SWL, coming back in, what's out there
 

Yeah I know, fire up the radio and listen around.

Dug out my venerable Sony 2010 the other day and will be cleaning it up
and getting the batteries back in. Wondering what's out there to hear
on the SW band these days? Anything left of the Global HF Network or
other good mil/ute things to copy (voice only, I fear I suck as a
dittybopper - got my 5 wpm years back to get my Tech + ham lic) ???

What's left of the big broadcasters like BBC, Deutsche Welle, etc.

I'll have a couple antennae at my QTH to pull in weak sigs a Vertical
that can run 15-10m and a long wire trap dipole that is for 160 - 10 m
along with ant. tuner so hearing it ain't the problem, just a matter of
what's to be heard.

Operate on 2, 6 and 10m on the ham bands, but not that often anymore.

Still intrigued by the magic of radio. Computers are fine, but hearing
voices that comes thru the air w/o being connected to MaBell still do
it for me many years into the hobby.

73 de Dave
N0TXW

Rufus Leaking wrote:
Yeah I know, fire up the radio and listen around.

Dug out my venerable Sony 2010 the other day and will be cleaning it up
and getting the batteries back in. Wondering what's out there to hear
on the SW band these days? Anything left of the Global HF Network or
other good mil/ute things to copy (voice only, I fear I suck as a
dittybopper - got my 5 wpm years back to get my Tech + ham lic) ???

Well then Do look at the upgrading to the current general Calass or
even extra, today 5wpm is all you need beside the written test, and I
as I understand it even if you let the tech plus license lapse it is
good good for the Morse Credit


What's left of the big broadcasters like BBC, Deutsche Welle, etc.

I'll have a couple antennae at my QTH to pull in weak sigs a Vertical
that can run 15-10m and a long wire trap dipole that is for 160 - 10 m
along with ant. tuner so hearing it ain't the problem, just a matter of
what's to be heard.

Operate on 2, 6 and 10m on the ham bands, but not that often anymore.

Still intrigued by the magic of radio. Computers are fine, but hearing
voices that comes thru the air w/o being connected to MaBell still do
it for me many years into the hobby.

73 de Dave
N0TXW

Well then Do look at the upgrading to the current general Calass or

even extra, today 5wpm is all you need beside the written test,

have been thinking about upgrading, I'm pretty well versed in radio
theory having a mil background, so would just be the legal and
operating issues to study for that. Was trained in army to copy 8 wpm
(I was a voice intercept op, but we needed to recognise CW to some
extent) and try as I may that's about as good as it gets with me.

Anyway, thanks for the reply, but the question was not geard toward
amateur radio, but what to expect when I crank up the SW set again.

Dave

Rufus Leaking wrote:

Yeah I know, fire up the radio and listen around.

Dug out my venerable Sony 2010 the other day and will be cleaning it up
and getting the batteries back in. Wondering what's out there to hear
on the SW band these days? Anything left of the Global HF Network or
other good mil/ute things to copy (voice only, I fear I suck as a
dittybopper - got my 5 wpm years back to get my Tech + ham lic) ???

What's left of the big broadcasters like BBC, Deutsche Welle, etc.

BBC is winding down their Americas services. They can still be heard
with the Caribbean service on 5975 from 2200-0100 (I think) and with
news for South America on 9825 from 0200-0300. Another very strong
signal from them, especially if you're out west, is a Spanish language
service on 5995 from 0300-0400 that totally drowns out Cuba on 6000. DW
no longer broadcasts in English to the Americas. If you're on the east
coast (which I suspect from your call, but one never knows) you may be
able to hear the African service at 0600, can't remember freq. Radio
Netherlands still has a full service to North America, try www.rnw.nl
for schedules. They don't broadcast much news anymore, just analysis and
commentary. The Cubans are still around, but scheduled broadcasts from
Delano and Sackville have rendered 6000 useless, possibly by design.
9820 is the best bet for them. A new kid on the block are Asian
stations, not only old standby Japan but also China, which has powerful
signals to North America, and Thailand, which has the benefit of having
access to a major VOA transmitter farm on Thai soil. You'll also find
that the net has many constantly updated frequency databases, such as
Eibi (a text file) and searchable database ILG. Passport to World Band
Radio still comes out once a year, but its info is often outdated, even
at press time, and the net databases are much better, although not as
easy to use as a book (although Eibi can be printed out on a laser
printer and put in a three ring binder).



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