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THE
SHORTWAVE
HOBBY
Shortwave listening
is
a hobby with
thousands
of
participants worldwide.
While
no
special knowledge is required
for SWL, you will find your enjoyment
increases with experience and special
techniques for listening.
Random tuning
on
your DX-440
is
a
good idea if you've never owned a
Communications Receiver before.
In
this way you can get acquainted with
the various bands and the stations that
can be heard. But after you've been
listening for a while you'll discover that
you can get more enjoyment by organ-
izing your listening efforts.
Doing a little bit of library research can
increase your skill
as
a SWL. Read up
on radio propagation and theory; try to
understand the conditions which make
long distance reception possible.
In
your local library you can find such
valuable references
as
the World Radio
Television Handbook and the Radio
Amateur's Handbook. Current intorma-
tion can
be
found by consulting period-
icals dealing with communications and
electronics.
Keep up to date
on
news events around
the world. There's much interesting
listening just tuning to the international
service of a nation where
an
important
event is taking place.
Ham radio operators can
be
found
in
the bands listed
in
our Band Allocations
section. You'll find that hams mainly
38
use Morse code (or
CW,
as
they refer
to it) and SSB. The ham bands are
divided up into CW and SSB sections
in
the following manner:
3,500 - 3,800 kHz: CW
3,800 - 4,000 kHz: SSB
7,000 - 7,150 kHz: CW
7,150 - 7,300 kHz: SSB
14,000 - 14,200 kHz: CW
14,200 - 14,350 kHz: SSB
21,000 - 21,250 kHz: CW
21,250
- 21,450 kHz: SSB
28,000 - 28,500 kHz: CW
28,500 - 29,700 kHz: SSB
These boundaries are not precisely
observed everywhere
in
the world,
so
don't be too surprised to find
an
SSB
signal
in
the CW portion of a band and
vice-versa.
Some of the ranges where aircraft may
be flying international routes use short-
wave for their communications. Most
transmissions are
in
SSB, although
some
AM
is still heard. Some of the
ranges where aircraft can be heard
include:
4,650 - 4,750 kHz
6,545 - 6,765 kHz
8,815 - 9,040 kHz
10,000 - 10,100 kHz
11,175 - 11,400 kHz
13,200 - 13,360 kHz
15,010 - 15,100 kHz
17,900 - 18,030 kHz
Ships and coastal stations can also be
heard on shortwave. Most communica-
tions are
in
SSB and
CWo
One in-
teresting range is 2,000
- 2,300 kHz,
where the Coast Guard and many small
boats can be heard. One frequency to
watch is 2,182 kHz, which is an inter-
national distress and emergency chan-
nel. Other bands
in
which to tune for
ships are:
4,063 - 4,139 kHz
4,361 - 4,438 kHz
8,195 -
8,181
kHz
12,330 - 12,420
KHz
13,107 - 13,200 kHz
16,460 - 16,565 kHz
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