I just tried them. Nothing but static. Doesn't mean they're not there, but I can't get them from my perch in northern North York at the moment. 

mjf wrote:

They used to transmit 24/7 on 6070 KHz with 1 kW. I assume that hasn't changed.

yes, still there on 6070kHz
 

RadioActive wrote:

I wonder how much it costs to keep CFRX on the air and why a penny-pinching company like Bell is spending the money to leave it there. 

Probably about $15 per day for electricity.  I would imagine they will keep it going until the TX fails (although I seem to recall it was replaced not so long ago)
 

CFCF out of Montreal use to broadcast on SW. CKMX Calgary aka Funny 1060, is still on the air but with only 100 watts. If fact, the transmitter was recently repaired and put back on the air. It is to bad they did not take the time to change the frequency. There are a lot of stations on 6030kHz

Radiowiz wrote:

In Phase wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

I wonder how much it costs to keep CFRX on the air and why a penny-pinching company like Bell is spending the money to leave it there. 

Probably about $15 per day for electricity.  I would imagine they will keep it going until the TX fails (although I seem to recall it was replaced not so long ago)
 

A wild guess that it's a lot less than that, but it also might be a nice tax write off for Bell.  

I didn't use a WAG  (well, not a total guess).  I did try to apply some math
Assuming peak hydro costs 0.17 per kW hour, and the TX is only 30% efficient (3kW total consumption for all the gear), the cost would be about (0.17 x 3) 0.51 per hour x 24 hours = $12.24 per day.

Hydro costs vary during the day, output varies with modulation, and there is other equipment in the rack so, I think my estimate is somewhat reasonable.  The cost of hydro will get buried in the total cost at the site which would be substantially higher than the shortwave TX.

Not sure why you would think its a tax write off?

 

Tim Brown 2016 wrote:

CFRX transmitter in late 2018.

I had to look much closer when I saw the "reflected power" meter at almost 100% F.S. then I noticed the "50 watt" notation.
900 watts output with 45 watts coming back is "OK" but not great (SWR = 1.58).
I guess that's the best they can get with their current setup
 

Is this a view from Royal Windsor or am I thinking of a different TX site?

RadioActive wrote:

The only other commercial private radio station that operated a shortwave station in Canada was CHNS in Halifax, where CHNX (6.110) was on the air for many years, staring in 1931. It ceased broadcasting in 2001, when the owners understandably didn't want to pay the freight for a new transmitter. It's been off the air ever since. 

I wonder how much it costs to keep CFRX on the air and why a penny-pinching company like Bell is spending the money to leave it there. 

This has been largely forgotten but in the 1930s, especially, there were several private Shortwave stations (mostly repeaters) - not intended as international stations but in an attempt to more cheaply reach areas like northern Ontario, northern Quebec, large parts of the Prairies etc. 

Here are some examples, culled from Wikipedia:

CFCX (previously VE9DR) was the shortwaver relay for the venerable CFCF in Montreal and its intended audience was the rest of Quebec outside of Montreal. It continued to relay CFCF into the 1990s (and remained CFCX even after CFCF changed its call to CIQC) and then switched to being a repeater for CKOI-FM in the mid or late 90s before the sw transmitter died, and was not replaced, in 1999 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CINW#Shortwave_relay

CFVP (Voice of the Prairies) at 6.03 MHz in the 49 metre band still exists and is the SW repeater for Funny 1060 (CKMX) in Calgary. It began airing in 1931 as the repeater for CKMX's predecessor, CFCN with the intention of begin heard across western Canada. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFVP

CHNX began in 1931 as VE9HX and was the repeater for CHNS in Halifax. It's moment of fame occured in 1936 when it broadcast Frank Wills's hourly updates of the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose_River_Gold_Mines,_Nova_Scotia#1936_disaster]Moose River mine disaster[/url] across North America. VE9HX's relay of CHNS's updates were simulcast not only across the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CBC's predecessor) but by the BBC and stations across the US in what was the first example of live 24 hour broadcast coverage of a breaking news story in Canada and one of the first (if not the first) examples in North America. CHNX went off the air in 2000 when its transmitter failed and was not replaced. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHNS-FM#Shortwave_relay

CKFX was the shortwave relay of CKWX in Vancouver (which is now CityNews 1130). Its signal was aimed at northern BC, the BC coastal communites with no AM service, remote parts of Vancouer Island, and the Yukon and broadcast from 1929 until it was deleted by the CRTC in 2007 upon request of Rogers Broadcasting after an "extended silence" due to its SW transmitter "no longer being in operation". https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2007/db2007-171.htm So it sounds like another example of an old trasmitter failing and not being replaced. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CKWX#Shortwave_CKFX

Additionally there were several SW stations that started off as private broadcasters but were inherited by CBC:

CKZN in St. John's began as VONG and VONH, two SW relays of =13pxVONF aimed at remote areas of Newfoundland and Labrado. It became CBNX when VONF became the CBC's CBN in 1949 and then CKZN in 1965 due to the fact that the CB- prefix is actually allocated to Chile. In 1989 it became the SW relay of  CFGB-FM in Goose Bay, Labrador and continues to this day on 6.16 MHz in the 49 metre band. In 2017 after the CBC switched it off on an experimental basis - to see if anyone would notice! It's actually unclear if it's still on the air or not - perhaps someone with a SW receiver can check 6.16 and see if they can find anything? https://swling.com/blog/tag/ckzn/ (this post from 2018 suggests it's not  https://www.flickr.com/photos/flipflik/40171684341, but the CRTC renewed its license this year so perhaps it was just a matter of taking time to replace the transmitter? https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2021/2021-266.htm

