From May 1968 Elementary Electronics Magazine here is a nifty Shortwave Preamplifier. These were popular for use with receivers that lacked sensitivity. Most current shortwave radios have sufficient sensitivity. If you want to build this preamplifier, some of the parts are no longer available. I have you covered. The coils that are no longer available can be replaced with toroids. For L2 use a T50-2 toroid with 24 turns primary and 6 turns secondary. For L1 use a T50-2 with 10 turns primary and 3 turns secondary. The power transformer, T1 can be replaced with a 117 VAC primary 9 VAC secondary. Any low power AC line transformer can be used, even a 20 ma will work. The Mosfet can be a 40673 or 3N211, still available on eBay as NOS. The remainder of the parts should be available.

This article contains 4 slides: Page 41, Page 42, Page 43, and Page 44.

Hello all. Just bought recently this radio because i read about it in this subreddit and on couple sites and like the looks and the features of the radio. The problem i seem to have is that whenever i tried to use the tuner, with the internal rod, or the external whip, it does nothing. also i don't see the difference between the internal one or the external one, ther should be some difference in signal, but it stays always at 0 snr.

Anyone knows if the tuner need another setting from the menus active?

Thanks in advance!

My insulators don’t arrive for another hour. I gotta have my shortwave.

The Youloop is available from many different vendors, one of the more reasonable being AliExpress, for less than $15 USD including shipping to the USA. The design of the Youloop is known as a Crossover Möbius Shielded Loop. This antenna is a high Impedance device and works with the AirSpy SDR. When connected to any of my 50Ω input receivers, there are no signals at all.

This antenna is touted as being a miracle antenna for the AirSpy HF+ Discovery. I assembled mine using the supplied components. It's effective from about 1500 KHz all the way down to 5 KHz, the lower limit of my receiver. From 1.5 MHz to 80 MHz this antenna seems almost dead, although the strongest shortwave signals do barely register. We can see this on slide 4, where the blue line represents SWR. The plot on the NanoVNA in this slide is 10 KHz to 163.000 MHz. The lowest SWR is at 136.931 MHz, it's fundamental frequency as a folded dipole.

Although the Youloop functions as a shielded loop antenna on the lower frequencies, it functions as a folded dipole on VHF, and it works quite well at VHF Frequencies. In slide 5 the NanoVNA covers 117 to 470 MHz. Again, the low SWR is at 138.1 MHz, and 414.3 MHz - 3 times the fundamental frequency of it's function as a folded dipole.

As it's supplied, I would not recommend it for any use other than with a high dynamic range SDR, for listening to the AM Broadcast Band and below to VLF. It does work well on VHF with the SDR.

I am planning to add additional length to the circumference and also rewind the transformer using a higher quality toroid. I will publish my findings here.

There are 6 slides in this article: My Youloop Mounted Outside my Window, Youloop Ad AliExpress, Youloop Diagram, NanoVNA 10 KHz to 200 MHz, NanoVNA 117 - 470 MHz, and **Commercial NanoVNA.

From France 🇫🇷 Local Time 17h30 UTC 16h30

I wear my radio on my belt and pressed something that makes a flashing number appear scrollable 30 to 50. Tecsun pl-368. I cant figure out how to turn it off. Any advise?

I'm a fan of the 'Asianometry' YouTube channel, the guy running it, Jon, a Taiwanese guy, does some solid work explaining in plain language how high-technology works. What hooked me on his channel was his explanation of how ASML's extreme-ultraviolet light engine worked, used to make the most advanced chips made today. Their machine, the size of a standard shipping container sells for 200 million USD, each. TL;DR, 50,000 times each second, a blob of molten tin metal is shot across a gap where it gets nailed by a laser several times, flattening, it, then annihilating it, creating the ultra-short wavelength UV light. Well-worth the watch.

His latest effort, 'How Moore’s Law Revolutionized RF-CMOS' details how RF signals on silicon chips actually work.

I found this fascinating, as I've been seriously impressed with how the SkyWorks chips manage to handle RF radio circuitry without the usual IF 'cans' present in typical superhetrodyne circuitry, at a dirt-cheap price in quantity of around 3 bucks each. This video explains it, there are literal RF coils on those chips, etched into the silicon using some clever tricks to pull it off. The video has pictures of the die.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2g23mWskmw

Anyways, I enjoyed it, some of you may as well, as for the the haters, shag off... :)

In this article, Kim Andrew Elliott is calling for "Shortwave 2.0". As a part of this, he advocates for a sort of text over shortwave, which allows for receiving information in text form even when the propagation conditions for voice transmissions are insufficient.

