Friday, March 22, 2024

Why Is Shortwave Only “the Radio of Last Resort”?

 


Its powerful new capabilities remain largely unexplored


BY SIMON KEENS 
PUBLISHED: MARCH 20, 2024

The author is sales and business development manager for Ampegon Power Electronics AG.

My first car, a 1984 vintage, had a shortwave radio receiver, but I didn’t bother using it. I was young while it was old and therefore unworthy of my attention. Besides, the signal it received was mostly odd-sounding talk-radio that changed tone as I accelerated. Something to do with unscreened sparkplugs? Whatever they were. Instead, I had a huge selection of pop music available to me on the FM bands, and big plans to retrofit new dash-mounted CD player technology (which never worked)!

Shortwave’s unique properties
The big draw of shortwave is the ability to broadcast to the other side of the world. Shortwave frequencies reflect off the ionosphere, offering long-range capabilities not possible with FM and MW propagation. With a high-power transmitter and appropriate antenna, shortwave broadcasters can provide national, continental or even inter-continental coverage from a single location.