Shortwave expectations

[ditto1958]

I am new to shortwave and am wondering what I can reasonably expect to hear on my radio. I live in Wisconsin in a medium sized city, no tall buildings. I know SW broadcasts have been declining but I’m sure there’s still interesting things out there. Last night I was getting a strong signal from 7335 which I believe is Radio Marti.

Are there some other frequencies I am likely to get here? What are good times to listen?

 

[W8WCA]

Evenings and Early Mornings are typically the best times.

Just band scan the HF SW BC Bands:
See Short-wave frequencies and bands used for radio broadcasting

Shortwave Radio Bands 101

A description and list of shortwave radio bands, and which are best during the day and at night.

modernsurvivalblog.com

 

[TAC4]

This will get you started. Try taking your radio outside
away from the house. If the station is in a foreign language
use Microsoft translate app it is free to translate in real time.
Logs - Algeria on 13790 Khz

Welcome to the hobby from Canada 🇨🇦

 

[ditto1958]

Thank you for the advice. A lot of useful information!

 

[Blackswan73]

Don’t forget the pirate broadcasters found between 6 and 7mhz. Hot freqs are 6.925, 6.935, 6.950, and 6.960. Best time to listen is 0000-0300 UTC

B.S.

 

[ditto1958]

It’s just after 1900 CDT tonite. I put up a wire and did a scan on SW and it picked up several signals. Nothing too interesting, but still kinda cool. I also scanned FM and it got about 34 stations. Not bad at all. 15770 kHz, Radio Slovakia, is strong and pretty clear tonite. I wonder where that signal comes from?

 

[TGuelker]

Radio Garden states Radio Slovakia International broadcasts from Bratislava, Slovakia

Listen to Rádio Slovakia International from Bratislava live on Radio Garden

Explore live radio by rotating the globe.

radio.garden

 

[TAC4]

Good start to the hobby you are picking up some stations 👍
Some beginners don't hear anything and pack up there radio
and send it back to Amazon. Big mistake because there are endless signals of all types on the HF band 24/7.

We use UTC time in this hobby so does the shortwave stations so we are all on the same page sorta speak.
To find this time tune your radio in the shortwave band
to 5, 10, 15, 20 mhz for the WWV time station. If your
radio has a clock set it to that time station.

Another tip is don't do scans of bands because
the radio will scan right over weak stations, do
manual tuning, rotating the tuning dial very slowly
listening for weak DX stations also.

Also Radio Slovakia gets rebroadcasted by WRMI in
Okeechobee, Florida USA 🇺🇸

Feel free to ask more questions most of us on this forum
have been doing this hobby for decades.

 

[mitbr]

Welcome to RR!!! Try this link to look up freqs it is quite accurate

Short-Wave Radio Frequency Schedule for BBC in ENGLISH

The short-wave radio frequencies used by station BBC for its international English language broadcasts, showing those on-air at 02:18GMT.

www.short-wave.info

Tim