short wave radios

rite ive just got myself one of these

www.amazon.co.uk...=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1211398587&sr=8-3

i live in the uk and was wondering if any body can tell me where to start looking for cool stuff

reply to post by rikgrimsby


I've usually had the most entertainment by setting it to scan. Sometimes you just never knew what was going to show up.

Nice radio.

Click here for radio refrence.com Short wave listening and scanning forum
ac6v.com freq.lists
Here is a good starting point to find some stuff to listen to.

There is a lot of things to hear on that radio. What in particular, would interest you?

It would help narrow down your search.

edit to add a link

[edit on 21-5-2008 by Zeptepi]

[edit on 21-5-2008 by Zeptepi]

well these number stations sound intresting.anything thats not the norm. things from mi5,mi6,cia ect..... like what band should it be in(fm,am ect...)
i just need some help please

[edit on 21-5-2008 by rikgrimsby]

Number stations: You will have to search/scan. Some braodcast at regular intervals.
The following web site has some interesting intercepts and articles.

www.simonmason.karoo.net...

hey thanks for that.so what band should i set the radio in would am be ok?

Read these there is a ton of links here all SW
ac6v.com... ac6v.com

Latest sw broadcasters schedule
eibispace.de up to date Short wave broadcaster sked. eibispace.de German up to date sked.

Number stations are hit and miss….they are cool to hear . Can be anywhere in the Sw spectrum any time.

Get a long wire ant. And throw it up as high as you can…the longer and higher the better!

Anything I could help you with. Just ask. Have fun and happy hunting.

At night put the radio in the 3Mhz to 7 Mhz band Shortwave AM or SSB
Peace

so i could find a number station in fm then?
or would it be best to set the radio in am?
thanks for all your help

Here you go another LINK for your perusal includes some sample numbers station audio files aswell.

Happy listening.

edit to add watch the .wmv file at that link he looks as if he is using AM, you can even see the frequency.

[edit on 21-5-2008 by sherpa]

reply to post by rikgrimsby



I have a couple of those type radios in addition to a ham radio set up both on my base station and my truck.

What you are looking for and can find depends alot on what time of the day or night you choose to listen. Also ..can you only speak Engish. It helps if you are multi lingual. Many shortwave stations broadcast in English though they are foreign countrys and their language is not English. For instance...radio Moscow used to broadcast in English at certain times.. So did Radio Israel. Radio South Africa too.

As to MI5, MI6, and CIA..they have little reason to broadcast on Shortwave now days. THey have specialy coded E-mail systems and satellite phones...also encrypted/coded..also not all of thier traffic is voice..much of it is encrypted data. Alot of high speed burst transmission..coded and also frequency agile transmissions. You would have great difficulty following these people even with a trunk tracking scanner ..if anyone makes one with those frequencys.

I listen to alot of the ham radio operators in the evenings....Both in AM modes and also SSB. You can sometimes learn intresting tidbits from them as to things going on which are not wont to make the main news formats. Also things from different countrys not in the main news formats.

Also...one other poster was correct...the little telescoping antennas are marginal at best. A long wire will work better as an external antenna.
I have two portable short wave radios like that with SSB features.
The actual shortwave bands are intresting to me as an outlet for news and info apart from here on the computer. IT is a plus that the other bands are regular am and fm bands.

I listened to shortwave years ago ..before home computers. IT taught me how big a paper curtain was hanging over this country in control of what se see and read and how controlled our media really was back then.

THanks,
Orangetom

so if they have sat phone's and emails(coded ect...)
why are these number stations about?

Originally posted by rikgrimsby
so if they have sat phone's and emails(coded ect...)
why are these number stations about?

They all don't have hi tech equipment, for example if your were stopped by the police in Iran your going to stand out a lot more if they find a sat-phone, encryption equipment etc on your person.

Also radios are pretty simple, the "spy" could build one from junked electrical things easily.

Another thing a radio has going for it is it's very hard to trace who the message is intended for when the message covers half the globe.

Try this site for some good intro stuff www.swling.com...

thanks for that site its really good.

this is my radio ive got
www.amazon.co.uk...=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1211531017&sr=8-5


so i take it i need to put my radio into am mode for shortwave?

[edit on 23-5-2008 by rikgrimsby]

Originally posted by rikgrimsby
so if they have sat phone's and emails(coded ect...)
why are these number stations about?

