A Novice and Newby

[silvercreek]

Hello to all and thanks for the opportunity to join The HFU HF Underground Team. I am a novice to SWL and hope to learn and enjoy chatting with you guys. I currently have an ICOM IC-R7100 and ICOM IC-R75 receivers along with a D3000N antenna and an end fed 45' wire antenna.

[weaksigs]

Welcome Aboard Matey!
Just keep your head on a swivel because there are pirates lurking!!

Ar Ar!   

[Sealord]

Welcome silvercreek

[glimmer twin]

Damn! for a novice you have a pretty nice set up. I look forward to seeing you in the chat. Don't hesitate to ask questions of the people in this group. They (we) like to talk about radio almost as much as we like to "play" radio. Welcome.

[silvercreek]

Thanks for the welcome guys. I was lucky enough to inherit the ICOM R7100 receiver. I still don't know much about it or how to operate it completely. I've used it just enough to spark my interest in more shortwave monitoring. Sorry to say I'm not even sure how to orientate an end fed wire antenna. I think I enjoy using the R75 more than the R7100. There seems to be a lot more activity on the R75. As soon as I can get my wire antenna orientated correctly and completely off the ground I'm sure I will enjoy it that much more. I do have the manuals to both receivers. I just need to read and try to understand the terminology better.

[kmorgan]

What works for me is orienting the long wire so the end, the "tip" is pointing toward North or South. That way the "sides" get East and West- which is where most of the broadcast stations are beaming. Mine faces a sort of diagonal as I can't run it perfectly in a straight line at my location.

GREAT radio to start out with. The worst thing to turn a noob away is a crummy radio, which the cheapest ones are usually the first ones they buy!

[olddxer]

Welcome aboard!

[Chanter]

Welcome aboard!  For a newbie, you really do have a pretty great setup.  It's better than mine, much as I like my little DX-398 and loop. 

If you're in need of a fairly reliable schedule to help with picking up your first handful of stations, try www.short-wave.info or the EiBi list at http://www.eibispace.de/dx/freq-b12.txt for current info.  I know the latter probably looks like a *lot* of information, but it can be very useful.