Setting Up Your Shortwave Receiving Radio
I often receive emails and read many questions here on
Unchainedpreppers concerning folks that want to listen to our Tuesday night ERIN (Eastern Region Information Network) nets using a shortwave receiver as they do not have an amateur radio license. I typically give those folks answers and move on however, I thought to myself, "it is time to do an article on this subject".
I want to cover two things in this article; 1) Shortwave radio and the antenna you can use, and 2) Another viable simple option that could save you some money.
Shortwave Radio and antennaIn the 1920's with the advent of voice radio communication around the world, folks who could not afford a transceiver could afford a shortwave radio to not send communication but hear communication from local broadcasting stations to stations around the globe. I remember my grandfather having an old (at that time) RCA shortwave radio where he would listen to broadcasts from around the country and across the globe. Enough about the history as you are not here for a history lesson. If you want to learn more on shortwave radio, you can start your search
here.
Many years ago, I wanted to listen to shortwave broadcasts from across "the pond" and other locations around the globe while living on our sailboat,
Mad Max. I saved my pennies and purchased a Grundig shortwave radio that was able to receive AM (amplitude modulation)) and FM (frequency modulation) stations plus shortwave broadcasts on SW1, SW2, or SW3. I tied it down on a shelf over the boats navigation station. In a nutshell, once I turned on the radio, I was not happy as I could only RX (receive) AM and FM during the day and some fuzzy shortwave stations after dark. A fellow live-a-board on our dock in Seattle, was an amateur radio operator. I asked him why my reception was poor one night at a dock party. He replied, "antenna". He went on to say that "90% of all reception issues on a shortwave radio was the antenna". The next day I heard a knock on my deck, and it was my ham radio neighbor who had come down to check out my shortwave radio and to offer some free advice. I am of Scottish decent, so I like 'free'.
He liked my Grundig radio, which was the top of the shelf one that they sold at that time. He told me that we could do one of two things, 1) When I wanted to use the radio to connect to a 62-foot piece of one strand wire connected to the back designed for this (+/- location) purpose. Then mark the middle of the wire (~31-foot) and attach my halyard to the wire at that point and hoist up the mast about 15-feet. Then take one of the now hanging wires towards the bow and at the 7-foot spot tie a piece of line and then secure that line to the bow. On the stern loose wire tie a piece of line to it at the 7-foot spot and run it to my stern and tie-off. What you end up with is a kind of square or diamond with the better ends of the wire attached to the Grundig radio below deck.
The second solution was, to have a new backstay build with isolators at the bottom of the stay and one at the top and then run a wire from the radio to the backstay and affix the wire between the insulators on the backstay with a hose clamp. The backstay would then act as my antenna.
I ran off to the local chandlery and bought 62-feet of insulated 16-gauge wire and executed on his instructions. Voila! I heard a lot of stations on shortwave during the day. At night the bands were so busy that it was tough just tuning in on one.
As we cruised around Puget Sound and waters north into British Columbia Canada, most nights found my wife and I listening to broadcasts from around the world. One memorable night, while anchored in Victoria Harbor Canada, we listened to the BBC and learned of the OJ Simpson's acquittal of all murder charges. Interesting memory.
This worked great except when it rained. Remember, we lived in Seattle. Plus, it was a pain to hoist and setup the antenna and then take it down.
We had run into a bit of money, so we started putting some of those newly found riches into the boat. We had
Mad Max pulled and put on the hard. The bottom was cleaned then repainted - An ugly and time-consuming job. We had new settee cushions made along with a custom bed for our master stateroom, the 'V'-berth. And I had new rigging made for the bow, outer stays amidships, and stern stay. On the stern stay we added insulators just like my neighbor had suggested. Once the boat had been splashed and back at our berth, I ran a coax from the radio to the backstay and voila! We had the listening world at our fingertips without hoisting my earlier antenna and leaving the hatch ajar. I remember having to do some fenagling with the coax to get the best reception which does not apply here.
Not too soon after our boat was splashed, I was talking to my ham neighbor, and he convinced me to buy a ship-to-shore or amateur radio as then I could talk and listen on the radio. This started my interest in ham radio. More on that later.
Before you buy your shortwave RXing radio, please make sure that it is SSB (Single Sideband) compatible like
this C.Crane radio. A friend bought one and hooked it up like I suggested and she is very happy with RX on the radio. May I suggest before you buy one is to look at the manual to make sure they have two lugs on the rear of the radio to hook up the two bitter ends of the antenna wire. Just do a search for a SSB shortwave radio on the interwiz and you will find dozens out there. Then download their manual to help choosing the correct radio for you.
