SHORTWAVE RADIOS GAINING POPULARITY IN U.S. AGAIN

Detroit Free Press ^ | Nov 6, 2001 | MIKE WENDLAND

[Vinnie]

I love the Zeniths. I bought an H-500 (G500 ?) ,circa1945, at an antique shop for $30. I said to myself "What the heck" and plugged it in. It works well, but after finding out that 1 of the tubes is impossible to find or if you can find one it is a fortune, I just let it sit and look pretty.

[dr_who]

My old shortwave was was funnest when I pulled in all sorts of stuff using the dipole antenna up on my parent's roof. Radio Moscow was exceedingly tame due to Perestroika and therefore a bit of a letdown. Mind you, a few nights I picked up all sorts of stations in/around the continental U.S. using a simple crystal set. Don't ask me how. One of the most interesting things I pulled in were my sister's conversations with her new cordless phone, heh, heh, heh. Not a very reliable medium though. Doubt digital shortwave radio will ever have a following because Internet will have totally swallowed up that audience by then. If you ever find a cheap used dial type receiver (the cheap PLL one I bought was crap), go for it. There's almost always something on.

[hillary's_fat_a**]

My mother always said I was on an FBI list as a kid because I collected QSL cards from around the world....including Radio Moscow and Radio Havana. In fact, Radio Havana sent me a lot of propaganda literature back then!!

Of course, now I know I'm not on some FBI list because of those activities......but Freepin' and sending e-mail to the 'Toons, well I'm not sure about that one! LOL!

DX '73

[CommiesOut]

I remember my uncle listening to SW radio in a bathroom in early 50-ties back in the old country. I was a little kid but I was able to sense that something is wrong with this picture.
Years later I learned that when Uncle Joe was in charge there was a death penalty for listening to enemy propaganda and even for having dollars in the pocket.

[jennyp]

Here's an irritating thing about SWL that finally did it in for me: So many stations, when they fade in & out, sound garbled.

As I understand it, the reason is that when the signal fades in & out, it fades slightly more at one frequency than another - so the lower sideband ends up coming in slightly louder or softer than the higher sideband. So the combined audio signal gets that garbled quality to it.

I seem to remember reading many years ago about the "new" crop of shortwave radios, that were supposed to fix that, among other things. Did that ever happen?

[steveo]

Just how many Freepers are Hams?

[Leroy S. Mort]

Ahhh...Good press just about the time I'm putting my classic 70's Panasonic RF-4900 up for auction this coming weekend on Ebay.

[TonyInOhio]

Well, count me in - I'm W8HRO (ex-N8SNC).

I've seen at least two screen names that were ham calls, but I can't remember either offhand.

"Well, Pat, my turn-ons are conservative politics, posting on Free Republic, and ham radio." :-)

73,

Tony W8HRO

[TonyInOhio]

Here's an irritating thing about SWL that finally did it in for me: So many stations, when they fade in & out, sound garbled. As I understand it, the reason is that when the signal fades in & out, it fades slightly more at one frequency than another - so the lower sideband ends up coming in slightly louder or softer than the higher sideband. So the combined audio signal gets that garbled quality to it. I seem to remember reading many years ago about the "new" crop of shortwave radios, that were supposed to fix that, among other things. Did that ever happen?

Well, they "sorta" fixed it. The Sony 2010 and portables and tabletop sets above the Sony's price range include a synchronous detector, which in essence replaces a signal's carrier and detects one or the other sideband, dramatically reducing fading and improving signal intelligibility.

Unfortunately, you still need a moderately strong signal to begin with for most synch detectors to work well, and the reproduced audio isn't quite as nice. Synch detection is one of the reasons the Sony 2010 is so popular - in that receiver it works well, and it is one of the least expensive radios available that have the feature.

Maybe more than you wanted to know, but there's an answer.

Tony

[TonyInOhio]

Ahhh...Good press just about the time I'm putting my classic 70's Panasonic RF-4900 up for auction this coming weekend on Ebay.

Timing is everything!

That's a cool radio. They sell pretty well over at the 'Bay, too!

Tony

[Moose4]

KS4RY (ex-KD4QDP) here. Had my ticket since 1992, got my Advanced in 1994. I've done almost exclusively local VHF work, helping with events and the like. I do own an HF rig, a 30-year-old Yaesu FT-101E, but don't have an antenna, and can't put one up due to being an apartment-dweller. I really should join the local club and get back into event/Skywarn work, at least. Someday, I'll have a "real" HF radio and a place to put a "real" antenna, and become the appliance operator I know I can be... :)

}:-)4

[jennyp]

Maybe more than you wanted to know, but there's an answer.

There's NEVER more than I want to know. :-) Thanks, that was very interesting. (Must look into the Sony 2010 now... my early 70's Sony ICF-6500W is finally entering its doddering old age.)

[footstomper]

Several months ago BBC stopped broadcasting out of the Canadian station I listened to, but I did pick them up one night somewhere by accident afterward. I do not have a clue where. So there is some broadcasting going on. Maybe by roaming you can find a station?

[TechJunkYard]

I'm a techhie.. mainly VHF and UHF, but when I was growing up I would tune around for hours on my Grandmother's old shortwave... thing was bigger than I was.

de kc4yoz.

[TechJunkYard]

I'm a techhie.. mainly VHF and UHF, but when I was growing up I would tune around for hours on my Grandmother's old shortwave... thing was bigger than I was.

de kc4yoz.

[calmseas]

Thanks, Don. That's lots of help.

[malarski]

"It started right after the terror attacks," says John Smith, director of operations for Grundig's U.S. operations. "The first week, our orders went up 100 percent, then 200 percent. Lately, it's averaging 500 percent. It shows no signs of slowing down." ionosphere and travel thousands of miles over mountains and across oceans, providing live news from the other side of the world.

The American people found out that they can get more truthful information from the foreign stations than from our dominance group controlled media. Just imagine that I can find out more on a foreign radio, what is our State Department saying, than in our media.

[Black Cat]

Worldwide Christian Radio

Sometimes they're so far rightwing that they fall over the edge -- like the stuff from Peter J. Peters, but they have some good stuff as well.

[Black Cat]

I started listening to SW after Waco on the recommendation of a friend. There's a lot of weird stuff on so you need to watch out for the conspiracy goofs and the religious maniacs, but occasionally you'll pluck a diamond from the coalbin...

SW was really fun in the run-up to Y2K -- there was a man named Jeff Bennett who was peddling MREs and other survival stuff and as the date grew nearer, his stories grew wackier and wackier...

[John Farson]

Check out the Art Bell link up thread. You can still find the BBC at some of the freqencies & times listed. I'm not sure if they are still broadcasting out of Antigua or not.