Hi. I own a new, Sony icf7600GR, delivered yesterday. I am brand new
to shortwave radio. I have printed out the Prime Time Shortwave
listings of English speaking shortwave broadcasts to America. After
noting the difference between the UTC time and my time, I tried finding
broadcasts.

Out of approximately 12, I could only get about 3. Is this par for
the course? I had the antenna fully extended near my window. I tried
the reel antenna but it did not make much of a difference. Can you
offer any tips and advice? I'd prefer not to buy an expensive,
optional antenna right now, I want to make do with the whip and reel.

Bad sun spot activity now. Just wait a while and it will pass.
dead of night wrote:
Hi. I own a new, Sony icf7600GR, delivered yesterday. I am brand new
to shortwave radio. I have printed out the Prime Time Shortwave
listings of English speaking shortwave broadcasts to America. After
noting the difference between the UTC time and my time, I tried finding
broadcasts.

Out of approximately 12, I could only get about 3. Is this par for
the course? I had the antenna fully extended near my window. I tried
the reel antenna but it did not make much of a difference. Can you
offer any tips and advice? I'd prefer not to buy an expensive,
optional antenna right now, I want to make do with the whip and reel.

Take the radio to a small open field at night and try it out. If ytou
got a big backyard that is good too. I can walk away from the house
and get many stations. Maybe you got too much noise around and it is
hard to pick out stations. You can try different times too. I like
early morning just before the sun comes up too.

regards,
NEO



dead of night wrote:
Hi. I own a new, Sony icf7600GR, delivered yesterday. I am brand new
to shortwave radio. I have printed out the Prime Time Shortwave
listings of English speaking shortwave broadcasts to America. After
noting the difference between the UTC time and my time, I tried finding
broadcasts.

Out of approximately 12, I could only get about 3. Is this par for
the course? I had the antenna fully extended near my window. I tried
the reel antenna but it did not make much of a difference. Can you
offer any tips and advice? I'd prefer not to buy an expensive,
optional antenna right now, I want to make do with the whip and reel.

Ron Baker, Pluralitas! wrote:
"dead of night" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi. I own a new, Sony icf7600GR, delivered yesterday. I am brand new
to shortwave radio. I have printed out the Prime Time Shortwave
listings of English speaking shortwave broadcasts to America. After
noting the difference between the UTC time and my time, I tried finding
broadcasts.

Out of approximately 12, I could only get about 3. Is this par for
the course?

It doesn't sound unreasonable.

I had the antenna fully extended near my window. I tried
the reel antenna but it did not make much of a difference. Can you
offer any tips and advice? I'd prefer not to buy an expensive,
optional antenna right now, I want to make do with the whip and reel.


Thanks for the help and replies. I did a little better this morning.
I hung the reel antenna outside and tried to fing stations by
exclusively using the scanning function. I found it's better to let
the radio do the work, do the hunting and scanning. I found many
stations, most of them Christian gospel preaching. I will try again
tonight.
It depends on where you are in America and
where the broadcaster is. You might be in a
fringe area for a particular broadcaster. And
the listings are probably optimistic.

SWLing is a little like hunting. I don't know
about others but I scan looking for interesting
or surprising signals. Signals that are regularly
there, i.e. similar to a local AM broadcast aren't
that interesting to me. (Although Radio Havana
can be good for a laugh.)

If you are unsure of your radio or antenna then
there are regular signals you can test it against.
WWV is regular by design. Depending on
where you are and the time of day you should
get a good signal on 5 MHz and/or 10 MHz.

--
rb

On 23 Dec 2006 07:02:14 -0800, "dead of night"
wrote:

Ron Baker, Pluralitas! wrote:
"dead of night" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi. I own a new, Sony icf7600GR, delivered yesterday. I am brand new
to shortwave radio. I have printed out the Prime Time Shortwave
listings of English speaking shortwave broadcasts to America. After
noting the difference between the UTC time and my time, I tried finding
broadcasts.

Out of approximately 12, I could only get about 3. Is this par for
the course?

It doesn't sound unreasonable.

