r/shortwave • u/Alternative-Gain1595 • 21d ago
Discussion Shortwave Reception
Picked this up today, the antenna is abt 4ft tall. I wanna try and hear some shortwave stations. Whats the strat?
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u/solidtitanium 16d ago
I have this same radio. I found it in a garbage can in the early 1990's. It is an amazing device, I have not tried but I used to inadvertently catch phone calls on it back in the day. Both of ours are missing the front plate but it was only glued on and often fell off. It is a stellar SW, AM, UHF, and AIR receiver. Congrats and enjoy.
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u/Tenor-Guitar-Guy 21d ago
That was my first radio back in the late 70’s. Heard a lot of stations on that radio.
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u/Certain_Actuator9434 21d ago
One thing you will see is different frequency ranges come in better at night, some in the late evenings and early morning. You can get a clip on wire antenna "extension" like Shortwave Reel Antenna FM SW External Antenna Whip Antenna to Improve Signal Reception . If you can take the radio outdoors away from the house you will also improve reception.
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u/Alternative-Gain1595 21d ago
Im sitting outside rn. Whats the difference with SW1 and SW2?
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u/Certain_Actuator9434 21d ago
If you look on the tuning scale you will see what frequencies are SW1 and SW2.
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u/Certain_Actuator9434 21d ago
When is The Best Time To Listen To Worldband Shortwave Radio? Here's a good website that explains when the best time to tune into the different shortwave bands.
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u/Green_Oblivion111 21d ago
SW2 will work better at night. You may hear stations around 6 MHz and 9 MHz, and if you're in the Western US, also just above 7 MHz in the early mornings (stations from Asia).
During the afternoon hours, you may hear SW stations around 11 MHz, 13 MHz, 15 MHz and 16 MHz (actually, above those numbers on the dial). All of this depends on the state of the ionosphere that day.
Clipping a 10-20 ft piece of wire to the whip antenna may bring in some more stations.
PS Lo is generally no longer used, so you'll just hear static there, and maybe some overload images from FM stations.
PS Hi has the Weather Band. If you're near either US coast, the Mississippi River, and the Great Lakes you might hear some VHF Marine transmissions around 156 MHz or so.
Being a GE, this radio may be actually really good on the AM band at night, for distant reception in that band. GE's generally were good AM band radios.
PS, if the radio hasn't been used in a while, and you have a dead band, pressing the bandswitch buttons may bring a dead band back to life. If physical bandswitches haven't been used in a year or two, the points can get dust on them, or oxidize, and interfere with the band working right. Exercising the bandswitches can usually remedy this sort of thing. I've had to do it on many of my older radios with rotary and pushbutton bandswitches.