Finding my way back into SWL.
Forgotten everything I knew from way back in the 1960s/ 1970s when I started on an old Grundig Yachtboy !
I am a radio ham but occasionally take time to listen to the BC bands and whatever else I can receive including the wide spectrun of VHF & UHF.
Only just back into my ham radio after 40+ years.Setting up again virtually from scratch. Just using my ham gear for listening. The ham gear seems to give me great results on the other bands.. Aiming to add to my antennas this summer.so will see if that improves my SWL too.
Currently trying to get my head around how best to log what I’ve heard.If anyone can recommend some logging software that would be great. Possibly just setup a spreadsheet for the time being
Possibility of doing some recordings of audio / video if I can find the tiime.
I’m a total beginner in SWL , even though iv had the XHData 808 some time now.
It was mainly used for fm until I decided to get a Raddy rf919 , as the 919 reminded so much of a radio i recieved for Christmas in the 70’s and used to love just exploring fm and mw as a kid.
Now I’m enjoying exploring short wave and realised how capable the XHData 808 is too.
I’m not really techy, so my preference to keeping notes of frequencies is in a note book. Though I still haven’t figured out a good way to record what iv listened to.
I got into shortwave when I was 19 and advanced into the hobby further over the years.
I had made many logging’s over the years and some QSL cards. This site has now been very extremely helpful in knowing when certain stations are broadcasting at the moment
As another Ham, who mostly listens, I can wholeheartedly recommend “Audacity” as an audio recording application. Cross platform (so it runs on Windows, Linux and others) and if you set it for Mono recording at 16k samples/second, it’s economical enough with disk space that you can have it running while you tune around, so you don’t miss anything, and the quality of the recording doesn’t unduly suffer either.
You can also edit and filter the recordings after the event, and save the results in separate files.
Of course, if you still have, or can find a reel to reel tape recorder, you can go fully old school!
Video (screen) recording, not tried that myself, but no doubt there are several choices about, depending on your OS and needs.
