Short wave radio

[Bilboro-lad 294]

When I was a kid listening to Radio Luxembourg under the blankets, I'd often roam the short wave frequencies and hear all sorts of foreign languages. Back in the fifties, another country may just as well have been another planet. I never have found out where those radio broadcasts came from. Does anyone know which planet I was listening to? I recognised French but others I have no idea about.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Most countries back then had an overseas radio service, I loved to listen to Australia's ABC overseas service during the 60's. VOA, (Voice of America), which ironically wasn't allowed to beam to the US by law as it was classified as propaganda, was also another good one, AFN, the American Forces Network. The USSR had one, plus many, many others.

There still is shortwave broadcasters, but getting fewer and fewer by the year, very costly operating high power transmitters plus maintenance of huge transmitting tower/antenna arrays.

Many have gone over to the internet.

Most of the BBC English speaking broadcasts have ceased due to costs, they still beam to Africa and South East Asia.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

Was that back when Oz was in the Vietnam war and Harold Holt drowned?

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Probably, I modyfied an old military radio, it could only cover the lower end of the shortwave spectrum, but in the early 70's I got a better radio which covered a lot more spectrum.

There used to be a good book called "Passport To World Band Radio" It used to list thousands of shortwave broadcasters with photos, broadcast times etc, it ceased publication a few years back now due to the list of broadcasters getting smaller and smaller by the year.

[colly0410 1,181]

I've got a short wave radio upstairs, not fired it up for ages, last time I listened it was full of hash from CFL's, wall warts ect. It runs on batteries as well as mains so I should take it into the field out the back away from the houses & see if there's less hash, I could use the barbed wire fence as an aerial, knowing my luck it'd overload the front end & cross modulate.

[Michael Booth 7,364]

I used to listen to the music on Radio Luxembourg and was quite surprised that, after buying the record, it didn't fade in and out...

I also listened to Voice Of America and Moscow World Service when in Germany. They would be on late at night. America slagging off Russia and Russia slagging off America while both stating how wonderful they were...lol. I also listened to AFN, American Forces Network, during the daytime and evening.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

The barbed wire fence most likely would be the best earth around, Steve.....LOL

What you need is a good antenna fed with a co-ax that is well earthed on the screen.

My FT1000mp has an excellent receiver that covers from 0.1mhz to 30 mhz all modes, in fact it has two general coverage receivers, with both tuned to the same frequency, one for upper side band and the other lower side band, it counteracts selective fading..

An old ham friend of mine who lives in Kirkby in Ashfield, gave up on ham radio as he has a noise level of 60db caused by a local HV substation..

I have zero background noise where I live.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

I used to dabble with crystal sets in the 60s. It was great to hear stuff on your own creation. By the way. is it true that when you carried those old heavy valve sets years ago you turned it onto the Light programme?

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Crystal sets were a marvel, I've been looking around for some high impedance headphones, but there just don't seem to be made or sold anymore...I have some germanium diodes in one of my spares drawers, so might throw a crystal set together, but the earphones will present a problem.

AND BOOM BOOM< now gerroutovere.....LOL Light programme..Bahh humbug.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

Bring back 'Housewives Choice'.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Worrabaht workers playtime??

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

Does anyone remember 'Daventry Calling' from the BBC's Borough Hill station. If you ever saw those masts close to the M1 you would know what Ayupmeducks means about the costs involved they were huge.

I think there is still one mast remaining but there are no more short or long wave transmissions.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Some of those stations had huge transmitters too that cost a fortune in electricity to run.. Radio Moscow from what I remember, was the most powerful radio station on earth.

[colly0410 1,181]

When a squadie we used 23 mhz to 38 mhz for our artillery net radios. We were always tuned to 26 mhz smack in the 11 metre band. You'd set your squelch to get rid of the background hiss & a broadcast station would break through, you'd turn the squelch up to block it out & you'd miss the weaker wanted messages. Other times a broadcast station would fade in & out & break & un-break the squelch, I can still hear it if I think about it, it gave me a headache, lol..

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Being a ham, I'd miss weak signals if I used the squelch on HF, so only used it on VHF and UHF FM bands...With your knowledge you be able to pass the ham radio exams with ease, you'd have to learn the regulations, but I'd bet the theory would be no trouble.

My wife's also a licensed ham, when we lived in California, I bought her a dual band mobile and fitted it in her truck. She'd have it switched to a 70cm repeater a friend had set up in my workshop, so the coverage from Sacramento to our place was great.

When we moved from Sacramento to here, she drove the removal truck and I towed our travel trailer, we kept in touch via 2 metre simplex, saved us a major problem crossing the Sierras on I80 going down a very steep section. She set the rear brakes on fire, without radio communication she'd probably have lost the truck and I'd hate to have thought of the worst scenerio!! That's why I hate automatic transmissions on trucks.

[MelissaJKelly 2,124]

Not entirely on topic but for Christmas a few years back my Aunt's fiance brought me a little USB stick... Plug it into the laptop and you've magically been able to tune into every single radio station on planet Earth in any country. I do enjoy have a flick through and a listen to Taiwanese radio!

