Shortwave radio -- did it go away?

[Benzadmiral]

Time for my Weird Question of the Week!

Did the shortwave bands also undergo some kind of transition like the TV broadcast bands?

I ask because my Grundig AM/FM/SW radio receives nothing on either SW1 or SW2 -- the ranges from 3.2 MHz to 22 MHz. For the last few years I've used it to pull in WWV, the Colorado shortwave station that broadcasts the continuous time signal from the atomic clock in Boulder. A few months before the digital TV change, I noticed I couldn't receive WWV at any of its frequencies (5/10/15/20 MHz), though there was still chatter on the SW bands.

Now I get nothing but white noise all through both bands. The radio still pulls in AM and FM, but what about shortwave? None of the websites I've visited mention a transition that would make current radios obsolete, though some comment that a lot of shortwave broadcasts have gone to satellite or Internet. And companies are still selling shortwave receivers and portables.

Anybody know what's up?

 

[CivicFan]

Maybe there is no one listening to shortwave here so no one broadcasts them any more.

 

[MG_Guy]

Go to the WWV website to be sure of the broadcast frequency. Here in Virginia I can often get CHU (Canada) 7.335 Mhz more easily.

 

[Benzadmiral]

The WWV website makes no mention of any change from the stated frequencies, which is part of why I'm confused. They're also at 2.5 MHz, which my radio isn't designed to get, I think.

 

[Benzadmiral]

The C. Crane website ( http://www.ccrane.com/index.aspx ) says it in black and white, that shortwave wouldn't be affected. I didn't see that before; I came to their site and landed on one of the product pages.

Still, it's odd that I can't even get the usual crackle and pop on those bands.

 

[oilyriser]

It's the Sun. No sunspots probably means no long distance propagation. There might be certain times of day when it's still working, like during the transition between day and night. But this sunspot cycle has been going for a few years.

http://taperell.blogspot.com/2009/04/propagation-blank-sun-and-solar-cycles.html


crackle and pop is from distant thunderstorms and things like that

 

[Win]

Shortwave braodcast is still out there.

Propagation is poor right now, because so far all of the predictions regarding cycle 24 have been completely wrong. Last week there were zero sunspots, and the only one trying to form was a cycle 23 spot.

As bad as the propagation is, the major broadcasters use so much power, you should still hear plenty of stations in the major bands.

Your Grundig sounds kaput.

 

[Win]

Originally Posted By: Benzadmiral


Did the shortwave bands also undergo some kind of transition like the TV broadcast bands?


There is a digital broadcast format called Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) that was introduced 10 years ago.

see, http://www.rffun.com/catalog/commrxvr/drm.html

I haven't bothered to get any demodulators for it because shortwave broadcast is still dominated by traditional A3E (double sideband, full carrier) transmission format that can be easily received by cheap equipment.

 

[tomcat27]

To answer your original question, YES, there was a change a few months back that moved many of the larger SW broadcasters - I know that many of us Amateur radio operators (hams) were happy as they were using "our" frequencies and blasting out alot of bandwidth. I do not know the specifics, there will be more info at the ARRL website - although I gotta run and dont have time to look right now

 

[oilyriser]

- .... .. ... .. ... -.. .. --. .. - .- .-.. ... .... --- .-. - .-- .- ...- .

 

[StevieC]

I'm able to pickup stations on SW1/SW2 on my Zenith world radio that is older than I am.

I don't know what frequency I'm at because the dial has been broken for some time.

I get stuff pretty much from one end to the other though...

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted By: oilyriser
- .... .. ... .. ... -.. .. --. .. - .- .-.. ... .... --- .-. - .-- .- ...- .
Nice!

I won't spoil the message for others to try, but you can go here to convert it:

http://morsecode.scphillips.com/jtranslator.html

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

I concur with the OP, it seems like there's far fewer stations than there once was. Last year, I took my small Radio Shack shortwave radio down to Naples on our family vacation hoping to catch some obscure stations.

What came in most clearly? A broadcast from Northern Alabama. I just laughed.

Never did find anything obscure like I used to back in the 80's & 90's....

 

[Win]

Originally Posted By: oilyriser
- .... .. ... .. ... -.. .. --. .. - .- .-.. ... .... --- .-. - .-- .- ...- .


It's still a very popular mode of communications for hams, but we don't call it digital.

 

[UncleS2]

SW hasn't died out yet- but it's really sick compared to its former self, and IMO there sure isn't much to listen to. Once the standard of the world, the BBC World Service abandoned North America years ago. You can still get them sometimes, but you're picking up broadcasts aimed at Latin America, etc. I can still get the time signals at 5 & 10 Mhz on just about any SW radio I own, and that's way too many(all portables). Other than some broadcasts from Radio China, Radio Taiwan, Cuba, & sometimes Radio Netherlands, occasionally Russia, about the only English Language programming I can find are the mostly USA-based religous stations that are all over the dial.

