General Short Wave Radio

[AJC]

I have a little Sony ICF-SW100 that I use for tuning into the BBC World Service when travelling.



I know it's a capable little unit and was wondering if there's any interesting stations out there that members tune into?

Is it possible to tune into radio ham communications on any of the frequencies below?

FM (MHz) 87.5 - 108

MW (kHz) 530 - 1,620

LW (kHz) 150 - 285

SW (MHz) 3.85 - 26.1

Cheers,

AJ

 

[Geobloke]

Ah good old SW. Spent my youth listening to the world service and BFBS out in Sarawak and Brunei. Cripes that sentence sounds very "retired ex-army major!!!

Used to always amuse me that we'd all have to lye perfectly still or the signal would be lost, hehhehehehe!

To us it was our only link to the UK and invaluable!

 

[Marc Lurie]

Is it possible to tune into radio ham communications on any of the frequencies below?

FM (MHz) 87.5 - 108

MW (kHz) 530 - 1,620

LW (kHz) 150 - 285

SW (MHz) 3.85 - 26.1

Cheers,

AJ

In this list of frequencies you'll only find radio hams in the SW section. Does the radio have a BFO (Beat Frequency Oscilator) or the facility to listen to SSB (Single Side Band) signals? My SWF-07 does.

Most ham signals on SW will be in SSB modulation (Lower Sideband below 10MHz, and Upper Side Band above 10MHz)

The more common places to look for voice signals are:
7.030 to 7.099 MHz LSB
14.120 to 14.250 MHz USB (centre of DX activity is 14.195 MHz)
21.150 to 21.350 MHz USB (centre of DX activity is 21.295 MHz)
28.400 to 28.600 MHz USB (centre of DX activity is 28.495 MHz)

There's also plenty of aeronautical and marine HF bands you can tne into, but these are typically regional, and I don't have the information for frequencies outside Africa.

Regards,
Marc

 

[AJC]

In this list of frequencies you'll only find radio hams in the SW section. Does the radio have a BFO (Beat Frequency Oscilator) or the facility to listen to SSB (Single Side Band) signals? My SWF-07 does.

Most ham signals on SW will be in SSB modulation (Lower Sideband below 10MHz, and Upper Side Band above 10MHz)

The more common places to look for voice signals are:
7.030 to 7.099 MHz LSB
14.120 to 14.250 MHz USB (centre of DX activity is 14.195 MHz)
21.150 to 21.350 MHz USB (centre of DX activity is 21.295 MHz)
28.400 to 28.600 MHz USB (centre of DX activity is 28.495 MHz)

There's also plenty of aeronautical and marine HF bands you can tne into, but these are typically regional, and I don't have the information for frequencies outside Africa.

Regards,
Marc

Thanks for the information Marc. I do have SSB and about to read up on it.

AJ