SWLing is a lot like fishing – you never know what you’re gonna get.
Shortwave bands
Armed with a couple of iPad Apps, I try and pick a target continent and band to listen to. There are many websites that could also help you find optimum frequencies and bands at any given time of day. I didn’t actually have much luck here.
http://www.primetimeshortwave.com/
http://www.short-wave.info/index.php
http://www.shortwaveschedule.com/
http://www1.s2.starcat.ne.jp/ndxc/is/bib12.txt
The speaker first mentions using the Waveguide app on an iPad to check which bands are open to Europe or other locations. The app shows a lot of yellow, which indicates the 20-meter band is open to Europe. They also see some green and blue, indicating the 30 and 60-meter bands, respectively, are partially open. The speaker then mentions receiving Tokyo in a brown color, which corresponds to the 15-meter band.
The speaker then opens an SWBCS-Sched program to search for stations. They first click the “on now” button and then select the 22-meter band to see what’s available. The program shows a list of stations with their language, frequency, and location. The speaker mentions trying to pick up a station at 13,855 kHz but doesn’t hear anything. They then pick up a carrier at 13,715 kHz, which they suspect is a jamming signal. They also hear a hash every ten seconds, which they think is an electric fence, as there are many farms in the area.
The transcript describes a method for finding shortwave stations by using an app to check which bands are open and then using an SWBCS-Sched program to search for available stations on the selected band. The speaker also briefly discusses some signals they pick up while searching.
