I use them all.

dead of night wrote:
I have found, having started 2 days ago, that there are three ways to
search for SW broadcasts:

1. Hunting, one station at a time, on each meter band.

I do that when I know the station, usually a favorite like Radio
Australia in the morning.


2. Scanning quickly through each meter band.

Yup, I do that too. In fact that reminds me of my first exciting
"catch" as a new owner of a Sony 2010 20 years ago. I was tuning
through the 6mhz band not really knowing what to listen for and came
across what seemed like an exotic and fascinating catch. Radio South
Africa was broadcasting a program for shortwave listenters. I later
found out it was no big deal, but I still remember the excitement.


3. Looking at a list of broadcast times and stations for your area that
someone has put together and directly putting these frequencies in.

By far the best resource for frequencies is the monthly Monitoring
Times http://www.monitoringtimes.com/ They feature a TV Guide-like
listing of shortwave broadcasters by time and frequency as well as
several well written articles. I've enjoyed that magazine for almost
as long as I've been in the hobby.



How do you do it?

Welcome to the hobby and enjoy that radio.

ngu wrote:
Doing a blind search on the freq is too speculative and rather time
consuming due to the sheer number of stations you'll hear.

What I'll do is to go to http://www.primetimeshortwave.com/ to download
the latest freq and station details for English broadcast. For
non-English broadcast, I'll go to the station's website for the details.


I'm a novice also (although I did scan SW bands with a Zenith tube
AM/SW radio and also a Hallicrafter S-38 years ago). I have a related
question. - Is there a website or book that lists the "major"
international stations, or those normally easy to find and listen to
(from Texas, in evening or night hours). In other words, there seem to
be lots of sources listing lots of international stations. But for a
novice, it would be much easier if I could start with the more powerful
ones (broadcasting in English, French, or Spanish). I'll also look
forward to searching for weaker, lesser-known stations, but I would like
to begin with some of those transmitting strong signals to the US,
midwest regions. Also the more powerful, better known stations.

I have the book "Passport to World Band Radio", 2007 edition, and I'm
familiar with websites such as primetimeshortwave.com, but these sources
seem to list around a thousand stations with no suggestion as to how to
sort out those that would be relatively easy for a novice listener to
pick up. (The "blue pages" of the "Passport..." book list broadcast
station power in watts, which may be a clue.)

Does anyone know of a SHORT list of foreign stations that can usually be
received fairly easy in the evening or night here in the midwest (e.g.,
the "top 30" or the "top "50")? Or, if that's asking too much, are there
long lists that suggest which stations are more powerful, and relatively
easy to pick up by a beginning DXer with relatively modest equipment,
with a decent antenna?

Thanks,
Jim Cate

I own a Hallicrafters S-38EB radio.It is in great physical and cosmetic
condition,and it still works too.I bought it at a Goodwill store for
$4.00 a bunch of years ago.I also own many,many other radios.
cuhulin,the radio nut

email www.ccrane.com Tell them to snail mail you one of those
papers that has the most popular shortwave stations listed on it.They
send them free if you buy a shortwave radio from them.Tell them all you
want is that paper.(for free)
cuhulin

The World Radio TV Handbook (WRTH) sets out not only the freq., station
names, target broadcast area but also the transmitters location and
strength in kW. You can then decide which stations stand the best
chance of being picked up in your region.

wrote:

The World Radio TV Handbook (WRTH) sets out not only the freq., station
names, target broadcast area but also the transmitters location and
strength in kW. You can then decide which stations stand the best
chance of being picked up in your region.


Thanks. I ordered the 2007 edition from Amazon.

Jim