Recomended mid-range shortwave set-up
 

Hi,

I have wanted to get involved with shortwave for years and would like to get
some recommendations on a mid-range ($200-400) receiver and antenna set-up.
I plan on telescoping mast for shortwave, TV (mostly for uhf PBS stuff), and
FM. The height restriction in our town is 50' but I imagine anything around
30' would produce good results since there are no big hills or trees nearby.
In addition I own a newer 2.8 GHz PC running Windows XP for any
recommendations on how I might incorporate this into the overall set-up.

Being inexperienced I am thinking I should start with simply listening with
a capable mid-range receiver and then after some years time buy into a
transmitter as well. This is all untutored preliminary thinking on my part
and would welcome anyone's ideas as to how a beginner could best get started
on the road to mid-to-high end shortwave/ham listening/broadcasting. I see
this initial step as phase one of a two or three part program that will
extend over a period of five or ten years.

Thank you for your help.

Steve

Note: I will be buying "Passport to World Band Radio" as a way of educating
myself on some of the issues I mentioned