Radio Heritage Foundation

I received e-mail from the Radio Heritage Foundation and after taking a look at their website decided it was a resource that was worthy of mention. I've added it to the resources on the right column under Radio History.

This site is rich with material covering history, current events, pirate radio, foreign radio, all with a substantial degree of depth. Many very cool photographs and much in depth information. I'd write more about it but am pressed for time at the moment; however, let me assure you that this site will keep you entertained and informed for many hours.

Rainier Radio

I received e-mail today from one of my early partners in bootleg and then later legitimate radio informing me of a new website that has been created by the Seattle community colleges that has a lot of interesting radio history for the Pacific Northwest.

There are jingles for various local radio stations including KAYO, KJRB, KJR, many classical radio shows, old mysteries and other radio drama.

Unfortunately, there isn't much in the way of 60's era regular radio shows on stations like KJR and KOL, a lot of radio checks from various DJ's but not full programs.

They've also got a streaming online station you can listen to as well as many photos.

For being new though there is a wealth of material there and hopefully more will come as it evolves. Enjoy!

Cell Phone and Cell Tower Safety

I continue to receive e-mail from folks who are concerned about cell phone and cell tower safety.

It is my position that cell towers do not represent a safety risk, at least in so much as the RF radiation from them being a health hazard is concerned. I do believe that modern hand held cell phones, which operate with a maximum power of 100mw but typically much less than that, pose a very minimal but non-zero risk, and that the older 3 watt and 5 watt units were a significant health risk.

Regarding risks posed by cell towers, you may wish to read this article entitled, "Health Symptoms Aren't Linked to Cell Tower Emissions, Study Finds..." in Science Daily.

I've added a new section to the sidebar links with related information, and in particular there is a new link to this FCC Website, "Human Exposure To Radio Frequency Fields from Cellular and PCS Transmitters".

It may seem odd that I'd take a position that cell towers are not harmful, whereas cell phones may pose some health risks, but the reason is very simple. RF fields decrease rapidly with increasing distance from the emitter. You hold a cell phone up to the side of your skull where there are only a few millimeters from your cell phone antenna to your brain. But it is unlikely you will get any closer than tens of meters to a cell tower antenna. In short, the exposure you will receive from a cell phone that you use will exceed that from a tower by a factor of thousands.

If you really want to get excited about RF fields, I'd be much more concerned about these things in this order, HAARP (High Active Aurora Research Program), high power RADAR, UHF television stations, VHF television stations, FM stations, AC wiring in your house, CRT televisions and computer monitors, AC above ground transmission lines, ULF submarine communications systems.

What all of these things have in common is that they either operate at power levels that are high enough to have thermal effects on people close to them, or they operate on frequencies that are low enough to cause ion transport issues across cell walls, both of which are known mechanisms that can induce cancer and other health problems. HAARP has the unique distinction of having both of these properties making it a double threat to health.

With respect to cell phones and cell towers, what I would really like to find are recent large scale studies that attempt to analyze statistical correlations between living in proximity to cell towers and health issues, and studies that do the same for cell phone usage. My hunch is that no health issues will be related to cell towers, save maybe for one falling and injuring someone physically, but that there may be some issues with heavy uses of cell phones although I don't expect that to be significant. But I'm really interested in actual numbers rather than conjecture and sensationalistic crapolla.

One issue to be aware of is that when you read of long term studies finding risks, and those are studies that go back ten years or more; you are getting into an era when high powered, as much as five watt, handsets were used that did cause thermal effects, and it is not at all surprising to me that those sets did cause significant health issues.

Stupid Radio Commercials

Last night I found myself I wish I could secretly break-in to KVI 570 and replace their stupid commercials.

Listening to coast-to-coast and when it ended a commercial...

Men... Are you finding that you are urinating more frequently?

Do you sometimes wake-up at night to urinate?

Now be honest, how's your sex life been lately?

Super-beta prostate contains 10,000 times the active ingredient found in Saw Palmetto... yada yada yada..

Anyway, I'd add a testimonial, I mean what's more effective than a testimonial?

"Hi, My name is Ivan P. Freely. Lately I've been getting up in the middle of the night to urinate and so I decided to try Super-Beta-Prostate.

Boy did it work! The sex that night was fantastic.. And now I sleep like a log, no more getting up at night to urinate.

