wrote in message . ..
Im thinking of dumping my cable TV. That will leave me with only two
local TV stations to get via an antenna.

Im considering buying a shortwave receiver that I can listen to while
doing things around the house.

Is there interesting programming available via shortwave? Is my idea
sound? What good receivers are worth looking at?

Well, your idea is sound allright - all sound and no picture!

There is interesting programming available via shortwave, but
reception varies throughout the day and night as well as the seasons.
Before dumping cable tv, get a shortwave receiver and see if you are
happy with it. Another alternative is satellite - not the small dish,
but the large C-band dish. There's a lot of free programming out
there. Even the small dish, i.e. Dish Network, is better than cable.
Also, with digital television now a reality, reception of many more
channels might be available with a high definition tv and tuner. I
have read that up in the mountains about 30 or 40 miles from me, where
tv reception has been impossible all these years, they now get great
reception from several digital over-the-air high definition stations,
some quite far away.

In article ,
(Gary) writes:

Also, with digital television now a reality, reception of many more
channels might be available with a high definition tv and tuner. I
have read that up in the mountains about 30 or 40 miles from me, where
tv reception has been impossible all these years, they now get great
reception from several digital over-the-air high definition stations,
some quite far away.

One of my freinds ( well to do, works two jobs) bought a 50 inch HDTV flat
screen;
and the surround sound system. Much like having a small theater in your house;

- really quite impressive!

- But for the price, you could probaly buy a full SW Transmitter,
antenna & Studio ( ! ! ! )

& There's lots to hear on WBCQ, 7.415, BBC, 5105, VOA, etc..

& library books are fun.

Dan

I actually had the same idea, and I did try it for a while.

I didn't miss the junk on TV, but I did miss the history, documentary,
classic movies and other similar channels. I don't think there is enough on
shortwave that you can listen to regularly and consistently. In fact, these
days, much of shortwave seems to be the radio equivalent of junk TV. It's
only of interest as a hobby, trying to see what you can pick up and for how
long. For normal radio listening instead of TV, I would be lost without the
CBC (regular FM in Canada, not shortwave). I occasionally catch something on
world band that's interesting to listen to, but in practice, most of my
international listening happens during late night hours when the regular CBC
relays international SW broadcasters from Britain, France, Australia,
Poland, Radio Netherlands, Deutsche Welle, etc., or AM radio from the US
which is easily heard most nights.

If you want to listen to infomercials, religious broadcasting, right wing
crackpots, etc., there's plenty of that on SW that is easy to pick up and
can be listened to during the daytime for hours on end.

Now, if you have a public broadcaster where you live, and other serious
programming on AM or FM radio, and you listen to that with some shortwave
thrown in, it might be a viable thing to do instead of watching TV.

That's not to say that listening to shortwave isn't an interesting hobby. I
love it. But it's not exactly something you can just tune once, and then go
about doing things around the house.

Pierre


wrote in message
...
Im thinking of dumping my cable TV. That will leave me with only two
local TV stations to get via an antenna.

Im considering buying a shortwave receiver that I can listen to while
doing things around the house.

Is there interesting programming available via shortwave? Is my idea
sound? What good receivers are worth looking at?

Excellent choice. TV sucks, and it does more and more every day.

How about trying a R-9700 DX? That's a wonderful radio and the price
is right. Mine came from China via air mail for $26 plus $20
shipping.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tegory=15 051

It has great sound and is very sensitive. FM and AM are good too.
The only thing I don't like about it is it doesn't tune down to 9335
to hear North Korea in the middle of the night. But if they fire some
missiles off at anybody I think it will be on the news most anywhere
anyway. Oh and it doesn't have digital tuning, so you can tell you're
near the frequency you want but you can't tell if you're right on it.

Shortwave is noisy and sometimes fades a lot. This can drive people
crazy, especially women. I like it though because you can hear
nature. Plus if you live in the United States there's tons of
religious stations with Southern accents. *vomit*

What part of the world do you live in? Here on the west coast of the
US, you don't hear cool things like the Voice of Turkey or Radio Cairo
like you can in the eastern US. But you can hear Australia and New
Zealand all night. Between 10 and midnight there isn't that much
going on on shortwave unless you like Radio Havana. Now there's some
low technology.

Most anyone here will tell you, build yourself an antenna. It can
just be a long wire outside to hook up to your radio. If you get the
R-9700DX radio it comes with two wires you can use. Have fun and
welcome.



On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 08:56:10 -0600, wrote:

Im thinking of dumping my cable TV. That will leave me with only two
local TV stations to get via an antenna.

Im considering buying a shortwave receiver that I can listen to while
doing things around the house.

Is there interesting programming available via shortwave? Is my idea
sound? What good receivers are worth looking at?

