Getting into Shortwave Radio Listening
It’s not often that I get to talk about some of my hobbies on this site. The Genealogy sites are reserved for one of those hobbies, but time certainly takes it’s toll and frankly it’s hard to have much time for my hobbies these days. One of those that I’ve developed in the last few years is shortwave radio listening. I’ve mentioned a software program that can help you use nternet resources to find programming to tune in to (or figure out what you heard.) I’ve talked about my favorite radio (the Sony ICF-SW7600GR).
But I was thinking if you’ve never heard shortwave before you might need a bit of an introduction to it. I didn’t have much of an introduction, I just learned about it as I went along. Whatever information was provided in the manuals for the radios I acquired and what I could find online. For starters, the first thing is. “How do I tune into a BBC news broadcast”. (For instance.) With AM and FM radio, we have it quite easy. We know a certain station is ALWAYS at a certain frequency. Around here if I were to pick the biggest AM and FM stations (570 AM and 99.9 FM) they’ve been there as long as I can remember, on those frequencies, day and night.
Well, shortwave is different. For starters shortwave frequencies are “above” the AM bands (above 1700khz). In fact AM is also called “Medium wave”. Shortwave bands are categorized by how many meters the length of the radio wave is. Anyway, some frequencies (the lower end of the band, under say 10,000khz) transmit long distances better at night. Other’s (above 10,000 khz) transmit (propogate) longer distances better in the day. For that reason you may find that a particular broadcast will move from one to another, to another frequency throughout the day. If it’s a continuous broadcast, they’ll announce the move at the top of an hour “to keep listening, please tune to….”
So, how do you find something specific. Well, you could just tune around, but that get’s boring after a bit, kind of like flipping tv channels. So, you either need to look online (or a software program to do that) for “what time the BBC broadcasts in English to North america”, or a book. Now the schedules change frequently and books can be outdated quickly, but there are some, yearly published guides.
When I got the Sony, I also bought a copy of (an earlier version) Passport to World Band Radio, New 2006 Edition (Passport to World Band Radio)
In fact, I’d recommend this book if you’re mildly interested in shortwave radio, but don’t know where to start.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Related Posts - Shortwave Listening - Noise We don't live in a quiet world, cars, equipment, alarms, fans, tv's radios, etc. etc. etc. We have a very noisy Radio Frequency world as well. All sorts of electronic devices can add to the cacophony that is natural RF noise. In my shortwave listening I've "crusaded" against RF noise......
- Peltor RaceTunes AM/FM Stereo radio and hearing protector For some time I've wanted a good pair of noise reducing headphones for "mowing season". Ideally they'd have am/fm stereo so I could listen to the radio (or something broadcast from my little FM transmitter...) REALLY ideally, they'd have a way I could patch something directly into them. I've found......
- Frontier Labs - nexblack I know it's not an ipod... but I'm looking forward to hearing some word when Fronteir Labs releases their "Nexblack". For background.... the nexblack is priced at around $89 (at the frontier labs store), but I've found $69 here. It's a portable mp3/wma/wma with drm/ogg player (according to the spec......
Related Websites - Week In History-August 26th/September 1st, 1973 Let's take a look back at this week, the week of August 26th, through September 1st, 1973. August 26th Sunday. David Eisenhower was writing about sports, well, not after today. Today was his last column. This would be an interesting major. The University of Texas-Arlington becomes the first college accredited......
- Tuning an Acoustic Guitar Tuning an acoustic guitar is absolutely vital when it comes to producing good sound. The following is a look at the simple instructions that are required for good guitar tuning. The open strings on a guitar range from the thickest to the thinnest. The thickest string is the E string,......
- Live Internet Radio - the Future of Radio Right after the introduction of the Internet, we have come across many electronic counterparts in our day to day lives. It has changed the way of our communication is made, whether it be sharing of information, marketing or infotainment. It has introduced the age of e-mail, e-commerce, e-shopping, internet radio......
Similar Posts
- Very good shortware radio Sony ICF-SW7600GR
- Shortwave Listening Over the Internet
- Shortwave Radio schedule browsing Application
- New Site
- Shortwave Listening – Noise