I have found, having started 2 days ago, that there are three ways to
search for SW broadcasts:

1. Hunting, one station at a time, on each meter band.

2. Scanning quickly through each meter band.

3. Looking at a list of broadcast times and stations for your area that
someone has put together and directly putting these frequencies in.

How do you do it?

dead of night wrote:
I have found, having started 2 days ago, that there are three ways to
search for SW broadcasts:

1. Hunting, one station at a time, on each meter band.

2. Scanning quickly through each meter band.

3. Looking at a list of broadcast times and stations for your area that
someone has put together and directly putting these frequencies in.

How do you do it?


Since your new to the hobby. I recomend that you buy a current copy of
the book Passport to World Band Radio at your local book store to get
you started.

dead of night wrote:
I have found, having started 2 days ago, that there are three ways to
search for SW broadcasts:

1. Hunting, one station at a time, on each meter band.

2. Scanning quickly through each meter band.

3. Looking at a list of broadcast times and stations for your area that
someone has put together and directly putting these frequencies in.

How do you do it?

I mostly use #3. That is, I take a list of stations at a given time,
and directly input the frequency of interest. As was recommended,
Passport to World Band Radio is a good place to start. It also has
lots of other info. There are also some good sources on the web. My
favourite is http://www.primetimeshortwave.com, but there are others.

However, #1 and #2 on your list can also be fun. Here again, Passport
can be of help. It has "Blue Pages" at the back that help you identify
a station you find this way (or just keep listening until they ID
themselves.)

These suggestions apply to listening to "world band" broadcasts.
Others can give you advice on listening to ham operators, utilities,
and other things I don't have much experience with. All depends on
your interest.

Have fun,

DWP

In article . com,
"dead of night" wrote:

I have found, having started 2 days ago, that there are three ways to
search for SW broadcasts:

1. Hunting, one station at a time, on each meter band.

2. Scanning quickly through each meter band.

3. Looking at a list of broadcast times and stations for your area that
someone has put together and directly putting these frequencies in.

How do you do it?

I'm not quite sure what you mean by #1 but I mostly do #3 since I'm a
broadcast listener for the most part. I also like to do #2 but slowly as
stations fade in and out so you have to go slow when listening for the
weak stations.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California

dead of night wrote:
I have found, having started 2 days ago, that there are three ways to
search for SW broadcasts:

1. Hunting, one station at a time, on each meter band.

2. Scanning quickly through each meter band.

3. Looking at a list of broadcast times and stations for your area that
someone has put together and directly putting these frequencies in.

How do you do it?


dn:

If you know the name of the broadcaster you want, just look up their
webpage. Take China Radio International (CRI) for example, just google
with some search terms like: china, radio, international, shortwave,
english. I did this for you and got this webpage:

http://pw2.netcom.com/~jleq/cri1.htm

then by following the link on the page for english schedules, I got to
the page:

http://pw2.netcom.com/~jleq/cri1_skedfreq.htm

which gives time in UTC and frequencies.

I find this works the best for me. All I need is a list of shortwave
broadcasters (yes, you can even google for that!) and you are off with
many, many broadcasts to keep you busy indefinently!

Warmest regards,
JS

John Smith wrote:
dead of night wrote:
I have found, having started 2 days ago, that there are three ways to
search for SW broadcasts:

1. Hunting, one station at a time, on each meter band.

2. Scanning quickly through each meter band.

3. Looking at a list of broadcast times and stations for your area that
someone has put together and directly putting these frequencies in.

How do you do it?


dn:

If you know the name of the broadcaster you want, just look up their
webpage. Take China Radio International (CRI) for example, just google
with some search terms like: china, radio, international, shortwave,
english. I did this for you and got this webpage:

http://pw2.netcom.com/~jleq/cri1.htm

then by following the link on the page for english schedules, I got to
the page:

http://pw2.netcom.com/~jleq/cri1_skedfreq.htm

which gives time in UTC and frequencies.

I find this works the best for me. All I need is a list of shortwave
broadcasters (yes, you can even google for that!) and you are off with
many, many broadcasts to keep you busy indefinently!

Warmest regards,
JS

Thanks for all the help and info, everyone. It is nice to have your
support along with my new, 7600 GR.

"dead of night" wrote in message
ups.com...
I have found, having started 2 days ago, that there are three ways to
search for SW broadcasts:

1. Hunting, one station at a time, on each meter band.

2. Scanning quickly through each meter band.

3. Looking at a list of broadcast times and stations for your area that
someone has put together and directly putting these frequencies in.

How do you do it?


You have the basics of it down pat. In the old books about SW Listening,
they used to say there are 2 ways of listening, "Targeting" certain
stations, and just slowly tuning up and down the SW Broadcast bands
"exploring" for new stations and broadcasts.

I use digital receivers for targeting stations at cerain times and
frequencies, but for exploring up and down the bands, I still prefer analog
receivers.

There's always been such a varity of signals on High Frequency Radio, USB &
LSB, that it has held my interest for close to fifty years now. I have
scanners for UHF, VHF, etc, but HF is still my favorite listening.

i just tune up and down the bands until i find something interesting.
when i loose interest then off i go slowly tuning up and down.

Doing a blind search on the freq is too speculative and rather time
consuming due to the sheer number of stations you'll hear.

What I'll do is to go to http://www.primetimeshortwave.com/ to download
the latest freq and station details for English broadcast. For
non-English broadcast, I'll go to the station's website for the details.

ngu wrote:
Doing a blind search on the freq is too speculative and rather time
consuming due to the sheer number of stations you'll hear.

What I'll do is to go to http://www.primetimeshortwave.com/ to download
the latest freq and station details for English broadcast. For
non-English broadcast, I'll go to the station's website for the details.


I'm a novice also (although I did scan SW bands with a Zenith tube
AM/SW radio and also a Hallicrafter S-38 years ago). I have a related
question. - Is there a website or book that lists the "major"
international stations, or those normally easy to find and listen to
(from Texas, in evening or night hours). In other words, there seem to
be lots of sources listing lots of international stations. But for a
novice, it would be much easier if I could start with the more powerful
ones (broadcasting in English, French, or Spanish). I'll also look
forward to searching for weaker, lesser-known stations, but I would like
to begin with some of those transmitting strong signals to the US,
midwest regions. Also the more powerful, better known stations.

I have the book "Passport to World Band Radio", 2007 edition, and I'm
familiar with websites such as primetimeshortwave.com, but these sources
seem to list around a thousand stations with no suggestion as to how to
sort out those that would be relatively easy for a novice listener to
pick up. (The "blue pages" of the "Passport..." book list broadcast
station power in watts, which may be a clue.)

Does anyone know of a SHORT list of foreign stations that can usually be
received fairly easy in the evening or night here in the midwest (e.g.,
the "top 30" or the "top "50")? Or, if that's asking too much, are there
long lists that suggest which stations are more powerful, and relatively
easy to pick up by a beginning DXer with relatively modest equipment,
with a decent antenna?

Thanks,
Jim Cate