Unfortunately, that night was the last night I had sex, seems the wife has problems with the no more getting up at night to urinate. She much preferred that I woke up and got up first.

Seems to me like this era is a almost like a century ago with all the snake oil being pedaled.

Radio Propogation

I continue to receive comments and e-mail to the effect that the propagation changes are cyclic, part of the solar cycle.

Let me make it clear that I have been into radio since my elementary school days, I am 49 years old now. I've owned shortwave and AM receivers across that entire time frame, and AM/SW/TV DXing has been a hobby of mine also across that entire time frame.

Conditions are too noisy for effective DXing below the AM band in this area. There is a lot of power line harmonics creating interference to the long wave band. City Light, the power company here, seems to have a policy of replacing defective insulators only after someone is electrocuted or the pole catches fire. I have phoned in insulators visibly arcing over only to have the calls repeatedly ignored for months on end.

I don't have the equipment for past the UHF television band or I'd be exploring frequencies below and above as well.

I am well aware of the solar cycle. People commonly refer to it as an 11 year cycle because peaks come, on average, every 11 years. It is really a 22-year cycle because the magnetic field reverses every peak and it takes 22 years to return to the same state and magnetic polarity.

The maximum usable frequency, that is the highest frequency which will be returned back to the Earth from the ionosphere generally follows three things; the solar cycle, the MUF is highest during solar peaks, the season, the MUF is generally highest in summer and lowest in winter, and daily, the MUF is generally highest in the daytime, particularly mid-day, and lowest at night.

So during solar minimum, during the winter, late in the night, is the time when the MUF would be the lowest, rarely above 6 Mhz or so under those conditions. I've been listening to a signal on 9484Khz now (9.484 Mhz) that has been coming in strong for quite some time tonight. On other nights I've been able to listen to signals as high as 18 Mhz. Several decades ago this would have been rare for this part of the solar cycle, this time of year, at night. Now it has become common.

When I was young, sporadic E-skip events that would bring the MUF up to television channel 2, 54-60 Mhz, was a relatively rare event except during the very peak of the solar cycle. Now the MUF reaching up to channel 10, 192-198 Mhz, during solar peaks, has become about as common as reaching channel 2-3 was several decades ago. During solar maximums, the MUF going above channels 2-3 has become so regular that it can hardly be described as "sporadic" E-skip anymore. There is nothing sporadic about it.

At the same time the MUF has increased, so has medium wave absorption, and AM stations that used to be easily and reliably receivable no longer are. AM stations in Vancouver BC, only about 100 miles from where I am, used to be easily receivable here, no longer.

Yes, these things do vary with the sunspot cycle, but superimposed on that cycle has been a steady rising of the MUF and AM absorption over the last several decades. The activity of the Sun also has increased, with the last solar peak being the most intense on record, but even during solar minimums, even during times when zero sunspots have been visible, the MUF and AM absorption have both been more than what they were when I was younger.

There are many potential factors; the weakening of the Earth's magnetic field allowing the solar wind to interact with it more may be a factor. Changing atmospheric chemistry and resulting changes in refractive index of the ionosphere under given conditions may be a factor. Changes in the heat distribution in the atmosphere and resulting changes in refractive index might be a factor. Increasing solar activity over the longer term may be a factor. Artificially increased ionization by HAARP and similar activities may be a factor. The introduction of halides into the atmosphere, Bromine added as part of an anti-foaming agent in jet fuel, the solid rocket boosters of the shuttle having a chlorine compound, these may be factors. There are so many potential causes that I don't know if it's even possible to sort them out. There are probably more that I haven't thought of.

Radio Propagation Changes

Well, the net is an interesting place. I did some digging and found that are in fact hundreds if not thousands of articles dealing with the topic of radio propagation and atmospheric chemistry.

There is interesting chemistry in the middle atmosphere between 15Km and 90Km in altitude, and this overlaps the "D" layer of the ionosphere, extending from approximately 50Km to 90Km, which is responsible for much of the absorption of radio signals below about 10 MHz.

The concentration of water vapor in the middle atmosphere has been increasing over time and thought to be a consequence of global warming.

The concentration of ozone has been decreasing on the whole though the variation caused by changes in solar UV radiation over the 11 year solar cycle are greater than the rate of decline so during the ascending part of the solar cycle the ozone depletion is masked or even partially reversed, and during the descending part, exaggerated.

