Cheapest way to listen to SW

[Martin Bush]

Hi all

I've just received a nice little radio via the forum on which I can pick up stuff from the local airport.

That got me thinking back to when I had Teleton radio cassette and used to pick up all sorts of odd stuff on SW (number stations I expect) in the 80s.

What is the cheapest set I can get now to pick up SW broadcasts? This is just for fun so I'm thinking of the sub £20 sets that I could wander round the house and up the garden with. Are they any good? I know that's a bit of a piece of string question in a way. Are they any good for the £15 - £20 they cost

I no longer have the Teleton radio cassette sadly.

Martin

[G6Tanuki]

Are you after listening to _broadcast_ stations on SW? If so I think you'll be rather disappointed, whatever receiver you use. The classic 'nation-state' SW broadcasters [Radio Nederland, Deutsche Welle, New Zealand, Australia, Radio Tirana [spit!] etc all closed down a couple of decades back; China, Moscow and Voice-of-America are still there but with a vastly reduced range of frequencies/programs.

These days tuning across the SW broadcast-bands the best entertainment comes from the wacky religious stations [far better comedy-value than anything broadcast by the likes of the BBC!]

The marine/commercial/military SW users all went digital in the same timeframe; OK there are a few things like VOLMET transmissions, but they are SSB.

Us radio-hams still continue using legacy-modes like CW and SSB...

If you want a cheap way to listen to the SW bands using equipment you've already got - try 'tuning in' to some of the SDR feeds; I can recommend the Hack Green SDR

http://hackgreensdr.org:8901/

which you can access free from your PC or phone.

[paulsherwin]

Any radio which covers the main SW band, vintage or modern, valve or transistor or IC, will give reasonable reception of SW broadcast stations. The longer the aerial you can hook up, the better. As said, there's a lot less to listen to on SW than there used to be, and there's a lot more interference.

If you want new and cheap, this is as good as anything: https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-G...ucts/263205154

[Cruisin Marine]

Online SDR's are easiest and cheapest way. I wouldn't go too cheap for a receiver as it will be a waste of money.
An old Saisho/ Sangean can be got cheap (and good) or new something like a tecsun PL660 performs well, there are endless options and a bit of reseearch and reviews may help.

[bikerhifinut]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

Are you after listening to _broadcast_ stations on SW? If so I think you'll be rather disappointed, whatever receiver you use. The classic 'nation-state' SW broadcasters [Radio Nederland, Deutsche Welle, New Zealand, Australia, Radio Tirana [spit!] etc all closed down a couple of decades back; China, Moscow and Voice-of-America are still there but with a vastly reduced range of frequencies/programs.

These days tuning across the SW broadcast-bands the best entertainment comes from the wacky religious stations [far better comedy-value than anything broadcast by the likes of the BBC!]

The marine/commercial/military SW users all went digital in the same timeframe; OK there are a few things like VOLMET transmissions, but they are SSB.

Us radio-hams still continue using legacy-modes like CW and SSB...

If you want a cheap way to listen to the SW bands using equipment you've already got - try 'tuning in' to some of the SDR feeds; I can recommend the Hack Green SDR

http://hackgreensdr.org:8901/

which you can access free from your PC or phone.

Plus one for the hack Green SDR for listening to Amateur SW transmissions.
Other Online SDR are available when you do an online search, this can be useful to pull in signals that will not be strong enough at Hack green which is in NW england.
I use Hack Green, or other SDR, when we hold our local Amateur group twice weekly "nets" as a few of the local guys are in the "skip" zone so I can neither hear them on the Groundwave nor Skywave. Some amateurs would frown on this but its a frequently used technique. (Not allowed if you do competitons or are in something like the "worked all britain" nets.)
Otherwise Paul's quite right, and you DO need a reasonable aerial and earth to get the best from it.
I saw a nice Eddystone EC10 at the Hornsea ARC rally last month, nicely restored and cosmetically perfect and a snip at the asking price, I think I could have got it for around £50 and I wish I had gone and bought it. Rallies and swapmeets can be happy hunting grounds at less than online auction prices.
Andy 2E0AND

[agardiner]

For super cheap messing about, I also recommend the Tesco set. £10 and not terrible performance. Quite good fun.

For a better introduction though, I recommend the Tecsun PL360. Around £45 in the UK or as little as £30 if you are prepared to import one. The cheapest in Tecsun's line up, it is a great performer and has the outstanding feature, ETM. This scans the entire band and stores all found stations which you can then flick through. Given the nature of SW this is invaluable these days.

[brunel]

Tecsun PL360 improvement.

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...09#post1297109

[Refugee]

Those Tesco sets do stay reliable once you get a working one.
You need to try it in the car park before you go home with it. You may need to be patient.
With FM they are useful for finding places where a bigger FM set can be sited in weak signal areas as well as having fun trawling the short wave bands.

[Craig Sawyers]

When I got my Racal RA17 up and running, at at full 1uV sensitivity, a long wire aerial just picked up broadband splatter - digital hash transmitted over HV power lines close by.

I ended up with a Wellbrook active loop https://www.wellbrook.uk.com/loopantennas/ , and it was dead quiet. Other than the radio stations. Not cheap, but does what it says on the tin. The best I got on that was Radio Australia at high signal quality on the 9MHz band. I thought it must be a European relay. But it turned out, emailing them, that it was a broadcast beamed to Hong Kong, so I was picking up a side lobe.

