SHORTWAVE BANDS AND RECEIVERS

Any of you guys listen to the shortwave bands at all? Thinking of getting an HF receiver in the future and wondered what you used and what you would recommend.Cheers,Des 26CT4194

There is only one option. Buy an SDR. There are many and they are varied, the SDRplay rspdx is very good, I have one. I don't currently use it because I have a new love, the KiwiSDR which is utterly fabulous.

Bottom line - the rspdx needs to be attached to a pc. The kiwisdr is (effectively) a pc and you connect to it over the internet or local network. kiwisdr 0-32MHz, rspdx 0-2000MHz.

Kiwi has lots of very smart built in features if short wave is your thing, if you want the possibility of higher frequencies then the rspdx is your beast.

I would not even consider a standard receiver any more, however I love my Yaesu FT-747-gx which has a receiver that is excellent.

Thanks for that buddy,will have a look at those.Cheers,Des

I listen to SW. I use a 40+ year old Realistic DX-300. If you like twiddling knobs then something like this would make you happy. The 300 doesn't have lots of knobs, but you do have to make a lot of use of both the preselector and tuning knobs, both to find something to listen to and to keep it on frequency.. it's a drifter. I like the old school feel of it though, not just the manual tuning, but also the way it sounds compared to new radios, even if the receive is worse.

As Roger has pointed out, an SDR is probably the best way to go though. You'll pull in more signals, it will be more stable, have better filtering etc etc etc, and unless you're lucky in finding a mint condition old receiver that someone is trying to almost give away, an SDR will be cheaper too.

I know there are a few new non-SDR radios like the Tecsun out there, but don't have any experience using any of those.

Thanks for that,much appreciated! Des 26CT4194.

Hi Des,

I still love to SWL and have used many receivers over the decades from valve gear to more modern and even homemade. (Love what can be done with the simplicity of a regenerative receiver.  )

Nowadays I tend to use web based SDR receivers and a whole host of them can be found here :-

www.websdr.org


You can select receivers by world region and frequency or scroll down to the bottom of the site for a world map.

My favourite is the webSDR at The University of Twente in the Netherlands :-

http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/


You can even run these sites from a mobile phone, (there's an option of many of the sites that will automatically detect phone usage), so that you can literally SWL from anywhere.

Not the same as firing up an old receiver and twiddling those knobs all hooked up to the longest piece of wire you can muster, but great all the same.  


If anything it might fulfill your SWL desires until you get a new receiver.


All the best,
Victor

Thanks Victor, will have a look at those websites,much appreciated! Des

I use my IC 7300.

When I was an SWL before 1984 I had a Yaesu FRG 7700.

Have two SDRPlay RSP1a SDR receivers, these are fanatastic little boxes
that I have used for all sorts of receiving.
Have used for SWL, GRAVES meteorscatter, weather satellite receiver and
as the receiver for the hamradio satellite QO-100.