/swlg/ Would anoyone like a Shortwave Listening General today?

[Anonymous No.1607955]

Got redirected here from /g/.
Thought it'd be interesting trying to start a comfy civil shortwave thread for anyone interested.
Everyones welcome, if you're unfamilliar with shortwave heres a wiki article.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortwave_radio

It'd be most interesting seeing if some of you have picked up anything interesting or impressive lately.
Any morse code, tropical band finds, numbers, cool things you heard hams talking about? Feel free to share em here.
If you have a show or like one of some kind it'd also be interesting to hear about it.

>HF Propogation and Solar Terrestrial data website
http://www.hamqsl.com/solar3.html

>Shortwave Radio bands
http://hamuniverse.com/shortwavebands.html

>Look up a frequency to see whats potentially on it
https://www.shortwaveschedule.com/

[Anonymous No.1607956]

fuck made a typo in the title, oh well.

[Anonymous No.1607999]

I tried at one point but never picked anything up. Even replaced the antenna for a 1/4 wavelength type tuned to the centre of the band, maybe the radio was shit. I've considered building my own, a superregen sw radio sounds fun to make.

[Anonymous No.1608018]

>>1607999
at first i didnt get much either.
i dunno your set up but some recommendations from me are to try it outside and maybe invest in a longwire.
i get my best reception from out in my car in the driveway with my longwire out the window in a tree nearby.
if you have an exceptionally long chainlink fence you can wrap the longwire around one end of that too to turn it into what i like to call a Fencetenna.
i have a little Tecsun PL-360 on my end and can get quite a bit with these set ups, best of luck, i hope i helped!

[Anonymous No.1608660]

For a good radio, antenna size is not.so.important as long as.it's above a meter or so.

The big problem is man made noise, often transmitted through the mains line.

A larger antenna can help to nake signals.stronger than the local interference, but sitting at a spot without interference is really superior.
Sometimes it can help to use several antennas and a noise canceler: e.g. http://play.fallows.ca/wp/radio/radio-frequency-interference/does-a-noise-canceller-really-work/

>>1607999
You mean a regen receiver. Super regen is only really worthwhile for FM band and higher. A good regen beats most cheap superhets on the lower bands, when you know how to use it. I built one that using just a ferrite rod antenna for reception, that could easily pick up amateur radio in the 80m and 40m band.

[Anonymous No.1608699]

>>1607955
I bought an old solid state shortwave radio at a garage sale. Couldnt pick up much more than 4-5 religious channels.

Impulse bought a Grundig G5 while at a Cabelas one time. It picked up even less.

Thats when I gave up on Shortwave.

[Anonymous No.1608702]

hearing alot of french speaking on the air force channel...what gives?

[Anonymous No.1608719]

>>1608660
Shit I wasn't aware sw is am and not fm. I built a few radios, some with tubes, others with bjt. The 6c4 is great, like one half of a 12au7 and in the end ended up using a 12ae7 I think...it was a low mu and high mu triode pair in one tube which was great. I had better luck with tubes than silicon stuff but maybe I'll have a crack at making a sw radio.

[Anonymous No.1608954]

>>1607955
there's nothing interesting on shortwave anymore.

[Anonymous No.1609598]

>>1608719
Well. SW is AM and SSB for amateur radio.
AM is also possible with super regen receivers. But superregens are not very selective. They over a wide bandwidth, where multiple stations.can be broadcasting. FM broadcast is more.wideband itself, so there it is less of a problem.

Then SSB is a transmission without a carrierwave. You have to generate the carrier wave yourself for to 'decode' it. A regen receiver can do that when you are slightly into oscillation mode. (Normally for AM you are just outside of oscillation mode)

Additionally, you can often.receive AM as well in oscillation mode by sybchronizing with the carrierwave. This can increase the performance somewhat. But it all greatly depends on the quality of your regen receiver. It should.have a very smooth onset towards oscillation mode.

In my experience valves are the best, because their parasitic capacitances are independent of signalnstrength. Additionally, their amplification is lower with a higher signal, which smoothens the onset of oscillation mode.
Fets are decent, although their capacitances depend on signal.strength an therefore they detune depending.on oscillation strength.
Bipolar transistors.generally suck. They amplify more with an.inceased signal.strength. Once.iscillations.start, they immediately reach high levels. This just sucks.

[Anonymous No.1609936]

>>1607955
I used to listen for sky kings but they stopped broadcasting from my local base and my antenna is too shit

[Anonymous No.1609969]

Picked up this 46077 receiver over the weekend, 2-20 MHz, AM and CW. Works alright, the higher bands seemed a bit dead, but I could hear shortwave around 9.700 and got some 40m CW.

[Anonymous No.1610071]

>>1608702
some fishermen are known to use the frequency quite often

[Anonymous No.1610340]

>>1609969
thats a nice unit , you should use something to cover that seat next time, i had a incident with an old tektronix with some superficial rust leaving a very nasty stain...

the high Frequency poor performance is likely to be the input stage tubes or more spefically the mixer tube, you need tubes with very good transconductance or many times a good mod is to adapt a newer mixer tube that can deal better with high frequencies.

[Anonymous No.1610349]

>>1608702
>>1610071
yes, this is a well known issue (fishermen using that frequency and they are close to the norwegian receiver)

[Anonymous No.1610363]

>>1607955
this ain't shortwave, but if you want some fun listening in the US tune into 121.5. 121.5 YOU'RE ON GUUUUUUUAAAAAAARRRRRRRDDDDDD! Guard is a frequency all pilots in the US have to listen to for emergencies. Pilots often shitpost there. You can occasionally catch them meowing.

[Anonymous No.1610403]

>>1610363
you can hear a lot more shitposting on 123.45

[Anonymous No.1610417]

>>1610349
heard diaperheads on there as well

[Anonymous No.1611182]

>>1608699
>Couldnt pick up much more than 4-5 religious channels.
That's all there is inside the USA. For decent listening, you are going to need a sensitive receiver and a very good antenna. I can pick up Radio New Zealand from Seattle. Also lots of Central and South American stuff (all in Spanish).

[Anonymous No.1611192]

>>1610349
It's a Dutch receiver, not Norway. They certainly have the best antenna of any SDR on the net.

>>1611182
Central US here. TS-590SG with a G5RV up 40 feet (12 meters). Best I get is the Philippines on a good night in the lower part of the spectrum.

[Anonymous No.1612364]

>>1608954
you act like this picture isn't something to be aspired to

[Anonymous No.1612368]

>>1608699

I bought a Tecsun PL-880 back in march, I've pulled in Norks and Kiwis more than once on the built in whip.

With my '36 Philco farm radio I've pulled in Cuba (not hard)

[Anonymous No.1612397]

>>1608954
>there's nothing interesting on shortwave anymore
This.
I stopped listening in 2009.
It was just Alex Jones, preachers, and a dwindling number of international broadcasts.

[Anonymous No.1612404]

>>1612397
>Not loving international

[Anonymous No.1612419]

Why does low frequency need a bigger antenna?

[Anonymous No.1612509]

>>1612419
In general case, you use antenna length by 300/frequency (m).

[Anonymous No.1612548]

>>1608699
Reception also depends a lot on time of day and solar activity. These days reception is particularly bad in many bands.

[Anonymous No.1613276]

>>1608954
> This
I like to design and build active antennas i used them to listen number stations.
But now SW has become really boring, i mean, you can always pass your sunday listening to some fat doomer shouting "CQ CQ DX CONTEST!" over and over again.
Satellitar comunication it's better, or atleast more usefull.