world band radio?

[jawnn]

What is on short wave radio? Or world band? Just people talking to each other?

I live off grid and need some kind of radio that will not use too much power, and was looking at radios that get world band…

 

[KeithE4]

What is on short wave radio? Or world band? Just people talking to each other?

I live off grid and need some kind of radio that will not use too much power, and was looking at radios that get world band…

There are still battery-powered shortwave (NOT "World Band" - that's an '80s-marketroid relic that should have died years ago ;D ) receivers of varying quality. For stations that are still on the air, check out Short-wave.info. Most of the old-time broadcasters are gone, but some still remain. Almost none target the US anymore - China, Cuba, and a whole bunch of American religious broadcasters (who "officially" beam elsewhere - yeah, right!) are notable exceptions.

 

[Bongwater]

Seattle doesn't have much in the way of shortwave radio stations......unless you count the splatter from 1590 that strangely pops up between 5-6 MHz......

 

[boombox]

What is on short wave radio? Or world band? Just people talking to each other?

I live off grid and need some kind of radio that will not use too much power, and was looking at radios that get world band…

There are quite a few radios available that receive shortwave ("world band") radio. Radio Shack carries a couple models, so does Fry's. They are also found online.

The SW bands that have the most activity are the 9 Mhz, 7 Mhz and 6 Mhz bands.

In the past there were a lot more stations broadcasting in English. Nowadays you hear more foreign language stations on the shortwaves then English.

Late afternoons and into the evenings you'll hear a lot of Spanish, and later on you hear a lot of Asian language stations. You can also hear Middle Eastern and South Asian broadcasters when conditions are right. I've heard them with just a 25 ft. indoor wire plugged into my shortwave digital portable.

Even though there aren't a lot of stations broadcasting in English, there are still a lot of interesting things to hear. For example, early evenings a station from Brazil (Radio Nacional Da Amazonia) has a lot of cool music, and early mornings you can hear Radio Australia and the BBC broadcasting in English, and both are audible here in Washington, on the 7 and 9 Mhz bands.

Like KeithE4 says, www.short-wave.info has an excellent listing of what's on the shortwaves. You can choose a listings by language or frequency.

 

[Wonderfulwino]

Grundig makes several decent portable SW/All band receiver. You can get them on line at Amazon or store front at (I think) Radio Shack..

 

[KeithE4]

Grundig makes several decent portable SW/All band receiver. You can get them on line at Amazon or store front at (I think) Radio Shack..

I have the Grundig Satellit 750 ($250 at Fry's Electronics). Works fairly well and it's easy to use. But make sure you use a tuned antenna with a 30 MHz low-pass filter, and not the built-in rod, for shortwave if you live anywhere close to your local TV/FM antenna farm. The receiver WILL overload on strong FM signals, making it useless.

 

[Ai4i]

And don't forget those tropical bands, maybe still active throughout Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America:
120m, 90m & 60m.

 

[KeithE4]

And don't forget those tropical bands, maybe still active throughout Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America:
120m, 90m & 60m.

IIRC, there are only a handful (100 or less?) of Latin American stations remaining on the tropical bands; most have moved to FM. There are some American religious stations there as well (BTW, how does the FCC justify this, since these bands have never been allocated for broadcasting in the US?).