VE9GW was a SW station in Bowmanville starated in 1930 by Gooderham & Worts  as a relay for CKGW in Toronto with its signal aimed at northern Ontario, northern Manitoba and the Canadian Arctic. While it mostly repeated CKGW programming, it also aired an original show, the International Short Wave Club, aimed at reeling in adherents of the new hobby of DXing that was taking North America by storm. When CKGW was leased by the CRBC, it became a CRBC sw station and carried some specialized programming such as Northern Messenger, a mailbag programme that was a lifeline to people in the far north - allowing relatives and friends in the south to send urgent messages over the winter when mail service was unavialable. VE9GW became CRCX in 1935 when CKGW became CRCT. It and its sister station were purchased by the CBC in 1937. CRCT became CBL and CRCX was shut down in 1938.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBLA-FM#Shortwave_relay_(VE9GW/CRCX) 

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBC_North#Northern_Messenger

Never private, but: CKZU was the relay for CBU in Vancouver. It started in 1941 and was deleted in 2017 as the transmitter was in disrepair and replacement parts were unavailable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBU_(AM)#Shortwave_relay [link isn't working properly - go to CBU (AM) on wikipedia]

Last edited by Hansa (October 20, 2021 5:17 pm)

In Phase wrote:

mike marshall wrote:

Is this a view from Royal Windsor or am I thinking of a different TX site?

yes, looking from Royal Windsor 

Thanks, In Phase.
 

Fascinating stuff Hansa! Thanks for the research!

The one I remember best was WRNO in New Orleans. It was an FM station, until one day in the early 80s, its owner, a guy named Joseph Costello if memory serves, decided to put the station on shortwave, with the idea of actually programming it separately at times through paid programming to make some more money. 

It didn't last all that long, but boy it was fun to listen to while it lasted. Needless to say, I sent away for the T-shirt! I have no idea if it's still around, but wow, you can imagine tuning around the SW dial with all its propaganda from various countries, the religious broadcasters and all the foreign language stations, only to lock onto a progressive rock simulcast from New Orleans. 

Today, you could use the net to do that. Back then, it was a totally unique experience.

I remember WRNO as well as Radio Clandestine which specialized in stoner rock, as I recall. 

https://shortwavearchive.com/archive/radio-clandestine-1980s

I was a big fan of WRUL and in its later stages WNYW - Radio New York Worldwide.  It broadcast from NYC with a transmitter in Scituate Mass.   One of the staff announcers was Les Marshak.  He was for many years the voice over announcer on major award shows including the Tony Awards.  Here is a link to a good website, with an aircheck from Sept 1971 - just over 50 years ago.  The music was "current" though today it would be an adults standard sound.  WNYW was owned for a while by Bonneville (Mormon Church).  I listened to it in the 50's and 60's, and for a while it had lots of the British Invasion music.   Also a Jazz show with John Anthony Zee. 

wnyw-19m-sw-radio-new-york-worldwide-sunday-12th-september-1971

I'd never heard of WNYW as a shortwave radio station, but I wish I had. Those are now the call letters of Fox O&O Channel 5 in New York City. 

As for Les Marshak, I had no idea he was ever on SW. But what a story he is. He entered a WABC "Star Search" contest in the 60s, looking for the next big announcer. Despite thousands of competitors, he won, even as was still in college studying pharmacy - a diploma he eventually earned. 

He was allowed to hang around ABC during its 60s heyday and got on the air occasionally. But it was one night in 1969 that forever changed his life - and he wasn't even responsible for it. 

It happened when WABC DJ Roby Yonge was doing the all-night show, a program that, with the station's incredible signal, could be heard in about 30 states and Canada. The rule at 77 was non-stop music. Instead, Yonge - knowing and even saying what he was about to do would cost him his job - began going on a rant about the "evidence" that Paul McCartney was dead. Needless to say, the phones went crazy - more than 300 calls came into the station while Yonge prattled on, all the while predicting his own on-air demise.

For much of the night, he talked endlessly about the myth between the records, citing what he called proof of the Beatle's death and replacement. It might have been 2 or 3 in the morning, but word got back to PD Rick Sklar, who was awakened, told what was going on over the air, and phoned the young kid Marshak in the pitch blackness of a stormy night and told him to get dressed and head over to WABC immediately. It was an emergency. 

Not long after, Sklar entered the building, raced to the studio, and fired Yonge on the spot while the news was on, leaving Marshak to take his place. It was to be the escalation of an incredible career. Marshak has since become one of the greatest voiceover artists in the business, announcing the Today show intros, and doing the honours at the Emmys, the Grammys, the Tonys, the Oscars and most NBC Sports openings. 

And some of that can be traced to the night Roby Yonge wouldn't shut up and play the music. 

You can hear that momentous WABC broadcast here, with Marshak suddenly turning up at the end, crying BS on all the info that went before. And pleading with people to "please stop calling."

The retrospective of his career, below, has a small segment involving WRUL.

In the late 1960s I was living in Owen Sound. There was no FM radio and just one local AM that played mostly country music. For anything more professional sounding I relied mostly on CFRB, which, in those days, played music. But it was always plagued with noise and local interference.

But then there was WNYW. Big city radio and crystal clear. I was a big fan.