SWL With my 6000 series radio

KC2QMA_John

One thing that does not get much attention here on the forum is Short Wave Listening, The flex 6000 radios are amazing for SWL and sound amazing. I’ve been reading that Shortwave radio is making a slow comeback. It will be nice to hear more music & news from around the world again on the shortwave bands.

Some of the things I like about using a FlrexRadio to SWL are I take advantage of the “Memories” feature in SmatSDR and continue to build Shortwave radio database for easy recall.

I also use SmartSDR’s built-in NR & WNB noise reduction when necessary and it works great pulling stations out of the noise.

And the built-in SAM (synchronous Amplitude Modulation) Mode is perfect for SWL and dealing with signal fading.

FlexRadio has made listening to shortwave radio fun like it was when I was a younger with an old Hammarlund radio late at night listening to some distant stations breaking through the noise, but with 21st century tools like a FlexRadio it’s brought some of that excitement back.again.

What are some of the thoughts you have about using your flex for SWL.

Ken Hansen

Some of the SDR software written for the lower-priced dongle-Type SDRs actually refers to an on-line database and puts tags where currently on-the-air SW broadcasters should be... A great resource is the website http://swling.com/ I’ve enjoyed using my 6300 for SWL as well.

KC2QMA_John

Would love to see the Spotting/Tags database feature in SmarSDR in the future.

Cliff

Also enjoy the 6500 for SWL though in this part of the world not a lot in English these days.
The Elad FDM-DUO I sold had the Database feature also

Tom

Klingenfuss ( http://www.klingenfuss.org/homepage.htm ) produce a yearly updated CD containing a huge database on various stations. Sometime ago I made a suggestion that future versions of SSDR has an option of loading a frequency of interest directly into Flex radio from Klingenfuss CD. Quite possibly Kingenfuss would be wiling to modify their future versions of CD so it could work with Flex radios, like most recently, it works with KiwiSDR.
There has been no response about my idea.

Tom, SP7WT

Mike W1BFA in Maine

My 6500 works grand for SWL. What is also amazing is the SWL machine KE9NS has made of the PSDR series radio. If you get a chance check out the videos on his website. It really has made it difficult for me to let my 5000 go... on screen spots, direct access to SW bands via buttons like the ham bands, easy memories and much more. Mike W1BFA

W3FJJ

Did a lot of SWLing back in 70's with an old Hallicrafters S-120, four tube RX. Was thinking how
great it would be to have s SDR, of today,  back then.    No doubt it would be be great, but I wouldnt give up my fond memories of hours listening/searching  the bands for DX, and interesting BC. It was quite a challenge
with no digital readout, drift, lousy filtering, low resolution tuning....
Today , I use my Flex6300 quite a bit,  to scan the bands, sure wish there was more to listen to.

Mike VE3CKO

My Flex 5000A is great but with the WNB on the 6700 it's better. What is even better and even more of an overkill is using a 3 element SteppIR. Wish I had these tools back in the late 60's and thru the 70's when I did a great deal of SWLing.

WK2Y

I still do a bit of listening from time to time.  One thing I find very handy is http://shortwaveschedule.com/   Takes a bit of the adventure out of it, but it's still fun. One advantage of the Flex is to be able to  send a recording as the QSL verification    It is amazing to see just how much broadcasting is still being done.
73, Bob WK2Y