Any (SWL) Short Wave Radio listeners about?

[Davekyn (David)]

Hi guys,
Was wondering if there were any shortwave radio listeners about? I’ve been having fun with a Radio my old man handed over to me. He bought it sometime back in the early 80s. I think it may be Japanese. It’s a “MARC “double conversion”...having a hard time tracking it down on the internet. I’m sure it does not rate against today’s stuff, BUT I love all the controls with the knobs...I can get better overall results compared to my DEGEN 1103 “tiny portable” If anyone knows of it-please let me know...VOA voice of America is strong of late...I also listen to CRI...I am thinking of buying a modern set with outdoor Arial and the like...however would like the option of it being portable and able to run on 12V. This one I have can run of 12V and also has a number of external arieal sockets for the different bandwidths. The frequency on this MARC is amazing...UHF HAM SW et... Anyone recommend a good receiver around $900.00au? Prestige Communications seem to be the cheapest, but not sure about the Tech these days.


Here are some pic’s of it:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...yn/SWradio.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...n/SWradio2.jpg
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...n/SWradio3.jpg

Any Scanner enthusiasts about? This is me dragging out the scanner whilst having a cuppa on the trails enjoying my time off work and out of the house.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...ontheTrail.jpg

Later guys...I’m off to the sunshine coast to give me Mother in-law a Kiss - Cya’s

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Funny you should mention this now. I have an old FRG-7 that hadnt been switched on in maybe 15 years and I fired it up last night. Its going to need a bit of work with cleaning and lubricating of switches etc, but its on the agenda now for sure.

[Davekyn (David)]

Nice radio,
It seems to have a big following. Here is an interesting link I found on your radio. I'm impressed. When I get some spare cash, I'll search ebay. What kind of aerial setup you using. Have you done any Mods on it? (there are some tips on that link)
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Yaesu_FRG-7

I find the different perspective on current affairs across the globe somewhat enlightening.Such as the Swine flew or what not. Not that I like War or anything...listening to the media results on Shortwave can sometimes be like watching it on TV but with more insight. Also the cultures and influences one nation has compared to another kind of opens the mind. Although I am unable to understand the language of some stations, I will still listen to the music.

Then of course you can tune into the Ham side of things, which is another story. To that end, I think it rates better than reality tv.

PS...wonder how things will do with the onset of the predicted Solar flares around 2011...they keep putting it off? Going to be BIG flares this time round?

[erick (Eric)]

My car radio has two SW bands. Finally looked at them the other day but can only pick up a weak Voice of America on one band. Autoscan through every other frequency finds nothing. Seems car antenna is a bit of a waste of time. Wonder why Sony provided those bands?

[Davekyn (David)]

Eric,
Without knowing the freaquency range of those two bands, It's hard to rate the performance... given that the first two bands don't have much In the way of international stations. Then again...there should be a few medium strength ABC and other local stations, with a "few" International.

I believe I have heard others complain on the same issue. It's a shame realy, as I was hoping the performance of these in car units would be better, but then again, given the nature of SWR, it does not suprise me. Thanks for the input though...I won't bother getting one now, not unless you want to give me yours.

Ps ... As you probably know...SW listening will yield
Much better results later in the evenings and into the early hours...a little portable set would go well with stargazing $49.00 on ebay will get you one with enough bands to make it worth while.

[kinetic (Steve)]

Hi Dave,

In another lifetime I was into SW RTTY decoding of weatherfax pics
up in the SW bands.

I used my Sony ICF 7600 and a long wire to get Darwin and Canberra
weatherfax frequencies back then.
I think they still broadcast this stuff...for the benefit of boaties.
From memory, without doublechecking it was things like 5500,7555, 10550
or something like these numbers.
You heard a 2 line per second fax RTTY signal on CW and decoded
it into a PC which spat out a fax picture.
Another thread for another time if anyone's interested?

