Hello, new here

[Jer81B]

Hello everyone im new here. My name is Jeremy.

I hope I’m asking in the right place here. I have kind of been bitten by the shortwave bug and have been watching videos and taking in the info. I have narrowed it down to a couple tecsun radios and might purchase one.

My question is I would want to do most of my listening while downstairs in my basement shop. How would I go about that? Would I run a wire outside somehow ? If anybody could lend some tips that would be great

Again sorry if I asked in the wrong area

Jeremy

 

[majoco]

Welcome to RR, Jeremy, and welcome to the world of shortwave listening. I've been listening to shortwave since I was about 8yo when I received a crystal set for Christmas and a friend of my Dad's modified it so I could receive the 49metre band which at that time was jumping with the cold war in Europe (I lived in England) with every broadcaster peddling their own propaganda. This was 70-odd years ago and a great deal of water has flowed under the bridge since then. I was so interested that I went to a technical college to get a licence to be a radio officer in the UK merchant navy and I sailed the world for 5 years or so.

Your choice of a Tecsun is good, they make quite a few models - I have a PL600 which works well and also my Degen 1103 is also very good, but I'm sure that once you get bitten by the bug you'll be yearning for something better and not necessarily a portable. Those radios work perfectly well on the whip antenna and they do have an external antenna socket but do not attach too much wire as they can easily become overloaded with strong local signals.

You haven't given your location but that greatly affects what you can/might receive. Google and Youtube for 'HF propagation' to get an idea about what times and bands get the best signals. While you're on your computer go to "eibispace.de" and download the latest station frequency list from the .csv list which you can load into the spreadsheet called "EiBiview" - there's bigger and better lists but this will do for now.

I've attached my handy lists of frequency allocations but this is for NZ so yours might be slightly different.

Have fun! It's a great hobby and you can also take it seriously if you want an interesting job sometime!

 

[Jer81B]

Cheers thanks for the links and the info and the recommendation on the radio. I forgot to mention that I’m in canada. Hoping that there is a way to get a signal in my basement. And how to go about it

Thanks again for the welcome

 

[krokus]

Cheers thanks for the links and the info and the recommendation on the radio. I forgot to mention that I’m in canada. Hoping that there is a way to get a signal in my basement. And how to go about it

Thanks again for the welcome

Getting an antenna outside is much better than inside the house. If you live in a suburban neighborhood, you might have a lot of noise to contend with, but you have to try, to find out.

There are quite a few different types of antennas that can be used. Each one has benefits and detractors. Do you have specific broadcasts you want to monitor? The path between you and the transmitter site can affect your antenna selection.

While deciding what you want to set up for yourself, there are online receivers you can use, to build a list of desired broadcasts. KiwiSDR is a popular option for online receivers.