Nope, I was wrong. I just double-checked the company's site and some reviews, and the fine tuning step is stated as 40 Hz. Sangean's error appears only in the manual, although I did see some forum posts from people who thought 40 kHz was the actual value. Guess they didn't buy the radio after that.
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spongella
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Great comments. My Tempo One is still my favorite HF ham radio of all time.
I think my radio is defective......I set up this weekend away from the city with a long antenna and got nothing on the radio but static. If I tried to scan the channels I got an "E" on the screen. It picks up FM channels just fine but nothing on LW, MW, or SW. I guess buying one used at a HAM swap meet was not a good idea.
"E" is the error message on my Sangean for an incorrect frequency entry; as mentioned earlier, your Realistic model is a clone of a Sangean product. If you hear static, I doubt if the shortwave portion of the radio is dead. Have you tried manually entering the frequency for WWV's time signal on 10 mHz? Depending on the time of day, you should also be able to hear it on 5 or 15 mHz, but reception on 10 mHz is usually more reliable.
majoco
Stirrer
Two major things to remember, well three actually - time of day where you are, time of day where the transmitter is and the frequency band. Now shortwave broadcasters don't waste their time and money just transmitting hoping that someone will pick up their signal, they check the propagation conditions and change their frequency so that the 'target audience' will get the signal at a certain time of day. Daytime is difficult, the sun has a great effect on the outer layers of the earth's atmosphere (the ionosphere) where the signals get reflected back to earth. You'll need to listen on the 19metre and 16metre broadcast bands - however in the late afternoon and evening you can come right down to the 49metre to 30metre bands BUT you must still think where the transmitter is - in the US evening stations to the east and south will be coming in well, but you'll need to be up in the very early morning to catch the stations to the west that will still be in darkness.
If you download EiBiview from EiBispace.de and get winter schedule from there too it will show you which stations are transmitting at this moment and which are coming up soon.
Above all - have fun - and you can be surprised at what you can pick up. I don't expect there's anything wrong with your radio if you can pick up the atmospheric noise.
If you download EiBiview from EiBispace.de and get winter schedule from there too it will show you which stations are transmitting at this moment and which are coming up soon.
Above all - have fun - and you can be surprised at what you can pick up. I don't expect there's anything wrong with your radio if you can pick up the atmospheric noise.
Because of budget cuts many shortwave broadcasters have either cut way back on their broadcasting or have gone over to the Internet to disseminate their information, so SWLing is made more challenging because of this. The easiest way to get your feet wet might be broadcast band DXing in the AM broadcast band. The best bet would be at night when the daytime stations either go off the air or drop down to low power. From the Chicago area I've been able to receive Nashville, TN.; stations in Iowa, Toronto, and New York. Granted it may not be as glamorous as getting the overseas stuff but at least you'll be able to gauge your radios' performance.
Yes, that's an excellent resource, but the site is currently offering the summer schedule, not the winter one. I guess it's winter where you are, though.
BTW, I just noticed that the OP mentioned he can't get anything on MW, either. That's pretty unusual, as there must be one or two AM stations in his general area. In fact, the FCC's database lists three of them in Ogden, Utah, which isn't too far from where he lives: KSVN on 730 kHz, KLO on 1430 and KOGN on 1490.
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It was about 2200 local and the app I was using “short wave info” was showing those now broadcasting. I punched those frequencies in and still nothing. I will try again and see if I can get anything. I only paid 20 bucks for the receiver so I’m not too upset.
ridgescan
Member
I get all those Utah MW stations here in SFO at night as well as KSL on 1160 which is a flamer.
Must be some glitch he's suffering.
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