Above 15Km, the atmosphere gets hotter rather than cooler. This increase in temperature is primarily the result of heating caused by UV radiation being absorbed by ozone. It has been known that the suns UV output varies considerably over the solar cycle, as much as 200% at the shortest UV wavelengths and as much as 30-40% at 250 nm.

Lately, the Suns activity overall has been increasing. We're presently at a solar minimum, but on top of that 11-year cycle there seems to be a longer term increase in UV output. Observations of the UV output of other similar stars shows that this is actually "normal" behavior for a star like our Sun. UV is produced in the upper reaches of the Sun's atmosphere and is therefore more affected by magnetic changes than visible light from the photosphere.

So increase in water vapor which results in increased ionization increases atmospheric absorption up to about 10Mhz. Decreases in ozone allow UV to penetrate further increasing ionization at lower altitudes where the effect mainly is to increase absorption. And increases in the Sun's UV output increases ionization at all levels which increases absorption at lower radio frequencies and reflections at higher frequencies.

While I was able to find information with respect to the role water vapor, ozone, and chlorine play in atmospheric ionization, I was not able to find anything regarding CO2 and methane, also increasing in concentration, so I don't know what roles they may play.

Suffice it to say there is not only one but multiple factors affecting radio propagation. So where will this go in the future? Well at this point we really don't know what will happen with the Suns activity. We can be reasonably certain global warming will increase for some time. Levels of chlorine will likely increase and ozone will likely deplete for some time. So I think it likely that we will see existing trends continue. Lower frequencies will become more useless for long distance communication and the maximum usable frequency will continue to increase on average.

New Look

Hope you don't mind the new look. I redesigned the game section here and people seemed to like the change so thought I'd do the same for this Radio Blog but I don't know how much cross-over there is between radioheads and gamers. If you find it excessively ugly say so.

Radio - AM Propogation

I'm not sure if I'm noticing over time, a steady decrease in the propagation characteristics of the AM radio band, particularly those frequencies above 1 Mhz, or a steady degradation of the performance of my AM receivers and a lack of quality in newer receivers.

I live in Shoreline, WA, just north of Seattle (about 13 miles north of downtown Seattle). I used to be able to receive CFUN in Vancouver, BC, Canada, about 100 miles to the north, at about S8 on my receivers that had an S-meter and strong enough, save for the occasional night time fade, to be listenable.

For the last few years though, CFUN barely comes in at all, not even S2 on the S-meter anymore and the noise level is too high to tolerate listening, even at times to be intelligible. Even many local stations which used to be solid are now marginal, particularly on the high end of the band.

At the same time AM propagation seems to have suffered, the higher shortwave bands seem to be alive at times of the year and times of the day that they wouldn't have been in the past and sporadic E-skip on the low VHF TV channels has almost become so regular that calling it "sporadic" anymore seems inappropriate. It seems to occur more frequently now during the winter months during a solar minimum than it used to during a solar maximum in the summer. And during the last solar maximum, on one occasion I got skip all the way up to channel 10, and for all I know it may have gone past that but there are local stations on 11, 12, and 13 that would have required a very strong signal to overrun.

I'm wondering if this is the result of changing atmospheric chemistry, or a general increase in RF power levels causing an increase in ionization, or HAARP, or some other factor(s).

Ionosophere

I've had the hobby of radio MW/SW/FM and television DXing since I was in elementary school. I've received distant stations via a number of propagation modes. I have received distant AM and SW via "skip", which is refraction of a skyward radio wave back towards the Earth by the ionosphere. This is often referred to as a "reflection", but that is technically incorrect. If it were a reflection, a signal straight up would be reflected back, but that is not the case.

The ionosphere is a layer of the Earth's atmosphere, extending from about 50 miles up to several hundred miles, ionized primarily by UV radiation from the Sun, also to some degree by cosmic rays. UV from the Sun is mostly from the chromosphere, an area above the visible photosphere which is occasionally visible as a rosy red glow during a solar eclipse.

The UV flux from this chromosphere varies with the level of solar activity and is generally low during solar minimums and high during solar maximums. The higher the level of UV flux, the greater the degree of ionization in the ionosphere. The stronger the ionization, the greater the refraction at a given radio frequency. This means that as the ionization increases, higher frequencies can be refracted back towards Earth.

