Shortwave from summits (and other misc. questions)

[BunnyEars]

I've been lurking over the past few days and unfortunately found out some asshole has ruined the reputation of rabbits around these parts of the web. I just wanted to assure everyone that I chose this name because I first got fascinated by radio from an old TV set back in the late 80s. I managed to pick up what I later found out what a pirate TV station on UHF channel 65 (IIRC) and spent many years attempting to tune it in again. Only to discover later on that it only broadcasted twice and I missed the first or second time it was on the air.

I'm not a fan of or even knew some old man that caused a lot of drama around here years ago until yesterday when I stumbled upon some blog posts about it while looking up information on transmitting on shortwave/mw. I'm just a fan of rabbits because they're cute and also because of this story about them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rabbit#East_Asian_folklore

I'm currently working towards getting my ham ticket after years of putting it off but the locals have been less than helpful and so have most of the people I've tried to talk to online in the usual 'legal' forums. Hence I ended up here. While talking to random people on the ham bands seems like it could be fun (but probably mostly boring from what I've heard over the years) my main intention with it was learning how radios work and eventually broadcasting.

To cut to the chase: I am interested in broadcasting a prepared weekly/monthly show on shortwave that includes a lot of music. I am pretty well versed in audio/video stuff when it comes to PC and networks. But I'm pretty much lost when it comes to broadcasting it over the air. My main interest in this comes from the fact that I fear broadcasting over the internet will become highly restricted soon (already is if you don't play ball by handing over your real ID) and I want to ensure I have a way to spew my own form of propaganda and the music I like to an audience after the internet is locked down tighter than it already is. As I expect the American internet to be more like China's in the very near future.

I'm not opposed to learning how to build my own transmitter and other hardware. I'm learning all I can at the moment. But I wanted to know what the state of things is now as far as buying a pre-built one and what people are using. How much power they're using. How far they're reaching out with the power they're using. What kind of antennas they're using etc. etc. I tried asking similar questions on the legal ham forums and basically got yelled at for no good reason. Then a bunch of old farts started quoting FCC regulations that I honestly don't care about and lecturing me on issues I didn't ask about. Getting a straight answer out of those folks seems impossible. It's like a bot stuck on repeat with them. People around here seem nicer from reading old posts. I hope the place is still active.

While I have a lot of room at home and can build pretty much whatever I want broadcasting from such a location didn't seem like the best idea. Thankfully, I really like hiking and there are several summits near by that I'm familiar with. My plan was to haul up what I needed on foot and broadcast from those locations over night when the park is "closed". I'd have a friend drop me off and come back the next morning when it re-opens or pay the small fee for a camp site. Then I'd haul my hardware up the mountain to the fire towers just before sunset, do my thing over night then come back down after first light. Does this sound like a good plan?

I'm just unsure how much all the stuff I'll need is going to weigh and if it's feasible for one person to carry it all. I'm wanting to broadcast on shortwave to reach the most listeners. I'm also wanting to broadcast in AM as opposed to SSB for the same reason and also because I'm worried about the sound quality. I plan to broadcast non-mainstream music that ranges from classical to jazz to electronic. Most of it probably hasn't been heard on the air before in America. I plan to pre-mix everything on my PC using a generated voice for announcements/news/DJ duties. It's widely known software that sounds good and is already used for the last 10-15 years to produce vocals for popular music. I'm pretty sure it'll sound fine. The goal with that was avoiding sending my real voice over the air and the hope that it couldn't be used to ID me later.

All that said batteries are heavy. So are generators. But I want to put out enough power to be heard. So I was hopeful some of you might have advice about those type of things. Since I have to do this on foot and might have at most one other person to help me carry it.

Searching for transmitters I saw a lot of discussion from about 10 years ago where people here were praising some 40-150watt transmitters someone here was building. But then there were reports of them catching fire. I was wondering if anyone is still using those or if another person made some that were safer and if any were still for sale. Or if I should focus more on building my own. What are the stations currently on the air and broadcasting using in 2025?

Aside from the usual legal issues would broadcasting from within a National Park add charges on top of any legal problems I'm already facing by doing this? My plan was to move around and do it from different summits. But I'll no doubt end up on the same one multiple times since there are only so many mountains within range of me by car. Do park rangers look for this type of thing? Do you think I could get away with claiming that my hardware was for ham stuff? I've heard a lot of hams are doing similar projects lately (SOTA I think they're called).

Any advice you could give in general would be helpful. I was first interested in AM/FM when I started looking into doing this again. I had a small station as a child that no one could hear on FM. Since I lived in a gully. I'm mainly interested in shortwave because I was hopeful more people might be able to hear it aside from the 2 or 3 that are probably in range of any legal set-up I could build.

