10-10-2013, 03:51 PM
I doubt that you are in a minority Robert, there are many folks doing SWL and MWL DX, as you say it's not easy and is quite a challenge with receivers that do not have a full product detector with sideband selection when doing amature SWL DX.
In the early days it was mainly CW, if they were lucky they might have had a receiver with Xtal filter for single signal reception, those receivers with a Xtal filter were very good, still as good today 70 odd years on as they were back then, the only downside is that you need safe crackers fingers and a good oscillator to get it bang on the nose.
Ham radio operators and enthusiasts have done some remarkable work since the inception of Ham radio, always at the forefront of what can be done with various affordable technologies that came their way.
Take direct conversion receivers for example, these were heavily promoted 30 years or more ago in homebrew circles, they knew instinctively that they were on to something despite the audio image limitations of the early designs.
Now they have come full circle and of age, almost all modern forms of radio communication now use the principle of direct conversion from mobile phones to the military.
SDR is another area where Hams have been at the forefront, live SDR on your computer from installations all over the world, no need for a signal report, hear what your transmission actually sounds like from the part of the world your beaming at, all amazing stuff.
Ham radio is still very much alive on all fronts and long may it continue, weather folks have a fully operational station or just a simple regen or just experimenting.
Lawrence.
In the early days it was mainly CW, if they were lucky they might have had a receiver with Xtal filter for single signal reception, those receivers with a Xtal filter were very good, still as good today 70 odd years on as they were back then, the only downside is that you need safe crackers fingers and a good oscillator to get it bang on the nose.
Ham radio operators and enthusiasts have done some remarkable work since the inception of Ham radio, always at the forefront of what can be done with various affordable technologies that came their way.
Take direct conversion receivers for example, these were heavily promoted 30 years or more ago in homebrew circles, they knew instinctively that they were on to something despite the audio image limitations of the early designs.
Now they have come full circle and of age, almost all modern forms of radio communication now use the principle of direct conversion from mobile phones to the military.
SDR is another area where Hams have been at the forefront, live SDR on your computer from installations all over the world, no need for a signal report, hear what your transmission actually sounds like from the part of the world your beaming at, all amazing stuff.
Ham radio is still very much alive on all fronts and long may it continue, weather folks have a fully operational station or just a simple regen or just experimenting.
Lawrence.
