I have the Passport book, reccommended by unclviny on this thread, and my Kaito KA1102 (Degen DE1102), which rated three stars in Passport.
Now I’d like to find a good message board for beginners in worldband radio listening.
Any favorites I should check out? I’m uni-lingual, so pity me there. 
Peace,
mangeorge
Most message boards are frequented by ham operators and are too technical for my tastes. Have you fiddled around with your radio after dark yet? Try the 49 and 31 meter bands for some good stuff around 0100-0400 UTC (9:00 pm to midnight EST).
Nope, haven’t fiddled yet. The barreries have been charging all day.
Maybe I’ll go sit in my favorite coffee hangout (by the window) and check out your suggestions. They’re open all night, and I don’t work tomorrow.
Sure hope this stuff isn’t addictive. 
Thanks
My dad used to listen to short wave all night when I was a kid. I can remember the sound going all night… peoooeee…wwwaaaah…wwooooo…ssscree…woooo …ONE… “THIRTY-NINE…TWELVE…NINE…pweeeeee…sccwaaaaah…woooosaaarrpp”
I keep meaning to get myself a receiver. Technically I’ve got one, but it’s in an 80s boombox and has no fine tune adjustment, rendering it nearly useless.
It was a total blast as a kid in the days when there was no internet, international phone calls were prohibitively expensive, and Australia was more of a backwater. I’d sit in my dad’s room as he’d pick up exotic-sounding countries far across the world. It was mind-blowing in a way it wouldn’t be for today’s kids.
We had a shortwave too, in one of those big ol’ consoles that people used to “watch”. 
Our’s had a big center dial with concentric band markings labeled AM (&FM?), SW1, SW2. etc.
You might have seen it old pictures, the family sitting around in front of the radio, listening to Boston Blakckie et al. I’ll tell ya - the world was ready for television.
I forgot to mention that your Passport book will list all the major stations that you can get in your area, so check it out. Any given evening it’s easy to get Radio Taiwan International, China Radio International, Radio Canada International, BBC, VOA, Radio Havana, Radio Japan, Radio Prague, and a few others I can’t think of off the top of my head. Try writing to the stations for QSL cards once you’ve listened a few times - it’s always fun to get mail from overseas, and they’re free!
I lived in the Bay Area about 10 years ago (for a 7 month contract).
I brought my Grundig YachtBoy with me and found I didn’t get as good a selection of signals as I did/do here on the East Coast.
My joy was in finally getting some Australian signals (something I haven’t been able to do here).
Go luck and enjoy. (I ditto the Passport book recommendation, it’s invaluable!)
That’s “good” luck. :smack:
Thanks.
When I first saw thar section in Passbook, I thougt it listed places you could receive broadcasts from. Now (thanks to tsarina) I see it’s a list of stations you can receive in certain locations.
Cool 
I see it comes with a reel antenna (no, I did not mispell it.) You can buy a replacement at radio shack, and tape it to the window, covering as much surface area as possible. . Best ten buck I ever spent. http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog_name=CTLG&product_id=278-1374
P.S. I like to stay up late, and listen to canadian cultural interest programs. I can’t remember what freq. right now, though.
Tune into 14.230, USB during the day, and into mid evening. You’ll hear hams trading pictures via slow-scan (SSTV). You can get software that will decode the signals as sent to the audio in jack on the computer’s sound card.
14.325, USB is also fun to listen to during hurricanes, as that is where spotters relay weather data and local conditions to WX4NHC, the National Hurricane Center’s amateur radio station.
If you have problems with reception, you may want to look into an antenna tuner. This is a tunable capacitor/inductor circuit that is primarily used for matching the antenna to a transmitter, but I’ve always found that it also improves reception a great deal.
Vlad/Igor
KF4VCC