What and when did you get hooked on shortwave radios and listening ?

[TAC4]

I was around 11 years old when I got a Science Fair Globe radio kit from Radio Shack for xmas. Like a dummy I put it together with a 100 watt black Weller trigger soldering iron and used acid flux and lots of it lol. In the summer when the house was hot the acid flux would melt and run all over the solder joints and create major static issues.

What was a 11 year old electronic genius to do ? Simple, I put my little blue plastic radio in the freezer for about an hour so the acid flux would congel and loose its conductivity. It worked 😄 well for about two hours until the acid flux melted again and I would start the whole process over again lol. I got hooked that year when I tuned in Radio Moscow USSR in english for the first time.

Since then I have had every shortwave radio from mankind, from Tube Radios, to the "Sony Era", to SDRs.
I think spinning the dial is for life !

Skippy 🇨🇦

 

[mass-man]

spun the dial on my grandparents Zenith in the living room...about 12 I bought a Radio Shack DX150 and all was right with the world.
Speaking of Radio Moscow, I received a QSL card from them in an envelope that was not postmarked or had any postage on it. Showed it to my folks, my dad took it, and in a couple of weeks, two dark suited employees of the FBI visited me at home during lunch. Asked a few questions, checked out my shack, and left with the envelope! I did get to keep the QSL card.

 

[bw415]

I built the Allied Knight Star Roamer shortwave receiver kit in 1968 at the age of 14. Next I got into CB radio and then ham radio. 55 years later I still enjoy all types of electronics and radio communications.

 

[jwt873]

As a teen in the 60's, I liked the pop music of the day. My parents got a new table radio and gave me the old one to use in my room. We had two local pop stations, one at 580 kHz and the other at 1470 kHz.

The radio had continuous tuning, so I had to twist and twist the knob to go between the stations. One night I heard a pop station I'd never heard before in between the two locals. It was Chicago.. 800 miles away. I had no idea that AM stations could go that far. Listening around more I managed to hear places like Denver, Little Rock, Omaha and Salt Lake City.. I became a hooked broadcast band DXer.

From there I went to shortwave an then got my amateur license. I still listen to shortwave and the Broadcast band occasionally. I logged a new broadcast band station in Minnesota just a couple of days ago.

 

[merlin]

Back in '62 ish guess I was 11 I bought an old Cadillac radio at a real junk yard. Strung a wire from the house out to the garage for an antenna.
There was an article in Popular Electronics how to re-tune them for 160 meters. It worked.
My 6th grade math/science teacher, a ham, gave me a Hammerlund HQ-180 and a '62 copy of radio amateur handbook and that launched my world of radio. SWLing, hardly ever missed wolf man Jack on XERB. Still into SWLing but really miss my R-390 and WJ-8711
Got airspy HF+discovery now and 4 tons of various radios, a full blown shop with lab equipment.
Just had eye surgery, so back to my work bench and new super computer.

 

[MiCon]

In the very early sixties (I was around ten or eleven years old) I watched as my uncle talked to other hams. He showed me, and then let me, tune around and listen to hams from all over the country. A couple of years later my father put an old floor radio in my room. It had three tunable bands: AM broadcast, FM broadcast, and a shortwave band. There wasn't much on FM at that time, but tuning around the AM & SW bands, especially at night, I got hooked on trying to ID what stations I was hearing, and their location. Eventually I got a Knight Kit SWL receiver for Christmas. As a teenager I started sending out reception reports, and built a handsome collection of QSL cards.
At age 73, I still search the AM broadcast and SW bands for new stations. The Internet has made it much easier and quicker to ID a station today, but it's still fun.

 

[vagrant]

The movie “Where Eagles Dare”, but in the early 70’s when I first saw it. In particular, the scene where the German soldier is working the radio and dialing around for some music. I was five and right after the Radio Shack kits and a Sears receiver as gifts were just the beginning.

 

[wv9m]

Way back during the early 1970s, my parents inherited an old Zenith radio console. I don't recall the model number, but the radio had "hi-fi" quality monaural sound. Several features on the front of the receiver evoked an early interest in radio and electronics. Specifically, the receiver had push-button band select switches that had a peculiar mechanical "kerchunk" sound and feel. In addition to the AM and FM broadcast bands, several shortwave bands were available. On the receiver front was a green magic-eye tube that was fascinating to watch when tuning in stations. During late afternoons and evenings when finished with homework and chores, I would tune in the shortwave broadcasts. Of course, my curiosity got the better of me, wanting to learn how the radio worked. Soon I was poking around behind the panel and chassis and into the speaker cabinet. This radio was probably manufactured during the late 50s or early 60s; the radio had the audio amplifier chassis behind the speaker cabinet with "metal can" 6L6 tubes, a large impedance matching transformer, a domed-horn tweeter and a 12-inch woofer with a wire-wound magnet rather than a permanent magnet behind the voice coil. At that time, this curious twelve year old would mosey on over to the local library to find as many radio text books as possible and spend my Saturdays reading. Some of the local hams were generous also, so plenty of reading materials and loaner gear was available. One of the loaner receivers was a surplus BC-348 receiver that was converted to 120 volt operation; another radio with the mechanical "kerchunk" band change switch, but this time a rotary switch rather than push-buttons. I still own a Hammarlund HQ-129x receiver that is gathering dust on the storage shelf. Technology has come a long way during the last fifty years. Minimal push-buttons, more GUIs, more remote PC apps and no waiting for tube warm-up and stabilization.