My other radio is a modded FROG 9600.
With this I used to receive satellite pics live from the NOAA 9-14 series
up in the 2m band at 137Mhz and the russian Meteosats as well.
With a masthead 2m preamp tuned specifically at 137 and rejecting
everything else, I could get a picture while these polar orbiting
sats were just passing the coast of antarctica and the signal would drop
out as it flew over Darwin.
All this from Adelaide.

I'll have to dig out some old pics.
One of the most impressive ones I ever got was of an intense low
which caused havoc to the Sydney/Hobart race many years back.


Steve

[Davekyn (David)]

LOL...I hope they did not stray to far off course.
That sounds like high tech stuff back in the day...even now...decoding has it's followers, albeit mostly digital. Note* I don't think any digital scanners can yet decode the encrypted stuff...well not the retail gear . I did not know about the print out pictures though. I've thoghut about getting a radio and software, or even hooking up my uniden. Ubct8 scanner. Would be good if I could get my monitor to display "job" readouts and what not, for a number a different services. I guess that type of scanning is out of reach for most. I see now that for the "approved custormers" one can scan security footage and have it displayed on the scanner itself. Modern day print out will have to look into decoding a little more.

Actually that radio I was given has an older style I/O and the freaquency range for those sats! All I need is an adaptor.

[kinetic (Steve)]

Dave,

the stuff I'm describing is not encrypted, just free-to air weatherfax
for boaties, and in the case of the satellite stuff, also free as long as
you have the method to decode it into a picture.

Both formats are just simply a line by line scan method exactly like the
way a picture is drawn on your old analogue television, only this
was 2 lines per second....very slow.

Decoding the sat stuff wasn't quite so simple. You ideally needed a
VHF radio capable of something about halfway between your 'Narrow'
deviation of 18kHz....like FM radio stations and 'wide' like a TV
audio 150kHz.
That's why I modified the IF in the FROG so that it could display the
typical deviations of the satellite picture.

If your scanner can do this, then you're halfway there.
You also needed a good low noise masthead amplifier and a
purpose built 'turnstile' or Lindenblad antenna.

If you're interested just Google 'Wxsat' which is a more modern
freeware software that can let the sound card on your PC receive
the audio from your scanner.

pm me for details if you're interested.

Steve

[acropolite (Phil)]

I haven't done any listening for a few years but I still have a cupboard mounted Sony ICF 2001 which I hope still works, I might fish it out this week. The 2001 covers FM, LW, AM broadcast band and then SW continuously up to 30Mhz with SSB capability. They were a nice little radio, although somewhat flaky, mine used to flatten the backup batteries in cold weather, no real reason, in summer no problem but as winter arrived the backup batteries would go flat overnight. I remember listening to Antarctic HF radio telephone conversations to Australia, somewhere between 4 and 5 Mhz and one guy commenting to his mates that he turned his underwear inside out every other week...

I too tried weather satellite decoding, I used an old modded scanner t achieve the necessary bandwidth.
It was fun waiting for the satellite to doodle over and watching the image write on to the PC screen.

[Davekyn (David)]

No worries Steve,
I did not mean to imply it was encrypted...I fumbled with my sentences once again. Thanks for the offer of help...at this stage I'll more than likely get around to it, but at the moment with my limited time, I intend to stick with Trail Blazing/scanning/SWL/camping & star gazing ...might throw a PC togeather for my Brother somewhere inbetween.

Just never seems enough time to get the big dob out these days...at least the weathers been good. Thanks again Steve...will be sure to yell out though if need be.

[Davekyn (David)]

Hahahaaaaaahahahaaa...LOL phil.

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by Davekyn

Nice radio,
It seems to have a big following. Here is an interesting link I found on your radio. I'm impressed. When I get some spare cash, I'll search ebay. What kind of aerial setup you using. Have you done any Mods on it? (there are some tips on that link)
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Yaesu_FRG-7

I dont have any aerial setup as I havent used it in many years. My dad bought it for me brand new on a trip to japan when i was a teenager and I havent used it since well umm 20 years ago?