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

I hate to tell you this, but you didn't need the USB stick.....You can find most radio stations in the world with a google search and listen to them without the stick..Here's our local radio station...

http://www.kkountry.com/

[Trevor S 2,003]

That is a good link, Ayupmeducks.

Lots of interesting side threads and what seems to be a strong religious thread throughout the website - something you do not see much of anymore; at least here in Oz.

[barclaycon 569]

I used to love listening to the radio and grew up with the pirate stations and others on the Medium Wave.

I never really trawled the Short Wave - even though our radio had it.

It's astonishing that music seemed to sound so good on MW even though the quality was pretty bad.

The transistor radio was the iPod of its day. It revolutionised listening.

It fitted in the palm of your hand and the batteries seemed to last quite a long time too.

Short Wave was more for DXers and hams really. It was never that good for music.

I was intrigued when Radio Northsea International came on the scene in 1970 that they broadcast not only on MW but also on the 49 metre SW band (6.205 Mhz).

There's always been a lot of speculation as to why they did this. (They also had FM output and also 31 metre band for a short time). The Mebo company who owned RNI hade some very dodgy business dealings, but apparently the main reason for the Short Wave output was so they could hear the staiton in Zurich.

I wonder if Short Wave is used very much these days?

It's main attribute seemed to be the fact radio signals could travel so far.

That's why spy networks used to use Short Wave for 'number stations' like the Lincolnshire Poacher or Swedish Rhapsody.

I believe that most of these are no longer active.

[banjo48 928]

I have a little shortwave radio and I listen most evenings through my headphones when in bed. I suffer with tinnitus and find that the radio helps me nod off.

It is a Sangean radio and has auto switch off after 90 mins.

The BBC world service is a regular for me.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

There's still a lot of clandestine stuff on the "longhaul" sections of the HF bands, best "viewed" with a computer hook up and relavent software for decoding RTTY modes, not that it helps, as it's all in random characters.

There's still a lot of ship to shore radio, and believe it or not, still a lot of morse code.

Try weather sats too, but you'll need software to decode the weather fax into printable maps.

There are web sites devoted to the shortwave clandestine signals.

[colly0410 1,181]

Our sergeant Major (who was also a ham) who took us for our army advanced signals course said the radio theory part was equivalent to the ham licence theory. Thought about doing it but never got round to it. I used to have a 27 mhz AM + SSB CB radio & had lots of fun with that (I was a bad lad, lol) I reverse part chopped it for a 27 mhz FM legal rig (the FM set + £80, I needed the cash at the time) still got it in the loft, not sure if it still works though.

When I lived in Bestwood Village in the early 80's all the locals CB'ers used vertical polarised aerials, mine was the same, I used to get lots of blocking & bleed through from them. I had an idea: 'if I put a horizontal polarised aerial up it should cut down the pick up from vertical polarised locals.' I put a horizontal dipole up in the loft & it worked, hardly any blocking or bleed through after that & didn't seem to affect more distant CB'ers much, I had to keep it secret though as I didn't want others going horizontal otherwise it could ruin my little plan, lol..

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Vertical is omni directional, that's it's main problem, good for local but weak on both reception and transmit for long distance, they usually have no "gain" either, unless you used a phased array, then each section adds gain.

Yagis are gain antennas, we use mainly horizontally polarised Yagis, they operate like a torches reflector, they concentrate the signal to a "point" in much the same way a reflector does to a bulb.

I've had friends call me from the back of mine, I couldn't hear them until a swung the antenna their way.

Mines a tri bander, 10/15/20 metres and has seven elements, maximum gain is 10db, but the difference when I've switched from a vertical multi band vertical to the Yagi is unbelievable!

I've worked most of the old digital modes, and once had a 2 metre packet repeater set up when I lived in California..Packet was the forerunner, radio wise, to the internet, in fact the internet sends "packets" of information via telephone as against radio BUT, far faster than I'm allowed by regulations on radio.

[colly0410 1,181]

There was a CB'er in Bestwood Village who had a 5/8th end fed vertical aerial on his gable end, that was the one that caused most bleed through. I orientated my horizontal dipole end on to it to take advantage of the null point. He was a bit of a pest as he used to threaten people on air. He got his comeuppance though when it got struck by lightning, took a few bricks out his gable end & buggered his rig, oh how we laughed.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Lightning is a major problem around here, several strikes within a 100 or so feet from the house. Just over a year back we had storms approaching, I was just about to drop the DSL cable out of the filter and pull the plugs on the computer when "BANG"! TV went dead. I had a loud pop so knew the Apple ATV2 had got smoked..

Missus walked in and said the strike was just up the driveway, scared her big time, lost my router, TV and Apple 2 device..TV wasn't even a year old!!

Rebuilt that, just the main board had been smoked.

I don't have my radios cabled up at the present time, but the tower and Yagi are still up about 200 feet from the house, and so far they haven't been hit. I need to lower the tower and do some essential maintenance on the Yagi, set a new base closer to the house for the tower and reassemble everything once more.

All co-ax's will terminate into a box outside my shack/office into through connectors, that way when storms are around, I can drop them all out onto the ground.

With todays sensitive electronics, you don't need a direct hit to cause major expensive problems!!