I already have a Kaito WRX911 (Tecsun something I forget) and I like it so
much I just ordered an R-9700DX a couple of days ago. It hasn't arrived yet,
so I can't comment. I've had a number of digitally-tuned radios over the
years, but I really don't like digital anything (the computer I'm typing
this on is a necessary evil). Pushing buttons just was never like scanning
the bands manually to see what's there, like in my younger days. I had a
7600GR I sold not long ago. Great radio in other ways, but what an exercise
in frustration when you just want to scan the bands.
Pierre



"Altawaowr" wrote in message
...
Excellent choice. TV sucks, and it does more and more every day.

How about trying a R-9700 DX? That's a wonderful radio and the price
is right. Mine came from China via air mail for $26 plus $20
shipping.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tegory=15 051

It has great sound and is very sensitive. FM and AM are good too.
The only thing I don't like about it is it doesn't tune down to 9335
to hear North Korea in the middle of the night. But if they fire some
missiles off at anybody I think it will be on the news most anywhere
anyway. Oh and it doesn't have digital tuning, so you can tell you're
near the frequency you want but you can't tell if you're right on it.

Shortwave is noisy and sometimes fades a lot. This can drive people
crazy, especially women. I like it though because you can hear
nature. Plus if you live in the United States there's tons of
religious stations with Southern accents. *vomit*

What part of the world do you live in? Here on the west coast of the
US, you don't hear cool things like the Voice of Turkey or Radio Cairo
like you can in the eastern US. But you can hear Australia and New
Zealand all night. Between 10 and midnight there isn't that much
going on on shortwave unless you like Radio Havana. Now there's some
low technology.

Most anyone here will tell you, build yourself an antenna. It can
just be a long wire outside to hook up to your radio. If you get the
R-9700DX radio it comes with two wires you can use. Have fun and
welcome.



On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 08:56:10 -0600, wrote:

Im thinking of dumping my cable TV. That will leave me with only two
local TV stations to get via an antenna.

Im considering buying a shortwave receiver that I can listen to while
doing things around the house.

Is there interesting programming available via shortwave? Is my idea
sound? What good receivers are worth looking at?

The Kaito WRX911 is the perfect backpacking radio, buy it before REI
finds it, and sells it to you for $49 USD. It looks like their parent
maker sells them for $8 USD in china.

I'm still using the first pair of alkaline batteries i put in them and
i must have played the thing now and then for almost a year. It's
just a very simple and very sensitive radio. It's amazing what you
can hear on it outside, holding it in your hand pointing it with just
its little antenna in a deliberate direction.

The WRX-911 has a nice speaker on it, it has a good 'bright' sound
that is great for human speech. Speech is intelligible on that radio.

FM isn't very selective, and there's no light for the bands but
otherwise the thing is great.

I think you'll like the R-9700 DX, it's got a nice amber dial light on
it, and you can guess the frequency within 5-15 kHz, the bands are
nice and wide. FM is more sensitive and selective. The speaker
sounds nice but the 'bright' sound of the WRX911 makes speech on the
WRX911 a little bit more intelligible.

The R-9700 DX gets FM in stereo if it's a strong station. It has an
antenna jack and it comes with both a wire and a roll-up antenna for
travelling. If you don't care about stereo through headphones, you
can get FM radio stations on it from some distance.



On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 21:58:07 -0500, "Pierre L"
wrote:

I already have a Kaito WRX911 (Tecsun something I forget) and I like it so
much I just ordered an R-9700DX a couple of days ago. It hasn't arrived yet,
so I can't comment. I've had a number of digitally-tuned radios over the
years, but I really don't like digital anything (the computer I'm typing
this on is a necessary evil). Pushing buttons just was never like scanning
the bands manually to see what's there, like in my younger days. I had a
7600GR I sold not long ago. Great radio in other ways, but what an exercise
in frustration when you just want to scan the bands.
Pierre



"Altawaowr" wrote in message
.. .
Excellent choice. TV sucks, and it does more and more every day.

How about trying a R-9700 DX? That's a wonderful radio and the price
is right. Mine came from China via air mail for $26 plus $20
shipping.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tegory=15 051

It has great sound and is very sensitive. FM and AM are good too.
The only thing I don't like about it is it doesn't tune down to 9335
to hear North Korea in the middle of the night. But if they fire some
missiles off at anybody I think it will be on the news most anywhere
anyway. Oh and it doesn't have digital tuning, so you can tell you're
near the frequency you want but you can't tell if you're right on it.

Shortwave is noisy and sometimes fades a lot. This can drive people
crazy, especially women. I like it though because you can hear
nature. Plus if you live in the United States there's tons of
religious stations with Southern accents. *vomit*

What part of the world do you live in? Here on the west coast of the
US, you don't hear cool things like the Voice of Turkey or Radio Cairo
like you can in the eastern US. But you can hear Australia and New
Zealand all night. Between 10 and midnight there isn't that much
going on on shortwave unless you like Radio Havana. Now there's some
low technology.

