The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: Badgersmilk on July 01, 2011, 07:44:24 PM
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So being pretty much trapped indoors lately (THICK smoke from NC forest fires will half choke you to death here!), and having a neighbor that seems to know what local cops are doing even before they do... :-\ I've been taking an interest in shortwave radio.
Not knowing what I'm doing, just scanning channels, it seems like most of what I'm finding (thats in English) is old crazy people ranting about God and the end of the world... Yeeeeah. It's kinda funny for a while. But there's gotta be better stuff out there! ;D
I know a few of you are into this, and are even licensed Ham operators. Any advise? Books, web pages, that kinda thing?
I got a book today called. "Passport to World Band Radio" that's good. Is there more? Or is the "easter egg hunt" just the way of things?
Got a KT2100 radio today (still in the box), with a new, but out of date guide book, both for $25 on ebay! :)
(http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww40/BigCheeseStick/P1020234.jpg)
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HOLY COW! Once the sun goes down there's thousands of channels on this thing!
Wanna hear people with "proper" English accents report Chinese news? CH. 9580 LOL! ;D
They even refer you to their web site. http://english.cri.cn/6966/2011/07/02/2021s645948.htm (http://english.cri.cn/6966/2011/07/02/2021s645948.htm)
Russian's are worried about some disease spreading across their nation, killing thousands of people.
And the Japanese nuclear power plants melting down get talked about A LOT more by people actually in that country! ;D
This is actually really fun! Beats the crap outta anything on TV!
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Badger's right about what's out there. Experiment, have fun. Play with it and you'll discover some fun stuff.
Mostof the cop stuff and fire department calls are going to be on the FM freqs. You can also get one side of cell phone chatter on UHF and VHF freqs--usually higher than the old TV bands. It's amazing how much new and creepy stuff you can discover if you play with the band selector and the < & > tuning buttons.
Submitted for your further elucidation by Licensed Radio Operator: Crusader Rabbit
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Ditto CR's post.
Most interesting traffic is on in the evening till about 2am. when the ionosphere is most active. Posted by a licensed ham-KB8FZL!
73's!
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I can't tell if your unit receives sideband or not, but it takes sideband to really open up opportunities.
For antennas, I like:
http://hard-core-dx.com/ (http://hard-core-dx.com/)
They also have current news/conditions.
The following link has a really good section on describing old and modern receiver performance.
http://www.dxing.com/ (http://www.dxing.com/)
Eham has great review section under General Receivers. You have to take what people say with a grain of salt, but you can discern the gems. Regardless, you can also sort on ranking, name, etc...really good to know what is out there right now that performs and what the price range is. I picked up a Tecsun PL-600 for SHTF shipped for $78 or so that outperforms far more expensive unit...I still like the FRG-7 better, but it doesn't do FM.
http://www.eham.net/reviews/products/8 (http://www.eham.net/reviews/products/8)
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Wanna hear people with "proper" English accents report Chinese news? CH. 9580 LOL! ;D
Don't want to stray too far, but I couldn't resist replying to that statement.
As I read that and type this reply, I'm sitting in Beijing watching those people with "proper" English accents report Chinese news on a Chinese television station. You want to know something kind of creepy. Most of those people talking are actually Chinese.
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A lot of the stations programming is on the web now, and up to date. One I used to like was HCJB in Quito, Ecuador. If I remember right they are the highest commercial radio station in the world. :)
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Don't want to stray too far, but I couldn't resist replying to that statement.
As I read that and type this reply, I'm sitting in Beijing watching those people with "proper" English accents report Chinese news on a Chinese television station. You want to know something kind of creepy. Most of those people talking are actually Chinese.
Not really surprising, considering British influence in the area via Hong Kong and Singapore.
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From their voices I'd envisioned guys with pipes & patches on the elbows of their plad smoking jackets, driving to work in Liverpool in their Jaguar XJ6's. ;)
I've already got hooked on the world radio news thing enough I ordered a little better radio (I hope). PL-660. Small enough I can take it fishing with me and hopefully tune something in when the fish aren't biting. :)
Listened to a radio show today about how since the 911 incident this country has been in a constant "Police state". Not much there to argue. :(
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...I've already got hooked on the world radio news thing enough I ordered a little better radio (I hope). PL-660. Small enough I can take it fishing with me and hopefully tune something in when the fish aren't biting. :)
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Let me know how you like it. It must be a new model, I do not see any reviews on it yet. Honestly, the 600 is pretty good, but on LW it does not perform well. I may sell and upgrade if the 660 is better.
