You can have very decent luck listening indeed as long as conditions are
right - and that holds for any part of the earth. The West coast of the USA
has a different "menu" of listening than the east coast, simply because of
the physical location of the coast and the way the signals bounce. On the
west coast, we tend to get a lot of asian stations, but are not limited to
that by any means. Having a decent antenna and receiver is essential. but
the most expensive set around will be useless if conditions are improper.
In order for signals to be received at a location thousands of miles away
from a transmitter, the upper atmosphere must be electrically charged in a
quiet uniform manner at the correct altitude so that shortwave frequency
signals are reflected back to earth. If the atmosphere is not properly
charged, or the layer is too high or too low, the signals will either be
absorbed or go off into space. If you are in the wrong spot, a perfectly
good signal will be hundreds of miles overhead, on its way back to earth to
be reflected toward the upper atmosphere. People on either side of you will
hear it, but you will not. Much about the consistency of the reflecting
layer of the upper atmospshere is affected by the earth's own magnetic field
and the intensity of disturbances coming from the sun, which can disrupt the
earth's magnetic field or the particles of air that become charged when
solar radiation impacts them. A certain amount of radiation is good, but too
intense a bombardment with radiation simply disrupts the reflecting layer of
charged particles altogether. If the earth's magnetic field is not still,
but fluctuating wildly in response to a sever ebombardment from the sun, the
reflecting layer will not be uniform but moving rapidly. It is like shining
a light on a body of water. If the water is still, the image of the light
source returns to you by reflection very nearly unaltered. If the water is
rippled by the wind, the image becomes distorted by the motion of the water.
If the wind is blowing strong enough, the image returning will not be
recognisable. It is the same with the upper atmosphere. The sun has a
strong magnetic field as well, which extends far out into space past the
orbits of the planets. So everything in the immediate space around the sun
is affected in some way by that field. Sometimes the superheated gas that is
the sun becomes trapped in a loop of strong magnetic fields. When the loop
snaps, huge amounts of energy and gas are throw into space at high speed.
Sometimes the gas which includes highly charged particles and xrays will hit
the earth directly or give us a glancing blow, or miss us altogether. When
we get a direct hit, the reflective layers of the upper atmosphere are
severely disrupted. We may see auroras, but we will likely have miserable
reception if any at all. Sometimes there are "holes" in the envelope around
the sun and we receive massive "winds" from it if the hole is facing us.
That also ruins reception. If disruptions are
severe enough, power grids get an anormous surge which can leave entire
countries without electricity; satellites are saturated or the electronics
in it are fried. Fortuantely that does not happen very often.

"Strength and Honor"

"Fred" wrote in message
om...
I have read that SW is really only good in the North East of the USA
and in Europe.

I am in Kansas, does this mean I will need super high
quailty/expensive equipment if I want to listen to SW?

I just ordered the jWIN - JX-M14 el-cheapo $12 radio to try and get an
idea of what I can hear...

I guess I thought SW was available everywhere, even to me out in the
boonies of Kansas..

Thanks!!