[CQ-Contest] 40M expansion?

[Mark Steven Williams]

I think the target audience for many of the SW broadcasters live in remote 
areas without internet access. Many SW broadcasters are religious 
organizations whose mission is to spread the word to geographically far 
flung and remote audiences. It's fairly clear to me that even here in late 
2005 there are thousands, if not millions, of people who still depend on 
their portable SW receivers to hear programming delivered by these 
broadcasters.

Unfortunately you're not thinking this through logically. Consider the cost 
for electric power for a 500 kw transmitter, maintenance, RF engineers, land 
for the antenna systems, etc, etc.

Obviously web streaming would be far less costly than maintaining the huge 
international SW transmitter sites. Many international broadcasters do place 
content on their websites.

We have this very conversation at work almost daily. "How can we maximize 
efficient delivery of content, especially content on demand". I'm a 
broadcaster by trade. It supports my unfortunate addiction to DXing and 
contesting on the amateur bands.

Believe me, if many of the SW international broadcasters could shut down 
their transmitters while maintaining audience they'd do it tomorrow. Simple 
economics.

I'm not apologizing for the international SW broadcasters, 40 meters was my 
highest Q count in the SS fone. My brain was rattled by carrier heterodyne 
for nearly 9 hours over the weekend. Got to the point where I knew it was 
top and bottom of the hour when the musical ID signatures would come 
twanging in my headphones.

Don't expect the SW broadcasters to QRT anytime soon. There simply aren't 
many IPODS in the jungles of Guatemala or deserts of Western Sahara.

73,


Mark S. Williams
K9GX
Elizabeth, IN
k9gx at n4gn.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rick Tavan N6XI" <rtavan at gmail.com>
To: "Bill Turner" <dezrat1242 at ispwest.com>
Cc: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 4:12 AM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] 40M expansion?


> How about moving it to the Internet?
>
> On 11/20/05, Bill Turner <dezrat1242 at ispwest.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> International broadcasting should be moved to the VHF/UHF region and
>> be done by satellite. HF is a poor medium for such purposes.
>>
>>
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