Who really listens to all of this religious crap on shortwave radio. I can't imagine there's that

[RKP5637]

large an audience, and these transmitters are expensive to operate. I guess I just don't get it. Too bad most of it is lies, distortions and propaganda, and the US is on top of the heap.

[shenmue]

1. I live near Tampa, FL, and there are tons of Christian stations

Bad.

[RKP5637]

3. It must be that some people just gotta have something beyond themselves to believe in to give them

strength, I guess. Most of them are all about creating divisions. Anymore, religion IMO is just a code word for hatred.

[roamer65]

2. Get Sirius XM radio.

Over the air radio is garbage.

[RKP5637]

4. Internet radio is also quite good, something like 58,000 stations across the world for free.

That is what I use.

I just can't imagine people tuning into SW for religious broadcasts.

[HooptieWagon]

5. I think it's actually pretty cheap.

A SW transmitter has much greater range than a similar power AM or FM transmitter. A lot of remote areas in the Carribean, Central and South America have no reception of AM/FM or TV. And IIRC the licensing is much easier for a SW transmitter.

[RKP5637]

6. Hmmmm... I was just thinking. Likely they can broadcast large distances in the US on SW than the

limitations/regulations of FM/AM. Here is an interesting link ... https://lggagnon.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/the-religious-mess-that-is-shortwave-broadcast-radio-today/

But now back to the topic of this blog: the off-putting, blatantly Christian religious ultra-right wing garbage now being spouted off, particularly by USA based extremely wealthy religious nonsense shortwave stations. One has to really hear this garbage to believe it. These shortwave radio stations are polluting the airwaves with fundamentalist lies, political propaganda, fear-mongering and anything else insane that one could think of. It makes my blood boil the crap these stations emit. If you thought that some of the right wing AM radio stations in the USA are wing-nuts you really need to listen to shortwave to see just how mild they are in comparison. This is a summary of some of the lies transmitted by these stations:
– Christ will return in a Rapture on May 21, 2011
– President Obama is the AntiChrist
– global warming is not happening
– all peoples on earth who have not been born again into a life with Christ will burn in eternal hell-fire
– America is God’s Chosen Nation
– Evolution has not happened
– the earth is about 6000 years old
– science and reason are to be treated with great suspicion

What amazes me is the money that must go in to powering such stations. Let us analyze one typical example – and remember this is ONLY the money required to power one transmitter, not the entire station and ancillary services nor staff, nor rents etc. Assume a 500KW transmitter operating 12 hours per day, 365 days per year and the cost of electricity at 15cents per KWh. Also assume the transmitter is 70% efficient. The cost of electricity alone for just the one transmitter would be about $470,000 per year. That does not include any depreciation and eventual replacement costs for the final transmitter tubes. Many of the wealthier Christian stations have more than one transmitter. This translates to yearly budgets in the multi-million dollar category for just one station.

[dumbcat]

11. How much do you think

it would cost to run the 500kW transmitter described above?

I ran the calculation and came up with the same number the previous poster did.

How did you come up with something different?

[dontmatta]

12. well

a 500Kw transmitter is not neccesarily drawing 500Kw. 500Kw is the output power. There are step up transformers that step the power up, hence the name.

So basically, you are using a calculator to calculate the cost of the output power. To me, that makes absolutely no sense.

[jberryhill]

13. First off, SW bounces around the ionosphere

...so there's no need for 500kw.

Secondly, transformers do not "step up power"


The input power and output power of a transformer are identical (less some hysteresis loss).

A transformer can step up (or down) voltage. But he power: the product of voltage and current is the same on either side.

[dumbcat]

19. You are correct on both counts

500kW is very large for an HF (shortwave) broadcast transmitter. The Voice of America Greenville, NC facility had some, but they were the biggest in the world at the time.

The Greenville facilities became the most powerful international broadcaster in the world, in both physical size and radio frequency energy.[3] Each of the sites housed nine transmitters – three of 500,000 watts, three of 250,000 watts, and three of 50,000 watts.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Broadcasting_Bureau_Greenville_Transmitting_Station

500kW - 600kW transmitters are still the largest.

And of course you are correct about the transformers.

[dumbcat]

18. Really?

So basically, you are using a calculator to calculate the cost of the output power. To me, that makes absolutely no sense.

Of course I am calculating the cost of the output power, that's what we were talking about. And the output power is less than the input power due to inefficiency in the transmitter, and you also have to pay for the extra input power to make up the losses. (That was the transmitter efficiency of 70% part.) Unless somehow you think some of the power comes for free.

Don't give up your day job to design transmitters.

(BTW, I hold an FCC First Class Radiotelephone Operator's license, and Amateur Extra Class Amateur Radio license. I designed and evaluated high power HF transmitters for many years.)

[HooptieWagon]

9. There's a few errors in your calculations.

I'm not sure anyone broadcasts with 500kW. There's only a handful of stations that broadcast with 100-250 kW, and they're govt run stations from Moscow, Bejieng, Taiwan. The private stations broadcasting religious programming are more like 10kW or less. They are not world wide stations, and generally target a region in Central America or something.
Secondly, time of day drastically affects reception. Most stations only operate an hour or two a day when the signal propagation is good. The stations that operate longer have to switch frequencies several times a day.
Really, it's much cheaper than you think. Small transmitter, a couple hours a day, is practically pennies per month. That's why it's so popular with religious broadcasters...they don't need to reach that big and audience to get enough donations to cove costs.

[RKP5637]

10. Thanks!!!

[Initech]

14. DirecTV has something like 30 religious channels.

And they all broadcast the same bullshit and the televangelist crooks that Frank Zappa used to rail against. Who has time to watch all that crap?

[1939]

17. DirecTV has an amazing mnumber of channels

Fortunately, my remote has a channel selector so that I only watch the ones I want to watch.

[Monk06]

15. They're all Sovereigns, preppers and SHTFers A bunch of off the grid trailer home slackers

[kentauros]

16. Who? Brian Eno and David Byrne :)

"My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts"
Brian Eno and David Byrne
Original US Vinyl LP 1981