What model radio do you have? I have a little Tecsun PL 600, got last year as a ‘starter’ radio. Haven’t had time to play with it a lot, but it was magical when we picked up a station in England after only turning it on a couple of times.
-JT
I have a Sangean ATS 505, which is the smallest and cheapest set to have the entire shortwave spectrum. It just arrived a little over a week ago and replaces one exactly like it that lasted for years (including many falls to the floor) before the speaker started going bad. It's a lot of money for nothing now, but O how I would have loved to have had one like it back in the day. Besides, I simply can't live without a shortwave radio.
I bought both of the Sangeans here (it's the first one on the page).