Shortwave radio - The dark web of the airwaves in 2020 

On a sailboat crossing the Pacific Ocean my only entertainment was short wave radio bands that would put me to sleep at nights after setting the sails it brings back great memories...I had no TV no internet just short wave radio ... it was the only human voices I would hear for months on the ocean... it’s great stuff...

Brings back so many happy memories. I was raised in the 50's on a farm on the Alberta prairies, with no grid power, no TV, few books and very isolated. Very boring for a curious and innovative mind, driving tractors and heaving hay bales just didn't do it. Fortunately I had two uncles who were ham operators and radio repairmen for their communities in the days of big tube-type radios that could be repaired. They handed on to me old radios that couldn't be repaired and junk discarded from their hobby, including a 30's version of the ARRL Handbook. I studied that book 'til my head hurt, but learned enough to get going. I couldn't build a transmitter due to no grid power, but I built a single stage regenerative receiver with a single type 30 tube. That was the most basic triode you could imagine. Could easily see the filament glowing and the grid and the plate and could even imagine the electrons crossing the grid. Scavenged those discarded radios for the components, and wound my own crude coils. Powered the filament with discarded 1.5v cells from the party line telephone, but the 'B' battery was a problem. Those 90v batteries cost a fortune at a time when money was very scarce, but I finally saved up and bought one. Fortunately the receiver drew very little power to feed the old headphones so that battery lasted for years. By carefully adjusting the feedback to just below oscillation, the gain from that regenerative circuit was enormous! and at the same time the selectivity became extremely sharp, so I could pick out weak signals from a very crowded band. There was no powerlines for miles and in the wintertime there was no lightening anywhere and so no static. A 200' aerial from the windmill to a tall homemade tower gave access to the world. This was the late 50's so the 31m band was full of interesting broadcasts from all over the world. Some of them, like Radio Moscow, BBC, HCLB and WWV fairly boomed in and acted as frequency markers to calibrate the dial. The chassis wasn't well shielded so body capacitance made big effects, which was very useful in that I could control the feedback to that very critical peak just by slightly moving my knee under the desk, while I took program notes to send away with an International Reply Coupon for a QSL card. Got 22 of them. The biggest thrill of all was at 3am one night tuning in to Radio Australia just in time to hear the announcer read my letter on air, and they were amazed that I could receive their station with such a basic receiver! Never had near as much fun with any hi-tech receiver since.

The coded beacon signal in Morse is "CAT". It's a non-directional beacon (NDB) located near Chatham, NJ. In the past, it was probably a navigation point for beginning an instrument approach to runway 05 at Morristown Municipal Airport, but the current approach does not use it. Shortwave in the early 1950's was my exploration of the world. In later years, I got to actually visit those countries on the job as an airline pilot. Very fond memories...

When I was a kid I used a modified cheap MR Microphone transmitter to broadcast dirty jokes over the air to two of my friends who lived on the same block. I got triangulated by some old neighbor who came to my house and told my mom and dad about someone broadcasting smut from this location. That was the end of my comedy career.

Interesting video! I do a show on a number of shortwave stations (WRMI 5850 kHz) every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening. Shortwave might not be the most popular broadcast medium but there are still more listeners out there than one would think!

The ionosphere is net neutral

I used to sit out behind my parents farm house in rural Kansas with my shortwave radio and watch the stars while listening to all kinds of weird signals. The house had metal siding so it was a huge faraday cage and I was too lazy to put up a real antenna, so I just sat outside and listened. I spent many summer nights like that. My favorites were clandestine broadcasts like numbers stations and pirates. I spent a lot of time around 6925 khz listening for the pirates on their homemade 5 to 50 watt transmitters playing heavy metal or techno or hip hop or sometimes just reading jokes into the airwaves. They had their own weird inside jokes too and sometimes they'd apparently be trying to jam each other playfully with different sound effects. I always wanted to get my amateur radio license and make my own mark on the airwaves, but I've been procrastinating for ten years now. I could probably pass the test in my sleep.

