The Church and Shortwave or satellite broadcasting

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cannona-p40
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The Church and Shortwave or satellite broadcasting

#1

Post by cannona-p40 »

In the 1930's, the Church applied for a license from the FCC to establish a shortwave station. That application appears to have been rejected. However, I wonder if the idea wouldn't warrent further exploration. I realize that shortwave, at least in the States, and many other countries, is an ancient technology sixty years out of style. However, in other countries, it is still a viable means of communication.

The Church has a few options. We could apply for a license and start our own station, buy an existing station, or purchase airtime on an established station. The first and second options would allow the most flexibility because we could broadcast what we want when we want. The latter option would probably be the least expensive; we could for example buy blocks of time twice a year to broadcast general conference and so forth.

There's an article discussing this a bit further at http://www.cumorah.com/bestprograms.htm

We might also look into an agreement with World Space Sattelite Radio. http://www.worldspace.com.

Thoughts?

If I had a couple million, I'd do it my self.

Aaron
The_Earl
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#2

Post by The_Earl »

The old analog TV spectrum is up for bid :).

Oh, you don't have $4.6M+.

On a serious note, could this be handled on Amateur Radio? At least as a pilot, the church could set up a special event station for such a thing. I know the FCC prohibits "broadcasting", but I don't know if it would be possible under other regulatory bodies. I think most shortwave radios can hear HAM bands as well.

And I read your article. You can subtract 1 from the 'Watchtower' subscriptions in the US. I seem to have gotten on the list somehow. :)
cannona-p40
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#3

Post by cannona-p40 »

Interesting idea. I don't know whether that would work or not; it would depend on the country.

I think you're right about the shortwave receivers. In fact, I just ordered a Kenwood TH-F6A, and it even receives the shortwave freqs, though not very well unless you use an external antenna.

By the way, that wasn't my article; just something interesting I stumbled across a while ago.
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JamesAnderson
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#4

Post by JamesAnderson »

Someone had a shortwave station out of Salt Lake for a few years back in the late 80s and in the 90s sold it to Trinity Broadcasting Network, and before they sold it to TBN they used it to broadcast a few Church events, like General Conference.

But such a thing is quite expensive, you have to run it with millions of watts, and have tower arrays set up well away from the studio sometimes.

On satellite radio, BYU Radio has run some surveys on it, about whether one would take a subscription to XM or Sirius if they got BYU Radio on that. Once it was just a quick survey, with just that question, and more recently it was one question in a larger survey they did over the holidays.

Somewhere I've heard that BYU Radio gets an hour on a Digital Radio Mondiale station in Europe, haven't confirmed that one yet. It may be a shortwave station also. I'm wondering if BYU Radio has ever given thought to the idea of building and running a full station ever.

HD Radio is becoming more widely available, this year some car companies are going to make it standard on OEM equipment installed in new cars. Some tabletop models exist as well, handheld units may come as early as later this year, and replacement car head units are also becoming more widely available. How that works: A digital signal is piggybacked on the existing analog signal, and right now it can be split into at least three channels, most stations are only using two. KBYU-FM HD1 is KBYU-FMs regular programming, while KBYU-FM HD2 is airing BYU Radio. Once they get to the point they can do a full digital conversion like they are doing with TV, each station will be capable of running at the top end from five to eight separate channels on the present frequency bandwidth.
sammythesm
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#5

Post by sammythesm »

The book "David O McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism" has some great details regarding the church's interest and pursuit of shortwave radio. If I remember right, President McKay was a huge proponent of securing the shortwave station and broadcasting conference via shortwave.

I think, especially given the current economy, the church just couldn't justify the expense of owning and operating a shortwave radio station. It probably would serve less than 5% of the church's population. Moving forward, the internet will be much more important and pervasive than shortwave could ever be.
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MayaML
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#6

Post by MayaML »

OK gus I am not even trying to hide my ignorance here... but ... her ein Finland all car radios usually listen to FM .. (is that short?)... I suppose waves :D. I just wrote in my MGF mormonismi forum that I was listening to a religious station (I often listen to that as the language in the other is not bearable and somgs are pretty) I think it is pentacostals. I just wish we were allowed to have program in our language in the waves that are heard in Finland AND in Estland and Carelian, where there are a lot of people who do speak Finnish. Not mentioning all those smal "tribes" around Russia that speak a language family to Finnish. (And NO Russian is coser to English than Finnish).
I am a voluntere to be a voice in the new Finnish MAP Radio :D... a LOT of music, a lot of translated conferance speaches... maybe even meetings as there are sometimes over 20 miles to the closest church, even commersials I can try to get there, even play them in myself with a little help from my friends.
As a youth I should have taken radio as my work... but I did not. I was quite a popular discjokey then.... in dances. Just contact me... when can we start ... :p
Well I have 2 cousins that are radioamateurs (OH2BR and ?) I used to listen to pop radios all over the world.
It would be so great to get the word available in Scandinavia+Finland too. Here we do NOT get any sending time in the stateradio... ALL other "cristians " do! :mad:
Doing what I can....
http://www.youtube.com/user/LDSML

How ever Finland is a VERY high tecnological country and I think a nettradio would be a good sollution too. Many car radioes connect at least to MP players and some to cellphones.. so internett radio sounds great... how can I put one up?
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#7

Post by russellhltn »

Maya wrote:all car radios usually listen to FM .. (is that short?)
In a word, no. Short waves are the radio frequencies between 3,000 and 30,000 kHz. (AM is around 530 to 1600 kHz and FM is 88 to 108 MHz. So short wave is between the two.)

The "big thing" about Short Wave is that it can travel very long distances. Depending on time of day and atmospheric conditions, it can go around the world. It is frequently used to reach into countries where a political view or organization is not allowed. However, unless you have a Short Wave radio, you can't hear it.

While FM is nice, it's a valuable (and therefore expensive) commercial property with a limited range.

Both forms of communication have been around for 50+ years. If the church hasn't invested buying stations to spread the word, then I can only conclude that the church considers it not the most effective use of funds.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
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MayaML
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#8

Post by MayaML »

Thanks. I am just teaching a lady who is from Iran and become a cristian as she was listening to a station from Germany sending christian stuff. Her sister was also babtised about a month a go to lutheran religion, where she also is a member, but she dont like that lutheran church. Radiowaves taht crosses certain borders may be useful in countries that use shortwaves.... Finland does not any specially. Now even books are going on the internett and they do hardly print a book!
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