Shortwave Radio

Welcome to my shortwave radio page! I started listening to shortwave radio in the fall of 1994, with a Radio Shack DX-375. I have since upgraded to a Grundig YachtBoy 400 (pictured on the left,) and have 15 meters of wire strung up around the room as an antenna. Reception isn't as good in California as it is in Iowa, mainly due to interference from local AM stations. Maybe those mountains behind the house cause some problems, too.... Being on the coast, though, may help with receiving Asian/Pacific stations.

On this page you will find links to other interesting shortwave radio pages (including several for schedules, propagation tables, and station information) and my collection of QSL cards.

With more news/information being "broadcast" by Internet everyday, shortwave radio may seem less and less like a viable idea. However, there are a number of countries, organizations, and people who wish their voices to be heard, and are unable (or unwilling) to use the Internet. For these people, radio is the way to go. Not to mention, my radio runs on a few AA batteries, which is more then I can say for my computer.

That said, there are quite a few stations who also broadcast via RealAudio. I have created a list of these stations, and have been adding direct links to the RA files.

At the tone, the time will be

Coordinated Universal Time
BEEP!

USNO Time "Live"
This feature requires RealAudio.
(Because of the RA buffering, there will be a several second delay from when the signal left the USNO Master Clock.)

About Time

Because broadcasters and listeners live in different parts of the world, potentially in different time zones, they refer to "Coordinated Universal Time," or UTC, when talking about the time. This is an international convention that replaced Greenwich Mean Time, although for part of the year they are the same. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) broadcasts time signals on 2.5, 5, 10, and 15 MHz from the stations WWV (Ft. Collins, CO--also at 20MHz) and WWVH (Hawaii.) You should be able to pick up one, if not more, of these broadcasts at any time. It is a good idea to have the clock in your radio set to UTC; it makes it easier to follow schedules, and helps when writing reception reports. Here's another explanation of determining world time.

Resources

NASWA (The North American Shortwave Association) is a club devoted solely to shortwave radio, and is part of ANARC (The Association of N.American Radio Clubs.) They publish a monthly Journal, which is filled with radio schedules, QSL card reports, receiver and book reviews, and general commentary about the shortwave radio world.
Monitoring Times is a monthly magazine published by Grove Enterprises, Inc.. It has more general information about radios, and includes a number of columns for scanners, utilities, FM, medium and longwave, as well as shortwave. The bonus is a "TV-Guide" like schedule every month of English programs.
Passport to World Band Radio is an annual book published in October-December for the next year. The first two-thirds has reviews of all current radios on the market, a quick guide to listening for newbies, an hour-by-hour guide of top programs in English, and a list of radio station addresses (and verification signers.) This last section is invaluable if you plan to write for QSL cards or station schedules. The last third of the book, the Blue Pages, is a frequency guide to what's on when. Basically, if you are listening to a program on 6000 kHz, but can't ID it easily, this guide can help you narrow down the station. Unfortunately, as it is compiled many months before stations actually decide what frequency they will be broadcasting on, it can be inaccurate.
Another useful book is the World Radio and Television Handbook (WRTH) which is also published annually. I have never used it, but many DXers swear by it. I believe it is divided by country, so is less useful in IDing a station, but more useful if you know what it is you want to listen to. It is published a bit later in the year, so it somewhat more up-to-date then Passport.
The usenet group rec.radio.shortwave is a decent source of up-to-the-minute information, and a good place to ask questions should you fail to find the info anywhere else. There is often a lot of flaming, so I don't keep up with it on a regular basis. Read the FAQ before you post--your question might have already been answered.

What is a QSL card? The listener sends a reception report, which includes information like time and date heard, frequency, signal quality, and program details, to the station. In return, the station often sends back a QSL card, confirming that the listener had heard that particular station. Sometimes the card has time, frequency, and transmitter information on it, sometimes it is just a blank postcard sent in acknowledgement. I always write what radio and antenna I used, my listening location, and a little bit of personal information. I have scanned a number of my QSL cards.)

NASWA (the North American SW Association) gives out awards to anyone (members and non-members) who meet certain listening criteria, usually listening to a certain number of stations from a given geographical region. Here is the NASWA Country list, in Acrobat Reader (pdf) format.

Shortwave via RealAudio

I have put this section on a new page, since it was getting too unwieldy here. Go here for RealAudio links.

Other (Shortwave) Radio links

SPEEDX has lots of links and articles on DXing
Grove Enterprises publishes Monitoring Times and sells shortwave equipment.
The CUMBRE DX page
Shortwave Radio for the Listener
hard-core-dx.com
Steve Adam's Shortwave Radio page
Al Quaglieri's Interval Signals Online. Interval signals are the bit of music played between broadcasts (usually on the hour or half-hour.) Knowing a station's interval signal can be useful in IDing that station, even if it is broadcasting in a language foreign to you. (Note: as of June '02, I can no longer find this page.)
The Web Resource for Radio Hobbyists page(includes SW/MW/FM/scanners/etc)
The excellent Numbers Stations page by Chris Smolinski. If you've ever heard a woman slowly repeating random numbers (often in Spanish) on the radio, you've heard a Numbers Station. I've heard one only once--but boy, it was creepy!
Association of Clandestine Radio Enthusiasts--for fans of pirate radio
Federal Communications Commission--not fans of pirate radio
NPR (National Public Radio) and KQED (my local NPR station)

This Shortwave Radio Ring site is owned by Jen's Shortwave Radio page

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Updated 1/13/04
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