Shortwave listening

[RussFromSelmaAL]

being a trucker (before I crunched my lumbar L4 / L5), I've had lotsa experience with CB. It's nice, if you have a good radio, good antenna and a few hundred watts of power, but on the run in a SHTF situation, it's not much good. Realistic range for a CB walkie talkie is a mile or so. Probably less.

I'm a big fan of shortwave listening. With most shortwave radios, you can listen to CB if you like, as well as the broadcasters, ham operators, illegal pirate stations, etc.

I use the Grundig "Buzz Aldrin" radio. It's .5 to 30 mhz, AM, FM and Shortwave, BFO for SSB and morse code, and runs over 24 hours on two AA batteries. I've got a solar charger that charges 2 AA batteries, so I'm always ready to go. And in a pinch, the charger will run the radio.

Best of all, the charger AND the radio will fit nicely into one of the side pockets of my Kelty backpack.

Now, if only I could CARRY the backpack! *grimace* Back injuries are forever, and they SUCK...

[DocWalt81]

when I was a kid I had a cb walki. I put a attachment on the antenna, was a small flexible antenna on the built in extendable antenna. I was in central Iowa and was able to talk to a buddy of mine who had moved to little rock at night. I can only assume the signal was bouncing off the ionosphere.

[Omegaman]

I think a short wave is a must have since you can get news from all over the world and from many different types of radio sources. I have and old portable Grundig and a new china brand. I love listening to BBC World News and Radio Free Europe.

[Oscar Wilde]

.... I use the Grundig "Buzz Aldrin" radio. It's .5 to 30 mhz, AM, FM and Shortwave, BFO for SSB and morse code, and runs over 24 hours on two AA batteries. Best of all, the charger AND the radio will fit nicely into one of the side pockets of my Kelty backpack.

Now, if only I could CARRY the backpack! *grimace* Back injuries are forever, and they SUCK...

Appreciate the review Russ. Sorry to hear about your back .... I have a friend whose back surgery resulted in a slow, painful death.

O.W.

[JLBIII]

I know exactly where you're coming from Russ. I've had three back surgeries and now have two 18 inch titanium rods, 8 titanium lag screws and a large section of bone graph acting as cement helping to hold it all in place. I had a disc fusion of L1,2,3, and 4 eight years ago and have been in pain ever since, the winters up here in NH are an absolute killer on my back. I still get around but I'm very limited and my activities have been curtailed drastically. I put off having surgery for ten years but the bones fragments that were floating around back there were causing serious damage and excruciating pain. My doc finally told me you need the fusion or one of those bone fragments could perforate my spinal cord and I'd end up in a wheel chair. So I reluctantly had the surgery because I love the ability to walk. You're absolutely correct, back injuries are forever, they suck, and they usually continue to get worse.

Joe

[Defcon090]

when I was a kid I had a cb walki. I put a attachment on the antenna, was a small flexible antenna on the built in extendable antenna. I was in central Iowa and was able to talk to a buddy of mine who had moved to little rock at night. I can only assume the signal was bouncing off the ionosphere.

Called "short skip" and a nice jump too. Way to go. That kind of skip would be nice if it happened all the time.

[orangetom1999]

I have a Grundig Buzz Aldrin radio put away in one of my BBBs with the batteries separate...but mostly I use a Tecsun Model PL-660 and verily like it as it will also get the amateur radio bands in SSB mode. I sometimes copy morse code via the amateur bands and also copy using W1AW when they are on the air for morse practice. It is good to keep ones skills up as they can be perishable without usage.

Have several of these Tecsun model PL-660 radios ..one at work where I hook it up to a carefully concealed 40 foot piece of wire to augment the telescoping rod antenna as those antennas are marginal at best. Another right here next to this computer.

I started out on shortwave listening years ago...with a yard sale shortwave set and strung a copper wire out to my clothes line pole and began to tune in the world. This is how I taught myself as to how phony and rigged our US news media really was after listening to foreign news shortwave stations when they would broadcast in English..how much our stateside media would avoid certain news and information's.

Some of us got turned off to CNN when we realized how rigged they were....we began to label CNN as Chicken Noodle News.

But it was and is not just CNN>...there are others doing the same.

As a ham I still listen to short wave on my HF ham radio...and my 500 feet of wire loop antenna hooked up to my tuner. I never gave up the habit...

Short wave listening on a rig like the Buzz Aldrin or the Tecsun .PL-660 ....what this does is give you short range as well as long range comms....being able to receive short range FM/AM broadcasting stations and also long range shortwave bands or even ham radio operators around the world.

I've even heard my friend out in Tennessee on my short wave set on the ham radio bands...some 400 miles from me.

Thanks,
Orangetom
Not an Ishmaelite.

[Alaskajohn]

I have the tecsun which works great even in remote Alaska. I just don’t spend a whole lot of time with it during the busy summer months. Come winter I’ll have it out and tuned in to something interesting.