Do they make HF receivers with scanning ability?

[Avix]

My Wife has enjoyed my regular "police" scanner for quite a while and once I explained it to her, she's curious about listening in to "shortwave". I'm more interested in VHF/UHF and am still learning about it. I want to get her a dedicated receiver for her, but she doesn't have all that much dexterity in her hands anymore, I am wondering if anyone makes just a receiver with the abilities to scan HF without having to turn a dial?

Captain Quack

 

[mmckenna]

They do, but it's often a real pain in the butt. The noise floor is very high on the HF frequencies, so it'll stop frequently on just static or data signals. Not quite as smooth as searching the VHF/UHF bands.

I have an older radio that will scan, and if I let it start searching the bands, I often have to manually intervene by pressing a button to get it past all the non-voice stuff on HF.

 

[sprman1955]

JRC made scanning radios easy to use but you had to set the squelch or it would stop on noise.You can speed up the scan rate to.I dont use it much tho.Nice when you just want to scan a few freqs. Angelo

 

[mmckenna]

What is really beneficial to searching the HF bands is knowing where to look. Just scanning everything from 2-30MHz will usually wear out all but the most dedicated listener. There's a lot of noise/data and other stuff that gets in the way if your wife wants to hear amateur radio or short wave broadcast.

Just searching within the specific band limits will help ease the ear pain. Also, knowing which bands are active at what times of the day will help narrow it down even more.

Important, as always, is a good antenna.

And, understanding that the days of wall to wall shortwave broadcasts are slowly disappearing. There are still international shortwave broadcasts, but it's not like it was 10-20 years ago. The internet and better access to technology has replaced a lot of the needs for those services.

 

[tuihill]

I set a memory channel for the lower end of each band I'm interested in. Then just manually tune up or down that band. Easy to change bands, just choose another memory. I have a small spreadsheet to assist.

 

[Blackswan73]

Radio Shack DX 440, and its parent Sangean 803a both scan, but they are 30+ years old

B.S.

 

[mmckenna]

Radio Shack DX 440, and its parent Sangean 803a both scan, but they are 30+ years old

B.S.

That's what I have sitting in my garage, mostly used for AM Broadcast DX. It'll search up/down the bands, but it hangs up a lot. Turning down RF gain helps, but then I miss the weak stuff.

 

[Blackswan73]

yes that is the problem with scanning HF. It will stop on RTTY,CW, over the horizon radar(woodpecker) as well as just a burst of static

B.S.

 

[merlin]

My R-390 and Drake R-4B had no scan. Chronologicly, The Watkins Johnson, Barrett, Kenwood 440 has channelized and frequency scan.
Those, either in RSSI or aural mode.
Prone to the problematics of HF scanning already posted.
There is a scanning plugin for my Airspy HF+ but not going to use it.

 

[Ubbe]

Icom R75 have scanning lists but as mentioned the different noise floors makes it difficult to use, so I have it set to scan and listen a couple of seconds to each channel memory without any signal or squelch control and then I stop scan if I hear a signal. Much easier are to use a SDR dongle and look at a wide spectrum for the whole band. The OmniRig plugin can be used with something like SDR# and when clicking on a signal in its spectrum display it can tune a better receiver, like a R75, to the same frequency.

/Ubbe

 

[dlwtrunked]

yes that is the problem with scanning HF. It will stop on RTTY,CW, over the horizon radar(woodpecker) as well as just a burst of static

B.S.

The term "woodpecker" only means the former U.S.S.R. former OTHR system and all OTHR systems today sound very different. But you point is of course correct. Most HF today is just "noise" to most that scanning will stop on and will miss the ocassional actual voice or be too slow as trying to scan brief SSB cannot be done at a good speed. Scanning on HF is a bad idea from the get=go.

 

[HandiScratchy]

My Wife has enjoyed my regular "police" scanner for quite a while and once I explained it to her, she's curious about listening in to "shortwave". I'm more interested in VHF/UHF and am still learning about it. I want to get her a dedicated receiver for her, but she doesn't have all that much dexterity in her hands anymore, I am wondering if anyone makes just a receiver with the abilities to scan HF without having to turn a dial?

Captain Quack

A ham transreceiver like an Icom 7300 with a waterfall display might be a good setup for her. The vfo knob doest take fine motor movements to turn and can be adjusted to spin freely. Many radios have touch screens now. Just tap the signal on the waterfall and the radio tunes to that frequency. With some use she'll recognize the difference in voice and data signals by their appearance on the waterfall. They aren't cheap but the used prices aren't terrible.

 

[Avix]

Lol. That Icom 7300 keeps getting recommended. When we get all the medical bills paid off (2053) I'll be looking at one for sure. But with used units going for the same price as new that's just not on. I wish there was a hamfest closer. According to ARRL there are none in my area. The nearest is almost 300 miles by road. I have contacted the local clubs but no response as yet. There don't seem to be any amateur radio supply shops within about that 300 miles that I can walk into and poke at. I played with shortwave listening when I was a kid, first with a huge 1930s (?) Rogers Majestic console radio and then with an archer receiver and a long wire. Apart from some fiddling with 46 sets when I was in the Military and GMRS and now my Pro-97, that's just about the extent of my HF VHF/UHF knowledge. I do have a portable emergency radio that gets short waves. Well. 3 of them, actually. But so far, nothing on any of either.

Scotty.

 

[majoco]

I have a Kenwood R2000 that has ten memories and like tuihill I have programmed the memories to the low end of the broadcast bands then I just twiddle the tuning knob to scan that band. I've had that radio since the early 80's and it has never let me down.

 

[tuihill]

I have a Kenwood R2000 that has ten memories and like tuihill I have programmed the memories to the low end of the broadcast bands then I just twiddle the tuning knob to scan that band. I've had that radio since the early 80's and it has never let me down.

Yes. Twiddling the knobs is what makes real radio listening. I have an AirSpy HF+ Discovery but find I still prefer tuning around the bands with my Drake R8B.

 

[MUTNAV]

Sometimes it's easier to program the frequencies that you know should have something on them, into memory, (even in banks based on time of day, or service) then scan the memories to see what is available.

You aren't "searching" for new frequencies, just looking where you know something might be.
(now that I think about it, that is how most of us use scanners anyway ).

On HF it's nice to have a scanning mode that stops on the memory channel for just a moment, regardless of what is there, then move on. You stop it when the noise is tolerable.

Good luck on your spouses HF listening !

Thanks
Joel

 

[bearcatrp]

Does your wife have a iPad? The Icom R8600 with the SDR control software for the iPad may work well for your wife.

 

[Avix]

No. We don't actually have pads of any type. We got given 2 on a promotional and after 2 weeks they just went on the shelf in my office. We hadn't used them and couldn't come up with a reason to use them. Due to inflation and medical bills, I'll be looking for good condition used or budget hardware new wherever I can.