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Thread: Small portable radios, AM FM Shortwave.

  1. #11
    Frequent DG Adventurer fatdog's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Maple Syrup Actual View Post
    What do you find worthwhile in terms of SW radio broadcasts? Is there good world news from Deutche Welle or what kind of stuff do you find there?
    As recently as 25 years ago my answer would be VOA, BBC World Service, and a few others from Europe on the SW bands with English language service that I routinely tuned in evenings in the hotel. Now with global streaming services and global broadcasts of the 24 hour networks and all the stuff/feeds on the web, not very useful. But mid-90's traveling in Europe or SE Asia, it was handy to have a link back to U.S. news sources, and that SW set was easy. Finding a reliable internet link not so much.

    Most of what I hear these days in terms of English language broadcasts on SW are programs targeted at the statist countries like Cuba, China, and parts of Africa or the middle east where apparently there are still lots of SW sets (also lots of native language stuff targeted at those). So while the BBC still has a presence, I hardly consider them a trusted news source at this point. There are both Catholic and Protestant religious stations targeting those areas of the world.

    In the 70's and through the 80's when I fell into the habit of listening in the evenings (Radioshack DX-150) there was no satelite TV, no internet, things were jumping, and the cold war was on. Radio Moscow and the other East block stations were a hoot (in terms of the rampant and ridiculous nature of the BS they broadcast) and we were bombarding everything on that side of the iron curtain with everything from decadent western pop music to every country's version of the news in the West. It was truly a lot more interesting and the airwaves were simply full.

    For traveling overseas for business now, I doubt I would invest in such a device.

    I guess I just have them out of habit, and they are great AM/FM sets to have around in the "no bars" wilderness areas of the US I tend to enjoy. They are such superior radios they still pull in the clear channel AM stations at night no matter where you are (e.g. camping in Sunlight Basin or Kirwin ghost towns in WY), and the $10 AM/FM sets will not always do that.

  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Maple Syrup Actual View Post
    I was curious about this.

    I always find radio technology interesting but have never invested the energy into HAM, for example, because I'm not really interested in talking to random people around the world.

    What do you find worthwhile in terms of SW radio broadcasts? Is there good world news from Deutche Welle or what kind of stuff do you find there?
    If you don't get enough of Alex Jones on Inforwars or Prison Planet you can listen to him on shortwave WWCR Nashville, TN after the bible thumpers go to bed and hear his pitch for survival food and nutritional supplements he's selling to pay his court costs. I prefer George Noory myself.

  3. #13
    Site Supporter Maple Syrup Actual's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Outpost75 View Post
    If you don't get enough of Alex Jones on Inforwars or Prison Planet you can listen to him on shortwave WWCR Nashville, TN after the bible thumpers go to bed and hear his pitch for survival food and nutritional supplements he's selling to pay his court costs. I prefer George Noory myself.
    Oh man...I suddenly realize that my dad was telling me about this, years ago. He had gotten some sciency radio from somewhere and was listening to what he called "the wacko station" late at night, and I just kind of shrugged and didn't give it any more thought.

    I bet he was listening to Alex Jones on shortwave.

    Anyway it's always kind of interested me, radio stuff always does. I was hoping that countycomm radio would include VHF frequencies around 162Mhz...that's what we use for marine weather around here and it would be nice to be able to listen to that broadcast without powering up my two-way which of course eats a lot more juice. That'd be an application I could really justify.

    But I think I'm out of luck there.
    This is a thread where I built a boat I designed and which I very occasionally update with accounts of using it, which is really fun as long as I'm not driving over logs and blowing up the outboard.
    https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ilding-a-skiff

  4. #14
    Icom IC-R6? Covers a wide range of the radio spectrum.

    https://www.icomamerica.com/en/produ...6/default.aspx

  5. #15
    Site Supporter Maple Syrup Actual's Avatar
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    Oh, wow, yeah that's pretty thorough coverage, Holy cow.

    And my old boss was a radio expert and always pushed people towards icom, now that I think about it.

    Hmm, well, that is tempting.
    This is a thread where I built a boat I designed and which I very occasionally update with accounts of using it, which is really fun as long as I'm not driving over logs and blowing up the outboard.
    https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ilding-a-skiff

  6. #16
    Site Supporter farscott's Avatar
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    From early 2002 until about 2015, I carried a Sony ICF-SW07 in my briefcase. It was particularly valuable in Asia and South America where Internet access was not guaranteed.

  7. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Maple Syrup Actual View Post
    Oh, wow, yeah that's pretty thorough coverage, Holy cow.

    And my old boss was a radio expert and always pushed people towards icom, now that I think about it.

    Hmm, well, that is tempting.
    I have no idea what you could actually pick up with the stock antenna. If you were interested in a particular band it’d make to look at antenna options for that band.

    Aha! https://swling.com/blog/2016/10/an-s...held-receiver/

  8. #18
    Hoplophilic doc SAWBONES's Avatar
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    I have the CountyComm GP-5 SSB (GEN 3) General Purpose Radio too.
    Probably won't need it any time soon, but good to be prepared.
    "Therefore, since the world has still... Much good, but much less good than ill,
    And while the sun and moon endure, Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure,
    I'd face it as a wise man would, And train for ill and not for good." -- A.E. Housman

  9. #19
    Site Supporter gringop's Avatar
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    You can't pick up Border Blasters and get the latest info on Goat Glands with a cheap AM radio.


    http://www.theradiohistorian.org/xer/xer.html

    Gringop
    Play that song about the Irish chiropodist. Irish chiropodist? "My Fate Is In Your Hands."

  10. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Maple Syrup Actual View Post
    Oh man...I suddenly realize that my dad was telling me about this, years ago. He had gotten some sciency radio from somewhere and was listening to what he called "the wacko station" late at night, and I just kind of shrugged and didn't give it any more thought.

    I bet he was listening to Alex Jones on shortwave.

    Anyway it's always kind of interested me, radio stuff always does. I was hoping that countycomm radio would include VHF frequencies around 162Mhz...that's what we use for marine weather around here and it would be nice to be able to listen to that broadcast without powering up my two-way which of course eats a lot more juice. That'd be an application I could really justify.

    But I think I'm out of luck there.
    I'll go out on a limb and guess "the wacko station" might have been broadcasting Coast to Coast with Art Bell. Driving home after 3-11 I often caught part of that program. Wacko doesn't even begin to adequately describe the stuff I heard. It could be very entertaining though.

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