On 6 June, 07:58, bm wrote:
On Jun 5, 10:23*am, Pete L wrote:

I am going on a cruise next month. I need a radio to keep up with the
news/football. My question is - do I need to get a shortwave receiver
or could I get good enough reception on medium wave? We are going from
UK across the North Sea, up along the Norway coast as far as North
Cape and then across to Spitsbergen.

If, as I suspect, I'm going to need a portable shortwave set what
would you recommend? I've looked at many and they vary considerably
pricewise. Would something less than £50 be just a waste of money?
Otherwise, if medium wave would be ok - any suggestions?

Many thanks

You could expect to hear BBC on MW in the North Sea, and 810 Scotland
quite far north, but nighttime propagation is difficult in these areas
as the nights are very short (and light...). When you reach Northern
Norway don't expect to hear anything on MW. I live just SE of North
Cape myself, and we've had 24h daylight since mid-May. You could
expect to hear SW with reasonable signals from 9 pm to 3 am on the 49
and 41 m bands with a decent portable (others here might want to
define "decent" to you as I don't know). Signal levels are generally
very weak here compared to continental EU or UK.

Bjarne

Thanks everybody for your advice. I have just come home with a Eton G8
Traveller radio. Only just started playing with it but it seems
excellent and exactly what I need on this trip. What I didn't mention
on my initial post is that, hopefully, over the next few years my wife
and I will be doing perhaps three cruises a year. I've been taken on
as a cruise lecturer. The deal is no pay but free trips for us and
half price drinks! It's a tough and dirty job but somebody has to do
it!