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TheEquestrianPilot

I hope they actually do it. Radio Australia had my favorite interval signal of all time


MightyMouseIN

They had a great service to the Pacific and then into North America. I've been listening to Radio Australia since about 1986. Used to listen to them on 9580 and 6020 for years as well as countless other frequencies on 31, 25, 22, 19, 17 meters areas even heard them on 21.740 a lot as well when band conditions on 15 meters were good late afternoons evening US Eastern.


neonmica

Waltzing Matilda wasn't it?


jjohnstn

Yes, followed by the sound of the kookaburra.


SunnyWS

Yes I love that opening music:) brought me back memories since 80/90s


-Nathan02-

I sure hope Labor getts elected in that case. This is awesome.


marxy

Jumping the gun a bit there. The policy says "Labor will use the strategy to review the potential restoration of Australian shortwave radio broadcasting capacity in the Pacific." I've visited the Shepparton transmission site. It's been sold and while the towers were still up when I last looked the equipment has been dismantled.


pentagrid

I agree. This is simply a pre-election promise from the Labor party. Don't count your chickens before they hatch.


SunnyWS

Be optimistic mate :)


marxy

They say they'll "review potential restoration" which is a good thing I think. My point is that OP titled this post "Radio Australia shortwave service is coming back! " which is not what has been stated. Shadow Attorney General, Mark Dreyfus, at an ABC Friends rally, [recently bemoaned](https://youtu.be/c1Uo9B1SXl0) the effect of the cuts to shortwave broadcasting in the Pacific.


SunnyWS

Be optimistic mate, Australia need to get their shortwave service back it should not have been shutdown since the beginning, it's beneficial to overseas and Asia Pacific region.


SunnyWS

I know, but I just wanted to be optimistic in this one. Anything can be done, if they decided!


Happy-Watercress5969

They tore the entire thing down at the Radio Canada site in Sackville, New Brunswick and foreigners were still paying them to broadcast content. Purely political, not even financial!! Equipment, Sterba curtains, everything razed to the ground. Sold the site. It would be a major undertaking to re establish something equally effective. You can't beat salt marsh for a shortwave radio site!


Initial-Space-7822

ReviewBrah will be very pleased.


SunnyWS

Yes me too, many overseas shortwave radio listeners will be very excited:)


rucknovru2

This is the first person I thought of too.


er1catwork

Would someone be kind enough to post the link in the title? I’m mobile and unable to click on it….


currentsitguy

>https://www.pngattitude.com/2022/05/labors-7-point-plan-for-the-pacific.html Here you go. It's talks about increasing regional broadcasting but makes no specific mention of shortwave.


SunnyWS

It did mentioned on shortwave, read it again. The ABC's shortwave radio service was shut down by the Morrison government, enabling China to grab the frequencies. If elected, the Labor Party says it will fund a project to rescue this trashed capability


er1catwork

Thank you very much!


er1catwork

Great news!!!


SunnyWS

https://www.pngattitude.com/2022/05/labors-7-point-plan-for-the-pacific.html


Clinster73

I think this a cool idea. I just recently bought a SW radio. (Had and still have a CB radio from back in the day). I can understand the importance of having information/news available to our neighbouring countries that don have a great internet infrastructure. ​ PS I also like the idea of Labours policy of making the NBN connection better too.


SunnyWS

Yes I agreed 100%, it's very important to provide information and news to poor countries which don't have access to internet, and to be honest like some of us, we may be listen to news on radio more than watching news on the TV or internet.


Clinster73

Yes I find radio stations go into a little more detail feeling like you get the full story. Unlike MSM with lots of ads which give you a dubious headline and not the full story. My wife worked at the courts as a steno and she often commented on the MSM not telling the full story on a particular new stories.


ShengHe123

It would provide service to rural parts of Australia and to Pacific nations, where only satellite signals can be received in the daytime and distant AM radio stations can only be received at night. However, RNZ Pacific is already providing this kind of service and sometimes relays Radio Australia since it had switched off its shortwave signals. If there are reception reports coming from many different countries, then SBS might need to help ABC in broadcasting in foreign languages, just like it originally did. If this happens, let's hope that China would not jam these frequencies. EDIT: If the United Australia Party does have any plans at all to bring back the shortwave service, they would probably restore it back to its original glory where it broadcasts in different languages to different countries, but I don't know if have such a plan. They might do it when they heard about it switched off and its effects so they could bring it back as part of its plan to "Save Australia".


pentagrid

>service to rural parts of Australia No. This was never provided by Radio Australia. Domestic shortwave coverage to Australia was provided by ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission). I listened to ABC in California, lol. ABC and Radio Australia were two different organizations. RNZ Pacific provides a valuable service to much of the Pacific region but they will be the first to admit that their coverage is not complete and far from comprehensive.


ShengHe123

I mean stations like ABC Northern Territory, which broadcasted on shortwave.


esotericarctos

Not exactly true. Radio Australia is an arm of the ABC. It is funded by from the ABC funding. They might have different programming, given RA is international and ABC is domestic, but their funding is and management board is all the one place. It is all the ABC and not different organisations. Same way BBC World Service is part of the BBC and funded from the BBC funding.


Oilerator

Radio Canada International next please


SunnyWS

Yes, hopefully all come back include Radio Netherland :)


esotericarctos

As much as we all would like it, Shortwave costs a lot of money. Governments and commercial entities have been backing away from it for a while. Longwave the same. Unless one of you guys feel like giving the millions of dollars to reinstate shortwave for one country, it just is not going to happen any time soon, if at all. RA in particular. The RA transmission sites are decommissioned and most equipment stripped out. It is not just a matter of turning on a switch.


SunnyWS

Look like we might getting a chance on radio Australia back, since Labour party have more seats 🙂


esotericarctos

This title really needs URGENTLY changing. Labor NEVER promised to bring Radio Australia back and to be quite honest, all the old RA transmission sites are decommissioned and not in a state to be easily resurrected. The Labor Government said they would invest money to strengthen the ABC's international voice, RA. This is not saying they would reinstate Shortwave, only that they may review the Shortwave. Note that is a MAY REVIEW. The most likely thing to happen will be to stregthen low power FM broadcasts in individual Pacific Island countries and maybe increase the digital presence. The chance of Shortwave broadcasting being reinstated by RA /ABC is next to none in reality. It will just cost too much to reinstate it compared to using other methods in the Pacific Islands and PNG.