Medium Wave and Short Wave Listening
I have added a page to cover this aspect of the radio hobby.
In the early 60s, my parents bought me an inexpensive “rocket radio”, which was a crystal radio that covered the AM frequency band. I was amazed how well it worked. Here is a typical picture of what it looked like:
In the late 1960s, I did a lot of radio listening from Niantic, Connecticut. I used a Hallicrafters SX-110 receiver back in those days to a spirally-wound loop about 18 inches of crossed dowels sitting inside the house. I heard a number of South American and European stations along with KFI in Los Angeles on the Medium Wave (what non-DXers call AM radio) band. Below is a picture of the Hallicrafters SX-110 receiver (not the one I had). I wish I still owned this radio!
While living in Saudi Arabia from 1980 through 1985, I had a Kenwood R-1000 receiver there. For an antenna, I used a Hustler 4BTV ham radio vertical. I used the radio to listen to the BBC and VOA on medium wave in the evenings to keep abreast of world news. I did some DX-ing, but not enough to remember. I did hear my Dad, N1CVG, on CW from his QTH in Kingston, Mass on 15 meters in 1980. I also used a Kantronics terminal interfaced to my Apple ][ + computer and did copy RTTY from Albania. For that long ago, it did a pretty good job.
After a longtime without doing any non-ham radio DX-ing, coupled with the fact that there wasn’t much more I could do on the ham bands due to antenna restrictions, I thought that getting back to medium and short wave DX-ing might be fun and something to do that was still radio related. In the fall of 2013, I decided (after much study) to purchase a Perseus SDR (Software Defined Radio) and a WellBrook loop antenna from that company in Wales. In order to take full advantage of the radio’s capabilities, I also needed to procure a new computer. I bought an i5 PC from HP, with 12 GB of RAM and a 1.5 TB hard disk, running Windows 8. This combination interfaced together nicely. The Perseus has no switches on it. All control is done through the Perseus software. The Perseus can record up to 1.6 MHz in bandwidth, which allows the entire medium wave band to be recorded at one time, thus permitting playback at a later time. The filtering of the Perseus is all software driven. The Perseus is a marvelous piece of hardware. I installed the loop antenna in the backyard, with a rotor to allow rotation. During the fall, this combination did allow me to log numerous European, Middle Eastern, and African medium wave stations. Short wave stations have been logged from every continent (except Antarctica). The Perseus page will be used to provide media for stations heard on the Perseus. The Perseus and WellBrook loop are shown in the following pictures:
