By Tim, WK4U Article 5 in a series of 5 While it’s midnight here in Atlanta, it’s only 9pm on the West coast. Many folks are still awake in North America. Some stations are still broadcasting our way. Maybe favoring the “left” side if possible. It’s an interesting time. Not too many people to broadcast in their evening hours right now. Use any gray line program to see for yourself. Many broadcasts are either domestic, North American, or mostly towards Eastern Africa and the Middle East right now. So Tim, if I’m up this late, what are some of the […]

By Tim, WK4U Article 4 in a series of 5 The gray line, also known as the terminator (I’ll be baaack) is practically here. Do you know we can use the gray line to communicate (or hear other stations) much easier than normal? When it’s dusk here in Atlanta (in August), you can make contact with stations in Southern Greenland, Northern Scandinavia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Western India quite easily. Load any gray line program on your computer to see for yourself. By the way, if you’re an aspiring SWL or ham DX’er, you’ll use the gray line often. Sometimes twice […]

By Tim Lemmon, WK4U Article 3 in a series of 5 Yep, 4pm is probably the worst time to hear broadcast stations on short wave. Even worse than lunch time! Some of the North American pirate radio stations start broadcasting about this time. More common a little later in the evening. Especially on weekends and holidays. 6925 USB is still best, but a somewhat active secondary frequency is 6850 (USB or AM). Try them both! Right now (at 4pm local) the grayline curve is hovering over Sweeden, Southern England, France and Spain – headed our way. We still have 4-5 […]

By Tim Lemmon, WK4U Article 2 in a series of 5 People ask, is it possible to hear anything interesting on short wave radio at lunchtime? Does short wave radio even work during the daytime? Actually yes and yes. Lunch time is about the worst time to hear programming material on short wave radio. Why? Because world-wide broadcasters are beaming their signals to parts of the world that are currently in their evening hours. The thought is more people listen at home after work. They don’t listen as much during the day. Especially at lunch time. But can we hear […]

By Tim Lemmon, WK4U Article 1 in a series of 5 In the morning, after you eat breakfast, how far can you communicate on 40 meters? How far can you HEAR signals on 7 MHz from Atlanta? 500 miles? 1000 miles?? California maybe??? Probably not that far – right? What if I said you CAN hear signals from thousands of miles away on 7 MHz. Would you believe me? Tune your radio to 7575 in the AM mode (8-10am Atlanta time) and you’ll hear the Voice Of America (VOA) broadcasting to the Far East in their evening hours from … […]