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It's going to be a long 300km...
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  #1  
Old 22 Apr 2008
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Cheap shortwave radios
Hi,

Has anyone got any experience with cheap shortwave radios. I've seen ones with digital tuner for as little as £5-10 on ebay.

Are they worth it, or a waste of money?

Bjorn
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  #2  
Old 22 Apr 2008
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Cheap Shortwave radios - No thanks!
Honestly they simply aren't worth the money... Pay less than about £30 and you're asking for trouble.

Stick with a well made reliable make like ROBERTS who market good quality SW radios. They sell a small radio which in the UK is sold at £29 and is available from most High Street Electrical retailers.

Remember that the antenna is almost as important as the radio itself. The best bet for RTW bikers is of course the venerable long wire, a simple length of wire which is simply stretched between two posts. The longer the better although to get the best reception on a particular frequency, you need to work out the exact length using an established half wave formular.
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  #3  
Old 22 Apr 2008
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This one came up a not to long ago actually - you may find this thread helpful

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...ighlight=radio

m
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  #4  
Old 4 May 2008
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World Service Reception in Europe
I'm thinking of taking a radio with me to Scandinavia this summer. But with the march to digitalise everything, the BBC have switched off SW transmissions for Europe.

The best information I can gather from their website is that I can only pick it up if they have a local partner broadcasting on FM or digital (unlikely in remote areas) or cable (equally unlikely in a tent!)

Seems the days of packing a lightweight SW portable for the cricket scores are a thing of the past. Digital's fine, when it works, but in this case, it ain't necessarily progress. Plus as someone on the other thread pointed out, they use a lot more juice.

I did email Auntie for advice but maybe Matt can suggest something?

Indoors.
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Old 5 May 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Indoors View Post
I'm thinking of taking a radio with me to Scandinavia this summer. But with the march to digitalise everything, the BBC have switched off SW transmissions for Europe.
BBC World Service - Radio Schedules & Frequencies

I notice they're still broadcasting to Western Russia, given the relative closeness you might get it in Scandinavia too? And I would have thought in Western Scandinavia you'll also probably get BBC Radio 4 on 198 LW. I'm in Central Brittany and it's coming through loud and strong.
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Old 5 May 2008
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Fair points, Alex, radio signals aren't respecters of national boundaries. In fact, back in the bad old days, Radio Moscow used to broadcast on the same frequencies as the World Service just to drown it out.

Whatever happens, I'll probably still take a radio with me if only for a little background noise in the evenings.

Indoors.
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Old 7 May 2008
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Hey guys - sorry been away and not been looking at HUBB - naughty me!

Alex has pointed you in the right direction.

The Beeb has stopped broadcasting to Europe pretty much for financial reasons rather than digital reasons.

The World Service is funded by the Government directly and has to show that it is providing value for money / broader public serivce - as less and less people listened to the World Service using shortwave that became more and more difficult to prove.

And so the decision was made to cease broadcasting to Europe using Shortwave, but instead to start transmissions using DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale). As DRM becomes more widespread across Europe more and more people are discovering the BBC WS - and the reception is better!

More details over at BBC World Service - Help and FAQs - Shortwave changes for Europe

Hope that helps :-) Incidentally - I never leave home without my SW - I've not even seen a DRM set in the shops yet - never mind a portable one.

m
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  #8  
Old 8 May 2008
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Thumbs up SW radio
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  #9  
Old 14 May 2008
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as kentfallen said, the antenna is a big issue. Just carry 30ft of thin gauge insulated copper wire with stripped ends, it's a very small bundle. Attach one end to your radio antenna and the other end to a tree or even hang it out of a hotel window. You'll be fine with that. If it's "overloading" your radio (signals too strong and on top of each other) just shorten the wire.

The world of shortwave is amazing, with or without the BBC (which I personally avoid ). If you want english, most countries have very good quality English service - there's Deutsche Welle, Radio China International, Netherlands, Russia, South Africa, VOA, etc etc

Recently in South Africa I was listening to good quality news broadcasts in english from Radio China, which was very strong on shortwave.
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  #10  
Old 18 Jul 2008
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We bought a cheap 5 pound 11 band radio withmanual adjustments at Maplins; small enough to pack and not worry about if we never used it.

We got stuck in Marsabit for 6 days during the election violence and this was the only way we had of getting the latest information of what was happening. It was a great help.

Funnny though how you can stay fixed onto BBCWS or WOA for the whole hour and just as the news jingle starts you loose the station...
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