Is Short-Wave Radio Still a Thing?

[mikethompson]

I have fond memories as a kid playing with my great-grandfather's Grundig radio and listening to the Short wave band. It had a great big antenna and if you rolled the tuner slowly enough I could get stations from Ecuador.

I still have it, and thought it might be fun for the kids now. But is short wave still around? I know you can find anything instantly on the internet, but are there still some channels?

Mine is like this one:

 

[scloyd]

Years ago I had a Uniden Police Scanner, probably not what you're talking about, it was fun to listen to the police and fire depts.

Great question Mike. Looking forward to some others input.

 

[daveinlax]

I enjoyed this podcast. Brought back some memories of listing to our shortwave at night with my friends. ?
HBM082: MI5 MI6 KGB CIA — Here Be Monsters Podcast - https://www.hbmpodcast.com/podcast/hbm082-mi5-mi6-kgb-cia

 

[jeff540]

If it hasn't been fired up in decades, make sure you plug it in and turn on in a safe manner. If it were me I'd use a light bulb limiter at the very least (or better yet a variac).

Of related note, I have an "old" Akai stereo receiver model AA-R32 from the early 1980s. My dad used to operate an electronics repair shop, and a customer dropped it off for repair (filter capacitor) but never returned, that's how I acquired it. Anyway, it's early technology computerized receiver function was also intermittently not functioning correctly, and every so often it would get stuck on really strange bandwidths (like 5 mHz FM). It would pick up police or CB chatter, weird noises, and sometimes foreign languages. My dad fixed that when I complained and it's been good for the last 30-years - it's actually hooked up to my computer, slightly worse for wear but going strong.

 

[dcon]

I have a slightly old (circa 1980) Radio Shack portable that has SW and LW bands in addition to AM/FM. I used to listen to the BBC and all types of broadcasts years ago. Now it only gets used during a hurricane. My late father (born in 1917) was a pretty avid radio listener and ‘survived’ on the knowledge that he got on SW during WWII. He kept the family farm going and was unable to serve because of a serious knee injury prior to the war.

 

[Bowie]

Strange coincidence, because I've recently got into SW listening and placed an order just yesterday for a Tecsun portable receiver. (I should probably find a SW forum too, besides Reddit.)

As for frequencies, here are some online frequency schedules you can use to start your listening searches:

Search for Short Wave Radio Broadcasting Schedules

Short-Wave.Info is a simple, handy, graphical way to search for and display Short Wave radio broadcasting frequency schedules. You can search by frequency, language, broadcaster, time and short-wave band.

www.short-wave.info

Index of /english

hfradio.org

A20 Data

www.hfcc.org

EDIT: A good blog/site for SW listening: The SWLing Post - https://swling.com/blog/

 

[mso489]

I'm sure those frequencies are still active, though as with so many communications channels their use has likely changed radically since I was an avid teenage shortwave listener. I presume the demographic of licensed shortwave operators has gone way up in age, since today's teenagers mostly surf the web. Some cadre of kids probably still get HAM licenses the way others their age collect vinyl records and wear bowler hats. Every thing old is new again.

 

[Bowie]

One more addition: If you like classical music, this broadcaster does a one-hour broadcast on a few frequencies.

HOME | encore

www.tumbril.co.uk

 

[davek]

Fire it up! You should get something, even with a makeshift antenna, your gutters, a wire wound 20-30 times around a power cord or phone line, whatever. That will give you an idea of if you, or they, would be interested. I still have my old Realistic SW receiver from when I was 12. I remember that it got nothing with no antenna, but would at least function with a half-*ss one.

 

[mikethompson]

So there still are some? I'm going to see what I can find this evening. Thanks guys!

 

[mawnansmiff]

I was hugely into SWL in my early teens due to my father being in the Royal Signals in WWII. The passion re-emerged in my thirties and I bought a cracking new Japan Radio NRD receiver. That was a beautiful set.

Alas the hobby fizzled out again but I still have a mass of QSL cards from all over the world plus I still have two valved (tubed) receivers, one from a Royal Navy ship made by Pye Marine (a real boat anchor of a radio....it weighs a ton) and a beautiful valved Trio.

The Pye Marine receiver just oozes quality all round. These things were made to a specification and not a price. Solid brass chassis, beautifully smooth brass gearing etc, the quality of this set is amazing even today. It has most features found on modern equipment and is extremely sensitive.

The images below are borrowed/stolen from the interweb. First the Pye, second the Trio.





Regards,

Jay.

 

[mikethompson]

I am going to see where an antenna would plug into and see if the old girl will sing tonight.

 

[davek]

So there still are some? I'm going to see what I can find this evening. Thanks guys!

This ad has some sample pages.

Klingenfuss Shortwave Frequency Guide

www.klingenfuss.org

Wish I still had my QSL's.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Anyone remember those Russian made Selena/Vega transistor sets with multi bands? I'm guessing they were built around the early 80's.

I have about 8 of those bought as a job lot from my local recycling centre about 15 years ago. Cost me something like £5 for the lot.

Built like tanks but crackly as hell until much contact cleaner was sprayed on the huge multi banked band changer.

Regards,

Jay.

 

[mawnansmiff]

"a wire wound 20-30 times around a power cord or phone line, whatever."

Davek, not so sure that is good advice. That method would surely introduce much interference in any signal picked up.

The simplest aerial set up would be a length of wire (the longer the better) poking out the window and attached to anything high up such as a tree or a post.

Regards,

Jay.

 

[mikethompson]

. (I should probably find a SW forum too, besides Reddit.)

Let me know what you find. I didn't even think of looking at Reddit.

 

[davek]

"a wire wound 20-30 times around a power cord or phone line, whatever."

Davek, not so sure that is good advice. That method would surely introduce much interference in any signal picked up.

The simplest aerial set up would be a length of wire (the longer the better) poking out the window and attached to anything high up such as a tree or a post.

Regards,

Jay.

Well, that would be the best antenna.
Of course, you would never connect an antenna connection directly to a phone line. Wrapping the wire around the phone line is to get a capacitive connection to the line. Remember the FM radios that had a metal band around the power line which connected to the antenna connection? Then the line cord was the antenna. Same principle.

Not a real great antenna, but I've done it.

 

[mikethompson]

What if I had a piece of wire and used that? Hopefully this evening I get something other than static.

Also the radio could use some love, have I stumbled onto another project?

 

[mawnansmiff]

"Not a real great antenna, but I've done it."

I've stuck my wet finger in an aerial socket to test for a signal (it works) but is far from ideal!

Any aerial for radio reception needs to be as far away as possible from any other electrical apparatus simply to avoid interference. I don't doubt that wrapping a wire around a telephone line would work to a degree but I can assure you that by so doing, you are bringing in unwanted signals/noise that will compromise what you actually want to listen to.

Mike, if all you are hearing is static even after you have sorted out some kind of aerial then perhaps some switch cleaner might help matters, particularly if your set is an old one or has not been used in a while.

Regards,

Jay.

 

[Bowie]

What if I had a piece of wire and used that? Hopefully this evening I get something other than static.

Also the radio could use some love, have I stumbled onto another project?

Yeah, you may have a new project!

You can definitely use an antenna wire or copper wire. If the wire does not have a jack to plug into the radio, you can attach it an alligator clip, then put the clip on the radio's telescoping (whip) antenna.

As Jay mentioned, electronics in a house can cause a great deal of interference. Simply going out in the yard or to an empty parking lot in town can improve the reception.

You can also purchase a SW reel antenna for under $15. It's basically a wire, a reel for storage, and a jack for the radio. I plan to get one soon. My new radio arrived this morning .