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    Short-Wave Radio Reception
    Short-Wave Radio Reception
    Short-Wave Radio Reception
    Ebook111 pages1 hour

    Short-Wave Radio Reception

    By W. Oliver

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    About this ebook

    Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateOct 13, 2011
    ISBN9781447492542
    Short-Wave Radio Reception

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      Book preview

      Short-Wave Radio Reception - W. Oliver

      SHORT-WAVE RADIO

      RECEPTION

      CHAPTER I

      INTRODUCTORY

      RECEPTION from stations all over the world is the attractive possibility awaiting any wireless enthusiast who buys, builds, or adapts a set for use on the short waves (meaning wavelengths between about 10 and 100 metres).

      These short waves have peculiar properties which make them extraordinarily effective for long-distance communication. Owing to this fact, stations transmitting on wavelengths below 100 metres can be received over vast distances with apparatus so simple and inexpensive that it is within the reach of anyone who is able to buy or build a valve set at all.

      In fact, the simpler a set is, the better the results it is likely to give on the short waves—provided, of course, that it is of suitable and very efficient design. Highly complicated sets (with the exception of those belonging to the superheterodyne class) are seldom satisfactory for short-wave work.

      With a simple two-valve set of the detector and L.F. type, the author has received, from time to time, broadcasting stations in Canada, the United States, Australia, Kenya, Siam the Dutch East Indies, and many other countries less distant. As to morse transmissions, these can be received regularly from stations in all parts of the world.

      The strength and clarity of signals received from short-wave stations seem to have but little relation to the power of the transmitters or the distance the signals have to traverse. On the short waves, transmissions from stations thousands of miles away can be received at times with the strength and clarity that one usually associates with stations on the ordinary broadcast wavebands that are only a few hundred miles distant.

      Time and space, in fact, seem to be almost annihilated when one is listening on the short waves; the word distance loses its significance. A listener with a short-wave set in London, for example, may tune in an American station at, say, 5 p.m. Greenwich time, and hear a concert that is taking place more than three thousand miles away in New York or Schenectady at lunch-time (since Eastern Standard Time is five hours behind Greenwich Mean Time).

      Stations in Australasia provide an even more striking illustration of the way in which short-wave wireless short-circuits the clock and the calendar. The time-difference between, say, London and Sydney is so great that the wireless waves, fleeting through space at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, may bring to a listener in London during the early evening a transmission that is being radiated from Sydney during the early hours of the following morning!

      There are, of course, one or two drawbacks to short-wave work that sometimes tend to detract from one’s enjoyment of this fascinating pastime. One disadvantage is that results depend very largely on the prevailing conditions of the atmosphere at the time of reception and upon the distribution of daylight and darkness between the transmitting and receiving stations. These variable factors introduce an element of uncertainty into short-wave reception which makes it rather unreliable as a source of entertainment pure and simple, but which heightens the fascination of it as a pastime.

      The only other technical drawback worth mentioning is that the tuning on the short waves is very sharp and critical, which means that rather careful adjustment is required to tune in stations. But there is comparatively little difficulty to be encountered in this direction with up-to-date apparatus, and the little extra skill that is called for, in comparison with that required for tuning an ordinary broadcast receiver, merely adds to the interest of the game.

      Apart from the present aspects of short-wave reception, there can be little doubt that some of the biggest wireless developments of the future will lie in the direction of transmission and reception on short and ultra-short waves, since the longer wavebands above about 200 metres are already overcrowded with transmissions of all kinds and the interference problem on those wavelengths is becoming acute.

      Already the short waves form the principal medium for long-distance radio communication of all kinds. They are used for the international long-distance public telephone channels, such as the transatlantic telephone and the England-Australia telephone.

      In view of the big part that the short waves are already playing in the wireless world of today, and the even bigger part that they are likely to play in the future, it is undoubtedly worth while for any listener, who is not already a short-wave enthusiast, to start exploring this fascinating field of reception.

      CHAPTER II

      SHORT-WAVE RECEIVING APPARATUS

      SOME confusion exists in regard to the term short waves, since it is a purely comparative one. For the purpose of this handbook, the term is applied solely to wavelengths below 100 metres; but many listeners are in the habit of referring to the ordinary broadcast wavelengths between about 200 and 600 metres as short waves, to distinguish them from the relatively long waves of 1,000 to 2,000 metres or thereabouts.

      In view of this confusion of nomenclature, it is advisable to specify, when ordering readymade coils or other components for short-wave reception, that the apparatus is required for use on wavelengths below 100 metres.

      No costly or elaborate apparatus is really necessary for successful long-distance reception on the short waves, and one of the most popular circuits for the purpose is the simple two-valve combination shown in Fig. 1. This consists of a detector-valve operating on the leaky-grid principle, with modified Reinartz reaction, transformer-coupled to a low-frequency valve. A detector and L.F. set designed on these lines is capable of giving world-wide reception below 100 metres when conditions are favourable. The use of a pentode valve in the output stage would give improved signal strength, but would involve an increase in cost and running expenses.

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