I bought a shortwave and can't hear sh*t

[Thefancyyeller]

Newbie here,

I bought a XHDATA D219 Portable (cheap, I know) and it works great for my FM and AM bands but on the shortwave end I only pick up some Spanish channels and then mostly gospel. Probably 5 stations across the whole range.

For reference i am located near pensacola, florida.

Am I using it wrong or do I need a better radio? I use it indoors. I'm not positive if I am supposed to be able to pick up the big channels or if smaller radios aren't made for that.

[ThaDood]

Near Pensacola, huh? Almost nightly, I can hear their 1620AM up here in SW West Virginia, usually battling with 1620kHz out of Cuba, and my own Part 15 AM1620 station. Anyway... Couple of things that you can try. Got any unused speaker wire, trashed telephone, or CAT 5, cables, or even an extra power extension cord?  Ideas, for longer Shortwave antennas to clip to that portable's telescopic whip. Are you close to a beach that you can take that portable to? Just be sure that you have some good distance away from the local AM stations, like that 1620AM. Looking at that portable's range, 4.5MHz - 22MHz, from 4.5MHz to like 10MHz, good for most nighttime listening, while 10MHz to 22MHz, mainly daytime. Albeit, about 10AM to mid-afternoon, EST, you could usually hear 40M AM HAM's from 7285kHz - 7295kHz. (That includes me on some Saturdays and Sundays, when I hear a friend calling CQ-CQ there.) After that time, 40M shortwave broadcasters dominate that portion of the HAM Band, like in the evening. Oh.. Got a close-by tree to string a wire up into for an antenna? Oh... In a pinch, even the Dollar Tree should have cheap runs of speaker wire, and a small-gauge spool of what they call 'hook-up' wire. That would work. Hey, I know what it's like to be super cheap. I still dumpster dive. 

[Thefancyyeller]

Near Pensacola, huh? Almost nightly, I can hear their 1620AM up here in SW West Virginia, usually battling with 1620kHz out of Cuba, and my own Part 15 AM1620 station. Anyway... Couple of things that you can try. Got any unused speaker wire, trashed telephone, or CAT 5, cables, or even an extra power extension cord?  Ideas, for longer Shortwave antennas to clip to that portable's telescopic whip. Are you close to a beach that you can take that portable to? Just be sure that you have some good distance away from the local AM stations, like that 1620AM. Looking at that portable's range, 4.5MHz - 22MHz, from 4.5MHz to like 10MHz, good for most nighttime listening, while 10MHz to 22MHz, mainly daytime. Albeit, about 10AM to mid-afternoon, EST, you could usually hear 40M AM HAM's from 7285kHz - 7295kHz. (That includes me on some Saturdays and Sundays, when I hear a friend calling CQ-CQ there.) After that time, 40M shortwave broadcasters dominate that portion of the HAM Band, like in the evening. Oh.. Got a close-by tree to string a wire up into for an antenna? Oh... In a pinch, even the Dollar Tree should have cheap runs of speaker wire, and a small-gauge spool of what they call 'hook-up' wire. That would work. Hey, I know what it's like to be super cheap. I still dumpster dive.

I didn't realize I could extend this antennas power, I will try that!

[RobRich]

https://radiojayallen.com/xhdata-d-219-am-fm-sw-radio/

The XHDATA D-219 will suffice for basic shortwave broadcast reception, but given the basic tuner used, it might start overloading with more a few feet of wire clipped to the radio's antenna. My usual disclaimer regarding most things radio-related applies; as in your mileage may vary (YMMV).

Start with like 9' to 15' of wire. Given the amount of radio frequency interference in many homes, getting the bulk of wire outside tends to help. Better yet, take your portable outside and toss the wire antenna up in a tree or whatever.

Alternatively you can even try like 30' to 45' of wire placed directly on the ground. Ground losses are high, and a small wire-on-ground antennas tends to lack usable directivity, but the signal-to-noise ratio might improve.

Here are a couple of sites covering shortwave broadcast schedules. Expect to tune higher frequencies during daylight hours and lower frequencies during nighttime hours.

http://www.short-wave.info/
https://shortwaveschedule.com/

Also consider skimming the AM broadcast band at night. You might snag stations from Mexico and the Caribbean.