12:32 It's portuguese. The woman's voice is from Dolores Duran, singing songs that was composed by Francisco Anysio (he's was actor and comediant too). The broadcast was talking about that. She was so popular on 1940 and 1950. She passed on 1959. Francisco had a much more succesfull career at TV shows from 1960 to 2000's, he passes on 2012. So clear broadcast, and really surprising! Nice DX!

Supposedly Sony founder and long time chairman Akio Morita was a big shortwave buff, which is why Sony always made so many great SW radios.

Shortwave radio was incredible in the 1990s in the USA. The bands were filled with incredible broadcasts. Now it takes some effort to find anything in English besides crazy preachers. One good comedy show comes on each weeknight at 10pm Eastern time on frequency 4840. Tune in and see! You`ll hear things like: "Shrimp on prozac are attacking seagulls!"

Boy, does THIS take me back..... to my Navy days, specifically 1986. At night, I'd drag my big ol' boom box up to the flight deck and sit and listen to all the strange stuff that would come across the radio - including that Cuban propaganda beamed right at us by our communist friends whilst we were there for training, certs, and so forth. Voices from the ether, music from foreign lands, strange blips and bloops and chirps and squeals and tones, all fading in and out and intermingling with each other and the static... definitely a surreal experience. I was never much into shortwave, but listening to it in the middle of the ocean, at night, under a sky full of stars so numerous you can't even imagine, much less count.... it was my 'therapy'. It kept me sane somehow.

This takes me back to when I got a SW radio for my Birthday. Although I had tons of bandwidth to catch almost anything I wanted to listen to, I always found myself listening to Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM.

I think someone is letting a cat play with their morse transmitter.

There was something magical about laying in bed at night in the 70’s and 80’s and scanning the bands for civilization different from what I lived in every day. It felt great to succeed in barely tuning in to anything new. Music, news, readings, all in languages I could barely even recognize sometimes. In about 2004 when the BBC World Service stopped broadcasting to North America, I gave up. :(

I'm so conditioned by radio listening in 80's and 90's, I was instinctively tilting and rotating my phone trying to get better sound quality from this video :)))

This is what the movie 'Contact' got so right in the opening scene......the earth fadeout with all the radio broadcasts going back to the inception. There is something fascinating about listening to live broadcasts from thousands of miles away, even if it's in another language. I remember as a 10 year old kid around 1979, playing with some walkie talkies in northern British Columbia, Canada, surrounded by mountains and yet still being able to hear a guy in a truck in Texas. It blew my mind.

Growing up in communist east Germany short wave was my window to the free world. In the early 60s listening to western stations still was a criminal offense.

The beacon was transmitting the letters C A T in Morse.

The BBC are still broadcasting on shortwave. In August 2019 extended its World Service output.

Hello there. I used to listen to shortwave radios a lot here in Brazil between 1993 and 2003. The language you were (not) trying to guess on time 12:30 on your video is Portuguese from Brazil and it was playing a program about Dolores Duran, a Brazilian female singer from the early radio times here in Brazil. Then, in the next frequency, it was actually Spanish, just when you finally tried to guess and thought it was portuguese 😂. Nice video. I've been thinking a lot about buying a nice shortwave receiver to keep listening, since the cheap ones they sell here can't find and play the radios that nice. Thanks for the video 😊

Shortwave is still a very efficient way of reaching people. Some of the signals you demonstrated were very clear without fading. I believe the major SW powers were stupid in their abandonment of Shortwave. Computers and the internet in general are very vulnerable.

I like to listen to shortwave, there's just something about listening to the actuall stations transmitter, then to just listen to an internet stream!

Still listen to shortwave radio when i go camping out in the middle of nowhere

I am from Pakistan and I used to listen to Radio for years, I was a regular listener of Urdu services of different countries on the Shortwave, such as Radio Saudi, Radio Japan, China, Fiba Radio, Radio Iran, All India Radio, Radio Germany, Radio Saloon, etc. What a golden era that was💓

16:32 Can confirm it's Vietnamese music, not sure what song that is. Source: I'm a Vietnamese, so yeah

Radio Moscow became the Voice of Russia in the early 1990s, then changed its name to Sputnik News a few years ago. I do miss the old times when the radio dial took me to many different countries. I still do that with the internet, but SW radio was different.

