[HCDX] Shortwave Radio. The long and the short of it.

["Zacharias Liangas " <greekdx@xxxxxxxxx>]

Shortwave Radio. The long and the short of it.

http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/02/shortwave-radio.html
By Ken Denmead EmailFebruary 06, 2008 | 10:37:00 AMCategories: Radio 
and kids  

Swradio A cross-post from reader Matt Comstock's blog:

My son is working on his Radio merit badge. I´ve had a shortwave radio for 
years, but I´ve never figured out when to listen and where on the dial to look 
for stations. This gave me a reason.

This has been a lot of fun.

I´ve listened to Radio Havana Cuba - they were talking about the School of 
the Americas, aka the School of the Assassins (see http://www.soaw.org/)

I learned that China has been having some trouble with snow on China 
Radio International.

I listened to a discussion of aboriginal displacement on the Australian 
Broadcasting Corporation that sounded a lot like our own country´s history 
and Native Americans.

I listened to a couple of folks talk of the strange things they´d eaten, riffing on 
the upcoming Year of the Rat on Radio Taiwan International, "Rat´s not that 
bad." They also noted in response to a listener´s letter, that the reason they 
were off-the-air the other night was due to radio-jamming by mainland 
China!

I heard a really really really bad cover of Radar Love on Radio Nacional de 
España.

Here´s a couple of really good site for finding out what´s on:

http://hfradio.org/swbc/

http://www.primetimeshortwave.com/

Here´s a really detailed discussion of radio propagation and the ionosphere: 
Introduction to HF Radio Propagation

A good book for schedules is Passport to World Band Radio.

When you think about the radio vs. the web, it´s hard to imagine that 
shortwave could last. In fact many countries no longer aim their broadcasts 
toward the US (BBC , Deutsche Welle) and I wonder if that´s not part of it: 
online radio and podcasts are much cheaper than a huge antenna.

But no one can tell what you´re listening to on the radio. And you can´t get 
web access everywhere yet.

Combine HF with the web and Open Spectrum gets interesting? Or 
becomes amateur radio?

I am having a blast! My son? Not so much. What are some good ways to 
pique a kid´s interest in Shortwave - or should listening to static be its own 
reward. That is, if he´s not interested so far, will he ever be?

Interestingly, he´s way more interested in Amateur radio and actually talking 
to people than in simply listening. I guess this is similar to our differences in 
playing computer games - I like playing against bots, he likes playing with 
foul-mouthed wackos online.

________________________
http://zliangas.blogspot.com  (radio tech , gadgets, grk ethics)
http://zlgr.multiply.com (radio monitoring site plus audio clips ) MAIN SITE 
http://www.worldisround.com/articles/302315/ (Litohoro) 321199/Tinos 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zachgr    pictures upload 
http://www.geocities.com/zliangas
http://www.myspace.com/310100806
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=770974854
http://del.icio.us/gr_geek
........
Zacharias Liangas , Thessaloniki Greece 
greekdx @ otenet dot gr  ---  
Pesawat penerima: ICOM R75 , Lowe HF150 , Degen 1102,1103,108,
Tecsun PL200/550, Chibo c300/c979, Yupi 7000 
Antenna: 16m hor, 2x16 m V invert, 1m australian loop 


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