Thanks!
Exactly the kind of stuff I’m trying to find out.
I would want to have the ability to listen to “official” government news sources, but also the ability to listen to amateur broadcasts for info that you can’t get elsewhere.
And as far as taking it on the road, my idea on 12V is mostly because if the grid goes down. I have a generator and extra batteries so if I got 12V, I’d be covered pretty much no matter what.
Can you take one on the road? Drive down the road with a fifty foot wire antenna dragging out the back? Lol!
See, these are my types of questions. I am inclining towards thinking getting a cheapo one at first is the best idea to get used to it and see what it does, then when I find out more, go for a better one.
Here’s a web site that will help you with a lot of issues and questions:
http://www.dxing.com/index.html
Yes, you can take sw radios on the road. I used to operate ham radios from my car in the early/mid-80’s - and tube radios at that. I won’t bore you with all the details, but yes, it is possible. The antennas available to you in a car situation are all bad compromises, however. They’re all 9’ whips, and a 9’ whip is a puny bit of metal compared to a long wire run out to a tree or pole from your window.
You’re best to get a cheap(er) radio, or a used radio, before you pile a bunch of money into this. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, but NB that lots of the answers about the radios and antennas themselves can become quite technical, quite quickly. You will be doing homework. Being a retired EE, I could bore you to tears with technical details of SW radio, and you’d come away with nothing but more questions, because all radios are a trade off and I’d be boring you with the details of that trade-off. When you have a portable radio, for example, you’re typically giving up things like stability and selectivity. When you give up portability, you can get a whole slew of features, and so on.
Hence, you must decide what criteria are most important to you in using your radio.
I was not being facetious when I said you can spend thousands of dollars on a SW radio receiver. The “cheapie” radios will be in the $50 to $200 range, and the moderate-to-good radios will be in the $400 to $800 range. You can get a lot of value in a used receiver from a reputable dealer.
The really serious radios start at about $800 and up, and up, and up.
When I was a young twerp, I worked for one of the few companies left in the US that makes SW radio equipment - Harris RF. One day, I will buy one of their R-590A receivers, and i’ll likely expect to pay at least $2500 for it. But it was a hugely impressive radio, made for the US and NATO military and you could almost hear a mouse fart in Russia with that thing.
That’s an example of what you can get into for thousands of dollars. Beyond that, there are new “software defined radios” which you interface to a PC and with which you can do utterly amazing things which I won’t detail here and now.