SWL: Short Wave Listening Comeback?

[dbracing]

I have been WB8YTI since 1975 and over the years have had more than a few receivers in and out of my shack. The military BC348 was one that I found to be quite entertaining to use and was a good all around receiver. These days I have an 8 band Panasonic that gets the job done without issue. For me, a general coverage in an appliance.

The tenants of the Amateur Radio service include emergency assistance in times of need and experimentation to develop new techniques and equipment to provide services to our communities. We don't build so much these days now that the technology has become digital centric, but in the event of emergency, those digital platforms may not get the job done. To that extent, I have built QRP(low power) equipment that can be powered by a small lead acid battery for days. Everything fits in a back pack and at the ready to go on a moments notice.

I used to run the Ohio Single Sideband Net and remember moving any number of MARS(Military Amateur Radio Service) messages from all parts of the world in, through, and out of the state. All messages through these nets are provided at no cost to anyone, the purpose being a continuation of skill development for the operators.

I'm not as active today as I once was, but my skills are still sharp and stand ready whenever the need arises.

 

[Ka6otm]

Many yrs ago my Dad used to like to listen w/ his Halicrafters.. Not much of a radio but I believe it is still upstairs.

My Dad did too. We lived in Anchorage Alaska and he listened to mainly the BBC in England, but occasionally some German Stations.

 

[KIR]

Was surprised to learn that there are still many available. Ebay has one for $144.00 I really enjoyed listening to broadcasts from all over the world late nite and did not even have the wire antenna hooked up. I find that in my old age, I am trying to reconnect with some things I did, yesteryear. Trying to capture the past. Enjoy 'em while you can, youngins.

 

[sharpblade7777]

In the sixties I spent 4 years in the Army Security Agency. I was a high speed morse intercept operator and at the time could copy 40 words per minute in morse code. After the army my brother and I both got our ham radio license, he lived about 250 miles away and long distance phone calls were very expensive. That way we could talk all we wanted. After all those years I still like to listen to short wave occasionally. In the picture are my shortwave radios that you can also listen to single side band.

 

[Snake Pleskin]

In the sixties I spent 4 years in the Army Security Agency. I was a high speed morse intercept operator and at the time could copy 40 words per minute in morse code. After the army my brother and I both got our ham radio license, he lived about 250 miles away and long distance phone calls were very expensive. That way we could talk all we wanted. After all those years I still like to listen to short wave occasionally. In the picture are my shortwave radios that you can also listen to single side band.View attachment 6228

Do you still use the "key". It looks like an old Military one I have? I have a few small SSb radios expanded for 10/11 meter etc, A Pres Lincoln and another RWS 2500 model. I want a digital interface for my pc to use for morse code. Code often carries further with less power than voice etc IMHO

 

[sharpblade7777]

Do you still use the "key". It looks like an old Military one I have? I have a few small SSb radios expanded for 10/11 meter etc, A Pres Lincoln and another RWS 2500 model. I want a digital interface for my pc to use for morse code. Code often carries further with less power than voice etc IMHO

I still play with it occasionally. It and the oscillator are actually modern, not military. I think I got it off ebay. I think morse code is like riding a bicycle. Once you learn you never forget.

 

[Snake Pleskin]

I still play with it occasionally. It is actually a modern one, not military. I think I got it off ebay. I think morse code is like riding a bicycle. Once you learn you never forget.

Good for you . I would love to learn but at 72, I am not certain I have the patience etc.

 

[sharpblade7777]

Good for you . I would love to learn but at 72, I am not certain I have the patience etc.

I heard that. I'm 75

 

[Snake Pleskin]

I heard that. I'm 75

These are my keys. They look a ot like yours! I have a 'tone" box I can plug into and practice on. I think these were old Navy keys?

 

[sharpblade7777]

These are my keys. They look a ot like yours! I have a 'tone" box I can plug into and practice on. I think these were old Navy keys?

I like those. They are very nice.

 

[Colonialgirl]

Anybody besides me remember MARS communications during the Vietnam War?
I remember that Barry Goldwater kept one staffed through the war.

My Dad was amateur radio (HAM) and helped staff the MARS stations on various Navy bases during his 20 years in the service. After he retired from the Navy and was a school teacher, he was STILL a HAM and had a radio in his car always --
W4DXJ was his call sign; My spouse Ashley was "AI4P".

 

[KIR]

Great picture by Sharpblade. I have the CCrane in the center. I cannot recommend it though as the LED readout was unreadable. Burnout???
Shortly after I got it, The airlines, police etc. scrambled their signals.
I miss my Hallicrafter SW that I had back in the early 60's. I did see some used ones on Ebay...

 

[Mike Armstrong]

I got a Hallicrafters S-38 with some of my "leftover" (from buying school clothes, etc.) harvest earnings (two-bits a lug box for French Prunes, .35 for Imperial Plums! A buck and a quarter an hour for loadin three-wire alfalfa bales in 106 degree summer weather) when I was a sophomore in high school in about 1959. Listened to it for years, mainly Armed Forces Overseas Service, VOA, BBC World Service, and CBC, but also a bit later Radio Havana, which mainly transmitted in Spanish to Latin America.

