Help Request: Receiving only 1 Worldband Radio Station: Grundig YB400PE vs YB300PE or Location Factor
 

Hi,

I have a Grundig YB300PE for about 6 months now, and have been using it
regularly.

I currently can tune in to Radio Taiwan International at 5.95 and 2-3 other
religious stations in the shortwave band. I have tried to tune into other
world radio stations by entering the frequencies directly or by using
auto-tuning, but have been unsuccessful.

I have researched on why I can only get so few stations, and I found out
that my location in Vancouver, BC, Canada is a poor location for reception.

My question is would I get more stations if I upgraded my radio to YB400PE?
Or would I just be limited to the number of stations because of my location?

Thanks in advance for your help!

- Brian

Free Stuff Page http://www.freestuffpage.com

BC,

First you must realise that 55.5% of the Reception Equation is the
Antenna.
+ + + An average radio with a Good Antenna = Good Reception.
- - - A Good Radio with a poor antenna = poor reception.

? Question ?
Are you using an External Antenna with your Grundig Yacht Boy 300 PE ?

NOTE: Portable Radios often can be "Over Loaded" by an External
Antenna.

Before you spend some more money on a new radio.

Consider the "PWA" [Portable Wire Antenna] that was created and
written about by Tom Sevart [N2UHC].

Portable Wire Antenna "PWA" for the Sony ICF-2010.
- - - To 'quote' Tom Sevant - "This is an antenna I put together after
having problems with overload on my Sony 2010 portable shortwave
receiver"

GoTo= http://www.geocities.com/n2uhc/portablewire.html

Bassically, the PWA is a a short to medium length "Random Wire
Antenna" that is 'couple' via the a 'portable' radio's Whip Antenna
for improved reception.
- - - It uses a 'coupling coil' that is place over the 'portable'
radio's Whip Antenna.

The webpage written by by Tom Sevart [N2UHC] describes the
construction and sep-up of the PWA [Portable Wire Antenna].

GoTo= http://www.geocities.com/n2uhc/portablewire.html


iane ~ RHF
..
..
= = = "Brian Chow"
= = = wrote in message news:cwWrb.13572$Ws6.6371@edtnps84...

Hi,

I have a Grundig YB300PE for about 6 months now, and have been using it
regularly.

I currently can tune in to Radio Taiwan International at 5.95 and 2-3 other
religious stations in the shortwave band. I have tried to tune into other
world radio stations by entering the frequencies directly or by using
auto-tuning, but have been unsuccessful.

I have researched on why I can only get so few stations, and I found out
that my location in Vancouver, BC, Canada is a poor location for reception.

My question is would I get more stations if I upgraded my radio to YB400PE?
Or would I just be limited to the number of stations because of my location?

Thanks in advance for your help!

- Brian

In article cwWrb.13572$Ws6.6371@edtnps84, says...
Hi,

I have a Grundig YB300PE for about 6 months now, and have been using it
regularly.

I currently can tune in to Radio Taiwan International at 5.95 and 2-3 other
religious stations in the shortwave band. I have tried to tune into other
world radio stations by entering the frequencies directly or by using
auto-tuning, but have been unsuccessful.

I have researched on why I can only get so few stations, and I found out
that my location in Vancouver, BC, Canada is a poor location for reception.

My question is would I get more stations if I upgraded my radio to YB400PE?
Or would I just be limited to the number of stations because of my location?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Supplemental to RHF's reply:

Yes, you need a good antenna in order to receive well. I suspect the
YB400 will do better than the 300, but you also need to have a decent
antenna. When the internal whip on my little DX-375 isn't up to the
task, I usually clip on a wire that runs around the edge of the ceiling
in the bedroom. That improves things enough without completely
overloading the radio with too much signal strength.

A couple of other factors to consider:

1) You ALSO need to know WHEN and WHERE someone's transmitting. For
this, I rely on tools like:

- Monitoring Times magazine
- Passport to World Band Radio
- Checking the web sites of the stations I want to monitor

2) Your LOCATION is also a factor. If you're down at the bottom of the
Grand Canyon, you're likely not to receive things as well as you will at
sea level. And if you're at the top of Mount Baldy your chances are
better than those at sea level.

3) By and large, though, geography won't be as big a factor as the
ambient noise level at your location. Tune a cheap AM radio to
somewhere between stations. If you have a lot of noise there (sometimes
referred to as a high "noise floor), then you need to do some
troubleshooting to find out where the interference originates. It could
be from bad TV cable or power line connections, or a broadcast station
with transmitters/antennas relatively close to your location, or any of
a number of different sources. Some investigation work is in order if
you have a high noise floor.

4) Propagation conditions and time of day are also factors. There are
times when the conditions are so bad that you'll be lucky to receive
anything outside your local area, and other times when you'll be able to
hear all kinds of signals. Likewise, time of day will also affect
reception. For signals that are being beamed into your area, the
broadcasters are generally aiming for times when there will be a greater
listening audience. Most broadcasters want to be HEARD, so they
generally aim their signals at you in the evenings, rather than at 3am
local time. ;-) Check the items in #1 above and see when they are
beaming their signals to you. An example of this, from Monitoring
Times, is:

0200 0300 Russia, Voice of 5995me 6155na 7180na
9765na 15445na 15595na

VOR is beaming to the Mediterranean on 5.995MHz, but to North America on
all of their other frequencies. Therefore, unless you're in the south
of France, it will probably do you little good to listen on that
frequency.

They choose those frequencies based on what the "usual" propagation
conditions are, so if you see:

0100 0127 Czech Rep, Radio Prague Intl 6200na 7345na

in Monitoring Times, and you know that Radio Prague is not using relays
(more on that in a minute), you want to remember that listening in that
range of frequencies is likely to net more European signals at that time
of day, rather than up in the 17MHz band.

5) Remember that many shortwave broadcasters -- especially the "big
guns" like the BBC, Radio Netherlands, Deutsche Welle, and so forth --
tend to broadcast through relays. When you hear the BBC, you may not be
hearing them directly from London. More likely, you're hearing them
from Antigua, or perhaps the Seychelles. Other broadcasters use the
huge Canadian site at Sackville, or they buy airtime on the monster WYFR
transmitters in Okeechobee, Florida. This is especially good
information to have on hand when you operate with a beam antenna, so
that you can aim your antenna in the direction of the station you're
trying to hear, but it's also handy to know that if you're hearing
Florida well, you can probably also hear Cuba....

I probably gave you a lot more information than you wanted in answer to
a simple question, but there are a lot of factors that come into play
when you seek to hear stations on the shortwave bands. Hope it was
helpful.

--

-- //Steve//

Steve Silverwood, KB6OJS
Fountain Valley, CA
Email:

Please visit the following sites:

American Shortwave Listening Club (ASWLC)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aswlc

Southern California Area DXers
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scads