A few years back, I was sitting in my room late on a summer night with a kerosene lantern for lighting. I powered up an old tube receiver, and tuned across the bands for a bit. Until I stumbled upon the Ident of radio Tirana (The Albanian State Radio) just before closedown.. Chills just ran down my spine, and they still do whenever I hear that sound.

If the internet ever crashes, folks will want one.

I think the SWL world has had a bit of a revival with the advent of SDR. An SDR device hooked up to a decent antenna using modern software makes the experience altogether more enjoyable. For the nostalgia experience I like to use one of my tube sets from the 50's with bandspread tuning - that's also a blast! As you mentioned, the sets you featured are at the lower end so folks shouldn't judge the experience based on those. NIce video as always. Cheers, John

About a week ago, I got my radio and it’s a multi-band potable radio with AM, FM, shortwave, CB, Aircraft, Police and Weather bands. All in a good looking set. It was made by Westminster back in the 1970’s. It still works with D batteries and no corrosion there. Now I can listen to any station I want since I haven’t used Shortwave for years. Plus, it even has a map of the world where it has countries where you can get a shortwave station. You can’t get them anymore, plus a wheel where you can set the time zone. Nice feature.

I absolutely love this stuff. I started listening at a very young age. I don't listen much these days due to time but I still have some old tube zeniths that I plug in once in a while. I've always found it so fascinating how there are so many live transmissions going on 24/7. I swear that some of the transmissions are from another time. It's like a whole other world and has a sort of a supernatural feel sometimes.

Great video ! As a HAM I have been into shortwave for over 35 years. Commercial stations are abandoning shortwave because of the high operating costs (investment in and maintenance of transmitters and antenna parks) but luckily enough there are still plenty to listen to. Some radio stations now also have digital transmissions (DRM) which offers even better quality then some of the internet stations! Of course, signals on shortwave are prone to fading and one always depends upon atmospheric conditions (sun spots) but shortwave remains a lot of fun . Should you wish to get the most out of it, make sure to attach a good antenna to your receiver, any length of wire outside, properly fed, will improve reception tremendously (keep it safe and disconnect antennas when not in use ).

I still scan the bands on occasion. I've always had a shortwave radio in my shack. I currently have an Eton Field BT Shortwave radio. Very pleased with its performance. There is nothing like the mysterious and ethereal sounds coming from an SW radio. The whistles, pops, crackles, pings, and howls are like music to my soul. Those sounds would make a good ASMR video for radio buffs.

The Report of the Week does his weekly podcast on shortwave.

VWestlife I was considering the acquisition of a radio to lend an ear to the world of shortwave (and all other frequencies) but honestly don't have a clue what I'm looking for. This video showed up rather unexpectedly in my feed while browsing for noise and sound-related content and right off the bat gave me some good examples of what I'm actually after. I find this world quite fascinating and could use many of these strange (and sometimes creepy) sounds/signals/distortions in my weird little "music" projects. Also just realized your channel is a bit of a gold mine for my humble mind. Cheers and thank you!

I was an avid short wave listener in the 80s, miss the excitement off picking up those signals in the early hours. We do rely on the internet too much these days. Great video.

13:12 That's Rádio Aparecida from Brazil

In England, the Queen is the expert on short waves.

I never owned a short wave radio, but once I fixed my friend's radio, was a old Philips with AM/FM/SW bands, it ran on germanium diodes and transistors, was able to recover it because Philips included the actual radio schematics inside it. I could pick up some radios from Brazil (of course) that I used to calibrate the dial, some from Asia, many unindentified ones, and one from Cuba, if I remember. I was amazed to imagine how far those signals were coming from, it was very fun!