The old FRG-7 is still a better unit than the 600...can't do FM though. My RF-4900 (?) Panasonic does FM but can't touch the FRG-7 for SWL.....it does look better though.
Are you using a long wire?
Have fun.
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AH HA! Found what I'd been looking for!
http://www.qsl.net/ai4uk/other/index.html (http://www.qsl.net/ai4uk/other/index.html)
After listening to a few of the world band daytime channels, I don't for the life of me understand how EVERYBODY on this forum isn't listening to this stuff. ???
As far as politics, it's amazing how many people are broadcasting what I'd call "The Tom Bogan Show". ;D I swear, I listened to all the announcments at the end of one just to see if it was acutally him! Tom, go get yourself a shortwave. SERIOUSLY. You'll love it. Everything we / you are thinking, they are broadcasting to the world. Taking callers live on the air. Have guest speakers. I'm blown away bama hasn't put a stop to this somehow. :o
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AH HA! Found what I'd been looking for!
http://www.qsl.net/ai4uk/other/index.html (http://www.qsl.net/ai4uk/other/index.html)
After listening to a few of the world band daytime channels, I don't for the life of me understand how EVERYBODY on this forum isn't listening to this stuff. ???
As far as politics, it's amazing how many people are broadcasting what I'd call "The Tom Bogan Show". ;D I swear, I listened to all the announcments at the end of one just to see if it was acutally him! Tom, go get yourself a shortwave. SERIOUSLY. You'll love it. Everything we / you are thinking, they are broadcasting to the world. Taking callers live on the air. Have guest speakers. I'm blown away bama hasn't put a stop to this somehow. :o
They try.
And fail ! ;D
It' called "Pirate radio" . ;D
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So how goes the SWL stuff now? I'm getting ready to string up a new wire for my FRG-7 and a Windom this week for my Ham radio (I hope I get the Windom up).
Anyway, did you happen to find this helpful site on the internet?
http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ (http://www.hard-core-dx.com/)
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I have now! ;D Thanks!
I listen to UK and Asian news about every other day in the evenings. VERY interesting how the world see's whats going on here. And to hear whats primary concern in their own countries.
Having done a LOT of side by side comparison between the two radios I've got, I'd have to say one is no better than the other! The bigger radio is REALLY nice in that it has the giant tuning knob (more important than you might think), and the little one has the benefit of transportability. Most surprising to me is reception throughout the bands is very nearly identical with the flip of a few switches on each.
I strung up a long wire antenna and just got FLOODED with channels. It was mind blowing you could hardly turn the knob one click and have a new station the whole way through MW band. LW, and SW rarely have much of interest. What I refer to as "crazy rantings" for the most part (THE SKY IS FALLING! PRAISE GOD! ;) ).
From what I read, it's because I'm on the coastline, but I do well enough with the telescoping antenna on each radio that I'm happy. :-\
The news shows I've found are actually interesting enough my teenage daughter stops and listens sometimes! She even comments on how much different their perspective on things are.
Good stuff! ;D
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Oh yeah, all I read about in radio reviews is how SUPER important it is to have SSB... I haven't once so far found a use for it! :-\
One radio has it, and one doesn't. They can both tune in anything I find... Flipping the SSB switch, and tuning the knob hasn't made any real improvement on anything I've ever found. What am I doing wrong?!?
BTW, that FRG-7's a cool lookin unit. Looks like something out of an old spy movie! 8)
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As excellent as their site is, their radio news show is much more interesting.
http://www.lbc.co.uk/ (http://www.lbc.co.uk/)
http://english.cri.cn/index.htm (http://english.cri.cn/index.htm)
Who'd have thought you can do a news show without talking about what celebrates are doing!!! :o :o :o
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I have no clue what you guys are talking about. I guess I am going to have to take that Tech class next month and get my license so I know what the heck you're talking about - and then use my Yaesu VX-170, if I can figure that damn thing out! ;D
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Especially when your dealing with multiple radios & trying to read the channel guides or online references who switch back and forth from Khz to Mhz, it starts to get confusing.
I ended up making a little chart so when I read about an interesting channel I (or even my wife in an emegency) know which radio to try (We live in a "Hurricane Zone").
