Receiving Shortwave Transmissions

Daktologist

The World of Shortwave Radio

Shortwave is an interesting area or radio to get into as it is possible to receive radio stations from nearly anywhere in the world depending on weather conditions and the sunspot cycle

Items you will need to get started

• Shortwave Receiver

• Antenna

• A Grounding Point

As you can see in the next pic i am using the Sony ICF-SW11 which covers from 4.75 to 22.15 MHz as well as the 160 to 270 KHz Longwave band and the regular AM and FM Bands

Receiver

Antenna

A basic antenna can be made by grabbing a long piece of regular insulated wire approximately 30 meters long ( approx 100 ft ) attaching insulators to each end such as a six pack holder or regular nylon zip ties and string it between two trees or something else suitable so that the wire is aprox 3 meters ( 10 ft ) off the ground

Grounding

A ground will improve reception and can be made by attaching the ground on the radio to a cold water pipe or by attaching the grounding wire to a metallic rod driven into the ground outside. if your radio doesn't have a ground terminal on the radio you can connect the negative terminal of the power supply to the ground as the negative is the common point in the internal circuitry in the radio. At times the grounding can cause additional interference and if this happens simply disconnect it. Experiment with the grounding as at times it can cause background noise and others it will eliminate it

Solar Influence

During times of high sunspot activity reception can be difficult due to interference from the radiation hitting the atmosphere. Reception of low frequencies are easier at night while higher frequencies are easier to receive during the day

Katzenklavier

I have a multiband radio at home. One of those old radioshack sw-100's. I haven't listened to SW in a while. I may have to play with it tonight.

Just so you know, an AM radio can be turned into a SW one by winding your own antenna. You can use magnet wire, but for performance that doesn't blow use litz wire. You can use a paper plate as a form, and just cut it like this. Then interleave the litz wire in between the flaps going in a spiral. Make sure the spiral is tightly packed, not loosely like the image.


How many turns depends on a number of things, but start with a great number and hook it up. If you get nothing, remove a turn and try again. Eventually you'll find the sw band.

Daktologist

I tend to listen to shortwave every now and again