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This reminds me of how Gorbachev kept informed about the coup that was happening around him via the BBC World Service on shortwave. I wonder if there's a market

This reminds me of how Gorbachev kept informed about the coup that was happening around him via the BBC World Service on shortwave. I wonder if there's a market for re-instating such services in areas that are prone to internet outages?

londons_explore 5y ago
The BBC still does longwave radio, receivable in most of the world, partly for strategic political reasons that you describe.
- BoxOfRain 5y ago
  I'll miss that when they shut it down, I'm too young to have actual nostalgia for longwave as a primary way of listening to the radio but but I enjoy having Test Match Special on crackly old longwave as background noise when I'm working. I always liked how you can hear the lightning from miles away if it's stormy. I've also got a friend who still sometimes uses the Shipping Forecast on longwave when he's on smaller boats in the North Sea! My understanding is that the longwave service is very expensive to run (on the order of hundreds of kW) and the only thing keeping it alive is the fact its carrier wave is used to switch over old electricity meters to night rates. AFAIK the energy companies subsidise it rather than the BBC and when everyone's on a smart meter it'll probably go off air. Having said that, I suspect the Venn diagram of 'people who'd be miffed about 198 kHz going quiet' and 'people who regularly write to their MPs' is basically a circle so maybe it'll last years after its execution date like the Irish longwave service has.
  - int_19h 5y ago
    I'm not sure if that's still the case, but BBC longwave broadcast was also used as one of the checks that British nuclear subs are supposed to use to determine that a large-scale nuclear attack on Britain has taken out their command (and thus it's time to open https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_of_last_resort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_of_last_resort).
- iso1210 5y ago
  World Service can be picked up on Short Wave from a long distance from the transmitters https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2x9tqt6mc05vB2S37j8MWMJ/global-short-wave-frequencies https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2x9tqt6mc05vB2S37j... https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/schedules/frequencies/bbc_world_service_afghanistan_iran_frequencies.pdf https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/schedules/frequenci...
  - BoxOfRain 5y ago
    That's cool, I'll have to have a listen on a nearby SDR. Interestingly the World Service's old mediumwave frequency 648 kHz is now being used by none other than the famous pirates Radio Caroline. They still use their radio ship, though the studios link over 4G to a land-based transmitter now to save fuel. Those guys would definitely have featured on HN quite often if it'd been around then, the engineering and hacker spirit that went into their operation was insane.
    - iso1210 5y ago
      I listen to WS in my car in the UK via DAB. I knew someone from student TV who worked on DRM for BBC R&D for a while - DRM being "Digital Radio Mondiale", or Digital Shortwave. DAB struggled to gain traction over the last 20 years, I don't know anywhere near enough about shortwave transmissions in general to know if DRM has any chance, but a quick look doesn't look very impressive compared with normal shortwave.

londons_explore 5y ago

The BBC still does longwave radio, receivable in most of the world, partly for strategic political reasons that you describe.

BoxOfRain 5y ago
I'll miss that when they shut it down, I'm too young to have actual nostalgia for longwave as a primary way of listening to the radio but but I enjoy having Test Match Special on crackly old longwave as background noise when I'm working. I always liked how you can hear the lightning from miles away if it's stormy. I've also got a friend who still sometimes uses the Shipping Forecast on longwave when he's on smaller boats in the North Sea! My understanding is that the longwave service is very expensive to run (on the order of hundreds of kW) and the only thing keeping it alive is the fact its carrier wave is used to switch over old electricity meters to night rates. AFAIK the energy companies subsidise it rather than the BBC and when everyone's on a smart meter it'll probably go off air. Having said that, I suspect the Venn diagram of 'people who'd be miffed about 198 kHz going quiet' and 'people who regularly write to their MPs' is basically a circle so maybe it'll last years after its execution date like the Irish longwave service has.
- int_19h 5y ago
  I'm not sure if that's still the case, but BBC longwave broadcast was also used as one of the checks that British nuclear subs are supposed to use to determine that a large-scale nuclear attack on Britain has taken out their command (and thus it's time to open https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_of_last_resort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_of_last_resort).
iso1210 5y ago
World Service can be picked up on Short Wave from a long distance from the transmitters https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2x9tqt6mc05vB2S37j8MWMJ/global-short-wave-frequencies https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2x9tqt6mc05vB2S37j... https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/schedules/frequencies/bbc_world_service_afghanistan_iran_frequencies.pdf https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/schedules/frequenci...
- BoxOfRain 5y ago
  That's cool, I'll have to have a listen on a nearby SDR. Interestingly the World Service's old mediumwave frequency 648 kHz is now being used by none other than the famous pirates Radio Caroline. They still use their radio ship, though the studios link over 4G to a land-based transmitter now to save fuel. Those guys would definitely have featured on HN quite often if it'd been around then, the engineering and hacker spirit that went into their operation was insane.
  - iso1210 5y ago
    I listen to WS in my car in the UK via DAB. I knew someone from student TV who worked on DRM for BBC R&D for a while - DRM being "Digital Radio Mondiale", or Digital Shortwave. DAB struggled to gain traction over the last 20 years, I don't know anywhere near enough about shortwave transmissions in general to know if DRM has any chance, but a quick look doesn't look very impressive compared with normal shortwave.