Fun Fact: Allan Weiner, who owns and operates WBCQ, also operated pirate radio station Radio Newyork International (RNI) during its brief run about 30 years ago. It operated from a ship anchored off the coast of New York until it was siezed by the US government for its unlicensed broadcasting.

My Guess on the airport beacon: *Chatham NDB , 254 kHz LW, serving Morristown Municipal Airport (KMMU)*

Listening to shortwave reminds me of watching UHF tv with my little antenna, something I miss today.

I remember back in the 80s when the space shuttle blew up. Short wave was going crazy. was very interesting to listen to.

Every night (in North America at least) you can hear oldies music on WTWW 5085 from 8 PM to midnight central time. It's rare for a shortwave station to carry a multi-hour nightly music format like this.

I've been waiting so long for a video like this... Thank you so much! Carry on DXing!!

That religious band was like coming across the captains log from Event Horizon.

I've been DXing since the late 1980's I was once interviewed on Radio Netherlands as a kid. Today I like to use the Web SDRs online it's like having different SW radios all over the world.

The language in 12:53 is brazillian portuguese. The voice is telling something about the music that has been played just before (sorry my english, I'm brazillian). Great video btw!

Cellphone killed the Cb radio Star

Ah, yes. This brought back memories. I remember I would stay up into the night listening to shortwave radio when I was younger. I still have one sitting on my sidetable. I should do that again sometime... Just for old time's sake. :) I actually sent a reception report to WWV and got a card back from them. One of my favorite memories other than sitting doing band sweeps with my dad.

when I was younger always loved tuning late at night to see how far I could here. have a couple short wave radios and still listen every now and than.

This brings back memories. I was given a SW radio in my teens and there is definitely something super eerie about listening to that strange world of distortion, interference, voices and spooky sounds ... It was pretty fascinating. Ps no idea how this wound up in my feed but cool anyway.

Nice video, I personally love a background picture of religious screaming and Cuban propaganda

This is some great content. You should do more videos like this, exploring the more obscure parts of radio that somehow is still alive in this day and age. I live in Sweden, as a kid about 20 years ago i got an old "Handic" radio as a present. It has a whole bunch of frequencies on it and i thought it was so exciting to stay up way too late on cold winter nights when reception was extremely good and fine-tune that big dial to listen to all manner of strange and "spooky" stations. I managed to check off some strange Romanian and Polish stations, along with BBC, some weird asian music channels and a whole bunch of russian stations on a small checklist i made. I even managed to tune into what i then believed was some cool numer stations or something, but now i believe it was something along CODAR or whatever people over here used the airwaves for. It's such a bummer in many ways that so much has moved to the internet. Back in the day almost anyone could tune into some cool stuff with semi-basic radio/tv equipment.

Shortwave radio is like coffee to me; I have no intention of giving it up. Shortwave got me interested in science so I remember it fondly. Shortwave also provides a sense of adventure not available with the internet. You can never be sure of what you'll find.

The weird moaning and groaning is Brother Stair's daily zombie apocalypse gathering. Not survivors of the apocalypse, the zombies.

My show airs on AM here in Houston. I frequently joke on air that "this broadcast is promotion for the podcast" being 2020 and all :) Though I fully embrace our digital world, I still geek out and adore that I am privileged enough to have my little show radiate through the universe electromagnetically. It's romantic. AM also just makes spoken word sound "sexier"...anyways....maybe just me. KPRC 950AM for those curious. 10p Saturday, 6p Sunday (CST)

Some shortwave radios can pick marine and air bands. Maybe weather stations, too. In Britain, I can pick up stations from India, Eastern Europe and China. Superb presentation!

I still enjoy building my own Ham equipment and shortwave receivers, some as simple as crystal sets and still amazed at all the activity between 1.6 and 30 megahertz.

