Shortwave Radio

Prayers and best wishes to you in your off grid venture. If you were living on the the gulf coast, you would have access to enormous amounts of fire wood, in the wake of this hurricane season. All you would need is a truck, trailer, and a chainsaw or two.

I can understand the urgency that you must feel. My idea for off grid survival food has been dried beans and rice. They can keep without refrigeration.

Prior to household electricity, smoke houses were common, especially in rural areas. Meat was smoked in order to preserve it. Every home had a pantry, and most families did lots of canning...fruit and vegetables. Survival was something that they practiced all of their lives. Just think what a downed grid would do to us today. Eventually all transportation would stop because gas pumps require electricty. No air conditioning or even electric fans. No more supermarket service.

I don't think you are weird. Just try to keep a balanced perspective and don't forget that God is sovereign over all.

 

I used to enjoy sw but haven't for many years. Recently we moved to a very small town far from any other town and our house sits in a hole below a fair sized hill. AM-FM is iffy at best, TV is non-existent so I have been exploring radio. I picked up a usb device that you use with a computer. The software kind of works but my reception is pretty poor, indeed I wasn't sure the device was working for a week or two due to absolutely no reception. I did finally pick up a noise filled FM station so I know it works.

If you are interested in the device search for SDR device. (Software Defined Radio). The one I have is for windows, but there is one for Android (I have one but am waiting on a usb c adapter to see if it works.)

I envision this to help if and when information needs to be gotten from other than phone or internet. Oh, did I mention our phone service here is spotty at best and our internet service likes to disappear now and then for an hour or ten as it sees fit, not to forget that our power drops out now and then due to weather.

 

Although it's not strictly speaking, I used to love listening (DXing) the BCB AM radio stations. At that time (c 1961-62) all I ever had to pursue more of just an interest (Back in those days, I was only 15-16 YO, so the only radio I had was one that my parents used. Now I'd seen the Ads in such places as "Electronics Illustrated" or "Popular Electronics" magazine or in Allied and/or Radio Shack catalogs, etc., but looking was all I could do (For obvious reasons!) I'd look at such communications receivers as those sold by Hallicrafters or Hammarlund or even those Heath Kits, but looking was all I could do. I did join the National Radio Club and even the old Newark News Radio Club and used the "White's Radio Log" and/or WRTVH. Then, I enlisted in the USAF & trained to become an Aircraft Electrician for mainly the F-4C fighter. I figured that since radios are powered by electricity that might help....and (to me at least!). But trying to monitor BCB stations while crowded in a wooden 2-story barracks with a bunch of guys who had, shall we say, "Other Interests," such as barfing up the remnants of their weekend meals, etc., was not really conducive to my trying to monitor far-away BCB stations. OTOH, from 1965-67, I not only joined the IRCA, but was its president. Here again, my living environment lacked a few elements, etc., being housed in an old barracks located across the street from the main BX, only 500 ft from the jet engines' test pad, & around the corner from the base's Fire Dept at which both of those last two items had some sort of AF Reg that must have "Thou Shalt Run Up Or Test" one's jet engine (afterburner included) and/or one's Fire Truck ONLY after 0100 hrs, well, you can get the picture. Before I entered the USAF, I did manage to scrape up enough $$$ to buy a Lafayette receiver, but could only use it in our basement w/a long-wire antenna than ran parallel to our electric power lines only about 50 ft away. Eventually I bought a National 121 & rigged up a directional loop antenna, .but my parents insisted on my confining its operation only in the basement. Now I live alone in a small condo, but its HOA told me that no outdoor antennas, plus my condo is located in a valley adjoining a Super Wal-Mart, which, in turn is located on TN Route #1 (on which the nearby Metro Police & FD have a sub-station (in which Metro Police used to have in a shopping mall located no more than a mile away but went out of business a few yrs ago)! I suppose I was the poster child for that old "Hee! -Haw"'s song, "If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all!"! I used to live in Clarksville & there took up scanner radio monitoring. My location adjoined I-24 & the US Army base Ft Campbell wasn't too far away. That DID provide me with some "enjoyable" monitoring such during the G H W Bush vs Bill Clinton POTUS campaign when I heard "Is that U George? Sure, what's up? Well my wife & I are invited to a cookout for my campaign buddies & want you and Barbie to join with us to "Talk over some things! Can the two of you make it? Sure, we'll be right over!!" or when I heard the POOLICE broadcast of "That stolen vehicle that someone took on the Interstate and killed that fellow comes back to a Paul....(My last name included!). You want us to 'Cuff him & Stuff him?" But then the powers that be digitized their transmissions & required an official paper authorizing a private individual to purchase a multi-thousand dollar rig for which Publishers' Clearing House hasn't yet come, balloons-in-hand to hand me over that big check (From which the Infernal Revenue Service has already deducted its 110+%!! Oh well...."Yah Gutta LOVE it!" :0

 

Do any of you folks read/subscribe to the magazine "Nuts and Volts"? It seems to be an interesting magazine, although it probably doesn't devote any space to actually covering MONITORING Commerical SW broadcasts. Once there was "Popular Communications" magazine & "Monitoring Times" / www.montoringtimes.com but both of them went out of business some 10 years ago. Does ANYONE know if there still are periodicals (either in print or online) available that cover commerical radio monitoring?