Short wave radio. Does anybody still listen?

[alchresearch]

I used to hook my old SW radio to the Spectrum and decode some of the strange bleeps and blips. Never got anything meaningful though.

[Treatment]

It served me well when I had to learn high speed Morse.

[andyrad29]

You can listen into Police Communications, but not on the short wave, you never could, it was VHF.

 

I used to have a scanner to listen in on pilots and could sometimes hear the police

[Treatment]

I used to have a scanner to listen in on pilots and could sometimes hear the police

 

I have 'a friend' who has and does.

[milquetoast1]

I used to love my SW radio. But with over 30,000 worldwide stations available on my Internet radio it's a bit redundant now.

[upinwath]

I bought an icom portable receiver from someone in Shiregreen (Via this forum).

I was invaluable at first as I had no internet or satellite TV.

Even with all these things it's still handy if I can't be bothered to switch on the fancy stuff and there is a lot on SW that just isn't on other media.

My only gripe out here is the sodding Chinese government blocking stations. That paranoid bunch of authoritarian cretins block outside broadcasts into China (in case their own population hears there is another way to live) but it often jams broadcasts out here.

[steelhead4]

I have 'a friend' who has and does.

 

All UK police forces now use the Tetra digital encrypted radio system so he doesnt anymore.....

[Treatment]

All UK police forces now use the Tetra digital encrypted radio system so he doesnt anymore.....

 

Good grief, wonder what that was on 450Mz Narrow FM then.

[Guest sibon]

Never been interested in SW (HF) Having a frequency range of 3,000-30,000 kHz all the programmes tend to get squished together resulting in 'The Archers' lasting only around 5 seconds!

Much better to use medium wave (MW) in the 1MHz spectrum (equivalent to 300m) where you can get a full half hour of the goings on at Ambridge ... much better value for money!

 

But Short Wave woould have allowed you to listen to an entire test match in a single morning.

[Guest sibon]

As a kid, I was geeky enough to listen to short wave radio. I think it grew from two things. Firstly, I was never allowed a TV in my room (until 86/7 when I was allowed a B/W portable for my old Spectrum), and secondly, I always found a bit of mystery about the radio which was, and still is alluring.

 

 

I was even geekier, I used to make my own radios. The only station that they ever received properly was Radio Moscow (and Hallam, but that wasn't worth listening to, even then.)

 

I can remember by Grandfather patiently teaching me how to tune his massive Short Wave Radio to receive stations from all over the world. I absolutely loved it.

 

My phone can now access just about any radio station in the world, so I don't have a SW radio any more.