I was initially drawn to Amateur Radio through shortwave listening. I purchased a Yaesu FRG-100B shortwave receiver with my first bonus after joining Hewlett-Packard, my first employer after graduating from Idaho State University, way back in 1992.
Sadly, most shortwave broadcasters (government funded) have left the airwaves and moved to streaming via the Internet. This saddens me, as much of what is left is religious fanatics and pirate radio, making it much less attractive to listen to. There are still a number of good broadcasters out there however.
The real value in many of these broadcasters was, and remains, their international view on the news. There is quite a bit of international news that our local media outlets seldom have the bandwidth to let us know about.
For those without a shortwave receiver, here is a short list of interesting international broadcasters with an internet presence:
- BBC World Service
- Deutche Welle (Voice of Germany)
- NHK World (Japan)
- National Public Radio (NPR) - USA
- Public Radio International
- Radio Australia
- Radio Canada International
- Radio France Internationale (RFI)
- Radio Havana Cuba
- Radio New Zealand which can still be heard most evenings on 13,840khz
- Radio Netherlands
- United Nations Radio
- Voice of America
- Voice of Russia
If you want to try listening to shortwave on your HF transceiver, here’s the band plan (click on the image for an enlarged view in a new browser tab):
