linux, but its on Irix, and the only OS dependent part is the open call in the controller demon. It uses a PCR-1000 and lame.

It's not rocket science.