Author: Anker Petersen
One of the most invaluable reference
sources you can have on the desk next to your radio is, without
a doubt, the indispensable Domestic Broadcasting Survey produced
by the Danish Shortwave Club International. Edited once again
by Anker Petersen, the latest 5th edition was released in May
2003, runs to a massive 48 pages, and should be considered by
every serious DXer.
I had a chance to review this latest
DBS while away from home recently for a long weekend holiday,
with trusty radio in tow! At various times of the day and night
I checked out many of the frequencies listed in the document and
found it to be of great accuracy. In fact, for some Latin broadcasters,
accurate quotations of the station identifications were even listed,
which in more than one case proved to be invaluable when comparing
with what I was actually monitoring at the time.
The list is made up of actual monitored reports by DXers around
the world. For me, this is what makes the survey such an invaluable
resource. It is not just some government or broadcasting authority's
view of what should be on frequency, but accurate loggings
by people who constantly scan the bands for this information.
Added to this is the coded listing of activity for each station
by regular, sporadic or likely inactive, which really
helps confirm to which station you are probably listening.
The survey is jammed-packed with useful information on languages,
transmission times, the broadcaster's network, parallel frequencies,
announcements, locations, transmitter power and a host of other
tips. There is also a special listing of those Indonesian provinces
and special districts that help to accurately locate stations
on those far-flung islands to the north of Australia.
I particularly found interesting the
list of stations deleted from previous editions of DBS. It was
fascinating, and rather alarming, to see so many stations, particularly
Latin broadcasters leaving the tropical bands. This list of deleted
stations from DBS-2, -3 and -4 runs for four closely typed pages.
Unfortunately, this section is a large and growing reference.
However, it is also a handy feature of the DBS, for occasionally
stations can suddenly be reactivated without warning. If you keep
past copies of the Survey for reference purposes, study of these
can reveal when the station was last heard and its previous operating
schedule. This is very useful information for that all-important
logging of a reactivated broadcaster.
It must also be mentioned that there
is an excellent review of domestic broadcasts on the higher frequencies
outside the tropical bands. This detailed analysis of non-international
shortwave broadcasts puts DBS in a league of its own.
Congratulations to Anker Peterson and
the Danish Shortwave Club International for, once again, producing
such a fine resource. Their foresight in electing to make the
document available by email in a PDF format ensures that the Domestic
Broadcasting Survey gets into the hands of DXers for a reasonable
price.
For further details and ordering arrangements,
please visit http://www.dswci.org
(Rob Wagner VK3BVW)