How to tell where a station is coming from

[Eburris12]

I just got to listening on my Kenwood R-1000 and I've been picking up lots of HF transmissions. Problem is, I don't know how to tell if I'm catching skip or listening to local stations. How can I tell where a transmission is coming from if they don't say where they are broadcasting from? I live in Florida

This is neat though. The stations that told me where they were are:

4/25/08
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WWCR Christian Radio Nashville Tenn. 9.980MHz
World Harverst Radio South Carolina 5.875MHz
RHC Radio Havana Cuba Cuba 6.007MHz
Radio Netherlands Dutch Netherlands 9.845MHz

 

[zz0468]

The World Radio TV Handbook is a good place to start...

http://www.wrth.com/

 

[NWI_Scanner_Guy]

I just got to listening on my Kenwood R-1000 and I've been picking up lots of HF transmissions. Problem is, I don't know how to tell if I'm catching skip or listening to local stations. How can I tell where a transmission is coming from if they don't say where they are broadcasting from? I live in Florida

This is neat though. The stations that told me where they were are:

4/25/08
-------------------------------------------------------
WWCR Christian Radio Nashville Tenn. 9.980MHz
World Harverst Radio South Carolina 5.875MHz
RHC Radio Havana Cuba Cuba 6.007MHz
Radio Netherlands Dutch Netherlands 9.845MHz

I listen to World Harvest Radio quite often but didn't know they were out of SC. I pick up their signal quite well here in suburban Chicagoland.

 

[Shortwavewave]

Oh yes you Definatly need the WRTHandbook like, zz said. To me the WRTH is better than the Passport to Worldband Radio Book, but its another one you can look at.

There are numaros website about shortwave radio, and the freqs they operate on.

Note that Okeechobee, FL has a Repeater or a Relay tower if you will can it that, Like Radio Taiwan(one of my favs) Comes from there, as well as others, but alot of SW stations come stright from the Country Itself.

 

[k9rzz]

Oh yes you Definatly need the WRTHandbook like, zz said. To me the WRTH is better than the Passport to Worldband Radio Book, but its another one you can look at.

I wasn't sure that I should get Passport, but it's pretty darn good! What I like about it, are the tables in the back that list by freq. who is on at what time. Look up the freq, find the time, and it indicates who should be on. Not 100%, naturally, but it's the next best thing since the ILG database went away (RIP!) It works great for the regional stations that are pretty much permanently parked on a particular freq. (like the South Americans).

 

[ka3jjz]

The one thing about Passport is that they don't issue updates like the WRTH does (their first set of updates are now available as a free PDF from their website). Schedules change so often nowadays that it takes real effort to keep up.

Fortunately there are several sources of information. Of course, no list is ever 100% but there are a few online lists of stations you can download free from the Net. In fact, there are a few software packages that can import them as a data source (much like you could with ILG). Probably the most flexible of the lot is ShortWave Log, which is also free. And a bonus here - it has a DDE based link to Ham Radio Deluxe, which is yet another free package. I understand it's somewhat difficult to set up, but it's very powerful. It has it's own dedicated forum for support. To me the DDE link is unique in this field; not many other packages have this ability.

As to South Americans (a favorite for many DXers), the gold standard for many years has been the Domestic Broadcast Survey (formally known as the Tropical Band Survey or TBS for short) sold by the Danish SW Club International. DSWCI is issuing updates to the DBS from time to time. Of course, belonging to the DXLD Yahoo group and joining NASWA (which has its own Yahoo group and weekly DX Newsletter, both available to members) will keep you up to date.

All of these organizations and links can be found in our SWL Monitoring and Radio Control Software wiki articles

73 Mike

 

[oldranger]

World Band Radio

I've been buying Passport To World Band Radio Ever since they have been in publication.That is a great shortwave listening tool.Other publications I like are THE World Radio and TV Handbook and also a magazine called Monitoring Times.
The Internet by far is the best shortwave listening aid we have ever had.Just enter shortwave radio into Google and run down all their leads.You can't get to them all.
The shape of shortwave listening has changed over the years for many reasons.
I've been a shortwave listener since about 1950.

 

[ka3jjz]

And MT has their own SW Blog as well. So many sources, so little time :.>>

73 Mike