(http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww40/BigCheeseStick/Radios.jpg?t=1311982540)
All cops and public services have, or are in process of transferring over to 800Mhz. as far as I know. Around here it's pretty much done. I think most other states are about complete with it to. TURDS! Legal or not. In a BAD emergency (after a hurricane), their radios are likely the only two ways working is my guess... I'm outta luck as far as transmitting to them right now. >:( Illegal, yes. But it'd be nice to be able to contact them if phones are out and someone needs medical help or something. I'll worry about getting a fine after getting the help! ::)
They sell 800Mhz two ways (I half way suspect are stolen!) on Ebay for around $200. ;)
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Another page to check is http://www.radioreference.com (http://www.radioreference.com). It may be a bit more focused on public service frequencies but you might find something else to listen to listed there.
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Oh yeah, all I read about in radio reviews is how SUPER important it is to have SSB... I haven't once so far found a use for it! :-\
One radio has it, and one doesn't. They can both tune in anything I find... Flipping the SSB switch, and tuning the knob hasn't made any real improvement on anything I've ever found. What am I doing wrong?!?
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You have to be on an single sideband broadcast. There is upper and lower sideband, the Ham band voice portions (phone) are primarily SSB. Channels 30 plus on CB are sideband....so you take garbled speech and tune it in by either being in usb or lsb or tune and use the BFO to s-l-o-w-l-y tune to get voice you can understand. Most if not all HF military and MARS/Ham voice communication is SSB. SSB is more efficient than AM or FM...not as much as digital or CW.
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Hi;
Get your hands on a magazine called Pop Comm. In the back of the magazine is usually 4-5 pages of listeners listing freq's of interesting operations. Some Israeli CIA, US Military, South America Ops, Cuban propaganda etc. The articles in the magazine are very good at times and if you like info on how it was back in them there days - you will like Pop Comm.
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I'm ashamed to say, but Popular Communications is WAAAYY over my head! I've checked it out in the book stores a few times. They're talking about making radio's out of freak'n tin cans and a bunch of parts from Radio Shack for Pete's sake!
My kid would laugh me outta the house the day she saw me install tuning knobs on a can of Chicken of the Sea! Her and my wife have enough to pick on me with as it is. :-[
Don't get me wrong! Your "the man" if you understand half the jargon Pop. Comm. uses!
I need stuff with lots of pictures! ;D ;D ;D
"Pop up" books are nice to! ;)
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Let me know how you like it. It must be a new model, I do not see any reviews on it yet. Honestly, the 600 is pretty good, but on LW it does not perform well. I may sell and upgrade if the 660 is better.
<snip>
OK, I know it's an old thread but I'm an old guy. I picked up a Tecsun PL-660 and have used it for a few weeks and it's an honest to goodness good little SW radio. It ranks right up there with Sangean, Grundig, etc. at a lower cost. Delivered to the house for less than $110. Check out the reviews on eHam. It has FM and airband to complement the shortwave.
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Hello Hello can U hear me now Hello is anyone out there :D :o
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Uncle Sam trained me to be a radio traffic analyst (USAFSS 202) ... so long ago, in distant exotic lands, I had the opportunity to work with the best Morse Intercept Operators and Voice Linguists that Keesler AFB, the Presidio of Monterrey, Yale, Syracuse University and Ft. Meade could provide...
so if you are really serious about HF and VHF intercept, get a Collins R390 , and hook it up to a AN/FLR9 (if you don't know what this thing is... look up Elephant Cage...)
6918th Hakata Japan
6922nd Clark AB, Philippines
6924th Ramasun Station, Thailand... JSPC, Torii Station, Okinawa.... TDY
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Les you had the good stuff. I just picked up on your post...from nearly two years ago. I knew about the elephant cage...only a dream for us little guys. I hear they are all gone now..., oh well, I think that's a mistake.
Collins...yeah sweet but more than $100 delivered to home. I'm running a Yaesu 107M transceiver and, as you would expect, it's far better than the Tecsun. The 107M has been "out of print" for 25 or so years now...but the receiver design is one of the best out there to this day.
As far as modern day, the Tecsun is in numbers for availability and is lower cost than most for the performance you receive. The PL660 has been superseded by the PL880 (about $135 delivered from ebay) but misses some of the PL660 performance. There's a Yahoo group on the PL880 and it continues to improve with software fixes....ain't that somethin'...software fixes. Anyway, it's probably been modified enough by now to outperform the PL660 in all areas....initially it was lacking in some...check out that Yahoo group for more info.
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Uncle Sam trained me to be a radio traffic analyst (USAFSS 202) ... so long ago, in distant exotic lands, I had the opportunity to work with the best Morse Intercept Operators and Voice Linguists that Keesler AFB, the Presidio of Monterrey, Yale, Syracuse University and Ft. Meade could provide...
