"dead of night" ) writes:
HJi. My 7600GR has arrived at home and is still in the box. I'm
concerned that its features will be difficult to use and learn
effectively. I have never had a shortwave radio before and have never
used a synch detector nor an attenuator. Are there full instructions
about these features in the owner's manual? I just want to get as many
stations as possible, using the best tuning methods.

There may be a few more controls, but it's not really different
from the average AM/FM radio. Treat it like that to start, and then
when you get used to it, start kicking in the extra features.

I suspect the big difference will be the RF gain control (if it
has one, I don't know, and it may be labelled somewhat differently).
You don't find those on the average AM/FM radio. But, they will
generally only kick in if you turn off the AGC (ie automatic
gain control). Then, you will be able to attenuate strong signals.
The real reason for bringing it up is not because you'll need
to fuss with it at the beginning, but if the AGC inadvertently gets
turned off and the RF gain control is somehow set low, you might
suddenly puzzle over the insensitivity of the radio.

The synchronous detector, you don't need to start with. Get a feel
for tuning stations to begin with, and then try it later. It may require
no real skill to use, I suspect it depends on the specific implementation
in a given radio.

You might even just start with the AM broadcast band, since those
are signals you are used to, and play with the controls. Try to find
a weaker signal adjacent to a strong local station, and see how the
various controls can be manipulated to try to improve the reception
of the weaker signal.

The real trick to shortwave is really, apart from maybe more fading
of the signals, is that shortwave broadcast stations don't use the
same frequency all the time, and radio conditions will affect reception.

So when you find Radio Australia, for example, it won't necessarily be
there later that day. And even if it did, you might not be able to
receive it because of band conditions. Higher frequencies for daytime,
lower frequencies for nighttime.

Michael