Good old 1960 valved technology. Big, heavy, lots of valves, and a noise figure of 6.5dB. The workhorse of government listening stations including GCHQ from the late '50s through the '70s.

But definitely not a receiver for the novice, or anyone not prepared to fix it before using it.

[Martin Bush]

Thanks all for your feedback.

I have used the Hack Green site in the past and got some interesting stuff, but more recently it's been less fruitful. This isn't helped by me not knowing what I'm doing This may be down to me not having the right browsers installed.

If I was to get one of the Tesco sets that worked properly, how would I go about attaching a wire aerial? I have quite a long garden so could lash something up (I think the challenge would be finding a long enough piece of wire given the size of the garden).

I take on board the comments about better receivers, but I don't have much money to play with and this is really just for fun. And if the Tesco set turns out to be a white elephant for SW I suspect I can use it as a bathroom radio for FM etc without worrying about ruining it.

[paulsherwin]

You can just clip a length of wire to the telescopic aerial. This is true of any portable SW radio without an external aerial socket.

The Tesco cheapies seem to perform very well if you can find one that isn't falling to bits. You can return faulty ones to Tesco for a replacement of course.

[Martin Bush]

Thanks Paul.

[Bazz4CQJ]

Speaking as someone who started off with a two-valve TRF in the 1960's, doing really traditional 'Shortwave Listening', I think that the modern descendent is Internet Radio. I listen to stations in the US and Canada everyday and it is all sooo easy. I think that it is true to say that any station that transmits via RF also does on-line streaming, but there are many more which do on-line only. The figure that's quoted for the total number of stations on-line seems to vary between 35,000 to 40,000. The last internet radio I bought (I have 3 working models) was about £50.

B

[Dave757]

Hi,

I've had one of those Tesco radios for a couple of years, and although
they are by no means the ultimate in SW receivers, they do a pretty
good job for a set at that very low price.

And I haven't had any problems with mine. (Hope I'm not tempting providence!)

Kind regards
Dave

[Junk Box Nick]

I didn’t know of the Tesco radio but it seems to have a good fun to outlay ratio. Sadly, there isn’t a fat lot on SW now, and certainly not compared to the days of my youth.

I started with a one valve set in the 1960s and the excitement of hearing far away stations or even local hams on topband with a system you had set up yourself was what it was all about.

I listen to internet only stations or streams from overseas stations more than anything else, mainly because, despite the myriad stations available via DAB, FM and (even!) AM there is little available to my taste via traditional ether. However, I find no sense of achievement in this – it is a case of buying an appliance and turning it on with save internet outages predictable results.

There is something magical about hearing a station and knowing that the only connection between you and it is the ether, especially if it is over some distance. That is why although Hack Green, etc., is useful I would not such resources it as my receiver.

But in the not too distant future all this will be a thing of the past and those remaining hams using SSB, AM and CW will be the heritage steam railways of the air – an interesting demonstration of how we used to do things.

There is an old saying "Buy cheap, buy twice" in that vein get an RSP1A https://www.sdrplay.com/rsp1a/ the more expensive ones add features IMHO the DX is the best one, the 1A is not far behind.

[Bazz4CQJ]

Which ever way anyone approaches the idea of listening to "World Radio", I have to say that there is a non-technical issue which is very discouraging. Sadly, what you will find on almost any radio station now is lots of talk about Covid and Climate Change.

Using the remote control which one of my IR radios has, I squeeze the button to change channels only to find I'm listening to the same conversation from different continents.

The mystique of listening via the ether may be a thing of the past. I can now reach in to my pocket and have a conversation with someone in Australia just by pressing two buttons. In the 1960's, we didn't even have a landline phone and the magic of the ether must have been quite a thing. Most of the stations in the Warsaw-pact countries were talking about the great achievements of the latest 5-year plan. I recall listening to Berne and Stockholm quite a lot but cannot imagine what they had to say that was very interesting. Nonetheless, I spent many hours doing it and thought it was wonderful.

B

[Junk Box Nick]

Was there ever a more fun station than Radio Tirana? Though the thoughts of Kim Il Sung from Pyongyang probably ran it a close second (don’t risk trying for a QSL card – you’d be getting funny looks from the postman for months). Radio Moscow was marginally more subtle with its ever-increasing grain harvests and you had VOA and Radio Free Europe going the other way. No wonder so many turned to BBC WS. But at least there was RNI on 6205!

We knew a lot of it was propaganda subtle or not so subtle – which was a useful lesson I’ve not forgotten!

[Martin Bush]

Thanks to everyone for their input. I think Junk Box Nick puts his finger on what I am chasing - the magic of picking something up through the air through trial and error.

It may well be that this is something I'm not destined to do, but we will see. We have an Alexa so I can ask it to play a range of different stations, but I do hanker after switching on a radio and not knowing what I will hear.

It's interesting that some of those on the thread who have done this in years gone by don't seem to miss it. Thats not a criticism. I wish I'd made more of the more abundant opportunities when I had them.

[newlite4]

The strongest station to come through is China Radio International, Chinese broadcasters tend to dominate the short wave bands. I do listen to Radio Romania International on around 6 megs, close by is Voice of Turkey. These come through at around 11.00pm. As with many SW radio stations, transmission is very dependent on the time of day or night. It just takes a bit of tweaking to find the best stations.
Neil