 

[Dirk_SDR]

In the early 70's I got some electronic experiment sets PHILIPS EE1000:

Serie EE 1000: Philips/Schuco Experimentiersystem

Die Baukästen der Philips Elektronikserie EE1000. An diesen Elektronikkästen sind die Veränderungen am Kasten-Design gegen Ende der 60er Jahre besonders deutlich zu erkennen.

norbert.old.no

... and I still have them as series EE2000.
With these building sets I could also build MW, SW and FM receivers up to even a TV receiver.
My SWL hobby starts with my GRUNDIG Satellit 3000 in the late 70's (still have it).
Now I'm mostly busy with SDR (about 12 receivers) and I'm happy with it.

 

[safetypro79]

In 1965 I started out with a Lafayette Exploere-Air super regen receiver on a 30 ft wire run to the tree outside my second floor bedroom. Great reception back then. Simple receiver.

 

[majoco]

When I was about 8yo I got an "Ivalek" crystal set for Christmas. AM BC band only which was pretty boring - so my Dad asked a ham workmate to modify it to get the 49m band which was jumping in Europe with all the propaganda stations in the 50's. I kept nagging my Dad for something better so for my 11th birthday Dad and I went up to London and visited all the surplus radio shops in Tottenham Court Road. A short time later we had a delivery of a Marconi R1475 and very quickly had it set up. A long wire from my bedroom brought in heaps of stations world wide and I was hooked. A few years later I was a Radio Officer in the UK merchant navy.

 

[TAC4]

When I was about 8yo I got an "Ivalek" crystal set for Christmas. AM BC band only which was pretty boring - so my Dad asked a ham workmate to modify it to get the 49m band which was jumping in Europe with all the propaganda stations in the 50's. I kept nagging my Dad for something better so for my 11th birthday Dad and I went up to London and visited all the surplus radio shops in Tottenham Court Road. A short time later we had a delivery of a Marconi R1475 and very quickly had it set up. A long wire from my bedroom brought in heaps of stations world wide and I was hooked. A few years later I was a Radio Officer in the UK merchant navy.

That is a great story 👍

Skippy 🇨🇦

 

[mbott]

I built the Allied Knight Star Roamer shortwave receiver kit in 1968 at the age of 14. Next I got into CB radio and then ham radio. 55 years later I still enjoy all types of electronics and radio communications.

Just about the exact same story here, except the year was 1966-1967. However I was just a listener and not much of a talker. Shortwave did allow me to hear Nights In White Satin which sealed it for me.

--
Mike

 

[steve9570]

In 1965 I started out with a Lafayette Exploere-Air super regen receiver on a 30 ft wire run to the tree outside my second floor bedroom. Great reception back then. Simple receiver.

I had the same rig too. in 65. Lafayette made a lot of good radios! Or I should say that we built by hand!

 

[ka1njl]

In about 1967, when I was 10, my dad said "let's build a shortwave radio". We almost got a Knight Kit but he had some trouble with them so we built an Eico Space Ranger. I vividly remember waking up in the wee hours of the night to listen to what I now call DX and being beside myself with excitement about my new found ability to demodulate the invisible but intelligible signals floating through the air in our neighborhood. I still have that radio but by today's standards its performance is pretty bad.

 

[W8WCA]

Back in apx 1963 (I was 10 Years old) I got a little Hand Held Portable Radio with 2 SW bands. I wore that little sucker out in 1-1/2 years!
Hooked for life!

 

[MikeThompson]

When I was growing up, I would play around with my great grandpa's Grundig radio. When he passed I got it and tuned into stations in Ecuador. It was unreal.

Still very much getting started with all this, but still enjoy tuning the dial!

 

[Boombox]

When I was a little kid, my dad got me a console RCA radio at an auction. Instantly, I was hearing AM band stations from 'over the border' in Oregon. That started my interests in MW DXing and geography. A few years later I discovered the SW band on the same radio, and heard Radio RSA. That got me interested in SW, and further interested in geography.

 

[ve1arn]

First kit I ever built for listening was the Archer Globe Patrol 3 tube regen from Radio Shack. I was 16 at the time. Mid 1960's. I still have it. Did a recap and replaced the 4 small knobs on it over the years. Bought the solid state version when it came out as well. I mean, ya gotta have both. lol

It's still an great hobby!

 

[AZMONITOR]

Back in 1963 my parents gave me a Hallicrafters tube type HF radio and with a simple wire antenna on the roof I monitored many international radio broadcasters, the USCG on 2.182 MHz if my memory is correct, along with some ham radio traffic. Over the years I acquired many more radios, jumped into ham radio, worked my way up to an Extra class ham license, and became a heavy scanner radio user. It never ends.