I have been in radio for years. I really enjoyed this video. Thank you. Radioman

Very good review of shortwave today. Yes the Beacon is in Morse Code, CAT. I used to hear EWR in morse code from Newark Airport on Long Wave when I lived in the New York City area. After first listening to MW DX in 1960, while in High School, I then progressed to Shortwave in 1961 with a Hallicrafters SX-110 tube receiver from Radio Shack in Stamfors, CT, which used to have amateur equipment, such as Lafayette Radio did, before even CB was popular in the 1970's. I am familiar with the usual suspects you mentioned that are now on SW, as opposed to the golden days of international broadcasting. It has happened to amateur radio today too, though there are many modes, such as digital with FT-8, that is popular for weak signal contacts. I became an amateur radio operator in 1962, with many other young people in those days, even using tubes at the beginning. I remember when the Sony ICF-2001 came out in 1980 as an early digital read out with direct key entry, and I still have a review about it on audio cassette from it being reviewed on Radio Canada back then. I have owned many radios, SW and amateur, and scanners over the years. It's nice to see you have a good collection of receivers and I enjoy your electronics video reviews!

So many memories of sitting in my room with my headset on a snowy Minnesota night hearing exotic signals from PNG, Monrovia Liberia, Paris, London and Melbourne during the late 70s, utilizing my Grandfather's hand-me-down 1950s era Collins 'Boat Anchor' (sorry do not recall the model). Hoping to hear that faint unfamiliar interval signal and country to add to my logs and a cool QSL to my collection. In the 80s the fascination with DXing had not abated, picked a Radio Shack DX-300, I was in the 'digital' readout era, hooray, only to learn a few months later that it was a dog of a receiver, still it pulled on some good DX. Moved up to a Kenwood R-5000 by the end of the decade, I was then in the big leagues. However, the hobby began to take a back seat to, well, life. College, Work, Women and like I said life in general, became my main focus. I believe my last QSL was an e-mail from a PTP station in Puerto Rico, sometime in the late 90s. I have long since sold off my equipment, though I do have a 90s era Sangean portable somewhere up in the attic. I used it on my overseas assignments for most of the decade until MacBooks became lighter and more portable in the early '00s'. I have contemplated returning to the hobby, but with so many names now gone, BBC, Radio Australia, RCI, DW now in the history books, I don't know, maybe. I was an admitted QSL hunter, I cared little for the content, just enough to pop a decent Reception Report in the mail to get that coveted QSL from N Korea (man, that was a toughie, a Japanese DXer provided some invaluable help in securing that QSL), R Botswana and Radio St Helena. I suspect many of the "tropical" stations are still on the air, again, maybe. Anywho, thanks for the memories...and good DXing

I’m 17 and was born in 2002. Shortwave has recently peaked my interest and continues to do so...

You should do a new updated video about short wave radio listening, and also how to improve reception and also do a bandscan like what you're doing. You're getting better, and quieter reception, I wish I knew what you did to keep the RF noise levels down in your place you filmed the video. We all need help with this. I think it's being stuck in my apartment with other people around me that are using inferior power supplies.

It wasn't killed off 20 years ago because a lot of poor people, or in remote areas, in the world can't get the Internet. With SpaceX, T-Mobile, and Amazon about to change the part about being remote with no access coming to an end we still have to think about the poor of the world where one shortwave radio could cost the family a few years wages of saving up. Until poverty (especially in remote areas) is completely wiped out we will always have a need of shortwave radio.

This video just made me pull out my radio which I use a couple times a month, but haven't used for shortwave in about 2 years.

As others have noted, so many comforting and happy memories of time spent listening to shortwave and "traveling" the world via the airwaves in the 70s, 80s, and even into the 90s. Thanks for posting. Cheers.

Brings back memories of when I got hooked listening to shortwave radio back in the 80s when I was in Africa. Love listening to VOA, BBC, Deutsche Welle, Radio Netherlands, Radio Exterior de España, Swiss Radio International and Radio France International. I could still recall their signing in tones. Particularly the once from RFI, VOA, BBC and the most recallable of them all from DW. The most unique one I got to listen to was Voice of Turkey. Sometimes I would hear Kol Isreael. Shortwave broadcast from both the BBC and VOA gave us updates on what was happening in the Philippines in February 1986 when the Philippine dictator Marcos was toppled by a People Power revolution. I remember, have the radio on and our other Filipino friends gathered in our house to listen.

