Since I was up this morning, I opened up the shortwave and checked to see what I was missing being a night owl. Apparently I was missing pretty much everything. Super clear signals, many overlapping each other, and several clear as a bell. I'm gonna have to see about setting up a time to record some of these while I'm asleep.
I got seven stations that were not just recognizable, but perfectly listenable like any local AM Station: Radio New Zealand (which comes in like gangbusters most anytime of day), KNLS out of Alaska, Voice of America out of the Phillipines, and China Radio International out of Jinhua and Shijiazhuang. Given that the only station I'd actually listen to was Radio New Zealand, it's not changed much, but my options are better.
@dolari Do you have an amateur radio license or just really into shortwave radio?
@kf4yfa - No license. I'm not interested in broadcasting, just listening. I used to DX TV and radio signals as a kid, and Shortwave scratches that same itch. :)
@dolari what is your radio/s of choice?
@kf4yfa - I have two radios.
One is specifically for Shortwave, and is no longer made: Sony's ICF-SW7600GR. It's an AM/FM/Shortwave reciever, but sadly isn't made anymore. You can still find it out there, but it's expensive.
The other is an all purpose SDR radio, but needs a few pieces to get it completely working for shortwave: Nooelec's 820T2. But for it to work, you'll need to plug it into a computer, and for shortwave reception you need an upconverter (I use Nooelec's "Ham It Up" upconverter). You'll also need software to listen in - I used SDRSharp. It's a lot to configure for shortwave, but the upside is you get a massive chunk of radio band to listen into (25MHz - 1750MHz, and everything below 25Mhz with the upconverter).
@dolari I have heard about sdr before.
@dolari I'll have to investigate more if sdr software is accessible to screen readers.
@kf4yfa - If they're much like SDR Sharp, I can't imagine that they'd do well for screen readers since so much of the information is delivered graphically through waterfall graphs. It might be best to get an real electronic radio.
@dolari I've had sw radios in the past. I hear good things about Sea Crane. HOpe I"m spelling it right.
@dolari Radio is fun. I remember in my room at school, on the weekend. We got a station form Oklahoma City in St. Augustine.
@dolari This was f.m.
@kf4yfa - For me, the thing that got me into DXing was picking up KIII out of Corpus Christi in San Antonio. KENS in San Antonio wasn't showing Saturday Morning cartoons at the time, but KIII was showing the same ones. I thought it was a new station until I saw "Corpus Christi." Since then, I've been into getting long range signals. :)
Downside was, until I got into Shortwave, I never got another log distance signal for thirty some years....
@dolari Wow. We got hold of a C Crane a.m. antenna. We got a station form Charlotte clear until around 8 in the morning.
@dolari I'll remember that for ever, if not just a long time. Bit of a spelling perfectionist.