I had the antenna fully extended near my window. I tried
the reel antenna but it did not make much of a difference. Can you
offer any tips and advice? I'd prefer not to buy an expensive,
optional antenna right now, I want to make do with the whip and reel.


Thanks for the help and replies. I did a little better this morning.
I hung the reel antenna outside and tried to fing stations by
exclusively using the scanning function. I found it's better to let
the radio do the work, do the hunting and scanning. I found many
stations, most of them Christian gospel preaching. I will try again
tonight.

I use the 7600 too. I suggest you get about 20 feet of wire (stronger
than the stuff that the reel antenna is made of). Attach an alligator
clip to one end. Throw the wire out of your window. Either run it
along the side of the house/apt. or just let it drop. Attach the
alligator clip to your radio's antenna (keep the antenna at its
shortest, so no accidents happen where you knock the radio over
because of an extended antenna. (Another option is using the reel
antenna but taking the plastic reel off the wire.) Do note that you
will have to learn to use the attenuator wheel on strong signals.

Those gospel stations are domestic US broadcasters. They tend to be
easy catches (at least the big powerful ones). If you let us know
where you are located, and the stations that you AREN'T able to catch,
other 7600 owners can give you feedback on whether those failures are
normal or not. That radio just isn't going to pick up local stations
in Sumatra or Urumqi.


It depends on where you are in America and
where the broadcaster is. You might be in a
fringe area for a particular broadcaster. And
the listings are probably optimistic.

SWLing is a little like hunting. I don't know
about others but I scan looking for interesting
or surprising signals. Signals that are regularly
there, i.e. similar to a local AM broadcast aren't
that interesting to me. (Although Radio Havana
can be good for a laugh.)

If you are unsure of your radio or antenna then
there are regular signals you can test it against.
WWV is regular by design. Depending on
where you are and the time of day you should
get a good signal on 5 MHz and/or 10 MHz.

--
rb

--
Col. I.P. Yurin
Commissariat of Internal Security

Stakhanovite
Order of Lenin (1937)
Hero of Socialist Labor (1939)

Dear "D. of N."

Unfortunately you have picked probably the worst possible time to get
started in shortwave radio. We are at, or fast approaching, the
"bottom" of the 11-year sunspot cycle. At this point, shortwave
reception becomes problematic. Signals can travel farther on the higher
frequencies, but these are the frequencies most affected by the
presence or absence of sunspots. You will find reception to be
generally better in the early mornings and the late afternoons, with
nighttime reception to be "iffy." That's not to say, of course, that
you can't hear anything at night, just that it will be more chancy
until the new sunspot cycle "takes hold," which will occur in just a
couple of years. (I should mention to you that sunspots affect the
ionosphere which directly affects shortwave reception.)

Your whip antenna and/or the accessory reel antenna will work just
fine.

Try tuning to 6165 kHz at 0000 UTC (7:00 PM EST) and/or at 0100 UTC.
Radio Netherlands transmits in English at that time and their programs
are always interesting. If you can listen in the afternoons, try 12095
kHz at 1900 UTC (2:00 PM EST) and you should hear the BBC which
transmits until 2100 UTC. At that time tune to 11690 kHz and you should
hear Deutsche Welle. These two broadcasts will get you started. (This
is assuming, of course, that you live in the eastern part of the United
States.)

Hang in there. And keep trying/scanning the shortwaves whenever you
wish. Oftentimes you will hear something totally unexpected and this is
one of the joys of the hobby.

Best,

Joe

dead of night wrote:
Hi. I own a new, Sony icf7600GR, delivered yesterday. I am brand new
to shortwave radio. I have printed out the Prime Time Shortwave
listings of English speaking shortwave broadcasts to America. After
noting the difference between the UTC time and my time, I tried finding
broadcasts.

Out of approximately 12, I could only get about 3. Is this par for
the course? I had the antenna fully extended near my window. I tried
the reel antenna but it did not make much of a difference. Can you
offer any tips and advice? I'd prefer not to buy an expensive,
optional antenna right now, I want to make do with the whip and reel.