I’m a casual SWL on the BC bands away from my ham activities. I listen to a lot more if I have the time.
Wonder if anyone else listens to other frequencies for non broadcast stations?
Being a radio ham I wonder if anyone listens to the ham bands - I realise you need SSB to listen to them. There are a few cheap chinese HF receivers that do SSB. Not the best but they do work for basic stuff. There is occasional AM/ FM activity on the ham bands, notably around the 29.600 MHz FM calling frequency.
And there is CB across the 27Mhz band
I also listen to other things on HF including aircraft weather broadcasts like VOLMET but these are also SSB.
Of course there is also plenty to listen to away from HF on VHF/ UHF. As it’s local you can often pick a few signals up using a cheap walkie / talkie. Don’t expect miracles and sometimes you have to be patient to hear an activation
BTW - always willing to chat to anyone that might be curious about starting in ham radio if I can help them - I may have a UK slant on that
I’m mostly casual for the most part, all over the spectrum. Lately getting into digital just to see what is there like FT8 really interesting to see just how far you get get packets from. Also ADS-B aircraft transponders at 1090Mhz, and P25 trunked calls (though most have gone encrypted now). Sometimes fun to watch the aircraft plots on virtual radar while listening in on their voice (I do listen in on the HAM bands, I’m using SDR’s so am, fm, ssb, cw not issues for them, my really old Grundig yachtboy has developed issues over the years so rarely used anymore)
I’m a Ham Radio operator that has lost his licence some 40 years ago and now I’m back again on the radio hobby after a long time away. For now I operate CB and Freeband DX but I also listen to the Ham Bands and commercial short wave radio… I’m now living in the country side and have a nice mountain position for receiving. I find it very interesting to explore the air-waves and with the current technology it has become less expensive and much easier…
Hello, besides radio broadcasts, I really enjoy listening to coastal radio stations and aeronautical radio (Volmet and Air Traffic). Receiving coastal radio stations on the medium wave band is exciting and very dependent on propagation conditions. Here in Bremen (Northern Germany), I can regularly receive the coastal radio stations Lyngby Radio, Stockholm Radio, and Roma Radio. But I’ve also managed to receive coastal radio stations in Australia (VMC Charleville and VMW Wiluna).
Living at 1208 feet ASL, I have a very desirable location for radio of all kinds.
I listen for broadcast stations pretty much exclusively, but do like to search for various VOLMET transmissions.
I’m an avid medium and longwave DX chaser, so I’m ambivalent about the recent BBC closures on MW. On one hand, I’m very unhappy about the BBC incrementally giving up their MW presence after 104 years. On the other hand, it allows those distant stations to be heard where Radio 5 Live and BBC local services used to be.
I’m also a licensed amateur (MW0LDJ) mostly active on VHF, and am still very active on the UKFM CB band and the EU band on SSB. There’s a group of 8 of us who have been on since the pirate AM days of the late 1970’s who never gave it up despite 6 of us getting ham licenses. I was also active on the superb 934MHz CB band until it was taken from us in 1998. I’ve still got all my 934MHz gear and there are still occasional operators who pop up from time to time. They’re probably people who bought an old Cybernet Delta or a Reftec off eBay thinking it was a standard CB, and turning it on for a couple of days before re-selling it.
I really enjoy listening to so called “Utility” stations - basically anything on HF that isn’t a SW broadcast. Sure, most of the sensitive stuff is encrypted but you can still hear some interesting stuff if you’re diligent.
I drift down to MW & LW occasionally. Great in the evenings but sadly the number of stations is declining.
Sad as I remember as a kid always asking my father to tune the car radio to music stations like Radio Luxembourg
