Amateur radio based group rescues released broadcast frequency

Amateur radio based group rescues released broadcast frequency

When the 'Deutsche Welle' decided to close down one of their 500 KW short wave broadcast transmitters near Munich at the end of 2012, a group containing some German radio amateurs applied for and were allocated the then available short wave frequency of 6070 KHz in 2013.

This group now have an operational 10KW station on the frequency, using the driver stages from the old Deutsche Welle transmitter. The rest of the transmitter was built by and is run by Rainer DB8QC . The licence allow transmission 24/7 but at present most transmissions are on a weekend during daylight hours.

Content is mainly provided by existing Internet Radio stations wanting to get their material "on-the-air" this includes several soceities that remember the days of the Pirate Radio pop music stations in the North sea between England and Holland and a lot of their music content is from the 60's and 70's.

Additional content is being sought and at only 15 Euros an hour, this is not a corporate big business rather a facility where smaller groups can afford to buy time to transmit their content. One such group is the Deutsche Amateur Radio Club, the National Amateur Radio Soceity in Germany, who hope to have a weekly 2 hour slot on the station from mid-March to send a DX orientated program, probably from 6pm local time on Sundays.

The DARC DX magazine will be in the German language and targeted towards German speaking listeners. Amateur radio is an international medium however so there are thoughts of also producing an international / English hour in addition, to reach out across Europe not only to radio amateurs but also to short wave listeners and the general public.

When I talked with another Rainer DF2NU who is one of the group running the station and the president of the Munich South section of the DARC, he told me that they hope to be able to broadcast more often once sufficient content is available however they are already seeing other broadcasters such as Radio China moving onto the frequency in the evenings as those stations percieve 6070 KHz as a free frequency.

Rainer told me that currently "Channel 292" has airtime bookings for 20-25 hrs a week, mostly on weekends at which times it runs at 10 kW output. When the station is idle (as there is no booking), the transmitter power is reduced to 1kW and transmits an infinite music-loop with no actual program. Late evenings, after 8pm local, the transmitter is switched off completely in order to save energy costs. Rainer stressed that the license is for 24/7 so they can use the frequency at any time when they have content.

With a current rate of EUR 15,-- per hour airtime you cannot earn any money. This broadcast station is an extenion of the amateur radio hobby and the group seek to simply cover their costs.

Thinking back to the very start of amateur radio, Hams were allowed to transmit music, news and entertainment programs, so it's nice to see some of this coming back onto the short wave bands thanks to the efforts of groups like this one.

I wonder as we see more and more broadcasters leaving the short wave bands in favour of Internet broadcasting, whether we'll see more licences and surplus transmitters being picked up by amateur radio groups? This seems to be somewhat of a repeat of the situation when it was said 200 metres and up is useless for broadcasting - give it to the amateurs. We all know what then followed.

Perhaps amateur Radio groups around the world can put new life into released shortware broadcast frequencies?

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For program information about "Channel 292" simply go to their website at www.channel292.de

Why not give 6070KHz AM a listen?


Channel292 coverage map

The Channel292 station covers a lot of Western Europe but has also been heard in Russia and the US








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I'll give it a whirl.
So sad that all the quality stations on AM and SW like the BBC Worldservice and Deutsche Welle are being closed down.

 

I miss the old days of shortwave drive by cold-war factions all trying to one up each other for our entertainment

 

My wife and I listened to sw A M broadcast all the time. But that was 25 30 years ago.
So sorry to not hear them anymore.

 

The players in SWBC are indeed changing. Glad to hear about this preservation effort in Deutschland. I hope they can find a new niche and financially make it work. I will give a listen for Radio Channel 292 when the band is open too.

In the USA a similar effort was made last year as WRMI, Radio Miami International, expanded big time by acquiring the facilities of the former fire and brimstone blowtorch WYFR in south Florida. There are several hams on their staff.

http://www.radioworld.com/article/wrmi-beefs-up-big-time/223029

They still air a lot of content from religious clients, relay some international sources, often in Spanish for their main zone, but manage to mix in some interesting home grown English language productions, like Blues Radio Int'l, or Viva Miami. See link below and read or listen to Jeff White speak about the history and outlook for modern SWBC,

http://www.ontheshortwaves.com/Reviews2/Review-Broadcasting-White.html

Check them out on 9955khz or elsewhere. I 'm being patient waiting for a QSL card from their inaugural broadcast ;-)

I maintain a Knight Space Spanner like the one I built from kit that launched a ham radio and technology career. I turn it on from time to time or use a SDR for full fidelity. Many fond memories of logging stations that are now dark, ie, RAI (Italy), the RNI (Holland) relay on Bonaire, recently BNR (Bulgaria).

Back then I loved typing out reception reports and getting their QSL's and subsequent mailings. From Radio Peking I received my own copy of Mao's "Little Red Book"! This was during the 60's, Viet Nam War / J.E. Hoover era, and my older brother teased that would land me on an FBI black-list as a subversive!

73 de John WØPV

 

Hey, a P5 SWL QSL is better than none at all. And sometimes these stations can surprise you, as in 2013 when I won Radio Beijing's China Kaleidoscope contest and got a week in Beijing and Xi'an. It is too bad many of the good old stations are gone, but as you said there are still a few left. Radio Havana, for one, has good jazz and Cold War-type commentary in the evening. And good for the group on 6070 keeping the tradition going and the frequency warm.

 

Very cool. And it may make a good EU 60M beacon as well.

 

I wonder if they would consider an audio feed from other Amateur Radio clubs for broadcast in the EU and England area? Here in the US we have stations that take audio feeds via ethernet for rebroadcast on AM and FM. Perhaps the ARRL broadcasts could be fed to this German station and why not the code practice from ARRL as well.....

Don/ de WA1DF

 

Yep...back in the 50's, as a full bore SWL...qsl'd lot of BC stations. Radio Moscow and Radio Czechoslovakia sent qsl's along with all the Communist propaganda...my mailman thought I was a budding Commie...for sure! Fun times!!

 

I was thinking the same too and think they would gladly air that content from an internet stream. And at 15 Euro per hour its quite a bargain! Go for it!!

 

Apparently, all I can hear on 6.070 is station CFRX from Toronto.

 

I was disappointed to hear that tonight too; 6070 kHz is actually quite busy according to http://www.shortwaveschedule.com/

Perhaps it was "open" back in 2013, or designated as such only for the European zone targeted by Radio Channel 292.

But I will give Radio Channel 292 another shot on a weekend where they claim to operate more often, and perhaps with better DX conditions; the geo-mag field is very disturbed tonight K index of 5+ !

 

From what I remember 6070 khz has been occupied by CFRX in Toronto since I got started in SW Listening about 25 years ago. Used to be another station on 6130 or so that broadcast from the Maritime Provinces of Eastern Canada perhaps St. John's, Newfoundland or Halifax, Nova Scotia.

You know you could always use one of the web receivers that based out of the UK or Europe and try to hear it that way since CFRX will probably be tying up the 6070 slot in most cases unless some serious propagation changes occur.

 

Ausgeseichnet! Wuenderbar! Deutsche Welle, while not under its old name, is alive and well. Viel glueck zu alles der Deutsche Rundfuenk Amateurs!! Und, durchaus, danke!

 

30 dB over 9 here in the Netherlands, some qsb though.