[Tig] SWL here (was: Ham operators)

[Rob Lingelbach]

On Jul 6, 2007, at 4:34 PM, rlovejoy at comcast.net wrote:
>
>      With all this talk of Ham Radio going on, I just wanted to  
> step in as an avid SWL (Shortwave Listener).

And if your Avid isn't properly shielded, you might be able to use it  
to SWL!  I think most hams started out as SWLers and then got the  
thrill of their lives when they made their first "QSO" (two-way  
contact on the air).  I was living in an apartment in Glendale  
California in 1983 and had just bought a used Heathkit HW101  
transceiver.  Using a makeshift dipole on the roof of the building  
(having climbed out the window with an inverse leap to get on the  
top) I made my first contact the day I received my license.  I had  
called "CQ CQ CQ de KB6CUN KB6CUN KB6CUN" on an open frequency in the  
20 meter band in the evening (usually good, at that time, for  
something out to the South Pacific) and a station heard me!  It was a  
station on the other end of Glendale, about 5 miles away.  Still it  
was like being on stage the first time, or doing my first color  
correction or edit session.  I still have the guy's QSL (station)  
card somewhwere..

> When I was nine years old my parents got me a Hallicrafters S-38D  
> shortwave radio, and I've had a shortwave radio ever since.  It was  
> thrilling to hear live broadcasts from all over the world, and  
> DXing became a major hobby over the years.  Since the advent of  
> satellites and the Internet, shortwave radio has faded somewhat  
> from its peak.  I now get the BBC World Service on XM radio, but I  
> miss the atmospheric phasing (my current Sony 2010 has an  
> asynchronous detector that also gets rid of a lot of that, but I  
> digress).

I had two 2010s over the years they're great radios, still among the  
best portable all-band radios around.  Only problem is the  
granularity of the tuning, it just barely works for SSB.
>      Terry just was talking about VHF DX and that's always  
> impressive.  I remember getting an FM station from Florida when I  
> was at Syracuse eons ago.  And when I was in Boston, we woke up one  
> Sunday to find WGBH-TV off the air and WCBS coming in strong.   
> Guess you have to be a nerd!

Nerd index of hams is the highest.  My most thrilling DX, as 2-way  
contacts, while driving in the desert between LA and the Grand  
Canyon, when I chatted with someone in New Zealand on 25 watts at  
29.6 MHz.  Then there was the time, when an atmospheric inversion was  
in place (happens all the time in LA), I talked with a couple of guys  
at the tip of Baja California on 144 MHz (VHF) with my handie-talkie,  
I think that was something like 600 miles.

>      I guess shortwave and color correction aren't that far apart.   
> In either case, there's some serious adjustments to be made to get  
> the desired result.  Happy knob twisting!

I wish all facilities had routing switchers where we could 'listen  
in' (in this case "watch in") on other suites, other jobs, like we  
used to when everything was on the router.  It's not that far away  
from DXing.  At home in the Hollywood Hills, I used to DX baby  
monitors (they are wireless transceivers in the 49 MHz band, unless  
they've gone up-frequency since) in the homes nearby.  The things I  
heard... one neighbor was at his wit's end because his car wouldn't  
start, so I drove over with a pair of jumper cables.. he couldn't  
figure out how I knew, until I fibbed that I'd heard him trying to  
start the car.

--
Rob Lingelbach
http://www.colorist.org/robhome.html
rob at calarts.edu