New Shortwave Station is Closer to Reality Charles Caudill, President of World Christian Broadcasting and Vice President of the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters (NASB), announced at the 2014 NASB annual meeting that the new communications minister in Madagascar has said he is prepared to sign the license for Madagascar World Voice, a new shortwave station that has been in the works for a number of years now. World Christian Broadcasting, which also operates NASB member station KNLS in Alaska, was invited to build a shortwave station in Madagascar by one of the African island nation’s ex-presidents years ago. The site has been developed, antenna erected, and transmitters purchased from Continental Electronics in Dallas have been sitting in a Texas port ready for shipment. Unfortunately, a coup d’etat in Madagascar and subsequent political turmoil put a long hold on the project. However, a recent election resulted in the appointment of a new communications minister who appears to be ready to allow the importation of the transmitters and the inauguration of broadcasts. The station’s representatives in Madagascar sent this positive news to Charles Caudill after a personal meeting with the government minister which took place while the NASB meeting was taking place. The NASB meeting was held May 15 and 16 at the Voice of America transmitter site in Greenville, North Carolina. The VOA site, known formally as the Edward R. Murrow broadcasting station of the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), consists of eight high-powered shortwave transmitters and nearly 40 antennas directed to various parts of the world. Inaugurated by President Kennedy in 1963, it is the last VOA shortwave relay station left in the continental United States. The vast majority of its 1600 hours per month of transmissions are currently dedicated to the Spanish-language programming of Radio Marti. NASB delegates had a unique opportunity to tour the large transmitter building and see the operation first-hand, as well as to take a bus tour of the extensive 2800-acre antenna farm. Program Support Specialist Rick Williford, Station Manager Tom Moore and their staff hosted the NASB delegates from throughout the United States who travelled from as far away as Oregon and Guam. Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott of Voice of America Audience Research travelled from Washington to tell NASB members about his weekly VOA Radiogram program, which transmits coded signals via the Greenville plant to listeners around the world, who decode the messages and photos using freely-available software. The program was designed to counteract jamming of IBB signals and websites. Other speakers on the first day of the conference included Dr. Jerry Plummer, Frequency Manager of WWCR in Nashville, about shortwave antennas and coverage; and Jeff White of WRMI about the station’s recent move of its transmitter site from Miami to Okeechobee, Florida. White showed photos of recent work done in Okeechobee and some of the interesting animals which inhabit the site, which was formerly used by WYFR. John Tayloe, President of the Strategic Communications Group, spoke about his organization’s effort to get KVOH in Los Angeles back on the air over the past year. He said that they are currently considering the construction of a new high-powered mediumwave (and possibly shortwave) station in the Middle East as a response to the Syrian crisis. The final speaker on Thursday was George Ross of Trans World Radio’s KTWR in Guam, which has received very encouraging response to its DRM-mode transmissions, in particular from listeners in India and Japan. The DRM theme continued on Friday May 16 with Christopher Rumbaugh, whose DRMNA Yahoo group (and drmna.info blog) keeps up with developments in Digital Radio Mondiale. He presented recordings of DRM shortwave transmissions from around the world. He was followed by Calvin Carter, Director of International Sales for Continental Electronics, who sits on the DRM Consortium’s steering board. Carter presented some off-air recordings of DRM test transmissions showcasing these near FM-quality broadcasts, and he gave NASB broadcasters news about the latest developments in DRM receivers. While DRM transmissions and receivers are still in the “chicken-and-egg” stage, technological developments in China and government pro-DRM initiatives in India still hold great promise for the medium in the coming months and years. Storms and their effects on antenna towers was the topic of a very graphic presentation by Mark Allen, Vice President of Rohn Tower Company, who showed striking photos of the damage that hurricanes, tornados and other natural phenomena can exact on broadcast antenna towers, especially sophisticated shortwave arrays. He also explained to broadcasters ways they can minimize the potential negative impacts on their antenna systems by these unavoidable acts of nature. The final presentation at NASB 2014 was given by Dr. Dowell Chow of Adventist World Radio, whose shortwave station KSDA in Guam recently inaugurated a new antenna for better coverage of Asia. Dr. Chow gave an overview of recent AWR developments around the globe. At the NASB business and board meetings on the final day, the current officers were re-elected for another one-year term: Brady Murray of WWCR as President, Charles Caudill of KVOH as Vice President, Jeff White of WRMI as Secretary-Treasurer, and Thais White of WRMI as Assistant Secretary-Treasurer. The NASB Board agreed to develop a mission statement for the Association and to work on updating its website, shortwave.org. It was announced that the NASB had accepted an offer by Radio Free Asia to host next year’s annual meeting at the RFA headquarters in Washington, DC on May 14-15, 2015. Details will soon be available on the NASB website and Facebook page (facebook/nasbshortwave). For more information, contact NASB Secretary-Treasurer Jeff White at radiomiami9@cs.
Posted on: Fri, 23 May 2014 04:47:05 +0000