shortwave radio

[Brian Roth]

Back in the mid/late 1980's I spent many hundreds of dollars for one of these:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a1/75/72/a17572f1ff9a2965ad20ae11799f1ee6.jpg
I was reliving my 1960's youth DXing shortwave stations. I even installed a trapped dipole antenna on my roof:

https://www.radio-collector.com/wp-...dropper-SW-and-Broadcast-Antenna-1024x681.jpg
ANYWAY, I recently found the Kenwood radio buried in my "shrapnel" I brought to Kansas nine years ago. My best friend and I messed with it, but alas...it's toast. I can barely pick up local AM stations with it and forget about SW listening. I guess the "front end" is blown out.

Any current suggestions a newer replacement?? My friend is into survival theories and that is why I dug around to find the Kenwood. I am not as much into Kevin's worldview but I MISS having a decent SW receiver.

Bri

 

[Tubetec]

Three letters Brian ,
S(software)D(defined)R(radio)
Theres a wide range of dongles available relatively cheaply , they turn your computer or smart phone into an all band radio reciever .
Then theres also a few standalone handheld SDR units available , Hack one RF has the abillity to transmit and do a whole load of other mischief in the RF range . The Malachite reciever is another good one 50khz to 2ghz range . The real beauty of these things is the DSP type noise reduction , you can pull a distant signal out of the ether ,apply the NR and recover signals that would otherwise be totally lost with an old style radio .

 

[user 133392]

Play around with the University of Twente's online wideband SDR: http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

 

[Tubetec]

One interesting usage of these devices might be tracking and tracing sources of RF interference in audio equipment . The wide bandwidth should make it easier to locate problematic sources .

 

[user 37518]

I have somehow of an occult interest on listening to number stations. For those of you who don't know, number stations are radio stations that are quite esoteric, many theories as to what they are have been developed, but in general, most agree that they are used, usually by governments, to transmit secret messages to spies in foreign countries. They began in the early 20th century, the British, the Americans, the Soviets, and the Cubans are the ones who used them the most, but also other countries like Poland or the Czech Republic and China. They usually transmit at fixed hours, some of them are legendary and many have disappeared. Today, it appears Russia and China are the main countries using them.

The way they work is as follows: The spy has something called a "one-time pad", which is basically a decryption key for a message. The name one-time pad comes from the fact that it will only be used once and then discarded, this makes the technique impossible to crack, unless someone gets access to the pad. Also, there are some conditions for it to be unbreakable, for instance, it must consist of truly random numbers (something which is actually much harder to do than you think), and it must never be used again. The message that the government wants to transmit to the spy is delivered via SW radio stations in forms of numbers read out loud, usually by a computer or a pre-recorded voice, the spy has his own SW radio and knows when to turn it on at specific times of the day. He listens to the message and uses his one time pad to decode it.

Over the years, digital or more refined methods have been used and all you can hear is noises, but the good old numbers being read by a computerized voice can still be heard from many of these stations. Many recordings of now defunct stations are available. I guess that what I find fascinating is that this stuff that happens in the movies does happen in real life, and every time I listen to the sequence of numbers, I know that there is some spy somewhere listening to it and probably doing something really dangerous and/or important (or ilegal/unethical). Governments have also used interesting techniques to track these spies, like monitoring buildings for RF communications: SW receivers have local oscillators that radiate, so, when they detect them, they know there is someone there with a SW radio. Of course, that was easier in the past in places like East/West Germany where all these gadgets were much more regulated, and today you can listen to it with a cell phone using WiFi and SDR.

These guys have devoted their time to track and schedule all number stations, including stations used by embassies, or just weird stuff being transmitted, they use the same SDR that Wayne posted on post #3. China is very active today in terms of the amount of stuff being transmitted.

 

[TimG]

I listen to shortwave often!
Not nearly so much to hear any more but you can still hear Numbers Stations and EAM type messages on HF.

I got an SDRPlay RSP1A, which blows away all the dongles for just being able to hear and see wide swaths of bandwidth, but the most impressive radio if have played with in years is the Belka from Belarus . It’s a little harder to pay for the latest model from the maker, a company in Bulgaria sells the previous version which doesn’t cover down to AM broadcast.

I’ve never heard a confirmed account where the radio works better than on the built in whip! It’s amazing! And not expensive compared to Chinese radios.
https://belrig.by/belka dx with speaker EN
No waterfall like the cheap Malahite, but you can port the i/q to radio software.

My favorite along with my Sony ICF2010, ICF-7600 and Drake SW8!

What was the question?

 

[Brian Roth]

Those Sony radio look interesting....but appear to be discontinued. I'll snoop around on the Universal Radio website to see if they have newer Sony's.

Bri

 

[TimG]

Universal has sadly closed but they are still selling leftover inventory.
Ham Radio Outlet might be the best source in the US versus chasing it on the internet.

As someone who probably likes gear, the Sony ICF2010 is a fun machine to own, but buying any old Sony now may have capacitor issues. I can recommend fixers! But as for auction sites etc, they should mention the capacitor replacement ($100) or not, unless the radio is cheap.

The choice of spies!
https://www.cryptomuseum.com/spy/icf2001d/index.htm

 

[user 37518]

I listen to shortwave often!
Not nearly so much to hear any more but you can still hear Numbers Stations and EAM type messages on HF.

I got an SDRPlay RSP1A, which blows away all the dongles for just being able to hear and see wide swaths of bandwidth, but the most impressive radio if have played with in years is the Belka from Belarus . It’s a little harder to pay for the latest model from the maker, a company in Bulgaria sells the previous version which doesn’t cover down to AM broadcast.

I’ve never heard a confirmed account where the radio works better than on the built in whip! It’s amazing! And not expensive compared to Chinese radios.
https://belrig.by/belka dx with speaker EN
No waterfall like the cheap Malahite, but you can port the i/q to radio software.

My favorite along with my Sony ICF2010, ICF-7600 and Drake SW8!

What was the question?

View attachment 107038

Very nice! I should get one myself

 

[sodderboy]

I have the older version of this.
Which replaced the classic Grundig leather covered 2000. Did not travel well.
Swiss Radio Intl if you hear it, my phone is close by.
Mike

 

[TimG]

I have the older version of this.
Which replaced the classic Grundig leather covered 2000. Did not travel well.
Swiss Radio Intl if you hear it, my phone is close by.
Mike

I LOVE interval signals! That one is great. Glad it was preserved.!

 

[sodderboy]

You should listen to the whole record, there is a lot of SW found and inspiration there. Hard to believe it is 40 years old this year. Fantastic record.
And you will like some AIR as well. . .
Mike

 

[TimG]

I caught Radio Exterior Espanña’s interval signal today on my Belarusian Belka from Baltimore USA.

One neat thing about Belka is how fast you can be listening, from when you get half an idea to listen!

Crap audio but 3800 miles!

 

[user 37518]

I caught Radio Exterior Espanña’s interval signal today on my Belarusian Belka from Baltimore USA.

One neat thing about Belka is how fast you can be listening, from when you get half an idea to listen!

Crap audio but 3800 miles!

Very nice!

 

[sodderboy]

Is that Belka. . .
potato powered?!?
Mike