Listening to the radio frequency bands.
How to start an amateur radio hobby?
Learning to listen is the first task when starting with the amateur radio hobby. As one experienced amateur radio operator said - you need to listen well before transmitting.
Amateur radio, often called "ham radio," is a fascinating hobby that connects people across distances through radio waves. It's a world where you can explore electronics, communication, and even assist in emergencies, all while engaging with a global community.
There are 3 practical sources of the signals on the bands
- Shortwave radio transmitters.
- Amateur radio stations
- Other band traffic - control towers and aeroplanes
- License free bands - e.g. UHF.
The number of shortwave broadcast transmitters has diminished in the past years but there are still many shortwave transmitters to listen to. There are specific websites on the internet which provide information about the frequency and schedule of all shortwave broadcast stations worldwide.
The broadcast bands are as follows:
- 120 m band: ~2300–2495 kHz (2.300–2.495 MHz)
- 90 m band: ~3200–3400 kHz (3.200–3.400 MHz)
- 75 m band: ~3900–4000 kHz (3.900–4.000 MHz)
- 60 m band: ~4750–5060 kHz (4.750–5.060 MHz)
- 49 m band: ~5900–6200 kHz (5.900–6.200 MHz)
- 41 m band: ~7200–7600 kHz (7.200–7.600 MHz)
- 31 m band: ~9400–9900 kHz (9.400–9.900 MHz)
- 25 m band: ~11500–12100 kHz (11.5–12.1 MHz)
- 22 m band: ~13500–13800 kHz (13.5–13.8 MHz)
- 19 m band: ~15100–15800 kHz (15.1–15.8 MHz)
- 16 m band: ~17550–17900 kHz (17.55–17.9 MHz)
- 13 m band: ~21450–21850 kHz (21.45–21.85 MHz)
In general during daytime hours, the longer wavelengths provide a better listening experience. During the evening hours - especially when dusk sets in, it is a good time to try the shorter waveslengths for reception.
During the times of communist Czechoslovakia (until 1989) there was a special radiocommunication department which operated very strong interference transmitters, with the aim of blocking reception from the Voice of America, and Free Europe into the country. I know that we could still hear the stations (not always) but it required a lot of fine tuning to get the old receivers to hear anything at all.
XHData D-808 pocket receiver.
This is a pocket receiver operating on all bands including amateur bands. The receiver is available from the usual online shops for about £70. It can be charged with a standard mobile phone charger. The receiver enables the listener to plug in a long wire antenna, which is being sold with an elegant plastic coil for about £10.
There is also a shorter wire antenna supplied with the receiver.
In terms of operating the receiver there are two or three things worth mentioning for complete beginners.
For amateur bands it is necessary to switch the receiver to SSB mode. The SSB has 2 types of modulation - upper sideband and lower side band. For frequencies above 10MHz, the upper side band option must be used. For frequencies lower than 10MHz you need to use the lower side band option. The options are chosen to use the SSB round button.
In addition, the tuning steps across the chosen frequency can be chosen between 1kHz and 5kHz - fine tune and coarse tune respectively. You will get soon used to it.
The last option which is not obvious is the possibility to choose an entry filter bandwidth - it is between 1kHz and 4kHz in steps. It seems that 2.7 kHz brings the best fidelity of the received signal and audio. 2.7kHz is the setting used for best results - the band width originates in the voice frequencies.
In general amateur radio bands do not permit transmission of music, so the voice , morse code or specific beacon tone is the only type of transmitted audio to be heard.
The amateur radio bands are specified here and you can also see the actual data about propagation of the waves across the bands and compare them to your reception experience.