<snip>
Les,
I've been dreaming about retirement (does that make me a dreamer BHO? Give me free money. Now.) and how that fits with ham radio antenna. I've done a little research and I'm leaning towards a rhombic antenna or lazy H curtain. The rhombic takes a lot of space and is fixed...the lazy H with a reflector can be bigger but takes big towers as opposed to tall polls and acreage.
Any experience with the two or a suggestion otherwise? I'll never have an elephant cage....but several rhombics can be placed adjacent to one another an the minor lobes will provide 360 coverage.
Thoughts?
Ken
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Another page to check is http://www.radioreference.com (http://www.radioreference.com). It may be a bit more focused on public service frequencies but you might find something else to listen to listed there.
Let me second that. While this is a public service/amateur oriented site it is very useful. Whenever there is an "incident" like another mishap at a gun free zone this site will provide you with scanner feeds to that local area. Was quite handy during the last "gun free zone" incident in CA.
Depending on the type of radio/scanner you have, some can use this web site to automatically program your radio/scanner. You need a membership for that but at $15.00 / year for me it is well worth the cost. If you are looking for local info this is where I would start.
Next time we have a "gun free zone" incident go to the scanner listing for that area and listen to the info that never makes it to the "main stream" media.
Hope this helps.
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Looks like a good "active listener" site.
I've been looking at the Uniden BCD996P2 Digital Mobile TrunkTracker V Scanner....actually for my mother-in-law. I like how you can link it to your iPad, etc...but the linking software early on was too buggy to use lots of time. Do you know anything about the remote control software for the Uniden products? Have they fixed it yet?
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Looks like a good "active listener" site.
I've been looking at the Uniden BCD996P2 Digital Mobile TrunkTracker V Scanner....actually for my mother-in-law. I like how you can link it to your iPad, etc...but the linking software early on was too buggy to use lots of time. Do you know anything about the remote control software for the Uniden products? Have they fixed it yet?
Unfortunately not. I use the older GRE products and have had good luck with them although they do not have the remote link you speak of. Most of the programming software available for both Uniden and GRE will allow direct programming from the radio reference site but that will require a membership at the site. I believe it was $14.95 last time I checked per year. The government has implemented a program to standardize digital over the air communications between all LEO and 1st responders named Project 25 (P25 or APCO-25). This will allow them to cross connect any parties together during emergencies (or for whatever reason they determine) so make sure whatever scanner you get will decode these signals. There are phase 1 and phase 2 steps in the overall plan of this system and your radio needs to be able to handle both. The main difference is the amount of traffic the systems will handle. Phase 2 will cut the band width use in half to allow double the number of simultaneous channels.
Hope this helps.
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Rastus:
Rhombic antennas have to be HUGE to really work well, and are very directional. Huge as in 3 or 4 wavelengths on EACH side. A Lazy-H (without a reflector) would at least be bidirectional. If you have the real estate to even think about rhombics, you might consider a Sterba curtain, although if you go to more than a couple of bays they also become very directional. We made a six-bay Sterba on 20 meters for Field Day one year, had it aligned from NNW to SSE. We were working the Northeast and southern
California like crazy, but couldn't even hear the Southeast or Northwest.
Rob N0GMT
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I vote for the Sterba Curtain. :)
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Yes, rhombics need to be big and I do like the Sterba Curtain. The more I look into large directional antennas I am liking the Lazy H with a reflector.
Here's the application. I'm hoping to organize a DXpedition to Peleliu for September 2019. That will be the 75th anniversary of the battle. The JA's are there a lot and they beam back to their home. I'd like to be there, since my dad fought there, and see what it's like for the place he hated more than his Shuri Castle battle.
Anyway, dependent upon terrain and the ability to erect poles/towers I'm wanting directional antenna to beam back to the Continental US. A couple of Rhombics, can do that and the minor lobes help fill in. Here's what one guy did: http://www.angelfire.com/tx5/wieser/rhombic.htm (http://www.angelfire.com/tx5/wieser/rhombic.htm)
It's probably overkill and with the price of crude oil right now I may not be able to finance my way over. Anyway, I'd like to have a good 40M antenna running down there. There is quite a bit of relief on Peleliu so I am hoping something between hills can be erected...but that's going to take some reconnoitering and preparation way in advance of the actual event and probably a good two weeks work prior to the event just to build it after the much earlier survey.
I had a blurb put in QST some time ago about this. With my wife's successful cancer treatment and work demands I've had to back off....but I'm hopeful things will level out this summer and I can begin to organize.
