This is my personal channel where I post videos about my hobbies and interests. I live on a small mountain homestead, so many videos are about gardening, animal husbandry, and my small fruit orchard, but I also dabble in shortwave radio and old video games. Enjoy!
@@BenPat88 fantastic! Well just gotta really baby them when they are little. Once you're out of that stage, they'll do great. Sadly, my Peruvian Torch ended up being Golden Torch as the seller on eBay was a scammer, but I didn't realize it until like 5 years later 😂 the San Pedro came out reaaal nice though
The Sihuadon R-108 is a sharp looking little radio that generally gets very positive reviews. I have the XHData D-109WB, and I have to admit I’m a little puzzled as to how XHData is positioning these two radios. The R-108 is $59.99 at Amazon, and has AM, FM, SW and air band, while the D-109WB at $49.99 loses the air band, but has weather band, NOAA alerts, and is also Bluetooth speaker and an mp3 player. Both are really good radios, but I’m not sure why the R-108 is $10 more.
@@labtennis0827 thanks! You know, I'm just a novice so I have used all kinds of wire and my best answer is "whatever's cheapest". When I got started, landline telephone wire was real cheap, so I used that.
It's the best SW radio under/for 20 $ (including shipping!). It's a digital receiver with medium to good sensitivity, and with even too good sound quality. Although it's the best traveler radio you can get for 20 $, I would change the followings: three times larger whip (the original one is too short), sound quality/selectivity control (on weak stations high tones with 8-9 kHz wide selectivity are very annoying). So it's not for DX-ing (MW is weak, FM is medium, SW is medium to good), but to listen your favorite broadcasts (world services like CRI/SGTN) is the best in this category. It is worth the money, but I can recommend only with a 1 m long wire attached to the little whip - what is not convenient in case of a traveler kit. Without added whip or wire it's very noisy due to the lack of antenna signal.
@@gabrielnovelo6865 thank you! I actually have it on all the time, just at a low level with a speed controller. So Its constantly refreshing the air supply. Then the humidifier is on a hygrometer control and that cycles on when the humidity gets too low.
@@MicroxB no battery for this setup - the big fan is connected to a dedicated panel that has a thermostat, so it only kicks on when it gets above 67°F. The little ones just run when the sun is shining on the panels, but I keep them turned off outside of summer. I have found that I never need to run the fans when the sun isn't shining bright, with the way a greenhouse heats up and the time of day with how I have the panels oriented, but the big fan can also be hooked to an extension cord I brought in for constant full power if that ever happens.
Im surprised there is still so much shortwave out there. I loved listening in the mid to late 1980's on a Radio Shack DX-440. Radio Canada International and Radio Netherlands were my favorites. They are both long gone now...I'm getting a PLL-880 shipped to me tomorrow. I have too many radios, haha
Hey alright! You're gonna have fun with it. Honestly it's my favorite radio I've owned. I did the C Crane thing for a while with a skywave and a skywave SSB, thinking American Made was the way to go... But I tell you what I've owned 3 of their radios and all three had tinny audio quality and the speakers stopped working eventually. You will love the 880
Nope, it's working great and there is no need to do that. The hygrometer is built in so it has to be in the tent to function, has been doing great for like six months and many pounds of healthy flushes.
@randallcrandall awesome but you're not even running an inkbird. When that humidifier goes and shorts your circuit don't be surprised. The switches on those things are not waterproof. There is a reason why we set them up outside and send them into the tent. Fan at the bottom to pull it all out. But go ahead.
¡Hola! Es un placer que communicar contigo. Soy de California y me gusta las musicas del Mundo y en Español... Especialmente cuando los personas hablan lentamente Jaja. Lo siento, pero mi Español es un pequiño malo Jaja. Pero gracias y hola 😀
@@randallcrandallEstá bien!! No lo hablas mal, tal vez uno que otro error pero se entiende tu idea! Lo que me impresiona es que todavía haya Ragtime en estos años y todavía más en mi país; soy mexicano por nacimiento y al menos durante el tiempo que he vivido en la Ciudad de México es raro conocer a personas que conozcan el Ragtime; en lo personal, yo amo el Ragtime por mi abuelo José (1938-2013), a quien le encantaba y escuchaba todo el tiempo piezas de Scott Joplin, yo heredé su gusto por Joplin y me hace sentir orgulloso que me guste un género musical que no muchos conocen en mi país!! Me encanta Scott Joplin!
Also, due to space I prefer growing them in a pot, but I hear the roots need at least 12 inches. I only have two plants so I’m not even sure if two plants would produce enough or how big they get just a newbie at it.
Yay! Welcome from the UK my friend! I have my UK foundation license M7DKU. Been doing a lot of SW listening in my back garden using a long wire. Have had Germany for certain and some other Eastern European countries. So great to see you get our BBC!! 73s.
I use a 100 foot copper wire attached to my antenna with a gator clip. I'm on a hill, so I string out out from my second story balcony to a 25' pole at the bottom of the hill, so it maintains a good bit of elevation the whole way. I live out on some acreage so we have a bit of room to do so, Out in California myself here and get tons...but I'm in the mountains away from much electric interference too. But yeah literally $15 worth of wire and a gator clip is all you need...if you don't have the space you can also loop it around your attic, around your ceiling etc. there are many options.
Thanks man,was just checking out their prices. Normal ticket price fargo to capetown $1100 . Their price $650. And they even scored well on trustpilot. You just saved my ass.
Thank you for your comment! 😀 I love the music on Radio Amazonia, but so rarely catch it here in California. Oddly, I got it beautifully in the middle of the country in Colorado years ago 🤷
@@randallcrandall I don’t think they beam it that far northwestern but I pick it up perfectly like local AM for the most part. I also get this on 6180 and another Brasilian is on 9665.
In the 1980's I used an 80 foot long wire antenna, made from a "Kit" sold at Radio Shack. There were tons of International Broadcasts in English back then! And My wife and I listened to the entire planet every night of the week with only a "compact" travel sized portable receiver. I still have my very first Sony 7600 that we used for years and years! It's a genuine tragedy that the internet blew all these wonderful stations off the air! But now? With Countries like Communist China 🇨🇳 blocking certain web sites? We desperately need Shortwave now, more then ever!
Thanks for sharing the great story. I wish I was around for how shortwave was back in the day. Im happy I caught Art Bells Midnight in the Desert when it was on SW... I wish more interesting stuff was on there, but RNZ is pretty good
The internet is not responsible for the demise of shortwave. These stations killed themselves off. These facilities were huge and very expensive to operate and maintain. Another factor is the RFNoise is prevalent across the shortwave spectrum because of all the different technologies in your home! Even my washer and my refrigerator cause RF Interference!
Absolutely! There are a ton of great projects to do this online and I have seen people give it a go. That said, this little antenna helps quite a bit and it's only like 20 bucks or so. But you are correct, basically just a loop of copper wire and a tuner. Honestly most modern radios don't need this extra help unless they're a super basic model. I use mine to beef up some really cheap radios I like
On my Grundig G5 (I have this and it's been in use since 2006), I often clip my Sangean reel antenna to the whip; don't need to extend the whip to get the results...
That's nice to hear your setup is working for you 👍 you're right you don't *need* all that extra wire to get results, it just works better. Try adding more length and see what you can pull in!
I have a Grundig field radio with a long wire and I find more stations tuning by hand with the tuner. The scan always blows over the weak stations like any other radio. Atmospheric conditions has a lot to do with reception, some nights are better than others.
