Call for the recording of LW and MW bands before many transmitters disappear
The increasing energy costs are apparently speeding up the shutdown of still active LW and MW transmitters (see. e.g. announcements of RTL and rumors about other stations). In this context I would like to post a call in context with project COHIRADIA hosted by www.radiomuseum.org, which aims at conserving complete AM signals (e.g. 500 -1600 kHz) so that they can be played back in the future when many transmitters do not exist any more. But we have to be quick and I need help: If you, as an LW/MW amateur, possess a suitable SDR and are willing to help, please contact me: hermann.scharfetter@gmail.com Requirements are
(1) an SDR with high resolution (>= 12bit) like e.g. RSP1A (SDRPlay), HF+ Discovery (Airspy) or other high-quality SDRs which support AM band operation. A STEMLAB125-14 by RedPitaya also serves this purpose if coupled to a suitable preamp/filter and operated with my COHIRADIA software.
(2) a fairly good antenna (also active whip antennas may help)
(3) a QTH with fairly low urban RF noise or the possibility to move to a low-nose QTH with mobile equipment
Next urgent activites (and there are certainly more…):
– recordings of the Korean MW band before Nov 9th (see the posting on Oct 15th by Koji Shimotori to DXing.info FB group)
– recordings of the European LW band before Dec 31st 2022, the shutdown of RTL
– recordings of the British LW/MW bands in the near future, best directly in GB
– recordings from sites where the Mongolian LW transmitters can be received (see posts by C K Raman, Eduard and Ydun Ritz, Oct 28th)
I would be happy if, together, we could save a few interesting international snapshots of AM broadcasting and share them with other amateurs, who like to keep some memories of this old technology.
Best regards, Hermann Scharfetter (2022-10-30)