I'm not electronics savvy, and I'm looking at buying a shortwave radio. I was wondering if there are any guys out there that would be willing to chat for a bit with me about them through private message. Please ;-)

 

Well what would you like to know?

 

I'm wondering about buying a shortwave radio. What makes a shortwave radio work across the country? Is it the antenna or the radio itself or both? I wanted to be able to reach frequencies on the West Coast from the Midwest.

Also, how many digits can a frequency have and do all the radios accept large number frequencies? I see some just look like they accept 4 numbers, but I think I've seen frequencies as large as 10.

Thanks for being willing to answer my questions

 

The ability to get good reception is dependent on both the antenna and the radio.

With shortwave radio you can receive signals from any part of the globe, dependent on weather and atmospheric conditions. Hence you are not limited to any particular region. Many countries have stations that transmit powerful signals that can be received where ever you are located.

The AM broadcast spectrum is broken down into three bands of frequencies:

Long Wave 30-300kHz
Medium Wave 300-1800 kHz
Short Wave 1800-30000 kHz

Stations are generally spaced 5kHz apart. While some digitally tuned radios will skip every 5kHz, better radios would allow you to tune to every 1kHz. Hence you want a radio that will display to 300-30000 kHz, i.e. 5 digits. It is best to get a radio that will allow continuous tuning across the band with no gaps. Some radios will only receive certain bands labelled such as SW1, SW2, SW3.

Make sure you get a radio that can receive SSB (Single-Side Band) as this will allow you to listen in to HAM radio transmitting on voice and code.

Get the World Radio TV Handbook which lists all stations across the globe with transmission time, frequency, power, etc.

http://www.wrth.com/

 

Thank you so much for that information. It's so helpful to me and I appreciate you taking the time to help ;-)