New SW Radio Help

[raistlin]

I just picked up a new Sony SW 7600GR radio to have an alternative to listen to Midnight in the Desert.  However at the moment I'm only getting static on shortwave from what I've seen so far.  Anyone here from California have luck with receiving SW stations without an outside antenna?

[The General]

I just got one too. 
Picked it up at a thrift store for $3. 
It's nothing fancy, but it's also got nothing but static.
I'm thinking I'm gonna hafta get an aerial.

EDIT- INTERESTING ARTICLE HERE...
http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=27300

[Chocolate coated jackboot]

are you getting any stations at all?
the best time for shortwave is at night
try twisting/alligator clipping the end of a 10-20' length of wire(bell wire, speaker wire, magnet wire) to your whip antenna

[raistlin]

All the reviews online make this radio out to be the last one of the "serious" portable radios that were made.  All the claims I've read state that it's super sensitive and great for picking up shortwave stations.  I guess everyone that reviewed it must have been on the east coast.  I watched a review last night where a guy had like 5 different radios, all of them were picking up SW and none had an outside antenna.  Either that or I'm doing something wrong some how.

are you getting any stations at all?
the best time for shortwave is at night
try twisting/alligator clipping the end of a 10-20' length of wire(bell wire, speaker wire, magnet wire) to your whip antenna

This model comes with a really long antenna that you clip onto the regular one.  They recommend clipping it onto your blinds in the house.  I did get a couple of stations last night sort of, but they sounded worse than a far away AM station with static.

I've been using this site to check for scheduling - http://www.shortwaveschedule.com/index.php?freq=6115

What I'm confused about is how are you suppose to prevent this radio from picking up AM stations?  I found a BBC station broadcasting on 1413, but my local AM country station 1410 comes through even if I put in 1413.  Come to think of it, hell the two stations I heard last night might have just been local AM stations that were on a slightly different number. 

[Chocolate coated jackboot]

getting a local station a few khz from it's true frequency is normal. sometimes you'll even pick them up on a harmonic frequency eg you might hear 1410 on 2820

but 1410 is not in the shortwave band. It's medium wave or 'AM' in the US. Most shortwave stations are in bands from 4800-5500khz, 7200-7600khz, 9200-10000khz, 11500-12200khz and 15200-15800khz.

some things to try: make sure the Am mode switch on the side is on NORM and not SSB(SSB is for listening to hams
-night is the best time for shortwave, at least after the sun goes down
-the internal antenna should be adequate to hear many of the stronger stations but you might get better reception with the clip on antenna
-if you have batteries for it try it outside. you'll get better reception and electrial noise from your house will be reduced
-have the ATT button switched to OFF

try manually scanning the bands by pressing DIRECT, 9-2-0-0 then EXE, then the TUNE/SCAN button. you should be able to pic up a few strong spanish or religious stations. they won't be FM quality and signal strength will vary from day to day and season to season due to solar conditions.

[raistlin]

Thanks for the tips!!  So it seems I was doing every thing right to begin with.  The problem here is that first my expectations were way too high. Second I live in the wrong area of the country for this to be feasible...at least without a huge antenna on my roof.  I wasn't even able to get 800kw stations at night.

If anything I hope this thread serves as a warning to anyone thinking of buying a radio to listen to shortwave.  Understand the limitations first, and keep your expectations in check big time.

[ShayP]

I have a CCrane-SW.  I will admit that I became interested due to the ads on C2C, so I got the catalog.  Received the radio as a gift 2 years ago and it does a very nice job. It's better than the defunct Emerson brand and the little Grundig I had in the past.   I will admit that I have more trouble tuning into shortwave now than I did when I first received it which makes me curious. I don't believe it's the radio.   I have not used a dedicated outside antenna...YET.  Apparently I will need to.  The radio came with these little adapters you can attach coax cable to and run it to wherever.  I may do that.  I know how to splice it but don't know what the end piece away from the radio should look like or attach to.

Anyway, as was mentioned in this thread, clipping speaker wire to the whip antenna works great.  I gave that a shot once and it was a noticeable improvement, but I want something more durable.  Something I won't wrap myself in and trip over.    I lean towards being a klutz at times. 

I'm in Virginia by the way.

I appreciate the knowledge passed through this site.
I wish everybody luck!!!!  CHEERS!

[Chocolate coated jackboot]

The problem here is that first my expectations were way too high. Second I live in the wrong area of the country for this to be feasible...at least without a huge antenna on my roof.  I wasn't even able to get 800kw stations at night.

Are you trying to get a specific station?
If you're trying to get the stations Art's going to be on the best one for me is 5085khz but the only time I hear that transmitting is on saturday and sunday nights between 10-12 midnight Eastern time when they have an oldies music show. Most SW transmitters don't transmit 24h a day and online schedules aren't always accurate

Bigger is not always better when it comes to SW antennas. You might pull in more signal but you'll also pull in more noise

[raistlin]

Are you trying to get a specific station?
If you're trying to get the stations Art's going to be on the best one for me is 5085khz but the only time I hear that transmitting is on saturday and sunday nights between 10-12 midnight Eastern time when they have an oldies music show. Most SW transmitters don't transmit 24h a day and online schedules aren't always accurate

Bigger is not always better when it comes to SW antennas. You might pull in more signal but you'll also pull in more noise

Yeah of course that was the first sw station I tried to get, no dice...not even slightly audible with static.  All I get is static.  I mentioned the website with scheduling earlier in the thread so anyone reading this would know I'm aware of the fact that sw stations don't broadcast 24/7.  There's also www.short-wave.info so you can see what stations are currently broadcasting.

