Just bought my first shortwave radio Tescun PL 380 Need Help On Using shortwave.
- Thread starter omen19
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N0IU
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It looks like a decent enough radio to start out with. Its a $40 radio so its not going to have tons of features, but it will definitely give you a good idea of what you can expect from SWL'ing.
As far as antennas, having an outdoor antenna would absolutely help, but this radio does not appear to have the provision for hooking up any sort of external antenna. That doesn't mean that all is lost, but you will probably only be able to pick up the strongest signals.
You might also want to join the SWSkeds Yahoo group: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/swskeds/info. This is primarily the repository of the best (IMHO) SW schedule spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is constantly being updated but I only download a new one every couple of months. The great thing about being a spreadsheet, you can sort it any number of ways. It comes sorted by frequency, but there is also a separate sheet that only contains English language broadcasts. I also find it useful to sort it by time.
The spreadsheet also lists the target for most stations. This is the part of the globe where the signal is meant to be received. Of course your best bet is to find ones where the target is NA or North America. If you see a station where the target is Africa, Asia, Oceana (the South Pacific) or some other place, you probably won't be able to hear them no matter how good of an antenna you have.
And speaking of time, all of the times are in UTC (Universal Coordinated Time) which is also synonymous with GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) or Zulu time (which has nothing to do with Africa and I am not quite sure why it is called Zulu time). Essentially this is the time at the Prime Meridian which happens to run through Greenwich England. Being in the United States, you are going to be several hours behind UTC. For instance, it is almost 7:00am here, but in UTC, it is almost 1300 UTC (or 1:00 in the afternoon). There us no AM or PM with UTC. It is a 24 hour time system. Confused?
So how do know what time it is in UTC? Tune to WWV which is the hyper-accurate clock run by the National Institute of Standards. They broadcast a time signal that will tell you EXACTLY what time it is 24 hours a day, every day.The station radiates 10,000 W on 5, 10, and 15 MHz so you should be able to easily pick it up. 5 and 10 MHz work well after dark and 15 MHz works well during daylight hours. They also broadcast 2500 W on 2.5 and 20 MHz. You will hear a series of ticks every second and they will announce the time in UTC at the top of each minute. Also there is no "daylight savings" with UTC. It never changes. But what this does mean is that your relationship with UTC will change by one hour depending on whether it is the time of year when you are using standard time or daylight savings. IOW sometimes I am 5 hours behind UTC and sometimes I am 6 hours behind UTC.
The bottom line is that you need to fully embrace the concept of UTC and the 24 hour clock since everything in shortwave (and amateur radio) is in UTC.
You should also become familiar with radio wave propagation. The really really really short explanation of this is that some frequencies (below 10 MHz) are better received during nighttime hours and frequencies above that are better received during daylight hours.
This should keep you busy for awhile!
Clear as mud, eh?
As far as antennas, having an outdoor antenna would absolutely help, but this radio does not appear to have the provision for hooking up any sort of external antenna. That doesn't mean that all is lost, but you will probably only be able to pick up the strongest signals.
You might also want to join the SWSkeds Yahoo group: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/swskeds/info. This is primarily the repository of the best (IMHO) SW schedule spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is constantly being updated but I only download a new one every couple of months. The great thing about being a spreadsheet, you can sort it any number of ways. It comes sorted by frequency, but there is also a separate sheet that only contains English language broadcasts. I also find it useful to sort it by time.
The spreadsheet also lists the target for most stations. This is the part of the globe where the signal is meant to be received. Of course your best bet is to find ones where the target is NA or North America. If you see a station where the target is Africa, Asia, Oceana (the South Pacific) or some other place, you probably won't be able to hear them no matter how good of an antenna you have.
And speaking of time, all of the times are in UTC (Universal Coordinated Time) which is also synonymous with GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) or Zulu time (which has nothing to do with Africa and I am not quite sure why it is called Zulu time). Essentially this is the time at the Prime Meridian which happens to run through Greenwich England. Being in the United States, you are going to be several hours behind UTC. For instance, it is almost 7:00am here, but in UTC, it is almost 1300 UTC (or 1:00 in the afternoon). There us no AM or PM with UTC. It is a 24 hour time system. Confused?
So how do know what time it is in UTC? Tune to WWV which is the hyper-accurate clock run by the National Institute of Standards. They broadcast a time signal that will tell you EXACTLY what time it is 24 hours a day, every day.The station radiates 10,000 W on 5, 10, and 15 MHz so you should be able to easily pick it up. 5 and 10 MHz work well after dark and 15 MHz works well during daylight hours. They also broadcast 2500 W on 2.5 and 20 MHz. You will hear a series of ticks every second and they will announce the time in UTC at the top of each minute. Also there is no "daylight savings" with UTC. It never changes. But what this does mean is that your relationship with UTC will change by one hour depending on whether it is the time of year when you are using standard time or daylight savings. IOW sometimes I am 5 hours behind UTC and sometimes I am 6 hours behind UTC.
The bottom line is that you need to fully embrace the concept of UTC and the 24 hour clock since everything in shortwave (and amateur radio) is in UTC.
You should also become familiar with radio wave propagation. The really really really short explanation of this is that some frequencies (below 10 MHz) are better received during nighttime hours and frequencies above that are better received during daylight hours.
This should keep you busy for awhile!
Clear as mud, eh?
Last edited:
PrimeNumber
Member
I have a 380 and love it, use it as my bedside radio. About antennas, the included clip-on wire can help. After that, when I get serious, there's a 60' random wire out in the yard that runs through a window that I clip onto.
BTW, this shortwave look-up site is useful, sort of my go-to:
Short-Wave Frequency Schedule
Lots of easy to use filters for finding what you're looking for.
BTW, this shortwave look-up site is useful, sort of my go-to:
Short-Wave Frequency Schedule
Lots of easy to use filters for finding what you're looking for.
ka3jjz
Wiki Admin Emeritus
Hmm...that data is 2 weeks old. Not bad, but you can do better - the data in the spreadsheet maintained in this Yahoo group is sometimes changed several times in a week.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/swskeds/info
Mike
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/swskeds/info
Mike
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