[Charlie_Dont_Surf]

On HF (i.e., shortwave), the absolute height of the antenna doesn't matter much; what matters more is the height above the immediate local terrain. That is, an HF antenna in Denver, Colorado (at 5280 feet/1609 meters altitude) mounted ten feet/three meters above the local ground will be roughly as effective as the same antenna in New Orleans, Louisiana (roughly sea level) that is also mounted ten feet/three meters above local ground. (Forgetting for a second about the fact that southern Louisiana has rich, relatively conductive soil and Denver's rocky soil is relatively poor in that regard.)
 
HF is not like VHF/UHF TV or FM broadcast where height above, not just local terrain but "extended" local terrain, is everything. TV broadcast antennas are on tall building, or even mountains, that can see everything around because these frequencies are reliably useful at line of sight only. That doesn't change if the antennas are meant to be used in Denver or New Orleans; they still have to be up high.

So climbing up a hill to make an HF antenna there won't help the cause very much, but if you are worried about "prying eyes" or interfering with your neighbor's guitar amplifier(s), then getting away from all that can be of strong value. The caveat is that, if going up into a remote area forces you to put up a cruddy compromise antenna that is barely off the ground, then it's a waste of time.

HF antennas are a large topic and I don't claim to be an expert. Start out with something simple like a dipole or a wire fed against ground (now popularly called "the end-fed half wave") and as you learn more maybe you can get into something more complicated. Expect to make some mistakes along this journey. The key thing is to get the damn thing above the ground directly underneath it, as high as practical.

Yes, hams do go up on hilltops and mountains (called Summits on the Air [SOTA]) or just into a some sort of park (county park, state park, even national parks) and this is called Parks on the Air [POTA]. While I can't speak for all areas and jurisdictions, I'm going to say don't worry too much about a ranger coming across you or your antenna. If you hide it well, chances are it will survive. Especially now, the US Park Service has been cut so much that I'm going to say that the rangers have their hands even more full than they already were before 20 January, 2025. Worst case, make the antenna disposable. If some asshole cuts it down, you won't be out $1000 and you just put up a new one.

Also, the Federal Communications Commission, the folks who might actually "bust" you for pirating in the US, have been so withered and emasculated in the last ten to fifteen years, even before Trump's wanton hacking and slashing, that they focus almost exclusively on FM pirates in three large cities (NYC, Boston and Miami) and HF isn't something they think about much.

One more thing to say about this - SOTA (and maybe POTA?) involve non-permanent, easy to put up and down compromise antennas that aren't fantastically efficient but they are better than nothing. (Example, the "end-fed" referenced earlier a few feet off the rocky top of a mountain, with one counterpoise wire, for example.) What "works" for a guy scurrying up a mountain to operate CW (Morse Code) on a frequency and time schedule that is 1) published ahead of time on the internet, 2) to chasers who are waiting by the radio with headphones ready to pick a weak Morse signal out of the noise is not really appropriate for an shortwave broadcaster on AM. There are orders of magnitude difference in terms of necessary signal-to-noise ratio required for your audience to just "kinda, sorta" hear you. The takeaway from this paragraph is that don't expect to copy a ham's SOTA setup and expect it to work well for your needs.

So what does work? Well, I'm glad that you asked. Some currently active North American and European pirates use something on the order of a 10-25 Watt transmitter (AM or single-sideband) and a dipole antenna at approximately 20-30 feet (~6-9 meters) above the ground from a fixed location, generally their domicile. (Many also use more than this too.) This doesn't make them a large international broadcaster (e.g., China Radio International) but it does make then an effective regional broadcaster., with a listenable signal under normal conditions out to ~ 600 miles/1000 km and less effective outside of that. Going beyond that requires another order of magnitude in terms of power and/or antenna. If you are hauling batteries up a mountain, take that into consideration.

[redhat]

Charlie, I know you can't help yourself, but please keep the politics to yourself.  This a technical forum.

That said, all the above points are valid.  Your mileage will also vary depending on the distance to your target, time of day, frequency, and type of transmit antenna employed.  It should be mentioned that some antennas are less forgiving of surrounding terrain than others.  A vertical, for example, has a low angle of radiation.  If you are in a steep valley, or next to some bluffs, a chunk of your radiated signal will hit the cliffs, hills, etc and not make its way toward your intended target.  Under these conditions, a dipole would be a better choice.

Also, if your interested in broadcasting, I would recommend you forgo getting a ham ticket and focus on your efforts in free radio.  Many hams are of the dudley do-right variety and will harp on you about such things, especially playing music.

Modern solid state transmitter technology has evolved to the level that a transmitter in the 150W range can be about the size of a lunch box and run on battery power.  Modern yard power equipment also has large lithium batteries that can run such a transmitter for an hour or so.  Anything beyond that is going to require more batteries, or something less practical like a generator.  This may require a rethink of strategy, or locale.

+-RH