Shortwave radio tutorial

[Standbyme]

I have come to own a 1956 Andrea shortwave radio. Is there a group or individual out there where I could gain some operational knowledge as I believe it's still functional.

[NoBozo]

If you don't find anything local, or more current, try this place. NB

http://newsm.org/


2016 Yankee Steam Up: Now on YouTube. The wireless part is at the end of the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv_sLVb8Ca4

[Charlie T]

Originally Posted by Standbyme

I have come to own a 1956 Andrea shortwave radio. Is there a group or individual out there where I could gain some operational knowledge as I believe it's still functional.

Up until his death a couple of years ago Mal Fuller was a columnist at the Weirs times. His folksy column originally was focused on auto repair, after he retired he often wrote about antique radios. As I understand it he was a member of a large antique radio club with many members local to the lakes region. I believe he did a show on AM Radio focused on those radios and their upkeep. If you go into the archives of the Weirs times you will find many interesting columns written by Mal.

Good Luck

Charlie T

[TCC]

I have no personal knowledge of amateur radio operation, but you might want to contact one of these groups for further information.

http://www.lrra.w1bst.org/
http://www.nharrl.org/

[garysanfran]

During the early 60's, I had a shortwave and listened to broadcasts from many countries. One of my favorites was Radio Moscow broadcasting anti-USA propaganda about the Vietnam War. I would send an outline of the program to the stations, and they would confirm my reception with a QSL Card. I collected many.

Currently, with access to radio via the internet, I have no idea what is out there now. You'll need to connect an antenna. A 10'-20' fairly thick gauge wire laid out horizontally should do well. I suggest connecting the antenna, turn it on and see what happens... Let us know!

[Rich]

Most SW (Short Wave) radios are quite simple.

For best results you need some sort of an antenna, and perhaps a ground wire to go along with the antenna. Most of these older radios did not have a built in antenna, so without adding one you may not hear much at all. An antenna can be as simple as attaching a length of wire to the antenna (ANT) screw on the back panel and then just simply stringing it up in your room. Usually the longer the better, but some SW antennas could be a hundred feet long depending on the type that you would like to use and the amount of room that you have, but even a 10 or 20 foot antenna may pick up some of the stronger stations, depending on the frequency and conditions.

What you can hear depends on if the radio is capable of receiving AM (Amplitude Modulation) only, or one that also can listen to CW (Continuous Wave, a.k.a. Morse code) and or SSB (Single Side Band). Also note that different frequencies are better during the day vs. night; there are seasonal as well as 'sun seasonal' cycles that can affect what you will hear at any given time.

Half the fun is discovering things on your own. Create a log book, write down the date, time and call sign or other identifying info about what you hear.

For example, at night on lower frequencies, you can hear stations from the other side of the world. During the day, you may not hear much at all. An example of this is the AM radio band (510 to 1610 KHz) that is still in some cars of today. At night you can hear stations from all over the country if you tune and listen carefully, but during the day you can only hear local stations.

It used to be that you could actually hear spy broadcasts, etc. But in these internet days, I'm not sure if these are still around. http://lifehacker.com/5961035/how-to...asts-right-now
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station

There are books and guides, do a little googling and find some that appeal to you.

I'm a licensed Ham radio (Amateur radio) operator, but haven't been very active lately as other things have taken my time, but the basics of SW listening hasn't changed in years. So I can't say I can say what sort of things you may hear these days. But there still is a lot out there!

Here's a guide I found with a simple google search:
http://www.shortwaveschedule.com/?now=true

Here's a Web SDR (Software Defined Radio). Choose a station and listen to Short Wave online, from the comfort of your computer! Try it:
http://websdr.org/

From the list above, here's a receiver based in California:
But just like any SW radio, you need to have an idea or where to start, what mode to use, etc. But feel free to experiment with it as you can't hurt anything. Note that these SDR's may not tune to every frequency. They tend to be focused on the Ham radio frequencies. I pretuned this one to a frequency inside of the Ham radio "20 meter" voice band to get you started. Feel free to tune around and see what you can hear:
http://69.27.184.62:8901/?tune=14290lsb

To save you from playing around too much, here is a preset SDR in the Netherlands listening to BBC Radio 4
http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/?tune=198am