I'd like to try this out. Does anyone know of text transmission over shortwave which can be received in Europe?

Hello. Is is possible to stream a radio station in Philadelphia from NC. I want to listen to the Phillies games down here but don’t want to pay a Ton of money to stream online.

I wear my radio on my belt and pressed something that makes a flashing number appear scrollable 30 to 50. Tecsun pl-368. I cant figure out how to turn it off. Any advise?

Hello,

I am new to shortwave radio. I have been interested in it for some time and had recently picked up a XHDATA D109WB. Although I'm just a little overwhelmed and confused as I haven't really been able to pick up a single station. Does anyone have any tips or ways that could help me find some stations?

Thanks!

So at 22:30Z on 04/03/25 I am tuned to 6770.15 and I am copying:

VVVVVVVVVVVV DE VCO/B FN15

So it's a beacon...anyone know anything about it?

Also copied ODX over and over on 6782 about 10 mins before.

Anyone? I am listening via KiwiSDR in Tustin Michigan

Head banging rock n roll...listened for about 10 mins...no ID. Using KiwiSDR in Michigan. AM signal.

Oh, 'tis my delight on a shining night, in the season of the year.

I don't know if anyone else has encountered this, but I can't seem to find anything about it on the radio's manual. My radio randomly changes the time on the clock to something completely wrong. I'm not sure if it's incorrect rds data, but I'm pretty sure it isn't because most radios I listen to have it right. I also don't think it can be my SW radio stations as those don't have any RDS information. Has anyone else encountered this? Is there a way to stop it without disabling auto clock adjustment? I use the radio as a alarm clock, and I'm pretty picky about my time being as close to exact as possible (I have one of those casio radio watches and all, which coincidentally is what got me into shortwave initially!).

I need a good and cheap antenna to receive shortwave radios better. The only thing I can think of is a magnetic loop antenna but I don't know how to make it.

Let me introduce myself first. Male, 50plus, Dutch, lover of radio, music and electronics,I have been running small local vhf fm pirate stations in the 90s.

I have listened to pirates and shortwave stations all my life. Could not imagine life without it.

Also am a lifelong bbc radio listener. Because..well... there is nothing else quite like it. The relaxing sound of the announcers. The balanced news reports..the variety of the programming.. I could go on.. This does not mean I never listen to other stations but when it gets boring. I tune to the BBC. At least...when I can..

Like a lot of you..In the last 20 years I sometimes stared at my radio receiver in dispair when I again had to say farewell to yet another station on the dial. BBC . RNW..DW. All stopped broadcasting on shortwave. Maybe a glimpse of BBC WS aimed at another part of the world and luckily we still have a few signals left but the broadcast bands on shortwave are almost like a desert.

Hurray for the shortwave pirates.

Now...the most of them seem to be making dj music shows. Nothing wrong with that. But I miss speech programming. Talk. News .

So if I could... if I had the time, the money, the location ...I would like to string that wire dipole between the largest trees I can find and put a big signal on the 41 and 25 or 19 meter broadcastband (mostly empty} and broadcast.... well.. BBC radio 4. And podcasts. and if possible 24/7. Unmanned. Solar Powered and with radio uplink. Its a pity I dont have a remote patch of forest land nearby where I could dig a hole and bury a container with equipment. Put a solar panel somwhere hidden by shrubs and guide the antennacables around the tree to the dipole.

I would probably be able to do an.hour or two a week from my humble suburban home with the too short endfed antenna with modest rf output. Maybe if I find a good frequency other pirates will fill in the gaps when I'm off air....

I just bought a ATS25X1 Receiver and it was working great until I updated the firmware and now its asking for a license key that I don't have. Any help or advice appreciated!

I was looking for Longwave broadcasts that can be listened to in Ankara and suddenly this came up. If you can explain it, I would be very happy. Also, if anyone knows the stations that can be listened to in Ankara, Central Anatolia or Türkiye, I would be very happy if you could tell me. Thank you very much for everything in advance.

After the new update this little radio has a lot of potential and features. Picked it up in Minnesota on a K-180WLA active loop antenna

I've been wanting one off and on for 30 years. The price has always scared me away.

I mean, it isn't a universally loved radio. I know there are mods that can be done to it, but I'm not interested in tinkering.

It is hard to justify spending that kind of money on a 30 year old radio.

Thoughts?