Shortwave Radios

[geekender]

Anyone here own a shortwave radio or know where I can get reviews on receivers? Trying to find a good one.

 

[Colt45]

my buddy has a grundig yacht boy. seems to have pretty decent range.

grundig used to be the best.. im not so sure anymore.. i think the radios are made in china instead of germany now, not that there is anything inheretly(sp) wrong with that, but they're probably cutting corners by moving production.

 

[ScottMac]

Grundig is OK (Grundig = German electronics = SUX Delux).

Check out www.aesham.com - Amateur Electronic Supply. They carry most brands.

Depending on the money you're looking to spend, the Sangean tends to work out as the best value for the buck.

I've got a Sony, Kenwood, Icom, Sangean ... once you cross a certain price point, the limitating factor tends to be the antenna and the season (and the sunspots, and and and).

If you've got a couple hundred, you can get an excellent radio (usually with AM, FM, and weather too).

Avoid the small stuff, get a nice table radio sized unit. They will tend to have the better sensitivity and selectivity stats.

Synchronous AM is a great feature (the radio will track with the drift in the signal, generall much easier to listen to).

Many will also have SSB (Single SideBand), which is good for listening to international aircraft, Coast Guard, maritime, and Ham radio.

Look for a unit that will take an external antenna. Pretty much any stretch of long wire will outperform many of the single whip antennas that come stockcwith the radio ... again, it depends on how / where you will be listening ... a long wire may not be convenient. There are some "portable long wire" systems (Sony has one that's pretty nice).


Shop around, find a couple you like, and come back if you have any questions.

Good Luck, Happy New Year!

Scott

 

[episodic]

Just curious - what is on shortwave radio. Always wanted to ask.

 

[AmphibSailor]

Short wave radio consists of radio broadcasts generally in the HF range 3-30 Mhz but is sometimes lower. From the web:

"Shortwave listening (abbreviated SWLing) is tuning for stations located on shortwave frequencies, usually thought of as those from 1700 kHz (the upper limit of the AM broadcasting band) to 30 MHz (the lower limit of the tuning range of most scanner radio). In between those two frequencies, a simple, low cost shortwave radio is capable of letting you hear news, music, commentaries, and other feature programs in English from stations located round the world."

I am a ham radio operator (Extra) and am legally able to transmit as well as receive on some of those frequencies. Its an interesting hobby.

I have a Kenwood R1000 general coverage receiver (100khz-up I think...). I use other assorted transceivers for my 2 way communications.

 

[Zorro]

Sony ICF2010 need i say more....

 

[ScottMac]

Episodic: The programming is just about anything, in many languages, from many countries (including the USA). There are designated bands for "WorldBand" programming; between those bands are other bands used for utility purposes (Coast Guard, Aviation, Amateur Radio, etc).

The same station (like the BBC, for example) in will usually have time slots across the bands where in the first slot they do English language, the next slot french, then slavic, arabic ... etc . Sometimes they have multiple concurrent slots on different bands, each band in a different language.

Radio China has "Learn Chinese" lessons, most stations offer a variety of music, some talk (ala NPR) ... there's AFRTS (A-FARTS - the US military entertainment network), some stations are primarily religious programming .... there's a pretty broad spectrum of content.

In addition, you can listen in on Coast Guard activity, possibly some international flights (at the least, the international airport weather reports), Ham radio conversations., WWV (standard time setting) ... and just about anything else you can think of.

It's interesting to hear the world news presented from other country's perspective ... taken with a grain of salt ... there's some pretty hard-core propaganda ... depending on who you are listening to (including the USA).

Worldband is good for language students to give them some real exposure to the language they are learning ... local accents & such.

The drawback is that it's all AM or SSB, so the tonal quality is less-than-stellar much of the time - hence, it's important to get a radio with decent specs to make it a little more "listenable."

If you travel internationally, it's a good way to keep in touch with the events "back home."

There's even some "Number Stations:" every now & then you come across a station that is speaking number groups. It's alledged that these are countries putting out code to their field agants ... I've never seen any real explanation ...

It can be interesting. Next time you're in the book store, look for a book called "Passport to Worldband Radio" and give it a look. It has all the schedules for the year, some radio recommendations / Buying Guides, antennas & other related information.

FWIW

Scott