Encryption is used also by corporations..not just governments. For all that matter so too are satellite phones...coupled to encryption equipment. Many corporations dont want their workings known by competitors or governments. This will become more and more clear as more and more companys and corporations begin to use hired protective services like Blackwater and such companys. I think these are called Private Military Companys. PMC's.

For a company executive to run around the world with a satellite phone is not unusual. Nor encryption.

The common belief is that only government and government peoples use encryption....not so.

Nonetheless...CIA, MI6 and others..do not necessarily use the frequency spread...150kc to 30 MHZ as is on a shortwave set. They are often using burst data type transmissions up in the RADAR range...and often through secure satellites with areas or sections specifically designed for handling such traffic.
With the proliferation of computers ..encrypting message traffic can be done here too before being passed down the line to its final destination. Numerous ways have been designed or built in to accomodate this too.

My point is that looking for this type of governmemnt traffic will be difficult on shortwave. The various governments can certainly still use this method..but why should they when better and faster ways have now been devised.

Using shortwave bands would only be a desperate back up method when all others have failed.
Walk onto any military base and pay attention to the antenna arrays. You might see an occasional long wave RHOMBIC...but the long wave beams so prevalent in years past have been replaced with satellite dishs looking up at the sky. Some of them are nothing but a square plate with a long pig tailed or cork screw tuned radiating element pointed up at the sky.

Thanks,
Orangetom

Originally posted by rikgrimsby
so i take it i need to put my radio into am mode for shortwave?

AM or SSB (if you hear voices that sound like donald duck when your in AM switch to SSB) For the most part the only FM your radio will pickup is the normal Broadcast band FM you listen to every day. (you might also hear some FM in the 10M ham band)

Shortwave is great for listening! I used to have an old Drake transceiver, complete with vacuum tubes, and my dad helped me put up a very slick inverted dipole antenna that we had attached to trees on opposite sides of our yard. Man that was so much fun. I only had my novice license, so transmitting was limited to Morse code, but that just added to the fascination.

I suggest doing as much reading as you can. There are many resources around on the internet that give information on broadcasts and such. Or just fire up your radio and, with some patience, very slowly make your way through the frequencies and different bands. Try it during different times of the day, as was mentioned by someone else. Another thing to think about is the weather at the time. My experiences with pulling in distance transmissions happened most often when the sky was covered with clouds. Thunderstorms can be good too, but the lightening does impact what you hear.

You might consider buying a notebook and recording information about interesting things you hear, that way you have a reference to come back to if you want to see if you can find it again.

I'll never forget the night I was experimenting with transmitting with very little power output. I was sending out my CQs (this is what ham operators say/transmit when they are looking to make contact with anyone that can hear them) for quite some time before a guy in South America responded. It blew me away. There I was, in my bedroom in Michigan, putting out a signal on just a few watts of power, and someone in South America was able to have a conversation with me! How cool is that?

So as you comb through the frequencies, be very patient and diligent. If you hear something faint, give it a little time and you may find that the signal will improve. Sometimes the signals will get weak and then strong over and over again, so keep that in mind as well. Also, as was suggested by someone else, see if you can put up a nice long antenna. Just a plain wire will do. Make sure it's not cracked at all, and that the insulator covering it is in good condition, especially if you put it outdoors. And definitely make certain that it can connect cleanly to your radio. All those things will benefit the quality of the signal.

I should also mention that much of what I did was on frequencies that may not be available on your radio. I worked mostly the 80m and 40m bands. Nevertheless, the same approach to listening still applies, regardless of which frequencies you can tune into.

That's all I can think of to help you out. At the very least I would create a log book to record the interesting stuff you are able to listen to. Write down the frequency, date and time you heard it, and some sort of note that will remind you what it was you listened to.

Have fun!

[edit on 23-5-2008 by John_Q_Llama]

[edit on 23-5-2008 by John_Q_Llama]

thanks thats really helpfull
so what number stations are still about? is the Lincolnshire Poacher still about ?

Here's a good place to read about Numbers Stations: en.wikipedia.org...

thanks ive already read that one,its a really good site tho

i was just wondering if number stations are still about

Yes, number stations are still about, it's a matter of searching for them.

There have been some good links posted on this topic to help you on your way.

Anyway I will post another link that you might find interesting.

It's "The Spooks Newsletter":

www.cvni.net...

Good Luck

Over and out