So far there are no imminent plans to change the analog SW transmissions to some radio version of our current digital TV broadcasts.

If your radio gets absolutely nothing on SW, I'd suspect something wrong with the SW section of the radio. Where on the bands are you searching? An old rule of thumb was to listen under 13Mhz at night, above 13 Mhz in daytime. Most active bands at night are usually 49 meter(~5.8 to 6.2 Mhz) in first place, with 31 meter band(~9.4 to 10 Mhz) in 2nd place. If you have good batteries, and can't pick up some of those religious stations, or Radio Cuba, or a few others, at night between 5.7 & 6.3 Mhz(just for functional verification)- I mean not at all- you probably have a faulty radio.

What model Grundig is it? I'm a sucker for radios, and don't really know why.

 

[XS650]

Originally Posted By: Stuart Hughes
SW hasn't died out yet- but it's really sick compared to its former self, and IMO there sure isn't much to listen to. Once the standard of the world, the BBC World Service abandoned North America years ago. You can still get them sometimes, but you're picking up broadcasts aimed at Latin America, etc. I can still get the time signals at 5 & 10 Mhz on just about any SW radio I own,


Here on the West Coast I can uaually hear WWV and WWVH in Hawaii on 5,10,15 mHz any day, but not all frequencies all day on moderately cheesy radios.

Occasionally I hear one of them on 2.5 or 20 mHz.

I just took my old Rat Shack 12-148 Time Cube that must be at least 20 years old and it got WWV strong on 5,10 and 15 Mhz on 3 foot whip, and WWVH strong on 10Mhz and listenable on 15mHz. Looks like they are still belting out some good signals.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Stuart, I'd have to look at it to tell you the model. It's the model with the grayish-brown case, a built-in light, and the hand crank to supplement the batteries. I think Radio Shack sold an identical model under their name.

It's possible the batteries are low, I guess. It's good to know. I was thinking about picking up a Sangean ATS909 or a CCRadio-SW from the Crane people, partly for shortwave listening, partly because those models come with an alarm function and I could use the SW radio in place of my current clock radio.

 

[UncleS2]

Paul, the Sangean 909 is cetainly a nice radio, BUT: very expensive, & you don't get any real advantage for all that extra $ spent. From all reports it eats batteries like crazy, and the little kickstand on back has a nasty habit of breaking off too. If you want a reasonably serious digital-tuning SW portable, one of the very best still made is probably the Sony ICF SW7600GR. With a little careful shopping on Ebay you can get one brand new for under $150 shipped, maybe under $140. These are, last I knew, the very last Sony portables actually Made In Japan. They have an alarm feature if you're interested in that- I think you can choose to wake up to a radio station or a beeper. I've owned one for years now, but have used it very little the past few years. Those Ebay prices on the Sony 7600GR will save you probably over $100 compared to a new Sangean 909. And FWIW, the Sony runs quite a while- say 45-50 hrs- on 4 AA batteries.

Or you can check out the newer wave of SWs coming from China, some of them offer Very good bang for the buck. If you're serious, it's probably best to go for something with digital tuning so you'll know just what fq you're tuned to.

 

[Volvohead]

I've a reconditioned Grundig table model from the mid-1950s that still pulls in a decent amount of SW traffic. You can't beat the bottles when it comes to RF. But there has definitely been a change over the past five to seven years in the number of quality stations.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: Stuart Hughes
Paul, the Sangean 909 is cetainly a nice radio, BUT: very expensive, & you don't get any real advantage for all that extra $ spent. From all reports it eats batteries like crazy, and the little kickstand on back has a nasty habit of breaking off too. If you want a reasonably serious digital-tuning SW portable, one of the very best still made is probably the Sony ICF SW7600GR. With a little careful shopping on Ebay you can get one brand new for under $150 shipped, maybe under $140. These are, last I knew, the very last Sony portables actually Made In Japan. They have an alarm feature if you're interested in that- I think you can choose to wake up to a radio station or a beeper. I've owned one for years now, but have used it very little the past few years. Those Ebay prices on the Sony 7600GR will save you probably over $100 compared to a new Sangean 909. And FWIW, the Sony runs quite a while- say 45-50 hrs- on 4 AA batteries.

Or you can check out the newer wave of SWs coming from China, some of them offer Very good bang for the buck. If you're serious, it's probably best to go for something with digital tuning so you'll know just what fq you're tuned to.

How about this one? http://www.ccrane.com/radios/shortwave-radios/ccradio-sw.aspx

It's got the alarm feature, and I can run it on AC or D batteries or AA batteries.