- report 2010 This year
Anker Petersen, editor of
Domestic Broadcasting Survey (DBS) of
Danish Short Wave Club International has outlined in its annual report on performance of the broadcasting bands tropical . Ie 120, 90 and 60 meters. Those in 60 and 70 years gave us much satisfaction as listeners. For a long list of reasons broadcasters on these bands now appear in danger of extinction. The numbers speak for themselves: between 2200 and 5800 kHz on air
in 1973 were 1106 stations, today there are 223 .
The reasons for the decline, and rapid and seemingly inexorable, are different. The first is certainly the growth of FM and television antennas, including satellite. Then, above all, in the richest areas also arrived on the web. It should also be taken into account that went into crisis in 90 years, the production of radio with shortwave. Legendary brands such as Grundig (later acquired by Eton), closed down. In particular, the receivers have disappeared from the market at low cost.
But now this trend has dramatically reversed. In fact, the growth of Asian electronics firms, market-oriented large countries like China and India, and the evolution of technology has given new breath to the market for low-cost portable receivers.
now available on the market are dozens of models of radios offering over the medium wave and short wave also FM from 64 MHz to the 108 Most DSP technology that allows you to get good audio quality at low prices. This could encourage companies to maintain the short-wave and, therefore, also the tropical band, especially in those Large countries and territories with "difficult", where FM coverage requires excessive investment. But there
to consider that many medium and short wave transmitters are left in operation until last. Then when the antennas are beginning to age and parts of tx break before we fix the economy, resulting in decay of the power and quality of output. Then remain silent. In a crisis like this, and the impoverishment of many areas of the planet in a few embark on new investments in short-wave radio and secondary schools.
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is the report by Anker Petersen:
Region / year 1973 - 1985 - 1997 - 2010
Central Africa 102 - 76 - 40 - 12
Southern Africa 57 - 39 - 33 - 8
Middle East 9 - 4 - 1 - 0
Indian Subcontinent 62 - 45 - 45 - 30
South East Asia 40 - 29 - 21 - 4
Indonesia 171 - 105 - 65 - 10
China, Taiwan, Mongolia 119 - 110 - 75 - 32
CIS (former USSR) 61 - 59 - 47 - 7
Far East 38 - 28 - 28 - 12
Papua New Guinea 17 - 20 - 20 - 14
Australia and other Pacific 10 - 4 - 13 - 11
Central America, Mexico 21 - 23 - 24 - 3
Caribbean 29 - 3 - 3 - 2
Northwestern South America 98 - 41 - 19 - 3
Ecuador 47 - 33 - 22 - 4
Peru 78 - 69 - 78 - 25
Bolivia 35 - 42 - 25 - 11
Brazil 107 - 87 - 67 - 34
Southern South America 5 - 2 - 1 - 1
Total 1,106 - 819 - 627 - 223
Countries like Brazil, China, India, Peru, Papua New Guinea and Bolivia are still dominating the Tropical Bands. But during the past year Tropical stations have disappeared, especially in Central Africa, Latin America and Indonesia. The reason is that other media got higher priority than keeping an elderly Shortwave (SW) transmitter alive.
