Question on Shortwave Radios

[sscotty727]

My wife's cousin is going to either Iraq or Afganistan after the holidays for 6 months. We wanted to give him something nice to lift his spirits, so we thought about a shortwave radio. We figured that way he could listen to US stations over there and not feel as left out. My question is, will this even work? How exactly does shortwave radios work anyway? I got one for myself too as a Christmas present for me. What all can I get on it? Can I get a specific station, ham radio, stations that broadcast certain frequencies, etc? Thanks, Scotty

[Shafted]

Shortwave is great, Scotty! It operates in the HF group of frequencies. In the HF region the radio waves can and do bounce all the way around the earth, so you can literally listen to stations from all over the planet. If I was going to be away from home for an extended period, I'd want to take mine with me.

[sendra45]

Hi Scotty, Unless anybody remembers their "radio and telly" days better than me I think he will be lucky to get any stations from the other side of the planet. The British forces will have their station on over there and I would imagine that the US has one too. Unless you know that he will be able to get batteries, It might be worth looking into a solar or wind up radio for less hassle. It is nice thought though, perhaps I will have a surf around if I get time and see if it will work. Best of luck with your quest. nigel

[xaphod]

Shafted is quite correct. Radio waves in the hf band ( 3 MHz to 30 MHz ) do propagate all the way around the earth by repeated reflections between the ionosphere and the earth's surface. Critical to the propagation is the state of ionisation of the ionosphere. At present the number of sunspots is pretty low in the 11 year sunspot cycle, so the ionisation of the F-layer is somewhat reduced, due to the reduction in solar activity. This reduces the maximum useable frequency (MUF) to somewhere around 15 MHz. This is further complicated by diurnal variations and disturbances due to solar flares. The upshot of this is that a commercial shortwave set is still quite adequate for listening to broadcasts, but you will find that the broadcasters will shift their operating frequencies to the lower end of 3 to 30 MHz. Listening on 7.2 to 7.4 MHz in the evening is a good bet. Commercial Shortwave receivers normally come with a whip antenna which is generally adequate to receive most high power broadcasters (they use powers of the order of 500KW ..... funnily enough, I used to design chunks of the transmitters). By comparison, amateur radio guys can 'get round the world' on 100 Watts. If the receiver has an aerial and earth connection, then 20 metres of wire high in the air and a good earth connection will improve the receive signal strength, if desired.

[sendra45]

Okay, Well out of my depth here, going to leave this to Xa as he knows more 'bout this than me. Nigel.

[sscotty727]

Thanks for the information. Here is the radio in question (bought them before posting my questions here). I can do the AM/FM fine, I can get some shortwave, but I have no clue how to get something I want or what is on, is it just a hit/miss type thing or can you actually search for something specific the way you do on AM/FM?

Scotty

link

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[Shafted]

Scotty. go to your local bookstore or on the internet and pickup a copy of "Passport to World Band Radio". This annual book will give a listing of station freqencies allowing you to find the station you want easily.

[Dawn HH]

Someone here mentioned ham radio operators. I think that it may have been Shafted. Here is a strange, but totally true story. When I was a teenager, a ham radio operator lived a few houses down the block from us. I had an RCA 45 RPM record player and after school one evening I decide to put on some of my favorite 45 records. I turned the player on and while I was loading up the changer with records, I heard someone talking through my player. I thought---"This can't be". So I listened and discovered my neighbor was talking to another ham operator in the UK. So I listened for a while and discovered that not only could I hear my neighbor, but I could hear the person replying from the UK---and all of this was as clear as if I was using the local telephone. After inquiring about this from my neighbor ham operator, it was discovered that my player had an oscillating tube in it and it was picking up all of his conversations. Needless to say, after that, I spent many, many hours listening to my record player sans records. Strange, but true. The mention of a ham operator brought this all flooding back to me. Cheers--- DawnHH

[sscotty727]

Dawn, Cool story. Not shortwave radio, but we had neighbors who had a CB and they used to have an antena that was illegally bosted. At night they would crank it up and you could hear them talking through our TV set. Needless to say, my dad wasn't too happy about it. Your story brought back memories of that as well. Shafted, Thanks for the info. I think the radio comes with a guide. I am new to the shortwave radio scene, so I didn't know if there were radio stations that existed like AM/FM has or if you were just able to get certain frequencies that say had US stations, etc. One of the things I was curious about was if say I could pick up a Pittsburgh station while living in the DC area (I am a Steeler fan and would love to be able to get the games if possible). Not sure if shortwave is that specific or not. So far I am guessing it isn't. Scotty