Quick explanation of what SSB is. Most amateur radio operators operate on SSB anymore. Before the popularity or advent of SSB, all operators used AM for long distance QSO's. FM (2-meters) was and is still in used for local RX and Tx; However, AM was king of long distance communications. Before someone gets upset and sends me a nastygraham, yes, AM is still used however, by less and less as we are loose folks to age.
AM modulation Image Richard F. LyonWhen you transmit on AM it takes a bit of power because it is TXing using a full wave. While the SSB (Upper or lower sideband) is only using half the wave hence more power can be used - Twice as much. More power equals greater distance. If you were to RX to a TX using a noncompliant SSB shortwave radio the transmission would sound muffled in some cases, like Donald Duck in other cases, and you would only really be able to hear one part of the TX. Enough of this crap that is not why you are reading this article.
Now the antenna, the heart of your shortwave system is simple. You just need to make a
"loop-antenna". What my friend did was to cut a piece of coated 16-gauge wire that her husband had on hand - Any gauge will work. In her dinning room, she thumbtacked approximately all 62-feet on her dining room ceiling in the form of a square with 15-feet making up each side. The two bitter ends of the wire hung down over her radio. Her dinning room ceiling is more of a rectangle than a square, so it was 12-feet x 15-feet x 12-feet x 15-feet with approximately 3-feet of the bitter ends hanging down. The bitter ends of the wire did not reach to the back of the radio, so she added the same length to both bitter ends. I think she added 5-feet to each bitter end using a butt connector for each wire.
She hooked up the antenna, turned the frequency on the radio to what the
P.A.C.E. was for the ERIN net, and hit the SSB mode button. Viola, she was able to RX the ERIN net. She listens regular to shortwave broadcasts when not in SSB mode from around the world too.
Alternative option As mentioned earlier, once my new insulated back stay was up and my Grundig was running great my ham neighbor talked me into buying an amateur radio. The marine company I worked for was selling off their Icom Ship-to-shore (STS) 11-meter radio to replace the one in the company's a 40-foot Santa Cruz sailboat with a new one. The installation of the new radio which required
Mad Max to be pulled and put on the hard to install a grounding plate on the bottom of the hull. Remember, a boat is just a hole in the water in which you pour money into.
Once hooked up, the radio worked great. I had the option of TXing as well as RXing; However, I could only TX on 11-meters but, I could listen to all frequencies on AM, FM, and SSB. The Grundig ended up in our storage shed.
The used Icom STS radio I bought from my company ran around $500.00 used. Certainly, more than the Grundig which cost me around $300.00 when I purchased it however, I had so many more options. With that written, you may want to look at buying a used amateur radio transceiver instead of a shortwave RX radio. Yes, you can own a HF (High Frequency) 10 to 160-meter radio, with AM, FM, and SSB modes without having a license. Where can you buy a used HF radio? eBay, ham fests, ham radio classifieds, and silent key estates.
eBay: I bought my first HF radio from here. It Was a Kenwood 590S (Retail $1,499.00 new) and when I put down my $600.00 to buy, I was thinking that I was taking a big chance. Well eBay isn't like it was ten-years ago. It is well regulated today.
Ham fest: A ham fest is an amateur radio flea market. I have picked up some great deals at ham fests. You can find out a ham fest near you by doing a search for a ham radio club for your county. Then contact the radio club and they will fill you in where and when there is a local ham fest. The mother of all ham fests is the one held in Xenia, OH. called, The Dayton Hamvention
Daytona Hamvention typically held towards the end of May.
Ham radio classifieds: There are a bunch of classified sites out there like
QRZ.com,
eHam.net and others. If you do not have an amateur radio license you will need to get a ham friend with one involved. You can not log-in to most of these sites without a station license.
Silent key estate sales: A silent key is a respectful way to refer to a ham operator that has passed away. This option requires a license holder friend and patience. The ham community is a very small community. Using me as an example, I hear about silent keys estate liquidations within a let's say 100-mile radius of my AO. Recently, a non-licensed friend wanted to go this route and I kept my ears open for a well cared for HF radio for him. About a month passed and the word got out that the wife of a silent key from a neighboring county, was selling her husbands equipment was for sale. I picked him up a Icom 735 radio in perfect condition for $250.00. Yes a bit more than the C.Crane shortwave radio but so many more options.
As a side note, my friend got tired of just RXing folks from around the world on the radio. He went out and took his exams and now can TX as well.
There you go folks. I hope this short article helps a bit with folks who want to buy or use their shortwave radio. If you have experience on using a shortwave radio, I encourage that you share with the group your experiences.
73 & God Bless,
