NEW DIRECTIONS RADIO

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Copthorne Macdonald is the inventor of
slow-scan television . . . a method of
amateur radio transmission that allows
ham operators to both hear and see
each other during shortwave
broadcasts.

ALTERNATIVE NEWS NET

George Wood—an ex-Californian now living near Stockholm—works as a broadcaster and editor for Radio Sweden. Not long ago, George got his ham license (his call sign is SMØIIN), and now he's the northernmost and easternmost member of our New Directions family.

Last winter—about the time "cabin fever" was starting to affect us both—George and I began getting together on the air for weekly 3,200-mile chats. (Ham radio is excellent medicine for the winter doldrums. And believe me, you get your share of winter doldrums when you live on a cold, windy island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence—as I do—or at the 59° latitude of Stockholm!) During one of the exchanges that resulted, George made a very exciting suggestion: Why not take advantage of improving radio conditions (see New Directions Radio, MOTHER N0. 50) to launch a 15-meter alternative news and information net? I'll let George elaborate:

"The wire services and TV networks have managed to tie the world together in a web of technology. The Establishment News Media—by using cable, point-to-point microwaves, satellites, facsimile, and other techniques—can carry news instantly from the farthest corner of the globe to our television screens and the front pages of our newspapers. Which is all fine and good. The catch is that it's their news. . . it's what NBC, ABC, and CBS—and AP and UPI—think is important. That's why we're inundated with accounts of Washington's political games, freak weather developments, train wrecks, and terrorist hijackings.

"But how much news do we ever get on alternatives to mainstream politics, or on new projects that threaten the environment, or on the oppression and misery that drive people to commit acts of terror? Not much, if you ask me. Yet I think it's possible—as the alternative press and a scattering of innovative radio stations, commercial and non-commercial, have shown—to bring this kind of news to the public's attention. And I think amateur radio can aid in the dissemination of this news. What we need is an alternative in. formation network' made up of hams from all parts of the world.

"What is 'alternative information' or' alternative news'? The simplest answer is that it's whatever the establishment news media leave out. Alternative news may be stories about food additives that've recently been shown to cause illness, new threats to the environment, reports of torture or other human rights violations in foreign lands, protests against nuclear energy, etc. You can find examples of the kind of news I'm talking about in the 'Organic World' section of Organic Gardening and Farming, the 'Earth Watch' section of New Age, and MOTHER's 'Bits and Pieces'. There's no shortage of 'alternative news stories' to be covered.