SW Bands You Can't Live Without

[W1EUJ]

I bought a Drake 2A at NEARFest, then broke my promise of sending it to a friend in Germany. . It was just too nice to ship to a country that uses tubes that start with ECC. Europe is lousy with shortwave transmitters anyway, he doesn't need the performance of the Drake, I'll send him the S-38 I just finished.

After a very rapid restoration, the Drake is kicking ass on the Pre-WARC bands. But, there are times I flip on the S-38 (haven't shipped it yet) or the Grundig portable to listen to something else, sifting through the religion and foreign broadcasts for oases of proudly agnostic English transmissions.

If you know of the Drake 2A/2B, they have five bandswitch positions for something else. So, I figure, maybe I can load up on some shortwave bands. But I never memorized those. I take a more random approach when it comes to shortwave listening. Could be on any band, just scanning through and stopping on a carrier, eyes closed.

So, to those who know more, what are some bands that still have some english broadcasts during weekday nights and late-morning weekends? Do they still eixst?

p.s. Sadly, I've just heard my favorite broadcaster, Radio Netherlands, is discontinuing N.A. english broadcasts. They always had such good programming.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

A quick Google search "english shortwave broadcasts" brought up a number of web site listings.
Here's one that's a guide to English shortwave broadcast schedules:
http://www.primetimeshortwave.com/

[k4kyv]

I use a Kenwood R-1000 for casual SWL'ing, but don't find much of interest any more.

For stations like BBC, Radio France Internationale, Radio Canada, etc. I sometimes download streaming audio off the web.  Some of them have near slopbucket audio quality, but others are almost as good as broadcast FM.

[WA9UDW]

So, to those who know more, what are some bands that still have some english broadcasts during weekday nights and late-morning weekends? Do they still eixst?

A cousin of mine has been an avid SWL for 40+ years. A favorite reference of his is this German site:
http://www.addx.de/Hfpdat/plaene.php
After bringing up this page, under the heading "Bitte wählen Sie eine Sendesprache:", select "Englisch", and then click on "Hörfahrplan anzeigen" just below.

73, Terry

[KL7OF]

radio New Zeland, Austrailian National Radio, Voice of Russia.......   all are in English with some very interesting programming..

[K3ZS]

You can still hear some of these stations that are stopping North American broadcasts.     The BBC stopped years ago but you can still hear the broadcasts that are beamed elsewhere and the home service on shortwave.
Radio Canada is still on the air with English broadcasts.   Check out there schedule at www.rcinet.ca.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

And if you want a challenge, try to DX the tropical stations on the 120, 90, 75 and 60 meter bands. You'll hear some VERY interesting and off-beat programming. And just trying to pull some of the stations in is a challenge,

[Tom W2ILA]

Radio Habana Cuba,
Fair and Balanced.  All kinds of programming including Arnie Coro'san SWL show.  6.000MHZ and other freqs.

[KM1H]

I use a SX-62A for SWL'ing upstairs as well as anything else from the BCB to 108 mc. Amazing continuous coverage for a 1940's design....its basically a repackaged SX-42 without ham frills.

In the shack , at the workbenches, and upstairs,  I have a number of BA choices to play with hooked to a common LW thru a distribution amp.

Carl
KM1H

[flintstone mop]

I'm listening more to the 6.0 mhz stations and they are a challenge to receive. I think they are purposely low power stations 5 or 10KW??
I'm an audio nut and will have to brag on the nice audio from WBCQ....when there is music
And another very nice sounding b'cast comes from 7.125 mhz I cannot figure out who or where they are comming from

fred

[W1EUJ]

Sounds like 49m and 31m are the bands to quickly switch to.

[W1EUJ]

I took the Primetime Shortwave Data, and put it into a column in Excel. I made the assumption of fall/wintertime listening, that all stations on the list were ones that I cared to hear, that I am concerned more with fitting in as many stations onto a 600 kHz band as possible.

After a little work, I got the following tallies of occurances of frequencies within a 600Khz window within each SW band:

49 meters:               88
41 meters (built-in):  72
31 meters:               49
25 meters:               35
22 meters:               21

First option would seem to be 5800 - 6400 KHz for 49 meters, taking band B on the Drake 2A.
Second would be selecting 9325 - 9925 Khz of the 31 meter band, on band C.

[W1UJR]

I took the Primetime Shortwave Data, and put it into a column in Excel. I made the assumption of fall/wintertime listening, that all stations on the list were ones that I cared to hear, that I am concerned more with fitting in as many stations onto a 600 kHz band as possible.

After a little work, I got the following tallies of occurances of frequencies within a 600Khz window within each SW band:

49 meters:               88
41 meters (built-in):  72
31 meters:               49
25 meters:               35
22 meters:               21

First option would seem to be 5800 - 6400 KHz for 49 meters, taking band B on the Drake 2A.
Second would be selecting 9325 - 9925 Khz of the 31 meter band, on band C.

Man, can I get you to do my homework??? 

I like the following, 5.070, 5.890 and 9.980.

[W1EUJ]

I tune randomly with eyes closed and ears open. What's on those frequencies?

[W1UJR]

Depends on the time of day/night.

[W1EUJ]

Crystals ordered. Thanks everybody.

[W1EUJ]

Crystals are in, and as the plot predicted, there was plenty to choose from on those two bands. Nice.

JAN Crystals have cheapened up on the old crystal form factors; they didn't etch the frequency on, but taped on a hand-written label instead.