Eton E10 operation manual Listening to Shortwave Stations

E 1 0 O P E R AT I O N M A N U A L

11LISTENING TO SHORTWAVE STATIONS

LISTENING TO SHORTWAVE STATIONS continued

Are you new to shortwave listening? If so, you’ll want to read this section and the next section called UNDERSTANDING SHORTWAVE BANDS.

WHAT ARE SHORTWAVE STA- TIONS?

These are radio broadcast stations around the world broadcasting on frequencies that can be heard over vast distances, often many thousands of miles. In the United States, there are also about 30 domestic shortwave broadcasters with religious, politically and ideologically oriented broadcasts.

WHY LISTEN TO SHORTWAVE STATIONS?

There are many reasons why you may enjoy short- wave stations. Here are just some, as reported to us by our customers.

•Listening to news and information from other world sources often exposes you to different and unique perspectives on national and world events.

•Exposure to other languages and cultures, including their music and perspectives. Hearing a country’s native or ‘folk’ music can be very enjoy- able, even if you don’t understand the language.

•Learning a language by hearing native speakers.

•Keeping in touch with another part of the world, perhaps your original homeland or that of your family’s heritage.

•Religious, politically and ideologically oriented broadcasts.

GENERAL SHORTWAVE ‘RULES- OF-THUMB’

•Night shortwave reception is usually better than daytime shortwave. This can change from time-to- time, so it’s worth checking the bands during the day too.

•During daytime the most active shortwave bands are 13, 15, 16, 19, and 22 meters. 16 and 19 usu- ally being the best. At night, the most active bands are 25, 31, 41 and 49 meters, with 31 and 49 usu- ally best.

•Around sunset and sunrise, both the day and night bands may be good, sometimes exceptionally good. Listening at these times can often be quite rewarding.

•The construction materials of some buildings severely block shortwave signals. To counteract this, hold the radio in your hands and get very close to a window.

SELECTING A SHORTWAVE METER BAND WITH THE E10

All 14 of the international broadcast bands can be accessed with the E10. The bands are numbered 120, 90, 75, 60, 49, 31, 25, 22, 19, 16, 15, 13 and 11 meters and are commonly called ‘Meter Bands’.

The E10 offers two ways to access a shortwave band. Each method places the tuner at the begin- ning of the band’s frequency range.

1.Each successive quick, short press of the button labeled SW METER BAND (16) places the radio at the beginning of a band. While pressing the but- ton, the band number shows in the upper right cor- ner of the display (50) and disappears a few sec- onds after it is released, causing the clock to reap- pear in the corner. Start tuning only after the clock reappears. If you don’t wait, then method 2, below will automatically be used.

2.Perform one quick, short press of the button labeled SW METER BAND, immediately followed by quick, short presses of either the Up/Hour or Down/Min. tuning buttons. The band number appears in the upper right corner of the display. Once the band of choice is selected, start tuning after the clock reappears in the upper right corner.

AUTO-SCAN TUNING WHILE IN SHORTWAVE

In shortwave, auto-scan tuning scans in the short- wave frequency ranges noted in the Band Chart below. To tune shortwave frequencies that are in- between these ranges, or outside of these ranges, use one of the other tuning methods, e.g. Regular Tuning (manual tuning) or Direct Frequency Entry as discussed titled TUNING IN STATIONS.

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