Because UV flux is non-existent at night, that source of ionization is absent at night and the ionosphere is weakly ionized. The lower altitude regions tend to go away as the charged ions and electrons recombine into neutral atoms. Only at higher altitudes, where the density is low enough that collisions are less frequent, does significant ionization remain at night. Ionization is also generally lower during solar minimums as well because of lower solar UV flux output.

Image courtesy of SOHO/EIT consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

What you are seeing here is an image of the Sun that is completely lacking in sunspots. It has been this way since July 24th, 2007. We are presently in a solar minimum. This means that ionization of the ionosphere should be minimal as well, particularly at night.

The higher the radio frequency or the shorter the wavelength, the less the ionosphere will refract the radio wave. Consequently as the radio frequency increases, signals can only be refracted back to Earth if they arrive at the ionosphere with a low angle nearly parallel, a signal entering at a high almost perpendicular angle would not be refracted sufficiently and would pass through the ionosphere or be absorbed by it. At lower frequencies signals can be refracted back at sharper angles.

Above some frequency a signal can not be refracted sufficiently to return to Earth even if it arrives at a very low angle. The highest frequency that can be refracted back during given ionospheric conditions is known as the maximum usable frequency or MUF.

Two days ago, at 11pm, I was still able to receive WWV at 15 Mhz and I listened to Radio Japan at just over 13 Mhz for almost two hours and the signal was strong. I was able to detect some skip at frequencies above 17 Mhz, however, because of computer hash I wasn't able to make out what it was.

This is really abnormal behavior during a solar minimum. During a solar minimum this reception would be more typical of daytime reception. At night it is generally not possible to receive anything distant above about 7-8 Mhz. The MUF is only about 7 or 8 Mhz at night during solar minimums, but two nights ago it was over 17 Mhz for at least a couple of hours.

Sometimes space events called gamma ray bursts can significantly increase ionization of the ionosphere. Gamma ray bursts generally last milliseconds to several minutes. Radio Japan came in strong for several hours and maybe more as I did not continue to listen.

Lightning storms also can dramatically increase ionization at night, however, generally in a limited geographical area, yet, I was receiving WWV on 15 Mhz from Ft. Collins, CO, and Radio Japan, so whatever phenomena resulted in this high level of ionization was geographically more disperse.

Given a Sun which was not active, and the lack of a fit to other known sources of nighttime ionospheric ionization, I am puzzled as to what is responsible for the high degree of ionization.

During the last solar maximum, the MUF reaching above 50 Mhz was almost a daily occurrence for months at a time. That was unusual, but the last solar maximum was also unusual, the most sunspots of any recorded maximum. Chinese and Tibetan monks have been recording sunspots for thousands of years. Western records date back several hundred years. Strong ionospheric activity during the last maximum is not surprising but the level of activity during this minimum is.

I mentioned that television DXing is one of my hobbies. Most frequently, TV DXing is in the low VHF band, channels 2-6, during solar maximums. Occasionally there are what are known as sporadic E-skip events as well. These happen most frequently during summer, during afternoons, but they can happen anytime and I have seen events in the middle of the night, in the winter time.

During this last solar maximum, I received channels via skip all the way up to channel 10, which is at 192-198 Mhz. I only experienced skip at this frequency once, it is extremely unusual, and unfortunately it did not last long enough to get a station ID, so I don't know the distance involved which would have revealed more about the nature of the skip. I received skip on channel 8, 180-186 Mhz on several occasions.

Skip at low frequency channels, channel 2 or 3, at 54-60 Mhz or 60-66 Mhz respectively, was a rare event when I was young, thirty years ago, I might receive skip on these frequencies several times generally during afternoon late summer hours. It seems to have become more and more frequent over the years to the point where now in any two week period I can usually pick up something just listening sporadically.

Ionization seems to have increased gradually over the years on average and I am very interested in knowing the source. I have also noticed that while shortwave and low VHF propagation have improved over the years, absorption in the AM broadcast band (540 - 1700 Khz) as well as the low shortwave frequencies between the high end of the AM band and around 5 Mhz, seems to have increased.