4:48 The beacon is saying "cat".

"Turn the dial with your hand/Till you find the shortwave band"

If you send a letter to the SW international broadcasting station you hear and supply the date and time (and signal report if possible), along with a general description of what you heard, often times the station will send you a QSL confirmation card. It's actually pretty thrilling to receive a QSL card from an international broadcast station and they in turn really appreciate the signal report information showing them their reach!

Seeing the Sony and hearing those shortwave broadcasts brought back memories. My dad had that exact model and I was always fascinated with it as a child. He had the roll-out antenna hung up on the window so he could tune into the BBC world radio station. I should see if my mom still has it, I think it would be interesting to see if it still works and what I can receive on it.

If you notice the RS DX-397, the SW10 band is painted on the dial like MW and FM. If Sangean marketed this model in Europe (or elsewhere where LW radio broadcasting is common), the SW10 band would be LW. The radio would likely be DX-397L version in that case.

The idea of having my own SW or analog TV station has always been super interesting to me.

I was a military signaller in the 70's and it was my exposure to SW radio as a child that had me hooked already. The strange sounds you would discover were fascinating to a small child and morse was a joy to learn. As an Infantry signaller, you carried it all on your back and it made you remarkably fit :) There was a black art making all work and a degree of intuition gained from experience was required to be successful.

WWV is very handy to figure out which band to listen to for a given time of day for new listeners. 5, 10, 15, 20 all have it, good guide to know roughly what bands are right for the time of day or solar conditions.

Spend a good time in my youth listening to SW stations and DXing. Still got a couple of SW receivers here too, including the last one I've got, the Sony 7600GR which is excellent and includes SSB.

It’s always cool to see people Receiving WEWN, since that station is only a mile away from me. Also I can see the tower lights at night in my front yard.

And you're showing people something and it might peak some new interest in it. So thanks for always putting up videos about things like this. And who knows maybe somebody will go out and buy a shortwave radio and play with it and maybe we'll start up some shortwave radio stations. Who knows it's fun.

As many stated, 12:29 is Brazilian Portuguese. If anyone is interested, I transcribed what I could catch below. PORTUGUESE 1st song: I couldn’t understand much... Announcer: “Dolores Duran foi uma das principais intérpretes das canções do seu amigo Chico Anysio, tanto que, em 1959, a cantora lançou "Este Norte é a Minha Sorte", álbum que juntava várias pastas de autoria do humorista que já haviam sido gravadas e lançadas em discos de 78 rotações pela própria Dolores. ... ...como o mais importante, por ter sido feita em parceria com a sua mãe, Aidê [?] Paula”. 2nd Song (Não Se Avexe, Não): “Sebastião, meu bem Anda logo, vem Vem pra mais perto de mim Chegadinho assim ...” ENGLISH 1st song: I couldn’t understand much... Announcer: “Dolores Duran was one of the main interpreters of the songs of her friend, Chico Anysio. So much so that in 1959 the singer released “This North is my [Good] Luck”, an album which bundled many works from the comedian [Chico Anysio] that were already recorded an published by Dolores herself in 78 rpm records. ... ...as the most important, by the fact that it had been made in collaboration with his/her mother [whose mother is it, Chico’s or Dolores’?], Aidê [?] Paula.” 2nd Song (Não Se Avexe, Não): “Sebastião, darling Waste no time, come here Come closer to me Cuddled, like so ...”

254 is your NDB "CAT" from Chatham, NJ. North Korea still has shortwave radio. CAT machinery with a morse code generator

WRMI out of Florida is a big one . I have picked up radio Slovakia before a lot of the stations will send a QSL card if you contact them with a signal report

This may be your best video yet! I love this kind of stuff!

