hello, i am new to shortwave listening and i hope some of you long timers might be able to help me. I just got a kaito 1103, mainly to receive weather fax while out on my boat in California, but I am in utah now messing about with it, and I am wondering if 1)I just need more practice tuning, or 2)are there just no signals here I can hear, 3) or is my radio faulty? and how do I know which? I cannot seem to pull in any signal I can recognize as a broadcast, with the exception of the normal FMs and MF AM stations local to my home here. (1160).

I have strung the wire antenna about head high across several large windows inside my house, which is a normal 1 story brick bungalow. (no big steel beams or massive lead walls...). I found a string of posts on this forum from 2006 with a fellow named Matt who described exactly what I am going through and there were several suggestions to him of how to very carefully try to tune in, and I have been trying that, at all hours of the day and night, aware that many signals seem to propogate better at dusk, dawn, and night.

is there any way to test whether my radio is faulty, or is it just me?

thanks and happy holidays
Kyle