SWL, what is it?
Since the invention of radio, there have been folks who enjoy hunting up and down the radio dial looking for signals from far away. This activity is known as DX’ing. An offshoot of DX’ing is Short Wave Listening. The shortwave bands are loosely defined as the frequencies above the AM broadcast band and below 30Mhz.
Prior to the internet, the shortwave bands were used for dissemination of international news, political propaganda, education, as a way for ex-patriots to hear programming in their native language, and even for spy stations. The shortwave bands were buzzing with activity up until the late 1990’s when the internet boomed.
Contrary to popular belief, there are still plenty of shortwave signals out there. Many countries still operate their shortwave stations and there are still pirates and numbers stations showing up at random. Since just about every single shortwave radio made covers the AM broadcast band, SWL hobbyist can also enjoy AM DX’ing.
Shortwave capable radios have been made since the dawn of radio itself. This makes SWL’ing and DX’ing one of the most affordable radio related hobbies one can dive into. You can spend thousands on the latest tech or you can spend under $50 and still have a very capable older radio.
Unfortunately, modern tech has led to an inundation of household items that produce local interference on AM broadcast and shortwave frequencies. This might not be such a bad thing if you enjoy being outside. Take your radio outdoors, get away from the interference and in the fresh air. There’s absolutely no reason you can’t enjoy this aspect of the radio hobby while sitting under a shade tree in a park or out on a beach.
For more information on SWL, follow this link…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortwave_listening
For more information on AM DX’ing, follow this link…