Great video. I've been an avid shortwave listener since 1977. The BBC still has great programming on shortwave. I was listening to it this morning on 15,490 Khz.

As someone who has done plenty of shortwave exploration, the discussion of the technology were more interesting to me than the extended intervals of exploration of the bands. But for someone without a shortwave radio, this is a great explanation of what can be found. I'm sure VWestlife is already aware, but it's better to be outdoors (or be hooked up to an outdoor antenna) for signal reception, weather permitting.

Strange. Sometimes I listen to AM radio bands and for a little while, I kind-of believe, that this is some time anomaly and broadcast is actually coming from past. Supported by the fact, that things being broadcasted are almost always things from long ago...

My grandfather had a National Panasonic RF2200 to listen to shortwave stations, and I had a little AM receiver with which I listened to stations far away at night. I inherited the shortwave receiver after he passed away and I got an amateur radio license. Fading, noise, interference from other stations, it was all part of the magic. I even have a Philips DC532 car radio with shortwave band, when I bought it in 1995 there were still broadcasts from Radio Netherlands Wereldomroep which I listened to when I was on holiday. Now it's all gone, everything went digital and with that the magic went out as well.

You have a very nice collection of radios! It was due to yourself and later on, The Report of the week that I found my new hobby. I now have a Tecsun r9700dx, XHDATA D-808 and an MLA30+ and swling is my new evening passtime. Yeah, it can be done via the internet but that will never be as cool as listening to a physical signal bounced across the world. Thank you for introducing me to it.

I believe all products have premium and "Crosley Cruiser" versions available to purchase. For example: my car is the Crosley Cruiser of automobiles.

Timely. Just started looking into numbers broadcasts.

I've been a radio nerd since I was a young child. This is gold.

At 12'30”, the language spoken is Brazilian Portuguese. The radio announcer is talking about a Brazilian singer named Dolores Duran who was singing songs by a super famous comedian in Brazil named Chico Anysio. Both deceased. Big surprise. I don't expect to hear this from your radio. Thanks.

Oh! Just in time! I've been interested in shortwave for a week now since I discovered reviewbrah and your video comes to educate me just in time! Thanks!

1988: "Superpower KUSW" in Salt Lake City, UT. I won a R.E.M Green album tape and key chain by sending them a post card.

Enjoyed this, I always tuned in to brother stair if I was playing on sw. For no other reason than his signals were among the best where I am. Haven't been able to listen for ages, just heard he is no more but his recordings are very much still out there. Thanks

A huge improvement to my short, medium, long wave reception with both, the XHUNDATA (?) DSP radio and esp.my 50's tube radio, living in an electrically noisy city where wire antennas mostly pick up garbage, was: Building a _magnetic, shielded, active broadband loop_ antenna. There is some German electronic DIY site with a schematic, building one out of RG58 coax cable, a wooden or plastic frame, just one transistor, a few caps and resistors and a pot. That thing is both, incredibly simple to make (if ugly is OK for you :D) and insanely effective. In the evenings I now receive dozens of stations on all 3 bands, whereas I could only receive some short wave, but almost nothing on the others before. (my DSP radio is very deaf on medium and long wave, though, which seems strangely common among this type of radio)

I can personally recommend the C Crane "skywave" short wave receiver-good little unit and lots of performance for under $100. Its digitally tuned and quite selective. Also the AM FM reception is excellent,for example, I live close to a 5000 watt AM station that tends to de-sense or "swamp out" cheap radios-but I can hear weak adjacent stations just fine=same on SW bands

Shortwave and CB radio will be the only means of communication when the zombie apocalypse occurs. 😱

In 2004 I picked up a 1930's vintage Zenith table top radio for $15 at a moving sale... and it worked, and still works! It has short wave bands and what was called "standard broadcast" band, or AM as it is known today. FM did not exist at the time. I still dust it off occasionally, click it on, let the tubes warm up, and listen for any signal I can tune in.

FINALLY I can hear what the guy on the Universal Time signal is saying! I've been wondering about that one for a while now.