Is shortwave radio dead ?

[dxer2012]

Hi thatguy,

I am a dxer. Shortwave radio not dead.
you can try

Voice of Russia(former radio Moscow) on 15170 khz from 1000 to 1130 GMT.

Voice Of America
0100-0200 GMT Daily 7430 khz 9780 khz 11705 khz
1100-1200 GMT Sat. and Sun. 1575 khz
1200-1300 GMT Daily 1170 khz 7575 khz 9510 khz 12075 khz 12150 khz
1300-1400 GMT Sat. and Sun. 7575 khz 9510 khz 9610 khz 12150 khz

Radio Japan NHK

13:00 - 13:30 GMT 15735khz
14:00 - 14:30 GMT 15735 khz

Hope the above helps.

A topic *does* bring back memories. I didn't have any fancy equipment but have spent countless hours scanning the shortwave I and II bands on my Sanyo two-in-one.

But that was 1980s, when Salma Sultan was the face of Indian TV. The cold war was still on and radio Moscow was the loudest voice in short wave. There was BBC world service and BBC Hindi service (was her name Ramaa Pandey?). And radio Deutsche Welle, China, South Africa, VOA (trash), AIR world service, Pakistan and many others that I can't remember. Much later, I remember listening to Aum Shinrikyo radio station, months before they were booked for the sarin attacks on Tokyo subways. It was like a treasure hunt.

Then I went to college. Then work. A bit of traveling wore off the mystique that those foreign accents carried. As I grew older I found most of the broadcasts to be shameless propaganda. I stopped listening to shortwave.

About a year ago, I decided to pick up a receiver and the only one I could find in the stores was Sony IFC-F12 (ICF-F12 : Transistor Radio : Radio : Sony India). The Shortwave sounded boring. I could hear many stations speaking in guttural voices, which I assumed were Arabic. There was no radio Moscow. VOA was as asinine as I had found it 20 years ago. After a few days of knob turning, I moved on and didn't bother with it again.

If someone is still DXing and can share program timings, I would love to give it another try.

 

[miroflex]

Sorry guys for bumping into this thread.
I have a philips 3-in-1 which has all the frequencies
FM
MW
SW1
SW2

However I get only FM reception for this. I don't get MW or SW reception on this.
My uncle who has an old Sanyo gets SW reception at the same place. I have already got it checked with one of the persons I know but I still continue to not get the SW reception.

Any suggestions?

Hi,

Since you are able to receive FM the amplifier section of your radio is working.

The intermediate frequency (IF) and radio frequency (RF) sections need to be checked by a radio service engineer or technician.

All the best.

 

[andy78]

Hi,

Since you are able to receive FM the amplifier section of your radio is working.

The intermediate frequency (IF) and radio frequency (RF) sections need to be checked by a radio service engineer or technician.

All the best.

Now the FM has also stopped working. Looks like the problem maybe with the antennae. My cousin who checked it once was saying the antennae maybe damaged but he was able to solder it.
Can I get this repaired some where?

 

[jls001]

Wow, interesting topic. The first radio we had at home was a Telefunken with a leather case and strap. Apparently my father bought it well before I was born. I was to young to tune it myself. Our second radio was Panasonic two-in-one mono. My favorite station was the VOA early in the mornings, especially on Saturday mornings as they used to broadcast the week's No. 1 song on the Billboard charts. That's how I discovered Van Halen'a Jump, I think in 1984. Another favorite program was Radio Moscow's news broadcasts.

Radio listening has taken a real backseat now as my audio rack is groaning with the weight of too many sources and I have trimmed down, but I still have a nice Technics receiver I picked up from Chor Bazaar for not a lot of money. I have the FM antenna but no AM antenna.

PS : I have not heard the term 'battery eliminator' as used in the first post, in a long, long time. It has become a rather quaint term, much like term 'tropicalised' which used to grace electronics in the 70s and 80s .

 

[mbhangui]

Wow, interesting topic. The first radio we had at home was a Telefunken with a leather case and strap. Apparently my father bought it well before I was born. I was to young to tune it myself.

I think you are referring to Telefunken Malhar. Dad had purchased this from the Army CSD canteen in 1972. It had four bands MW, SW1, SW2 & SW3. It had a nice long telescoping areal which could swivel. It had a small power amp inside using AC128 power transistor. The radio also had a DIN socket which provide input to this amplifier. It was a beauty.

 

[reubensm]

I think you are referring to Telefunken Malhar. Dad had purchased this from the Army CSD canteen in 1972. It had four bands MW, SW1, SW2 & SW3. It had a nice long telescoping areal which could swivel. It had a small power amp inside using AC128 power transistor. The radio also had a DIN socket which provide input to this amplifier. It was a beauty.

Noticed the "PU" selector on the radio top panel. This was for "Pickup" as with most radios at the time. You could connect your record player (more often than not, a HMV calypso with a ceramic cartridge) to your radio and play music directly. On most valve radio models you'd find this option listed as gram, record, pickup, etc. Radios with this option used to cost more than the regular ones.