The tuning dial mechanism seems to have seized up some and will required stripping down and lubricating. I used to have access to all the test equipment needed to align radio gear, hopefully it doesnt need it.

No mods but still in good original condition. From the sounds of things they are still a desirable unit and in good condition might be worth a pretty penny now

[MrB (Simon)]

David, have you checked Andrews?
Thats where the 'communications' part of their name came from

[PCH (Paul)]

this thread has revived an old interest of mine. I used to be a ships R/O (radio officer) up until I was about 30, and I used to love scouting the bands for all sorts of stuff. Clearly the receivers we used were about as good as you could get, and we had great aerials too.

I'd really like to get a modern equivalent if at all possible - but at a reasonable price

I've looked thru Andrews' stuff, but I think the various brands are all transceivers, whereas I just want a receiver. Does anyone have any ideas please?

Cheers

PS If this is considered wrongly placed, feel free to move it to a new thread

[Davekyn (David)]

Yea Geof, look after that Baby! Thanks for the tip Simon...they do have the add on to an icom receiver I'm interested in. From what I can gather PCH... the receivers are ussually under the scanner section. So far from the research I've done...a good Desktop model should have various filters and DSP is also a good feature. At present the Icom IC-R75 seems to fit the bill with good reviews...just make sure to get the optional DSP Board which Andrews sell......Reasonable cost?...Well I think if it's going to hold up without drift and cut out most of the noise I continually get with my faithfull portable...then yea, I'll bite the bullet I think anything less than that, you may as well track down an older bit quality set like Geoffs.

Damn! Just lost service on the way back from Caloundra.....see what happens when I hit submit.....

[Lismore Bloke (Paul)]

That's a blast from the past. I used to scan the short wave bands with the Yaesu FRG-7 and a long wire antenna. Loved to pick up stations from obscure countries, even if the language was gibberish!! The amateur radio operators also were fun to pick up, and the VOA Jazz Hour was one of my favourite programs. Haven't used it in years, still have it, even if some of the controls are a bit scratchy.

[BPO]

Old thread, but SW isn't dead yet. There's nothing quite like being under the stars on the mountain with WWV(H) playing on one radio and anything else on another. There was a Tommy Dorsey festival or similar on one station all night and it was wonderful, like going back in time. Great stuff.

[ozjoe]

http://ecom.eladit.com/epages/990298...D%20FDM-DUO%22

[BPO]

Originally Posted by ozjoe

http://ecom.eladit.com/epages/990298...D%20FDM-DUO%22

Or this:

http://www.jaycar.co.nz/productView....UBCATID=1017#4

[Baddad (Marty)]

Hi David,

Generally it is understood that the quality of the radio determines how "powerfull" the receiver is. Just to straighten out a few misconceptions: The "power term" should be replaced by "sensitivity"

The better the sensitivity, the longer the range of reception. Given all else to be equal.

Transmission power is important as well. However both are subject to an overall important item. The Antenna. A mobile unit is confined to a small aerial and therefore range is limited. A base station can have a large antenna, that improves the range and number of stations received.

Imagine an antenna to be like a funnel gathering raindrops. the larger it is the more water can be collected.

Years ago in the Army, a unit attempted communications (coms) with a 400watt radio. over 200klms. very limited success. I had decent antennas setup at both ends. Reliable coms was established. I further tested and reduced transmission power from 400 watts to a quarter of a watt. Comms was still maintained. Showing the importance of large antennas.

There are further stories where this happened. Australian Army up near Townsville. The officer wanted good coms. on an overnight camp. We were in APC's (Armoured Personell Carriers) I rigged up a temporary antenna to a large gum tree. This established good coms with outsiders. USA military police in Korea. We simply changed channels to avoid confusion between the two armies. My boss was duly impressed, but that was just a small part of my job at the time.

So David, get the biggest antenna that you can and you can listen to the low power stations around the world.

Cheers