Anybody know of a Shortwave Radio list or forum?

[Mr Tony]

Figured I'd post it here since it's kinda in the same boat

A couple weeks ago I was at my uncles and happened to swing by the drug store (he lives in a small town with not much nearby so the drug store is truly a old fashioned drug store). Saw a digital TV/AM/FM/12 band Shortwave radio for 10 bucks...so I picked it up. Then I found out it was on "sale" for 7 bucks

Played with it the last couple of nights and can pick up some cool stuff. Its kinda like FTA with a bunch of ethnic/religious stuff but there was some interesting stuff too

So now with that aside, does anybody know where to find a list of what is out there or even a forum?

 

[dfergie]

ke4est is a Ham Radio guy, he should be on this afternoon sometime, I know we have many other Hams here...

 

[iafirebuff]

Monitoring Times and Popular Communications are 2 good magazines that have listings. I used to be heavily involved with shortwave Monitoring Times used to list freqs on their web site.

 

[iafirebuff]

KC0HBB here

 

[iafirebuff]

Numbers Stations - do some research on them..VERY interesting - as in spies Also with SW, you can send in a letter that tells them what you heard, frequency, etc and they used to send you a neat QSL card. BAck in the 80's the Communist block countries would send books, posters, pins, and all kinds of cool stuff!

 

[Anole]

- S W L -

If you search on Google, you might use the term: SWL or Short Wave Listening
That should get you into the right neighborhood.
A lot of SWL is often AM and below 30mhz.

SWL-ing is a whole different hobby from HAM radio, though there is plenty of cross over interest.
For instance, I'm a VHF/UHF HAM, but not a Low Band HAM (frequencies below 50mhz).
And I guess I never got the bug for SWLing.

Yet another hobby, is listening to Scanners... or VHF/UHF radios usually capable of scanning and receiving police/fire/public service frequencies (generally FM).
While all of the above seem related, often proponents of one won't pursue the others, or even know about them.

 

[iafirebuff]

I LOVE them all! I have not done much with shortwave in the last few years, but that is what got me interested in FTA. And on a side note, I get paid quite handsomly to listen/monitor public safety frequencies with my job What a way to make a living - getting paid to do my hobby! Oh, and Ice - in Mounds View there is an AWESOME Ham Radio store - Radio City Inc. I made 2 trips in one week up there several years ago.

 

[Mr Tony]

Yet another hobby, is listening to Scanners... or VHF/UHF radios usually capable of scanning and receiving police/fire/public service frequencies (generally FM).
While all of the above seem related, often proponents of one won't pursue the others, or even know about them.

I have a few old crystal controlled scanners. You got the frequency crystal, put it in the receiver and that's what you got Not programmable

Have a 8 channel and a 2 channel one...

But recently our local police went to 800mhz and most the scanners I have don't

 

[iafirebuff]

You would have plenty to listen to up there in the Twin Cities.

 

[Anole]

I have a few old crystal controlled scanners.
You got the frequency, put it in the reciever and that's what you got
Have a 8 channel and a 2 channel one...
But recently our local police went to 800mhz and most the scanners I have don't

Crystal controlled? Man, that dates you!
That's okay, I have some old 6mtr, and 2mtr HAM gear that was xtal ctl'd , too.

I'll see if I can find some of the scanners I picked up a few years back.
If any of 'em are synthesized, and do 800mhz, you may find one in your Xmas stocking!

 

[iafirebuff]

If I remember right, I think Minneapolis is on a trunked system. Not 100% sure. A little more confusing to program the radios, but once set up it is great. I can see the alpha tag on the channels, etc.

 

[iafirebuff]

Actually I just found some freqs. Most are not trunked, so if it is still valid, no fancy radio needed. Your old crystal ones might still work

http://www.angelfire.com/pro/radioscanner/MINNEAPOLIS.htm

Hennepin County, Minnesota (MN) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

 

[N5XZS]

I love shortwave radio DXing from time to time!!! I have a good old Grundig Sat, 700 it's receive in AM wide and narrow and SSB " Single Side Band" for ham radio and digital modes.

I am thinking someday I might upgrade to Icom USB shortwave external box for DRM digital mode maybe next year.

What is DRM? Just go to DRM: Digital Radio Mondiale really cool that they can send in live stereo,text and picture and HTML for a quick link to a website!

Somday they mentined they might even try sending live video via shortwave with some kind of powerful video codecs!:

Exicting time that we are living in!!

 

[Mr Tony]

Actually I just found some freqs. Most are not trunked, so if it is still valid, no fancy radio needed. Your old crystal ones might still work

actually I'm in Scott county but looks like they stayed the same. I could have sworn reading that they went to the trunked system...

The 2 channel radio had in it one channel for weather the other for fire.

 

[Mr Tony]

Crystal controlled? Man, that dates you!

nah. Got them on Ebay years ago. When I worked at Radio Shack there were people who would order crystals for the area. The older units were built like a tank.

 

[stone phillips420]

scanfan dot com discussion of emergency frequencies in twin cities and parts of greater MN

 

[iafirebuff]

I prefer the older units myself. Everything has gotten miniature, and I have big hands. I like my radios like I like my women

 

[Anole]

me, too . . .

I like the newer ones.
I have big hands, but I still like the little knobs and the little push-buttons.

 

[FTAsquirrel]

Long Time Ham radio operator here myself, SW got me into that and here is a twist for you all. I was listening to SW one night in bed a few months back on my Grundig G5 that replaced an older SW radio I had and that is where I heard about FTA Satellite. So now I have a Merc. II with a Geosat Pro 36"

SW is great! welcome Iceburg to the FTA radio world Ham radio is next!

 

[jayelem]

Passport to Worldband Radio

My favorite piece of SW Literature is Passport to Worldband Radio , you can get this softcover book at most bookstore chains , inside you'll find all frequencies and their respective Country of origin and radio stations , also an address section so you can write to the station and send them a quality report , many stations then send you back a QSL card , in fact the month leading up to 9/11 I was sending reports to ham operators who were working the Route 66 , I got 2 replies from them but the idea was to catch ham operators out of every city participating along Route 66.

The first SW radio I played with was a Analog Montgomery Ward Model that had awesome Deep sound.

My first SW Radio Purchase , Grundig Yacht Boy 500 ... Aprx $200 , I killed it by accident and then got a high end Radio Shack model with RDS , I think it was manufactured by Drake.

Iceberg I'm surprised you found time for SW since your C-band adventures seemed to be prospering.