Posted on 10/19/2010 4:13:05 AM PDT by djf
Do you ever listen to W5YJB & the gang on 3840 in the mornings? They get started a bit after 7:30 AM central time every morning. Quite a hoot (leftists would not like what they would hear).
How does the wind-up gadget work is you run out of batteries?
The radio I got was an Eton Solarlink FR600
It has AM, FM, SW, and emergency band reception.
Five possible power sources - internal AA batteries, internal NIMH battery, a hand crank generator, solar cells, or a 12V plug in in the back that will run the radio and/or charge the battery.
It’s pretty good - the speaker is kind of tinny, so I usually use earphones. I just wish I could figure out a way to boost the SN ratio. Lots of times, the carrier and transmissions are barely over the background noise.
Thanks for the pointers!
It comes with a small 3 cell NIMH rechargeable battery. When I first got it, I charged the battery and turned it on and it ran for about 1/2 hour. Not bad!
Of course the Internet is better for news...As are the endless AM radio stations or CNN. You can get the latest news anywhere....Its no big deal.
And by the way, not all but much of the news your getting on the Internet is brought to you by the same people bringing you CNN...It's orchestrated, rehearsed, controlled and tainted.
I love it when people compare amateur radio/shortwave to computers and the Internet...It's two totally different things...
It's like comparing people that collect and restore and drive 1957 chevy's to the latest computerized Pirus, or comparing old clock technology, which work to perfection, to a digital Rolex.
The Internet costs money to use, your subjected to substantial monthly bills, more government control in the future, network infrastructure break downs, power outages, and most of the time and your connect via a leash or wire....Did I mention those monthly bills...lol....
And if your part of the news, in a region affected by some catastrophe, your Internet will be worthless and dead.
With Amateur radio you can talk to a guy on his small boat in the south Pacific, off the coast of Tahiti describing his little dog and his surrounding, talk to a farmer in Ohio, or a guy flying a twin engine aircraft over Alaska...All done with simple basic radios and homemade antennas.
With our standard of living going southbound, and people reverting back to simpler things, going back the basics, watch for things like amateur radio making a come back...Simply because the old technology works, is simple, almost free to operate, is interesting and fun.
Yep.
And when the TSHTF, when everything else has gone wrong, you can throw it at an attacking mob and get some satisfactory results. ;-)
That’s a really nice one you have there. Is that an original meter?
My comments were directed to ‘shortwave broadcasting’ not ham radio. Ham radio is alive and well and I highly recommend it to everyone.
It is shortwave broadcasting that is sadly essentially dead. All the major shortwave broadcasters have pulled the plug. There are some exceptions, broadcasting to ‘closed’ countries continues in non-english.
What remains are the religious broadcasters such as Brother Stair who has been predicting the imminent end of the world for as long as I can remember.
It is a very sad developement. Shortwave listening used to be a pleasure.
If you are interested in radio, get involved in ham radio instead!
If it were dead as you say, there would be no one broadcasting in SW....
Ham radio is alive and well and I highly recommend it to everyone.
We agree.
This ine should do it!
Just picked up some Robert Cray on 17550
Just picked up some Robert Cray on 17550
Radio Netherlands made a big deal of their continuing the service when the BBC and DW dropped out, but they did the same a few years later.
I guess the Internet is the new shortwave. You can get just about all the old international services through streaming media, as well as local radio stations from around the world.
It's not the same, though. The feeling of turning the knob and not knowing what you'll find isn't there. Maybe satellite may restore some of that, maybe not.
DW also syndicates television programs over here, but it's not the same either. Radio can take an empty studio and fill it up with just words alone. German TV, by contrast, looks pretty sterile.
Thats not mine. I just used to work on them in the navy
I probably have heard those guys.
I love listening to the nets to get the chatter when some major world or national event happens.
You get some unvarnished views
Or the Degen 1103 (same, basically).
People have been surprised to see the $49 DE1103* SSB/PLL match the performance of expensive military shortwave receivers in side-by-side comparisons. This is one rare case where Chinese engineering and production is first rate. The controls do take some getting used to, but I can change the volume in my sleep now. Works great with the bundled active loop antenna (if packaged that way) or an outside long wire.
* check on eBay
Yeah. I have the little active loop.
It is great for knocking out adjacent axial noise.
And send a card to the bureau. Sign it W9GFO.
≤}B^)
Sorry that I am late to catch this thread, as I just woke up, here in the Philippines.
Having been a HAM since 1957, and having made it to the ARRL’s top of the honor roll for DXCC...That is having communicated with every country and radio location on Earth,
I think I can add my two cents.
It seems that you are interested mostly in shortwave broadcast from other countries.
Most every country has a short wave foreign broadcast service.
Of the most notable was Radio Moscow, from the Communist days.
For your purpose, go out and buy a used cheap shortwave receiver.
The best would be an older tube type, but they are becoming hard to find.
There are also a number of solid state import radios, and easy to find. They are not as good as the old tube radios, unless you pay big bucks.
Almost anything will work, especially when the sunspots get fired up.
As for antenna, you need only a piece of wire, 25 feet off the ground, or run in an attic.
A common SW listening antenna would be a 30 to 60 foot long copper wire, fed in the center with an RG/58 coaxial line.
It is nothing fancy and easy to throw up anywhere.
Start with that, and work your way up as you get the bug.
I have not read all the post, but I think it has been mentioned that there are now shortwave listening sites on the internet.
73, W4EX
+--≤}B^)
The most grating thing is the way they are trained (as you say) to drop their voice inflection at the end of a sentence half as far as normal.
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