Arthur Dent ) writes:
I just purchased a Eton E5 radio with SSB. When I switch to SSB mode,
I can never hear anything. What am I doing wrong? Should I be
listening only to specific frequencies?
Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks Arthur

If you "turn on" SSB, you should be hearing something. Because any signal
will still be receivable. The difference is that straight AM signals
will have a beat note. CW signals will not be an on/off thumping, they
will have a tone to them.

From the other side, you will hear SSB signals even when you've not
got things turned on for SSB. You won't be able to understand them,
but you should be able to make out that someone is speaking. One way
to describe SSB signals with no BFO turned on is that they are overmodulated,
too much modulation and not enough carrier, which is indeed what is
happening. When you switch on the SSB mode, it introduces a local signal
to beat against the incoming signal, and thus translate it down to audio.

SSB is not a different band. It is a form of modulation, and sprinkled
throughout the shortwave bands. It is rarely used for SW broadcasting,
so you aren't likely to find such signals there. As someone pointed out,
it is the dominant voice modulation used by hams. And it is used by
military, and other two-way communcation. But you have to look beyond
the SW broadcast bands to find them.

Michael