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[Edgar Souse]

Having seen a few references to this site I finally decided to check it out. I tend to like things that are obscure, or unusual, and there appears to be much of that still in the shortwave spectrum.

I got involved in SW listening as a kid, then got a ham licence. It lapsed many years ago, but I've been bitten by the radio bug again. Hoping to get a station set up soon, as I sold my old Kenwood HF rig and my 2m rig was stolen in high school . My family is holding on to some vintage gear for me I hope to get back in my hands. I remember being fascinated by numbers stations, seemingly indecipherable digital signals, and the Russian woodpeckers. (I was amused when a band I'm a fan of used a numbers station sample in a song. I knew immediately what it was when I heard it, while everyone else scratched their heads.) I've been doing some reading on HF beacons and am really curious. I had thought the shortwave spectrum was pretty much dead, with the big broadcasters going off the air. Hopefully I was wrong.



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[bobbert]

I too had a long spell where I faded out of swl'ing for about 18 years. Mostly due to a radio that was kept in the back of a hot trunk of an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Brougham (Panasonic RF2200 I believe). The thing buzzed and picked static up but hardly anything else afterwards.

I then (when formerly married) picked up an Eton E5 from Circuit City, so I could test it in the mountains of WV. It was great. I would've kept it, except the outer cover got sticky-rubbery & was a nightmare to get it undone!

Also, I got out of swl'ing due to the ridiculous amounts of pobucker-religious brainwashing hailfire + brimstone was dominating.
Luckily I have a mediocre portable that'll get some pirate stations, especially with an antenna that is 100-feet in length.

Have you noticed how a lot of Hams (esp. in the 7190-to-7200 range) have practically no dignity or professionality? Kinda annoying. I enjoy hearing hams discussing equipment that works & doesn't work.

[skeezix]

I've been listening to SW since 1988 and have had an amateur license since 1991.

The SW broadcasters aren't what they used to be, but SW isn't dead just yet. For 3+ hours today, I've been listening to a nice strong signal from the Voice of Greece and the Greek music on 9420 kHz.

Nearly every day at work, I listen via to the Univ of Twente's WebSDR to various things, and usually the VoG in the afternoon. In the morning, there are stations at 6005, 6070, 6085, and 6150 that have a variety of things. When I get lucky, I can catch a firedrake¹.


For numbers stations:
http://numbersoddities.nl/
http://www.priyom.org

And poke around the boards here on HFU often, especially on weekends.




¹ http://www.satdirectory.com/firedrake.html

[Edgar Souse]

Also, I got out of swl'ing due to the ridiculous amounts of pobucker-religious brainwashing hailfire + brimstone was dominating.
Luckily I have a mediocre portable that'll get some pirate stations, especially with an antenna that is 100-feet in length.

Have you noticed how a lot of Hams (esp. in the 7190-to-7200 range) have practically no dignity or professionality? Kinda annoying. I enjoy hearing hams discussing equipment that works & doesn't work.

Yes, when I was younger I enjoyed listening to BBC World Service on 9915 khz in the evening. Always came in very strong. Don't know if they still use that freq. I still have QSL cards from Radio Cuba, WWV, and WWVH. Would also listen to Radio Moscow and VOA regularly. From what I've read it does seem like the majority of broadcast stations are all religious in nature which I really have no interest in.

Haven't listened to 7190-7200 but I remember 14313 being a mess for many years. Part of what attracted me to amateur radio as a kid was the technical skill, and discipline of the operators. I'm hoping that hasn't been degraded over time.

[Edgar Souse]

Nearly every day at work, I listen via to the Univ of Twente's WebSDR to various things, and usually the VoG in the afternoon. In the morning, there are stations at 6005, 6070, 6085, and 6150 that have a variety of things. When I get lucky, I can catch a firedrake¹.


For numbers stations:
http://numbersoddities.nl/
http://www.priyom.org

And poke around the boards here on HFU often, especially on weekends.




¹ http://www.satdirectory.com/firedrake.html

About the same for me. Got my uncles SX71 around 1986, and a year or two later also got a used Realistic DX160 (I think that's what it was). Got my amateur licence in 1989.

I've played with some SDRs online. University of Twente seems to be the only one that works reliably for me. I hear UVB 76, and found Radio Cuba (or Radio Havana? I forget) but it was way down in the 100khz range. Not sure if it was an image or if they actually broadcast down there.

[skeezix]

Radio Havana Cuba (RHC) does not transmit around 100 kHz, so you have an image or something. On the other hand, maybe its Pedro flipping the wrong button. Again.

LORAN-C used to be at 100 kHz. Every now & then you might hear something at 100 kHz which sounds like old LORAN-C signals. They're officially decommissioned, but perhaps its an occasional exercise so they don't rot? One can only hope.


When I started in 1988, I bought a Sony ICF-2010. I still have that radio to this day and use it, and will keep it until the day I die.

WWV/H is still going strong. They've added an occasional frequency at 25 MHz. I think last year (or year before), I got a QSL card for that one. CHU on 7335 moved to 7850 some years ago.

BBC doesn't broadcast to North America any more. On occasion you can catch the signals from other target areas. I can sometime catch them on 17640 at 1600-1700 UTC and listen to a game on Saturday for a bit. They're still on 12095, amongst others.

Voice of Korea is still going strong and they sound like they're still stuck in the Cold War.