Here's another preset... listening to WWV/WWVH (National Institute of Standards Time) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWV_(radio_station) on 10 MHz. The interesting thing, the Male voice is from the signal in Fort Collins, Colorado, the Female voice is from Kauai Hawaii. Which do you hear from this station in Half Moon Bay in California? It may change during different times of the day:
http://69.27.184.62:8901/?tune=10000am

Ok, any more and this would start to get too nerdy! LOL

[Scott's Yott]

Go to th.e Deerfield fairgrounds today or saturday.North East Amature Radio, is having their fleamarket (NEAR)

[Rich]

Is anyone except for the OP interested in Short Wave (SW) radio listening?

I suppose this topic got me doing some google searches.

There are some very inexpensive but very powerful SDR adapters available for your computer now, just connect them with a USB cable and add a wire for an antenna, then you can listen to just about everything! Or you can use the links I provided previously to listen a bit using someone else's computer.

The unit to get for your own computer is this item: www.sdrplay.com

Note you can purchase these in Salem, NH at HRO (Ham Radio Outlet), I don't have one, but I may get one as they can listen to just about anything you could imagine, including SW, some police, fire, FM, AM, marine, aircraft frequencies, etc.

Here's a quirky/nerdy but quick and slightly amusing youtube minor review of one of these SDRPlay units:
https://youtu.be/TJSctUv5lUc?list=PL...a-kPS67Lzu_sSc

[Slickcraft]

Yes Rich, I am interested and have been reading along.

Long ago when I was a kid, there were two Hallicrafters in the basement connected to long wire external antennas. My brother and I were amazed at what we could pick up at night. As I recall both had manual tune BFOs but I never got very good at demodulating SSB.

I was not aware of SDR adapters and will look into that.

[Rich]

Yes, technology has come a LONG way since the days of tubes.

I think my first 'radio' was a crystal radio experiment, that picked up local AM radio stations with an earphone, a length of wire, and something to act as a rectifier (crystal diode). I was amazed that three things could pick up a radio signal!

These SDR devices are quite the thing, and even more so is the web sites I listed in the previous post where you can effectively listen to SW radio from the comfort of your own home without even spending a penny (except for your internet access).

But the adapter I listed in the post above would allow you to listen to most anything in your area or around the world via SW radio. Amazing technology! Even though I have some ham radio equipment in my basement, I may pick up one of these things just to play with it. The amazing thing is that $149 adapter can receive much much more than some of my very expensive radio equipment!

[salty dog]

Originally Posted by Rich

Yes, technology has come a LONG way since the days of tubes.

I think my first 'radio' was a crystal radio experiment, that picked up local AM radio stations with an earphone, a length of wire, and something to act as a rectifier (crystal diode). I was amazed that three things could pick up a radio signal!

These SDR devices are quite the thing, and even more so is the web sites I listed in the previous post where you can effectively listen to SW radio from the comfort of your own home without even spending a penny (except for your internet access).

But the adapter I listed in the post above would allow you to listen to most anything in your area or around the world via SW radio. Amazing technology! Even though I have some ham radio equipment in my basement, I may pick up one of these things just to play with it. The amazing thing is that $149 adapter can receive much much more than some of my very expensive radio equipment!

I had one that sounds similar to the one you had. I was 11, maybe 12 and pretty sure I got it from the Realistic catalog. It was a little red rocket shaped
device with a short antenna that pulled up from the top. It was really just a toy. My father helped me fabricate an extension; a simple wire wrapped around the antenna about 3 feet long with an alligator clip. I would fasten it to the radiator at night, turn the antenna round and round, and could actually pull in some stations. A few years ago, I purchased a Grundig GS350DL, primarily to use as an emergency radio. From time to time, I'll listen to the short wave at night just to see what I can pull in. Never lost the interest in it. As you say, now you can listen online. Quite amazing.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Standbyme

I have come to own a 1956 Andrea shortwave radio. Is there a group or individual out there where I could gain some operational knowledge as I believe it's still functional.

Did you ever make any progress with your SW receiver?

What interesting things have you heard so far?

[Rich]

Standbyme, did you get your receiver working?

What have you heard?