Alan Brown wrote:
I'm new to SWL, I've just ordered a TEN-TEC 1056 Receiver kit. I was
wondering if anyone could tell me which band would be the best to build it
for. I'm hoping to be able to use it for decoding CW on the ham bands using
some software on my PC called CwGet. Any help would be appreciated. I live
in the UK if this makes a difference to the band.

If I were doing this here in the States, I'd build it for 40 meters/7MHz.

In general, lower frequencies are better at night; higher ones during
the day. The 21 and 28MHz bands are generally only usable during
daylight, and 14MHz only a few hours after nightfall. 1.8 and 3.5MHz
are only usable from twilight to a bit after dawn. 7MHz is open to
*somewhere* essentially all the time.

On the other hand, 7 and 14MHz have the most activity and thus the most
interference. I suspect CwGet will have a lot of trouble decoding
signals when interference is present. Then again, if you listen to the
Morse at the same time CwGet is decoding it, you will begin to learn to
copy the Morse by ear fairly quickly - in a few months you might be able
to turn the computer off. Your ear is far better at dealing with
interference than any software yet devised.

A potential issue with 7MHz is overload from broadcast stations. We
don't have many BC stations in the 7MHz band on this side. That's also
a potential issue with building it for 1.8MHz; the most powerful MW BC
stations on this side are 50kw (?!), your stations would give the
receiver much more of a test!

I built mine for 14MHz. (because I already had a little 14MHz
transmitter I wanted to use it with) It's an interesting & educational
thing to build and it works very well for the price.
--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com