Eton E100 owner manual Shortwave Listening Guide, Understanding Shortwave Bands, Introduction

E100 OWNER’S MANUAL

12 SHORTWAVE LISTENING GUIDE

UNDERSTANDING SHORTWAVE BANDS:

THE KEY TO ENJOYING YOUR SHORTWAVE RADIO

Introduction

Now that you have a shortwave radio, no doubt you’ll want to hear worldwide stations right away. If you’re new to shortwave, please take some time to learn the basics outlined below. To successfully listen to shortwave stations you must know how to find them. They are found in the shortwave bands. If you’re an experienced short- wave listener, you’ll know what bands are and how to use them, but if you’re new, you’ll need to learn about bands first. After that, you will have excellent success. Please read on.

What are bands? To fully enjoy shortwave listening, this is the most important concept to learn right away.

If you have ever listened to AM or FM radio, then you already know what a band is. The AM band is a frequency range stretching form 530 to 1600 kilohertz, the FM band is 66-108 megahertz. A band is simply a frequency range where stations are located. When you look for stations in these “bands”, you simply tune around with your tuning buttons (or the tuning knob on an analog radio) until you find a station you like. Shortwave is similar and the shortwave bands have names like 25 meters, 31 meters, 49 meters, etc. These are abbrevi- ated 25m, 31m and 49m. Just like in AM and FM radio, one simply gets into the shortwave band and tunes around, looking for stations.

For example, the 19 meter shortwave band encompasses the frequency range of 15100 to 15600 kilohertz. In the chart below is a list of the shortwave bands used for international shortwave broadcasts and their corresponding frequency ranges. Since some radios show frequency in megahertz and some in kilohertz, both are

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