Most anyone here will tell you, build yourself an antenna. It can
just be a long wire outside to hook up to your radio. If you get the
R-9700DX radio it comes with two wires you can use. Have fun and
welcome.



On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 08:56:10 -0600, wrote:

Im thinking of dumping my cable TV. That will leave me with only two
local TV stations to get via an antenna.

Im considering buying a shortwave receiver that I can listen to while
doing things around the house.

Is there interesting programming available via shortwave? Is my idea
sound? What good receivers are worth looking at?

Thanks for the info about the R-9700 DX.

I've had dozens of analog portables since the 1960's, including a Sony SW20,
and nothing beats that little Kaito WRX911 - and certainly not for the
price. Moreover, since it's so cheap, I don't have to worry about breaking
it or having it stolen. It could easily be replaced, unlike the more
expensive radios.

Pierre

"Altawaowr" wrote in message
...
The Kaito WRX911 is the perfect backpacking radio, buy it before REI
finds it, and sells it to you for $49 USD. It looks like their parent
maker sells them for $8 USD in china.

I'm still using the first pair of alkaline batteries i put in them and
i must have played the thing now and then for almost a year. It's
just a very simple and very sensitive radio. It's amazing what you
can hear on it outside, holding it in your hand pointing it with just
its little antenna in a deliberate direction.

The WRX-911 has a nice speaker on it, it has a good 'bright' sound
that is great for human speech. Speech is intelligible on that radio.

FM isn't very selective, and there's no light for the bands but
otherwise the thing is great.

I think you'll like the R-9700 DX, it's got a nice amber dial light on
it, and you can guess the frequency within 5-15 kHz, the bands are
nice and wide. FM is more sensitive and selective. The speaker
sounds nice but the 'bright' sound of the WRX911 makes speech on the
WRX911 a little bit more intelligible.

The R-9700 DX gets FM in stereo if it's a strong station. It has an
antenna jack and it comes with both a wire and a roll-up antenna for
travelling. If you don't care about stereo through headphones, you
can get FM radio stations on it from some distance.



On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 21:58:07 -0500, "Pierre L"
wrote:

I already have a Kaito WRX911 (Tecsun something I forget) and I like it
so
much I just ordered an R-9700DX a couple of days ago. It hasn't arrived
yet,
so I can't comment. I've had a number of digitally-tuned radios over the
years, but I really don't like digital anything (the computer I'm typing
this on is a necessary evil). Pushing buttons just was never like
scanning
the bands manually to see what's there, like in my younger days. I had a
7600GR I sold not long ago. Great radio in other ways, but what an
exercise
in frustration when you just want to scan the bands.
Pierre



"Altawaowr" wrote in message
.. .
Excellent choice. TV sucks, and it does more and more every day.

How about trying a R-9700 DX? That's a wonderful radio and the price
is right. Mine came from China via air mail for $26 plus $20
shipping.



http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...ategory=15 05
1

It has great sound and is very sensitive. FM and AM are good too.
The only thing I don't like about it is it doesn't tune down to 9335
to hear North Korea in the middle of the night. But if they fire some
missiles off at anybody I think it will be on the news most anywhere
anyway. Oh and it doesn't have digital tuning, so you can tell you're
near the frequency you want but you can't tell if you're right on it.

Shortwave is noisy and sometimes fades a lot. This can drive people
crazy, especially women. I like it though because you can hear
nature. Plus if you live in the United States there's tons of
religious stations with Southern accents. *vomit*

What part of the world do you live in? Here on the west coast of the
US, you don't hear cool things like the Voice of Turkey or Radio Cairo
like you can in the eastern US. But you can hear Australia and New
Zealand all night. Between 10 and midnight there isn't that much
going on on shortwave unless you like Radio Havana. Now there's some
low technology.

Most anyone here will tell you, build yourself an antenna. It can
just be a long wire outside to hook up to your radio. If you get the
R-9700DX radio it comes with two wires you can use. Have fun and
welcome.



On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 08:56:10 -0600, wrote:

Im thinking of dumping my cable TV. That will leave me with only two
local TV stations to get via an antenna.

Im considering buying a shortwave receiver that I can listen to while
doing things around the house.

Is there interesting programming available via shortwave? Is my idea
sound? What good receivers are worth looking at?

On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 19:58:12 -0800, Altawaowr
wrote:

The Kaito WRX911 is the perfect backpacking radio, buy it before REI
finds it, and sells it to you for $49 USD. It looks like their parent
maker sells them for $8 USD in china.

So should I start with this SW radio? Even if Im not really wanting
it for backpacking but home use?

I mean ....its so cheap how can I go wrong?

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 11:09:11 -0600, wrote:

So should I start with this SW radio? Even if Im not really wanting
it for backpacking but home use?

No don't waste your time with SW. As another poster said, local AM/FM
will provide many more hours of entertainment and without all the
static fading and noise.

On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 19:58:12 -0800, Altawaowr
wrote:

I think you'll like the R-9700 DX,

How much does that one cost?