I am officially A Nerd™. Today, I finished a nine-band shortwave radio reciever–and it worked!!
I bought a kit, with discrete parts and pre-printed circuit boards. The instruction booklet was awesome: it went step-by-step and even recommended you didn’t get ahead of yourself. Just about the only thing negative about the whole thing is that my tinning/cleaning compound for my soldering iron reeks of ammonia and gave me a headache (so make sure you’ve got a fan running somewhere).
But I got to the last page, was soldering the last connections, and called the wife (a fellow nerd). I said, “Hey honey, check this out! I’m about to fire up the radio! Wanna listen?” And I did, and lo and behold, I got some call-in political show from somewhere European-sounding (they sounded British).
I can’t wait for tonight to try to get some better reception! My lovely wife tells me that I’ll be hamming in five years or less.
Tripler
I even wired up a ground connection with speaker wire and a 16d nail. I am the Über Nerd.
The sun is setting here now, so in about a half-hour from now, I’m going to see if I can get any Nazi signals from Antarctica. Or maybe some signals from the Space Shuttle. . .
Just think! With that new toy, you can hear people from all around the world!
Just like the SDMB. But unlike the SDMB, you can’t talk back.
That’s a good thing for the rest of the world.
Seriously, I didn’t know that kits were still available for electronic products, except for some experimental ones. As one who made every electronic gadget I ever had as a child & teenager from scratch or a kit, I can share your joy.
Holy crap! I just got the Voice of Russia! I confirmed it by firing up their website and hearing a delayed signal on my box. . . complete with the same theme music! Man alive, this is the coolest, dorkiest thing I’ve ever heard.
My last short wave receiver klunked out on me a couple of years ago. I like the idea of building one. I’ve been keeping several Quaker Oat tubes around to wind a coil on for the day I finally get around to it.
I really want a commercial single side band receiver, though. So many of those signals you “just can’t quite make out” are SSB. It’s always gave me a kick to happen to tune in Radio Cuba which is bona-fide commie propaganda.
I never really had much luck finding pirate broadcasters though. Always wanted to find one.
Now and then I would listen in on the local Hams chatting on UHF frequencies. But that was my scanner not shortwave. If only I had the money to sink into this hobby.