Because nobody but Cubans can understand Cuban Spanish, it was International Spanish which nobody but radio announcers speaks, but everyone understands, even me. Interesting-- I'd never listened to full-bore propaganda before! And Fidel's speeches would put anyone to sleep!

Now that "we're all connected" there is little else available....propaganda for every topic and audience and screen or speaker. Now called "marketing."

I could also listen to fishermen in the Bering Sea, firefighters and cops all over the USA, and all kinds of music from Mexico. Best of all, there was only the "tiny city" glow from the set's tubes to betray how I was spending those long high school nights!

 

[Colonialgirl]

OOOPS left out a letter;
WA4DXJ was my Dad's call sign.

 

[Diabloman]

Hi,

Years ago it was fun to stay up late at night or head out to the desert to listen to shortwave radio broadcast from pretty much all of the world, depending on time of day, time of year, and a bit of dumb luck. Kids who've grown up on the Internet are missing a lot of fun...

Over the years, choices of what to listen to dwindled as official government stations were closed up or seriously downsized. A lot of private stations went over to the tent preachers who could go on all night. BBC could be counted on anywhere in the world, until they fell into "you can do all this on the Internet" mode and shut down their SWL broadcast stations to North and South America, among others, and it seems that was the beginning of the end. I haven't picked up an SWL station in several years.

Well, it seems BBC is learning a lesson the "old timers" knew three quarters of a century or more ago: it's hard if not impossible to stop radio waves completely. Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally come to mind. The current class seems to be "replacing the Internet when a country shuts it down" as we're seeing with Russia and Ukraine. I read that BBC is reviving some of their stations in that part of the world to be able to get their news broadcasts to the whole area afflicted by this conflict.

Does anybody suppose others around the world might also learn this lesson about how fragile our communications via Internet are, and might even dust off some their own SWL stations?

Rick C

My step-dad was in the Navy in WW2. He was a radioman and was on Guam working on the FOX schedule messages!
I used to listen to SW radio late at night too.

 

[Johnny-Baseball]

In 1970-71, on a remote/isolated deployment in the jungles of Mindanao with 19 others, we operated our then-classified -top-secret seismic equipment (to detect Russian/Chinese/French nuclear tests), and also operated the Crypto and MARS systems. With MARS, we could talk to a ham radio operator (typically on the West Coast) in the US and have him phone our homes (mine was in Texas). This allowed us to have phone conversations notwithstanding our remote assignment. In late 1970 we detected a MAJOR earthquake in California and, using MARS, our detachment members whose families lived on the west coast were all able to confirm their families were safe. Of course, news of this earthquake had not yet been broadcast over the AFRNs (the military radio networks for Viet Nam, Thailand, the Philippines, etc. - think Robin Williams shouting, "Good Morning Viet Nam"), and other SEA theater MARS operators were very curious why our little Mindanao station were having these "are you ok" conversations. [They wouldn't find out for another 12 hours - until the military censors determined it was ok to report this news to the GIs.] MARS and the ham radio operator network kept us sane during the 12-month period our 20-man group never otherwise spoke to Americans.

 

[Ka6otm]

Do you still use the "key". It looks like an old Military one I have? I have a few small SSb radios expanded for 10/11 meter etc, A Pres Lincoln and another RWS 2500 model. I want a digital interface for my pc to use for morse code. Code often carries further with less power than voice etc IMHO

I'm an Extra Class Ham Radio operator since 1983. In my prime I could send/receive at 35 WPM but today, probably only around 20 WPM.

I have the old straight keys, even a bug but I use a more modern key:

 

[Snake Pleskin]

I'm an Extra Class Ham Radio operator since 1983. In my prime I could send/receive at 35 WPM but today, probably only around 20 WPM.

I have the old straight keys, even a bug but I use a more modern key:
View attachment 6295

Very nice! If I cannot get the key down, since you do not have to know morse any more to get a licnese, I might go with a digital interface , so I can type and it turns it into morse code! I know its kind of cheating, but since I do not have crypto morse is better and easier to "code" and since so many do not know it, even better. Of course, any govt worth its salt will have the capability to pick out code and have it translated. It is what it is

 

[Dave P.]

Got this for Christmas in 1971. Power it up a few times a year, push all the buttons and cycle the knobs to maybe
help keep the corrosion away.
Came with a few extras I still have.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Because nobody but Cubans can understand Cuban Spanish, it was International Spanish which nobody but radio announcers speaks, but everyone understands, even me. Interesting-- I'd never listened to full-bore propaganda before! And Fidel's speeches would put anyone to sleep!

Hi,

Is Arnie Coro (sp) still active on Radio Havana? He was (is?) quite the character. Talk about full bore propaganda!

Rick C