Another area that seems to be related is auroras. I have lived in the Seattle area all of my life, first near Northgate, and then for the last 22 years in Shoreline, approximately 7 miles north of Northgate. When I was a kid, I used to sleep outside on the patio on clear summer days falling asleep under the stars. Never once did I see an auroral display in all of those years. I have now seem them five times and all within the last decade, and this during a time when I spend much less time outside under the sky.

With respect to Auroras, the last heavy duty solar cycle might explain those, but it does not adequately explain the changes to radio propagation even during solar minimums. I am convinced that either something in our Sun is changing significantly, or something in our own atmosphere.

The amount of carbon dioxide and methane in our atmosphere has been increasing as a result of human activities. The distribution of water vapor and ozone in the atmosphere is also affected by human activities. At 350 PPM or .035%, I would not expect carbon dioxide to significantly impact the ionosphere. Carbon dioxide is also heavy so I would expect it to make up an even smaller percentage of the ionosphere.

Then there is HAARP and other similar installations that intentionally heat a portion of the ionosphere, but these are tightly focused beams, so I would not expect widespread geographical changes, however, I have heard that there is now a system in place to destroy inbound warheads electronics by supercharging the ionosphere, so maybe the capabilities are greater than I know. However, this seems to be a gradual effect and HAARP at higher power is a relatively recent phenomena.

I wonder if all the space missions don't contribute somehow, the rocket exhaust, the re-entering of space debris, do they significantly alter the ionosphere on a large scale?

Then there is the general increased use of higher frequencies, more power in the microwave band. Could these be affecting overall ionization levels?

How about 50 and 60Hz radiation from long distance AC power transmission lines? We know these have some effect on the ionosphere and magnetosphere because whistlers often start at these frequencies (though they are most often triggered by lightning events).

And I know this may seem really far fetched, but could Gaia play a role? The reason that I asked this is that I've listened to a phenomena where a large audio frequency antenna is used to pick up signals from the Earth's magnetosphere. Here listen to this. Tell me that doesn't sound alive and organic to you.

Please, tell me if you've observed any related phenomena and what you think might be the cause.

KNDD 107.7 The End People

I went down to the KNDD Beach House to see Silversun Pickups, however, only Brian Aubert showed up there. However, he did perform Well Thought Out Twinkle and Lazy Eyes solo on acoustic guitar which I video-recorded. The performance was excellent. Brian Aubert was on during DJ No-Name's show.

DJ No Name seems to prefer a low profile. He's seemed soft-spoken and takes things at a comfortable pace but also seems to prefer to hide most of his face with that baseball cap. He interacts well with guests on the air and seems to have a good, albeit at times dark, sense of humor.

DJ No Name

I hung around afterwards to meet the Church of Lazlo personalities, Lazlo, Afentra, Slim Fast, and Candice Derriere. Afentra wasn't there so I did not get to meet her. Lazlo strikes me as not unprofessional, but laid back. Like he's been doing radio so long he just has it totally handled and that well may be the case given his history. He came in just before his show started and then just kind of grabs a microphone and starts talking.

Lazlo

Slim Fast comes in a bit early and talks to people and gets things setup the way he wants before the show. He comes across as spontaneous on the air but he really seems to plan ahead and just makes it sound that way.

Slim Fast

Candice Derriere, their resident Drag Queen adds an element of high strangeness. Definitely the most visually interesting member of the church. Candice Derriere performs locally with a group called The Nutcrackers.

Candice Derriere

Click on any image to see a larger version. To see more photos of those that were present take a look at the KNDD page on my photo gallery. Unfortunately, there are no photographs of Afentra here because she was not present while I was there.

This group I think makes a great team. Lazlo seems to need to have a rapport with a present body. Slim Fast is a not uninteresting person. The two of them have a good rapport. Still, just the two of them might seem kind of mundane, nah, not really. Afentra adds a female perspective. Throw in Candice Derriere and you've got enough strange factor for all of them. It's a weird show but I think it works.

I will end this by saying if you have an interest in radio or just an interest in music, either way, a trip down to the KNDD Beach House on Alki is worth while. All of the KNDD staff I've met have been extremely personable people. They seem to have struck an ideal balance between professionalism and having fun.

The one thing I wish the folks at KNDD would do, is fix the audio on their website. The sound quality of their audio on the web sounds muddy and swishy. A nice streaming Ogg Vorbis feed would fix that.