Short Wave Radio

You may have noticed that in the "Travel Gadgets" bar along with passport pouches, money belts, and travel clocks I list Short Wave (or WorldBand) Radios.

Now you can listen to a lot of the big international (usually government sponsored) stations on-line but I've listened to Short Wave for years now.

My first accidental listen was to Radio Netherlands on a regular AM clock radio that had a LONG extension cord, and the cord on these radios is the antenna, and I found that I could hear a Radio Netherlands show on Sunday nights if I -carefully- tuned the radio around the superheterodyne squeals LATE at night.

So I bought a cheap portable SW Radio and I was hooked. I added a long wire antenna and could hear all over the world.

Then I found out about QSL Cards and Reception Reports. If you send in a valid reception report many stations will send you a colorful QSL card as a "thank you" and started sending off reception reports and collecting cards.

You have to understand though that SW is a form of AM radio and it gets it's range by bouncing off the ionosphere, so what you can here changes with time of day, time of year, and where you are... so I started carrying a small radio and a coiled long wire antenna on trips... logging a few shows and sending in reception reports when I got home and getting QSLs from stations I would never hear in the States.

Having a WorldBand radio can be generally handy when traveling. You can't normally use your regular North American portable radio since the station steps are different. In North America on FM we use the "odd" increments... 91.1, 92.7, 1.2.7... in Europe they use the even steps... WorldBand radios can tune them all.

Some stations like Radio France International have shows in English (I know David Paige of the team of Olsen and Paige from Memphis's FM100 was doing it). You can get the BBC in most of western Europe along with Voice of America. Local music is fun to listen to too, they play an amazing amount of Doors music on Paris radio and I've heard a French language version of Sweet Home Alabama on Radio Latin.

If like me you like to listen to the radio as you fall off to sleep they're invaluable.

My favorite travel rig is a small battery powered Grundig. I carry a AA battery charger and a long wire antenna to hang out the hotel window.

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