I do not understand. Is ham radio the only legal way to broadcast on shortwave radio? I mean for a "regular" person, not a million dollar radio station. I saw lots of shortwave broadcasting equipment, but it all looks like it is illegal to use because of the FCC rules. As far as I know, LPFM isn't an option, and I am not interested in a CB. This is for hobby interests.
Edit: Is amateur radio the same as ham radio? I saw a lot of references to AR on here.
In USA.
is HAM the only legal way to broadcast on shortwave radio?
No. An Amateur Radio ("ham") license doesn't even allow you to broadcast.
In most jurisdictions, including the US-American one, amateur radio is restricted to directed communication.
I saw lots of shortwave broadcasting equipment, but it all looks like it is illegal to use because of the FCC rules.
Well, for broadcasting you'll need a license.
This is for hobby interests.
The amateur radio license is meant for exactly that: Hobby communications.
There's generally the tendency to not allow hobby broadcasting, because: broadcasting implies that a single station
It's logical that any part of the spectrum would be instantly "full" if regulatory bodies like the FCC allowed broadcasting without a license.
So, I'm afraid, if you really want to broadcast and not directedly communicate with someone specific, you'll have to get a commercial license for the band you want to use, pretty much anywhere on this planet (including satellites in orbit).
For clarity, I am splitting your question "Is HAM the only legal way to broadcast on shortwave radio?" into two parts:
Amateur (or, "ham") radio is not a legal way to broadcast on shortwave. The United States FCC's rules for amateur radio (which through ITU agreements tend to be similar to other countries' rules) are very specific and clear on broadcasting:
An amateur station shall not engage in any form of broadcasting, nor may an amateur station transmit one-way communications except as specifically provided in these rules; nor shall an amateur station engage in any activity related to program production or news gathering for broadcasting purposes, […]
So if you want to be the next Art Bell, an amateur radio license is not your ticket — though a ham hobby could be a great introduction to the technology.
That being said, I'm not sure what would legally prevent two hams mutually arranging a frequent "net" and using it for talk show banter, using radio settings that "happened" to be compatible with shortwave receivers. There'd certainly be questions relating to "minimum transmitter power necessary to carry out the desired communications", limitations on "transmissions to a different country", and remaining in "accordance with good amateur practice". And of course no cussing, vulgaraties, or music/jingles. But as far as I can tell, there's no written requirement that would prevent rag chews from being interesting to listen to.
A more proper route, however, would be to either get a HF broadcasting license which would require a sizable commitment, or explore low power options for small scale fun.
the only legal way to broadcast on shortwave radio?
We need to talk about alternatives!
If you're looking into shortwave because he wants to cover a large geographical area, then simple things like web radio could very easily be the solution – at least if the audience has internet access.
Considering current price-per-kB in the US for prepaid cards, you'll get pretty far even with the smallest packages!
Let's run a few numbers, here:
First takeaway: the bitrate you'll need for pretty epic sound quality using a "every mobile phone and PC has that installed already" codec easily fits through somewhat decent 2G cellphone data. Cell phone coverage in the US isn't all that bad – you can probably reach of your audience that way!
As soon as you go for shortwave-comparable qualities, things get really easy to transport across the internet. For reference, I've added the last column, which shows you how much internet transfer volume you'd have to have to listen to eight hours of your station every day of a month. It's rather unlikely that, as a hobby, you'll even be transmitting 8 hrs/day of useful programming, but if you did, that's how much monthly volume you'd want your audience to spend on you :) Corollary: if you've got but a dozen to a hundred occasional listeners, you could even completely save on RF equipment and possibly necessary licenses, and invest that in data SIM cards that you hand out to your listeners so that they can listen to you over the internet, for a pretty long time, depending on how much power you thought to push out of your antenna.
