For some reason I got to thinking about my old man’s old shortwave radio the other day.
There was a time I’d go through the dial and hear some crazy shit. . .something I couldn’t understand, or German or whatever.
Anyway, let’s say I got a shortwave radio today. . . .what’s on it, outside of the FM & AM bands that is good to listen to?
Can you pick up ham radio guys? The cops? Weather?
Also, reception-wise, is there much of a difference between the cheapos and a nice one?
WWCR Gobal Christian Radio
12:00 Noon M-F Pastor Peter J Peters on 12.6, what a riot.
Possibly, secret communications…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station
Look at the ones marked “Phone”. CW means morse code, and Digital is the digital modes that you’d need special equipment to decode.
And if you’d like information about becoming an amateur operator, click here.
I’ll be eligible for the QCWA (Quarter-Century Wireless Association) next year. 25 years licensed as a ham operator.
Most governments around the globe produce English broadcasts for YOU! While pure propaganda they are nevertheless fascinating to listen to; I’ve tuned into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Indian, South African, German, Dutch and French programs to name a few. Each expounds on the rapturous qualities of their nations, well produced and interesting. What’s more fun is trying to understand (culturally speaking) what they think might interest you.
Really it’s a blast. Most shortwave programs aimed at you will be early to late evening local. Just fire up the radio and surf 'till ya hit something…
OH MY GOD!
I was checking out WWCR the other day. It had gotten some notoriety during the post-OK Bombing “Militia scare”. I hadn’t heard Pete Peters in years since he rented out time on various AM stations in the wee hours during the mid-80’s.
His broadcasts disguised his racism/anti-Semitism then. Those became obvious when you got his mailings.
So the other day when I was listening, he was railing against the “Jew-snakes who run Hollywood” and the upcoming movie “Hounddog” starring “a little whore named Dakota Fanning.”
:eek:
Another WWCR station has 24-hrs of Gene Scott. I’d recommend that, but hell- you can get that on the Net.
It’s a damn good listen: has a very interesting perspective on the world - as in, it’s the only outlet I’ve ever heard that treats the world as an entire globe, not one slanted around the UK and its allies. Thus you learn a lot of interesting stuff about countries you’d normally never hear about.
It also has great documentaries, arts shows, comedy, panel games, and a couple of crappy pop shows and soap operas. It’s like ike NPR on crack.
Whenever I’m overseas I rig up my SW radio to pick it up, as it covers most of the earth’s surface at least once a day; I would imagine the east coast of the US would have pretty good reception during the evening hours (during the day the heaviside layer intercepts a lot of the signal).
Here’s a frequency chart for you to find out when you can pick it up from your city.
<hijack> I get BBC World Service through Sirius satellite radio, so there are options for those not into shortwave radio.
There’s also plenty of air traffic control comms on HF. Plus, the military still uses HF for air-to-ground comms (like phone patches and such).
Yeah, when I took a couple of low-cost flights across the US in 2005, I was absolutely amazed that the BBC World Service was available as part of the in-flight satellite radio. I found it very comforting, being a Brit abroad.
About a month ago, I built a reciever from a kit, and have been “geeking out” in the garage every now and then. My favorite? WWV in Fort Collins, CO. :
:
Yeah, I’m a complete friggin’ nerd.
Tripler
“At the tone, 23 hours, zero minutes, Universal Time . . . . :BEEP:”