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* ShortWave Listening Guide *
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* By Eric David *
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Note: All Frequencies from the '94 World Radio and TV Handbook
SWL RADIOS
There are many radios to choose from in the field. The least expensive are
are portable digital radios. They are fairly simple to tune. All you have
to do is just punch in the frequency. Digital radios are now favored to
analog radios. But, for those of you who enjoy turning the knob, analog
works. I prefer analog because tuning is more percice when hunting down a
distant DX station. These radios are offered around $60 to $250. See
Resource section for dealer addreses.
The next type of radios are tabletop recievers. These are very expensive.
They have external antenna connections, wide band reception and offer
great selectivity for hard to recieve stations. Almost all have SSB
modes for more bands. Tabletop recievers cover the whole SW spectrum, 3Mhz
to 30 Mhz. Most portables only cover certain bands, usualy the 49M, 41M,
25M and 13M. I reccomend tabletop's only for serious swl's. These radio's
range in price from $250 to $5000.
ANTENNAS
Many portables come with a telescoping whip antenna. Usually this is not
enough to pick up low power distant stations. What do you do? Well, Here's
what you do, get a long 20'-40' piece of speaker wire, two mini-gator clip,
three to four beams of 1'-2' metal and solder, soldering iron. If you dont
have a soldering iron just twist the wire on to the clips. Ok, Take the 3-4
beams and drill a hole in the and drill holes into the ends of them. Then
screw them all together in a star or + shape:
3 beams: * 4 beams: *
* *
* *
* * ************
* * *
* * *
* * *
Now attach the wire to the screw holding the beams together. At the other
end of the wire solder the alligator clip to the wire. Attach the clip to
the whip antenna. If posssible mount the antenna on your roof or on a
ledge on the roof, the higher the better.
Antenna's can also just be very long speaker wire, 100' or so attached with
a minigator clip. This also works.
FREQUENCIES
Here is a partial list of freq's:
All freq's in kHz
BBC: 3955, 3975, 5875, 5955, 5990, 6010, 6015, 6030, 6045, 6050, 6110, 6125,
6135, 6150, 6190, 6195, 7105, 7120, 7125, 7150, 9410, 9585, 9600, 9915,
11680, 11760, 11815, 12040, 15070, 15395, 17640, 17695, 17715, 21490, 21590,
21640, 21740.
VOICE OF AMERICA: 5995, 6030, 6130, 7405, 9455, 9590, 9775, 11580, 11930,
11835, 15120, 15185, 15205, 15330, 15400, 15580, 17710, 17740, 17800, 21485,
21580, 21610.
HCJB: 9745, 15115
Want the time, try WWV, WWVH on 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 MHZ.
WYFR-Family Radio: 5950, 5985, 7355, 11830
RADIO HABANA CUBA: 6060, 6010, 13660, 13660, 9510, 6180,
QSL CARDS:
QSL cards are conformation cards that you get back from the station you
heard. What you do is you send a recption report that includes the date,
time, freq, detailed program notes and a SINPO report. SINPO stands for:
Singnal Interference Noise Phading Overall. SINPO is rated like this:
SINPO 55555, this would be a perfect station. 5 is the best and 1 is the
worst. Here is a sample reception report:
___________________________________________________________________________
Dear BBC,
Date: July 28, 1994
Time: 1700-1730 UTC(Time allways in UTC)
Radio: Grundig YB 500
Antenna: 3' Whip built into radio
What I heard and Questions I have: News at 1700, storys included, Haiti,
World Cup, Japan Stock Market, US, health care. At 1710 Local news, 1720,
world weather, at 1725, sports report, at 1730, news. Sign off at 1735.
SINPO: 45344
I am listening to you from San Fransisco, California, USA. Located on the west
coast of the USA.
Please send QSL card, schedule, program or any other things.
Thanks.
Send to:
Your address
Usa
___________________________________________________________________________
Allways include return postage in IRC's, International Reply Coupons. The
station trades those in for one airmail postage. I reccomend including
two IRC's. You can get Irc's at your local post office. When mailing
QSL requests take them to the post office unsealed. First buy your IRC's
and pop them in the envelope, seal it up. Tell them that you would like to
mail these letters to the forign countrys. They will do the rest. For US
stations include a couple of first class stamps or a SASE.
RESOURCES:
World Radio and TV Handbook, Available at bookstores, $19.95
The Passport to World Band Radio, At bookstores
C. Crane Company, Dealers of SW radios, 1800-322-TUNE
Sony, 1800-548-Sony
Grundig, 3520 Haven Ave, Unit L.,Redwood City, Ca 94063, 415-361-1611
Sangean, 2651 Troy Ave. S. El Monte, Ca 91733, 818-579-1600
Monitoring Times Magazine, For free issue, MT, Po box 98, Brasstown, NC 28902
S. Cal. area DXers, 6398 Pheasant Dr. Buena Park, Ca 90620-1056
Good DX!!
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