[blitzer850]

If the conditions are right at the time you are trying to receive the SW transmission, your radio's antenna will or should be sufficient.
If conditions are not good, example would be thunderstorms in area causing static crashes, or other electrical interference that is always there, not much can be done unless you invest in filters or your SW receiver has a NB or equivalent options.
But for just general coverage area you don't need much,  especially if you are not transmitting.
Serious ham operators have transmitted & received halfway around the world with just 5-10 watts of power.

I have 1 long wire endfed antenna & two inverted V's dipoles up between two trees around 80 feet high & sometimes I can receive at night, Europe, Africa all over.. Sometimes I can't even receive from the stateline with static crashes pounding 20db+
This link below is a portable SW reel antenna that is decent. I have 2 of them and one that I built myself. But for under 8 bucks with free shipping?  Really?   Not bad if you ask me. 

http://r.ebay.com/ZLrxay

Remember, it's all about the conditions at the time you try to receive, don't get discouraged. One night can be excellent & within minutes it can go to crap.

PS. i built one like this & it works great! This one has alligator clip & ready to go.

http://r.ebay.com/rkMeVz

Good luck & lots of fun,...

[chefist]

I just got a station from Peru and one from Cuba here in Tucson on my DE1103 using the installed antennae 

[blitzer850]

I just got a station from Peru and one from Cuba here in Tucson on my DE1103 using the installed antennae

See!  There you go..  Awesome..
If you get real unlucky & turn your antenna the wrong way, you might receive "Aldousburbank" singing in the shower which causes extreme panic to quickly reach for radio to redirect antennas direction! You've been warned!  Heh..
Next beer 🍻  on me  aldousburbank.. Friend.. 😊

[Chocolate coated jackboot]

from my experience shortwave schedules aren't very reliable. Some of the stations take weeks or months to update their own websites. Since Art announced he'd be on 5085 I've been monitoring that frequency at night and the only time  I've heard anything is the weekend oldies show(around 11pm EDT). It comes in very clear with a strong signal using only a 2' whip antenna with a 20' wire clipped to it.

I would wait until Art's show starts up and you know for sure it's your antenna before buying stuff you might not need

[LeslieV]

Been reading the mail for a while so figured I'd chime in.

I've been using SW for decades and it can be a challenge at times. 

I can receive the 5.085 and also the 7.490 signals on my old 1960's analog Lafayette radio SW receiver although the analog is a little hard to tune in, too use to the digital readouts now days.

One major problem I found in any type of built up area is the noise and I mean noise.  Noise from all types of lighting and any dimmers and your WIFI or Internet modem seems to be all over the place with noise.

I have a ham friend who has LED spotlights and when they come on at night they wipe out his HF and even his 2-meter VHF so only the strongest stations come in.  He has to turn them off to hear anything.

Outside of the old transistor receiver I am also listening to the SW stations with an old Hammurlund HQ-140 tube radio I use the metal downspout as an antenna, takes me back to the 50's and 60's when I used that at home at first.

I also have up to date digital ham/SW radios and for them they are on nice outside antennas and those frequencies are solid loud and clear when they are on.

The major problem with SW and analog radio in suburban and metro areas is the noise from all the other houses and whatever around.  Sadly, outside of a complete power failure and you on battery power it is near impossible to make the noise go away.

You can experiment and see, maybe one area of your home is not as noisy as another and of course even getting a little length of wire outside the home could help.

Worked many a ham stations with my portable ham radio from hotel and motel rooms with just wire thrown out the window.  Of course really killed the TV reception but those complaints went to the motel/hotel as no one knew.

[blitzer850]

What would be awesome, if Art would do some old school RTTY sending & receiving instead of fax machine every now & then.  The old radioteletype printers for sending/receiving data is something ive always liked. I have a couple old electromechanical teleprinters I could dust off..  Heh...

[raistlin]

Thank you everyone for your advice and encouragement.  At least there's always the internet to listen to Art on...for some crazy reason I just wanted to experience the show the old fashioned way like I did back in the day. 

[Chocolate coated jackboot]

I'm one of the few people that PREFER to listen to Art with less than perfect audio quality so I'm kinda looking forward to the sw broadcasts. I hope it lasts longer than the 6 week trial period that C Crane's paying for

[blitzer850]

I'm one of the few people that PREFER to listen to Art with less than perfect audio quality so I'm kinda looking forward to the sw broadcasts. I hope it lasts longer than the 6 week trial period that C Crane's paying for

I can relate to that. It's like old school sound. Art on SW to me gives the effect he's farther away than he really is, like the Philippine days, giving me that long distance glimmering sound of hope, or the end of civilization depending on which guest is being interviewed.

[LeslieV]

Thank you everyone for your advice and encouragement.  At least there's always the internet to listen to Art on...for some crazy reason I just wanted to experience the show the old fashioned way like I did back in the day.

I hear you there.  Will still purchase the podcast and all but just for the old time sake listening to Art on SW with the fade in and out a little and funny phasing you hear on SW signals just adds to the show.  Also brings back memories from way back in the 90's driving out in the middle of nowhere on non-descript roads in the desert south west and actually going thru Pahrump while Art was keeping my eyes on the sky or road watching out for whatever may come from behind a cactus or over what may be over that next hill.

Even seeing those 'rods' one night when Art had a show on about them.  One crossed the highway right in front of me, saw the truck then made a U-turn back from the side it came from.  Of course those were the early days of cellular and huge no-service areas.  I was so excited I kept watching for a signal just so I could call Art and tell him.  Sadly it was a couple more hours and the show was over when I got cell coverage near a town.

EDIT:  Just noticed my Avatar is gone.  Got to dig it up and post or find another one.  Guess it happened when the site got moved.

[blitzer850]

Have Antenna will Travel.  But they will not miss tuning in to the desert!  lol