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 SW. 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.
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 on SW.
We hope that as independent SW operators we can cooperate with
other relay facilities instead of competing with each other. Think positive!