 

[reubensm]

When I was in Standard 4 (1980), one evening, our father gave me this radio. It was a 3-band Holland Philips radio (it was so old it had the famous mullard OC-series germanium transistors). Had an interesting look to it and a rotary thumb selector switch at the top (seems to be broken in the picture). My, I had a great time surfing the short waves on this radio and eves dropping on some of the amateur radio bands especially in the 40m band (fag end of the 41 m band). We had a long wire outdoor aerial attached for stable reception. I remember my brother climbing tree after tree to help out with our aerial experiments. Good old days!!

 

[reubensm]

Wow, interesting topic. The first radio we had at home was a Telefunken with a leather case and strap. Apparently my father bought it well before I was born. I was to young to tune it myself. Our second radio was Panasonic two-in-one mono. My favorite station was the VOA early in the mornings, especially on Saturday mornings as they used to broadcast the week's No. 1 song on the Billboard charts. That's how I discovered Van Halen'a Jump, I think in 1984. Another favorite program was Radio Moscow's news broadcasts.

Radio listening has taken a real backseat now as my audio rack is groaning with the weight of too many sources and I have trimmed down, but I still have a nice Technics receiver I picked up from Chor Bazaar for not a lot of money. I have the FM antenna but no AM antenna.

PS : I have not heard the term 'battery eliminator' as used in the first post, in a long, long time. It has become a rather quaint term, much like term 'tropicalised' which used to grace electronics in the 70s and 80s .

Remember the billboard charts count down on VOA in the early to mid-1980s. They used to broadcast the countdown on Thursdays at 5:30pm. I think it was called Mal-Music USA or something like that. I started listening when the charts were dominated by Michael Jackson's Thriller, Tina Turner's What's Love got to do with it, Cyndie Lauper's Girls just wanna have fun and Stevie Wonder's I just call to say I love you...the good old 80s. and then there was USA for Africa with We are the world!!

Just like battery eliminator, another term which is seldom used these days is "battery pack" wherein we used to have a little plastic box with 9 eveready batteries in it, giving 9 volts. It had a connector for an output. We used this to power our little 1 watt amp and radio (as shown in the picture above)

 

[jls001]

I started listening when the charts were dominated by Michael Jackson's Thriller, Tina Turner's What's Love got to do with it, Cyndie Lauper's Girls just wanna have fun and Stevie Wonder's I just call to say I love you...the good old 80s. and then there was USA for Africa with We are the world!!

I guess that was the mid to late 80s. No wonder I have most of these artists on vinyl Nostalgia can sometimes be a bad place to be stuck in. I also listen to lots of Brit pop of the same era (Spandau Ballet, Tears for Fears, Johny Hates Jazz, etc).

 

[reubensm]

I guess that was the mid to late 80s. No wonder I have most of these artists on vinyl Nostalgia can sometimes be a bad place to be stuck in. I also listen to lots of Brit pop of the same era (Spandau Ballet, Tears for Fears, Johny Hates Jazz, etc).

same here, have these LPs as well, even have Spandau Ballet

 

[jsbhavsar]

Three major SW radio stations for Indian listeners are:

a) All India Radio Urdu Service
b) Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation Asia Hindi Service
c) Vividh Bharti

All these are nowadays available Live on internet scattered around.

a) All India Radio Urdu Service (Open using Internet Explorer)

b) Radio Ceylon Hindi (open using Chrome from 6:45AM to 9:00AM IST)

c) VoiceVibes - Vividh Bharti and FM Radio (Use Any browser)

Hope this helps!

 

[reubensm]

what about the english service of the srilanka broadcasting corporation?

 

[jsbhavsar]

I have my National Ekco A731 8 band radio wherein almost all Short Wave meters are separate bands. The 1960 radio not only works perfect but great on all SW stations in India on a long wire antenna. MW is poor since the radio lacks ferrite rod antenna.
I can receive crystal clear and loud stable reception of Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation Asia (Hindi Service) on 25M. I can receive very nice quality of All India Radio Urdu Service on 25M and 31M. I get Radio Kuwait quite clear.

However what is happening these days is internet is providing live feed.

Eg.
AIR Urdu Service (All India Radio Urdu service)

FM Gold Service (FM Gold)

Welcome to Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (Go to bottom left and click on Asia Hindi Live)

Voicevibes - Hyderabad FM Radio (Vividh Bharati)

http://webcast.gov.in/ (They plan to have many more All India Radio stations live on this Webcast link)

If one has the above on internet, live noise free, obviously one can feel that the regular SW is getting less heard.

 

[jsbhavsar]

Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation is also available on website now:

Listen to Asia Service - Sri Lanka Brodcasting Corporation

There is some reception quality on my mobile though. Maybe some improvement is required.
They currently have only the morning service from 7:00AM daily maybe till 8:00AM or 8:30AM. On a typical SW radio, we can tune it to SW 25m, ~11955 Khz.

 

[vmscbe1974]

How about the TECSUN world Band radio?

Regards
Srinivasan

 

[gopib]

How about the TECSUN world Band radio?

Regards
Srinivasan

I am using a TECSUN 660. Very good and good separation.

 

[Naturelover]

How about the TECSUN world Band radio?

Regards
Srinivasan

http://www.hifivision.com/am-fm-tun...ecsun-pl-380-eton-grundig-s350-sw-radios.html