Non existant short wave reception

Status
Not open for further replies.

ro2124

Newbie
Joined
Apr 24, 2015
Messages
1
Actually not even sure I joined the right website, as I do not have some sophisticated shortwave receiver. Just an ordinary radio with FM, MW, LW and Shortwave.
Basically bought it because I travel a lot and hoped to receive worldwide broadcast on BBC, Deutsche Welle, etc. on shortwave.
However I was staggered to see I could hardly receive any station at all, on the whole range of SW maybe one or two stations, but extremely weak, really expected dozens.

Very peculiar indeed!
The radio even has a connection for external aerial, tried using that as well, but still virtually nothing.
Also there is virtually nothing to be received on MW either, also strange.

Only thing that seems to receive anything with reasonable strength is in FM with local radio stations.
I am stumped by all this and just cannot understand it.

Perhaps something to do with location, although I would not have thought so, as shortwave should be able to be received anywhere in the world.
Well, I am not exactly an expert in SW, hence my question.

I am presently in the Dominican Republic and infrastructure here is pretty primitive with electric cables all over the place, could this be having an effect?
There is a crackling noise on the whole medium wave for example.

So hope someone may be able to put me right here,even if I am not on the correct website, any advice gratefully received
 

svenmarbles

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jun 7, 2014
Messages
102
Location
Chicago
Actually not even sure I joined the right website, as I do not have some sophisticated shortwave receiver. Just an ordinary radio with FM, MW, LW and Shortwave.
Basically bought it because I travel a lot and hoped to receive worldwide broadcast on BBC, Deutsche Welle, etc. on shortwave.
However I was staggered to see I could hardly receive any station at all, on the whole range of SW maybe one or two stations, but extremely weak, really expected dozens.

Very peculiar indeed!
The radio even has a connection for external aerial, tried using that as well, but still virtually nothing.
Also there is virtually nothing to be received on MW either, also strange.

Only thing that seems to receive anything with reasonable strength is in FM with local radio stations.
I am stumped by all this and just cannot understand it.

Perhaps something to do with location, although I would not have thought so, as shortwave should be able to be received anywhere in the world.
Well, I am not exactly an expert in SW, hence my question.

I am presently in the Dominican Republic and infrastructure here is pretty primitive with electric cables all over the place, could this be having an effect?
There is a crackling noise on the whole medium wave for example.

So hope someone may be able to put me right here,even if I am not on the correct website, any advice gratefully received

Shortwave reception is very finicky and reception can vary greatly based on time of day, weather, and noise environment. Now I will say this.. I was in the DR myself about a month ago and also found radio reception to be sparse. There was exactly 1 LW station that could be received, and even that had a pretty high noise floor. I think you said it yourself in your post. The DR's data infrastructure is pretty awful. Cellular is spotty at best, and even the resort's hard wired internet connection was incredibly slow. I'm not sure the sophistication and care for making sure things are installed with making sure noise emissions are at a minimum are too great. It seems to just be sort of a dirty RF environment.
 
Joined
Dec 26, 2004
Messages
1,217
Location
Tulsa
Most of the large well known shortwave broadcasters have reduced or eliminated their on air presence. Back in the 70's and 80's I did a lot of international work and my Sony provided a link to world happenings. I recall when the Faulklands war was on I was in Africa and we kept up by listening to the BBC and the VOA west African relay. At that time VOA was relaying the broadcast on HF ISB from stateside to Liberia, on of the HF frequencies we were using for in country comms was the same as the VOA link, we could switch to LSB and pickup the English language programming.
 

DickH

Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2004
Messages
4,067
Shortwave reception is very finicky and reception can vary greatly based on time of day, weather, and noise environment. Now I will say this.. I was in the DR myself about a month ago and also found radio reception to be sparse. There was exactly 1 LW station that could be received, and even that had a pretty high noise floor. I think you said it yourself in your post. The DR's data infrastructure is pretty awful. Cellular is spotty at best, and even the resort's hard wired internet connection was incredibly slow. I'm not sure the sophistication and care for making sure things are installed with making sure noise emissions are at a minimum are too great. It seems to just be sort of a dirty RF environment.

Try about 8 feet of wire for an external antenna.
 

wyShack

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Nov 18, 2008
Messages
453
Location
Campbell County, Wyoming
From experience, I know that shortwave takes patience at times. recently the bands have been somewhat unsettled. there are several sites that post schedules of what is on and when (see the Wiki). Remember, many services use directional antennas so find a schedule that shows the 'intended' audience. bands below about 10 Mhz work best after dark and above that in the day. For the most part it helps if both the station you are trying to hear and you are either in daylight or dark.

You mentioned a crackling noise so you may be in an area where electrical noise is 'drowning' out the broadcasters.

you may see if you can pick up some of the time stations like CHU (7850 and 14670) or WWV (5000, 10000, 15000) -boring listening but often a good 'check' of your equipment.

If your receiver has Single Side Band (SSB) you may also tune around the amateur (or HAM) bands (also in the RR Wiki) and see if you can hear anything.

Shortwave is also known as HF (for high frequency) this site has some forums and Wiki articles that may also help you out.

Hope some of the above helps. Good luck.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top