[Leica] OT Question: Any Knowledgeable Short Radio Guy's on the Lug?

[hlritter at bex.net (Howard Ritter)]

Greg?

Almost any SW radio with a reasonable antenna (10 or 15 feet of wire, for 
example) will pick up the major international broadcasters if you listen 1) 
on the right frequency band 2) at the right time of day 3) for the time of 
year 4) from the particular broadcast's target area. The more of these you 
compromise on, the more you need a better and better radio. And the Sony 
SW77 is one of the best. I've had mine for seems like 10 or 15 years and I 
love it. Unfortunately, with the rise of the Internet and other factors, 
many of the previously active national services (including, unfortunately, 
the BBC) have discontinued or severely curtailed their international 
schedules, particularly to North America. There are far fewer 
English-language broadcasts now than when I was a teenager in the early 
'60s, when I used to listen every Saturday morning to "The Happy Station" on 
Radio Nederland and countless other broadcasts. The golden days of SW 
listening, gone forever. And some countries' national services (including, 
stereotypically, Radio France International) never had an English service. 
Fortunately, there are still numerous interesting programs to be heard.

Here's a link to a seller's description of the radio: 

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/portable/2493.html

I recommend you get a guide to SWLing (shortwave listening) rather than jump 
blindly into it. If you can find a recent copy of the late, lamented 
Passport to World Band Radio, that would help. Another guide is the annual 
World Radio and Television Handbook. There are also a couple of monthly mags 
that have current schedules and frequencies for broadcasts in English, 
Popular Communications and Monitoring Times.

It's still a fascinating pursuit. Let us know how you fare.

?howard
Amateur Radio N7EXN


On Jun 23, 2010, at 7:25 PM, Greg Lorenzo wrote:

> 
> Is a Sony Model ICF-SW77 good enough to pickup overseas SW broadcasts 
> (primarily from Europe)? 
> 
> 
> 
> TIA,
> 
> 
> 
> Greg Lorenzo