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| Radio Revival Sweden QSL (Gayle Van Horn Collection) |
Time to apply for summer frequencies - let us know which frequencies you would like to use
First of all, we would like to express our thanks to all the broadcasters who have chosen to use our relay facility. Your faith is inspiring and as the time has now come to apply for new frequencies for the period March – October we would appreciate any input from you with regard to what frequencies you would like to use.
A thorough frequency planning is essential for reaching out on shortwave. If you only have one frequency, you will be very vulnerable to interference from other stations. Therefore, we always apply for several spare frequencies. Sadly, all stations do not follow the registrations they have made and interference may occur even if the channel should be vacant at a specific time. We offer you airtime for €30 per hour on two frequencies (5 kW AM plus 10 kW A3H - carrier plus one sideband) or €20 per hour on one frequency.
As there are today a number of more or less low-powered SW relay stations around in Europe, we feel that we all could benefit from cooperating. Selling airtime on SW is today such a narrow niche that there is actually no big money in it. Apart from government owned stations, most SW relays are operated by radio enthusiasts who believe in the medium.
In the USA we have the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters, which was set up to represent the interests of FCC licensed international broadcasters. What do you think: could we in Europe benefit from creating a similar organization, where we could agree about frequency planning and other practical details?
For some years there have been a number of low-powered stations (1 kW) operating in Germany. Prices for airtime has been around 15 euro per hour which naturally is very affordable to most broadcasters. However, the reception has not been very good in many areas. The Swedish DX Federation used to broadcast over one of these stations but the members requested that another relay station be used in order to provide a better reception. That was the prime reason why the Radio Revival Sweden relay facility was set up. We then decided to offer airtime to other interested parties.
Another German station has appeared, claiming 10 kW of power, also charging 15 euro per hour. It is not clear whether this is peak or average power but either way, this rate can hardly cover more than a fraction of the power costs, let alone all other costs for running such an operation.
Honestly, we don’t believe that this philosophy is the solution. A broadcaster will want to know that you are a reliable transmitter operator and that you will still be around when needed. We have decided not to step into this cutthroat race and we will not reduce our airtime rate just in order to compete with operators charging extremely low airtime fees.
We will, however, continue to provide you with a reliable resource for reaching out to Europe on SW.
We hope that as independent shortwave operators we can cooperate with other relay facilities instead of competing with each other. Think positive!
You are all welcome to book airtime. If you want to know how we are reaching out, just go to YouTube and search for “Radio Revival Sweden”. You will find a multitude of soundclips of our transmissions received in various places. A few examples:
Krasonodar, Russia
Great Britain
Tampere, Finland
Please feel free to spread this message in any forum you like.
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