It's out! The 1999 World Radio TV Handbook's 640 pages (up from 608 last year and 560 in 1997) makes it the largest, and I think, most indispensible guidebook available to the international radio monitor. It is 1 ½ inches thick! I certainly couldn't do without it, even in this age of Internet sources providing immediate news of new DX catches.
My first impression of WRTH 1999 is of a neater, brighter package. Side-bars on the pages should make for quicker navigation to the required section. All feature articles are included in the first 64 pages printed on glossy paper with generous use of colour. More new receivers than ever are reviewed, and in a more populist, less technically oriented manner. Gee, its so up to date that current receiver prices are even listed in Euros (as well as USD and UK£ currencies)! A welcome addition is a 6 page article on Antennas by Joseph Carr. The station listings by continent, country and frequency are all there, and a number of other new features which I'll mention further on. As one who mainly DX's for 'target stations, what makes WRTH so valuable to me is the country by country listing of radio stations on longwave, medium wave, FM and TV, together with sites, frequencies, powers, schedules, languages and addresses. But I must admit I wasn't happy when the International Radio detail by country was first split off from the National or Local country listings in 1997. That approach continues. For example, details of New Zealand medium wave and FM stations are found on pages 239-242, while shortwave details on Radio NZ International are on page 599. We always had the TV listings split - for NZ they are on page 422. Dear old ZLXA, as a non-international directed shortwave service, is wedged between the MW and FM listings. I think WRTH should consolidate all this data, by country in the traditional format.
A little niggle - over half the space on the single Contents page (there were 2-pages last year) lists the page-by-page location of the 14 receiver reviews, so there is no room to detail the contents of the 16-page 'Reference' section at the back. That contains the table of World Time by Country (pity it wasn't adjacent to a useful new colour-coded Time Zone Map on page 56), Abbreviations, detailed International and Religious Broadcasting Organisation listings, DX Club details and so on.
Another change: this year a smaller typeface has been used for the frequency listing 'Shortwave Stations of the World', condensing into 23 pages what took 27 pages in last years edition. On the other hand, all the 'Long and Mediumwave Stations' listings are in the same typeface as 1998 but with better clarity due improved line spacing throughout. There's even a bonus country-by-country MW listing for Europe, Africa, Near and Middle East, making a total of 100 pages, compared with 74 pages in 1998. Even though I have been a frequent user of these pages as an international MW DXer, I will nevertheless be writing to the WRTH Editor suggesting that improving the clarity of the Shortwave frequency listing should satisfy more readers in future.
Talking of the Editor, I must point out that this is the first WRTH under new Editor David Bobbett, and the book is all the more meritorious for that. While there some emails circulating that point out errors in, for example, the Australian MW listings, the fact remains that this is an awesome undertaking, and without peer as an information source for any broadcasting junkie like me. It is incumbent upon DX and SWL enthusiasts like ourselves to feed updates to WRTH so that such minor errors can be rectified next time and thus retain WRTH's claim to be "the world's most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to broadcasting'". We all know that radio stations are no longer proactive in responding to DX listeners, so are unlikely to be proactive in notifying WRTH themselves.
And if you're not already convinced at the value of having WRTVH 1999 to aid your hobby, there's the added attraction of being eligible to win the very latest JRC NRD545 semi-professional communications receiver by returning the WRTH 1999 Questionnaire before 30 April 1999. Plus the 5 runner-ups will receive the 2000 edition of WRTH. If you haven't used the WRTH before or not updated your edition for years, this would be a good time to take the plunge. Worth every penny I reckon!
BRYAN CLARK My review first appeared in the January 1999 issue of NZ DX Times, P.O.Box 3011, Auckland, New Zealand (Send US$2 for sample magazine copy)
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