A gentleman from Oregon wrote me today about making a trip to Peleliu very soon if his wife is well enough. He asked I hold his name and callsign until he departed just in case medical conditions made it impossible for him to go. He has a broker which has gotten him the T88 callsign and will be on location in February, Lord willing. He's going to look at various sites, gather contacts, that sort of thing to help me.
And...any help you can provide on antennas and anything else related is much appreciated. I'm hoping there can be multiple stations operating so interested operators can have multiple contacts much like Ships Weekend, Route 66, etc. I'd like to see operations on the 12th of September from a boat until such time as the assault was made on the 15th. Then switch to land ops from the various beaches, airstrip, monuments, etc. So...cheap directional wires that don't have to be hanging from 200' may be the answer.
Input is welcome.
HRD says N0GMT is only 207 miles away from KE5JDJ. You're pretty close! I've tried to get the WWI museum events but I'm at an awkward distance. Check out my QRZ page.
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This is something that I could really get into. But there is just TOO MUCH to learn and know.
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Not really Bill. People pick an area of interest and focus...and then before you know it you drop that "toy" aside and look for another. I'm wanting to play with antennas right now....
Some guys like Morse code, others telemetry, amplifiers, etc....
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Hi;
BillT ; if you think you may be interested but not sure of what it all takes - why don't you buy yourself a scanner for local frequencies and also a short way scanner/monitor radio for any long distance/international radio signals.
maybe $200.-$250. depending on how fancy you want to be, if you don't like what you hear - sell the scanners/radios and try something else.
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OR, spend $30 on a Boafeng UV5 - if unlicensed, DO NOT EVER KEY THE MIKE - and download free software like Chirp. Import the repeater list for your area, program the Baofeng, and listen for a total investment of $30 and about an hour of your time - plus listening.
I used HamtestOnline.com (http://HamtestOnline.com) ($25) and got my tech license with 100% passing score. It's easy, the General, not so much.
Got to do my first QSO today too! Need to get a better antenna though . . .
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Hi;
BillT ; if you think you may be interested but not sure of what it all takes - why don't you buy yourself a scanner for local frequencies and also a short way scanner/monitor radio for any long distance/international radio signals.
maybe $200.-$250. depending on how fancy you want to be, if you don't like what you hear - sell the scanners/radios and try something else.
Because I don't even know how to do that. There is "Trunking", (whatever that is)? Then there is (I forgot the name), of whatever is not Trunking. If you buy the wrong one you won't get the cops in your area if they are Trunking and your receiver won't, isn't, or doesn't.... Or some such that I don't understand. I wouldn't know where to start, and I would be at the mercy of some salesman. Not a good place to be.
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<snip>
I've been looking at the Uniden BCD996P2 Digital Mobile TrunkTracker V Scanner....<snip>
If the software bugs from a 18 months or so ago are gone you are able to control this one through an iPad. If you bring it on the road, it has a GPS module you can add that will allow it to change to the local frequencies without you ever touching anything.
$450 from Universal add $90 for the GPS module.
My research is that it picks up everything that's not scrambled.
C'mon Bill, let go of that $$$$$$$
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Hi;
And it is a shame that at 1 time all you had to do was go to a local Radio Shack or TV repair/Electronic Supply place and the people behind the counter were either Hams or KNEW just what you needed and started you off slow and cheap with the reminder to come back if you wanted more/bigger/better later on !
now Radio Shack is just about all Phone(s) and Game devices and the people give you a blank stare if you mention Ham Radio. No such thing as an "elmer" anymore !
* an "Elmer" is a guy you could go to for advice and questions/answers in the Ham Radio world !
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All people at Radio Shack can do today is sell batteries. And you had better bring the old ones or they'll sell you the wrong kind.
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Yeah, I know. It's an old thread. However, for $18 plus tax I picked up a little AM/FM/SW that I took on vacation. It worked fine.
It really does well on AM...which surprised me. The shortwave is only AM and operates only from 4.75-23.80MHz. So it's not a general coverage receiver and does not receive single sideband which you would want for listening to Hams on the radio.
But for $18 from Amazon...it's dang hard to beat. I like that it has both scanning and setting frequencies which is good...but you can tune with a dial and see the frequency digitally. Not a bad trick and especially not at this price.
It's small enough to pack around anywhere and cheap enough that you don't worry about losing or breaking it.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F9FB9K57?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F9FB9K57?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title)
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So ok....did anyone pick one up? I bought one for my brother in law and he loves it.