Posted on 01/16/2009 5:29:03 PM PST by mylife
So why bother with shortwave?
It's easy and cheap -- and fun. You can hear and learn things that you would never find even if you work your search engine like a mule. From Swaziland to Paris to Havana, shortwave broadcasters can surprise an adventurous listener more than any MP3 playlist.
"You tune carefully, twist the radio from side to side, and there's still a bit of a 'Hey, I made this happen!' sort of thing," said Harold Cones, retired chairman of the biology and chemistry department at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia.
It's also magic. Shortwave radio enthusiasts acknowledge the thrill -- the romance, in a way -- of going out at night and snaring news, music, odd bleeps, religious zealots and other broadcasts from the wild sea of frequencies in the sky.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
BTW, the mouse in the foreground isn’t.
It’s been rewired as a CW key.
I still say when all the Pay to listen satellite and digital stuff gets turned off, SW will be around
I grew up as an AM DXer. I logged somewhere around 40 states on my little ac/dc five tube radio. Used to drive my folks crazy ‘cause I’d get up at four am to catch the midwest stations signing on.
As a teen, I got a lot of free meals from a local Jewish family. After dinner, we all had to adjourn to the living room where the father fired up the shortwave to catch up on the news from Israel.
With the end of the Morse code requirement, I became a ham radio operator, upgrading to General class a few months back. I can now operate on the various high frequency bands usually used for worldwide communications, and it’s fun to do that once in a while, but I’m now doing most of my foreign media listening and QSOing using the internet. Between online broadcast sources like Shoutcast, and the various ham radio VOIP protocols, it’s just easier to use the net. With the ham stuff, I can sit at my desk with a $150 handheld and dial up repeaters all over the world. With internet radio I can do the same thing in ‘listen only’ mode. There’s this German language disco station that’s a hoot.
Gotta admit, though, that there was a romance about cranking around on that old Zenith Trans-oceanic that’s gotten lost in the march of time.
I remember listening to Radio Moscow with a cousin during a family
visit to Sherwood Park, Alberta in the early 1970s.
(Sherwood Park is what Americans would call a suburb of Edmondton.)
It was a different time. Still I knew enough to laugh at the
Bravo Sierra that Radio Moscow was shipping during that era.
Lucky bastard. I saw one for 350 bucks a few months back but passed due to size and power consumption and a lack of proprietary tubes
Yes there are several Radio to VOIP relays and its great stuff.
I admit I use Internet and SW in conjunction.
What happens if Barama turns off the information highway?
He can have fun triangulating HF bouncy signals that are mobile
Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) is still going good. A license is required to transmit, that is to talk, on the many frequencies authorized for Amateur Radio. Including digital, microwave and satellite communications. The entry level, Technician, license is relatively easy to obtain and study books are abundant. Code is no longer required for any level license.
The American Radio Relay League, Inc., www.arrl.org is the organization representing Ham Radio hobbyists and has all the information you would ever want to know about Amateur Radio.
Amateur Electronics Supply, www.aesham.com has a nice catalog full of transmitter/receivers, antennae, etc. It’s like a candy store for Ham Radio enthusiast and will let a newly interested person brouse to see what’s available.
There is an Amateur Radio and computer show/flea market in Orlando,Fl, at the fairgrounds (indoor) on Highway 50, on February 13, 14 and 15. Major manufacturers will have representatives and extensive displays of their products. Suppliers, such as Amateur Electronics Supply, will have large and varied stocks on hand for sale. Go there and get informed about this hobby.
Ham Radio also has an organization called (RACES) Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service which provides communications service following desasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, tornados, etc. Perhaps you would be interested in this kind of participation in Ham Radio.
It’s an interesting thing in which to be involved and may prove to be vital if and when commercial communications services are disabled by natural or man made disasters, or become excessively regulated, monitored and controlled for some political agenda.
Its interesting to get the spin realtime
No “F”, but WWRB is still going strong.
I love listening to shortwave too. My old radio went kaput a few years ago, so I need to get another one.
The actual call sign for the “Voice of the Andes” is HCJB. Their antenna farm is in a very interesting place...it seems where they have it allows a massive footprint that goes a lot farther than normal for a SW signal.
Back until the mid 90’s, I had a Radio Shack DX-60 multiband receiver. It was dual power (cord and battery) and had a jack in the back to hook in a Motorola-style connector. I had an old ‘63 Chrysler Newport as my first car, and it had a 6-FOOT long whip antenna. After I took the antenna cable and plugged it into the back of the DX-60, I could drive down the street in broad daylight and listen to the top-of-the-hour news...on the BBC.
My greatest DX was picking up RSA on a clear summer night in Spokane, WA on a frequency that the World Radio-TV Handbook (the Bible of the DXer) said was solely from the RSA transmitter site in South Africa. Half way around the world and clear as a bell.
I now have a Grundig FR-200 3-way power (Battery, cord, and hand-crank dynamo for emergencies). About 3 weeks after Hurricane Katrina, I was tuning about in the 41-meter band and came across a simulcast of a New Orleans radio station that was giving information to citizens of the city scattered about the country. I think one of the religious stations on SW offered to do this so far-flung citizens of New Orleans could find out what was happening at home. It was eerie to listen to.
Hams saw the potential of the net ages ago for comms.
But they have backed off using the internet as they know the backbone could be taken away with the swipe of a pen
Is there a site that compares and reviews current SW radios? I’m getting the itch to get back into this after reading this thread.
Yer an enGineer for sure LoL
Do it!! Novice class is dead, you start at the technician level now. Full privleges on VHF and UHF, no code, you can learn what you need in a couple of nights out of the twenty buck ARRL study guide, and a decent hand held is under two hundred bucks. Tests are given almost every weekend at some relatively nearby location. There's half a dozen online sites where you can practice taking the test, using the actual questions. Here's one: http://www.qrz.com/testing.html Got my Commercial third class back in the 50's, and my first in 64. Made a decent living with 'em, too. Ham radio's a lot more fun, though.
“Oatmeal box? And your son will not soon forget it.
Nice pic.
I imagine you could hook that up to some amplification
Thanks my!
I agree with all that you have said.
Understanding how to use the environment around you is always of use
bfl
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