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TELE-audiovision.com—
01-02/2015 —
TELE-audiovision International —
全球发行量最大的数字电视杂志
the sick and injured, respond-
ing to accidents and traffic
troubles along with an array
of other catastrophes that
plague neighborhoods when
disasters strike. A wideband
receiver such as a DVB-T don-
gle will allow one to monitor a
very wide swath of frequen-
cies used by first responders
and will keep you informed
with what is happening long
before discovery by the news
media.
If your thirst for adventure
needs to be assuaged then
adding a converter in tandem
such as the Ham It Up RF up-
converter
(www.nooelec.com)will expand the frequency
range of the dongle down to
the LF (Low Frequency), MF
(Medium Frequency), and HF
(High Frequency) areas of the
radio spectrum thus allow-
ing you to listen to shortwave
broadcasts, shortwave util-
ity stations, the AM broad-
cast band, and the Longwave
band. As a avid shortwave
listener since the 1960’s I
purchased the Ham It Up up-
converter from Nooelec.com
with undue haste after my
dongle arrived since my in-
terests included reception of
shortwave radio broadcasts,
time signal stations such as
WWV and CHU, RTTY (Radio-
TeleType), WEFAX (Weather
Facsimile), DGPS (Differential
Global Position System), NAV-
TEX (Navigational Telex), CW
(Morse Code), ALE (Automatic
Link Establishment), Sitor B
(Simplex Teletype Over Ra-
dio Mode B), and many other
non-voice digital modes that
abound on shortwave.
Several versions of upcon-
verters are on the market that
will pair with the SDR dongle
ranging in cost from $40.00
USD and up. Some, like the
Ham It Up require a sepa-
rate five volt power source,
additional connectors, and of
course another antenna de-
signed for shortwave recep-
tion. The Ham It Up upcon-
verter uses a 125 MHz crystal
oscillator to shift the dongle’s
LO (Local Oscillator) up by 125
MHz. It is a very well-made,
well-documented, and excel-
lent product that comes at a
very low price, $44.95 USD.
Once you have your upcon-
verter you’ll have to erect an
antenna such as simple out-
door 30 to 50 foot wire strung
as high as possible. This an-
tenna will suffice initially but
again, there’s a limitless sup-
ply of commercially available
shortwave antennas on the
market and many antenna
designs available Do-It-Your-
selfers on the Internet. For
apartment dwellers and those
with antenna restrictions all is
not lost, as there are several
manufacturers of indoor “ac-
tive antennas.” By “active” is
meant that the antenna has
built in circuitry to amplify re-
ceived signals and attenuate
unwanted signals. One such
supplier if MFJ Enterprises
Inc.,
(www.mfjenterprises.
com), a long-time reputable
manufacturer of an array of
amateur radio and shortwave
products. You can also check
Universal Radio Inc., (www.
universal-radio.com) for their
selection of active indoor an-
tennas. And happily, SDR#
and HDSDR will work per-
fectly when using the dongle/
converter combination.
Let’s discuss a bit more
about what’s to be heard on
shortwave using your dongle
with an upconverter. The high
frequency (HF) band by con-
vention spans the range of 2
– 30 MHz and in this 28 MHz
of spectrum you’ll find for-
eign broadcast stations such
as Radio Habana Cuba, BBC,
WBCQ, VOA (Voice of Amer-
ica), Voice of Vietnam, Radio
Japan, and Radio Romania to
name a few. Stations broad-
casting on HF use AM mode
and are found in distinct,
designated regions of the HF
spectrum. These distinct re-
gions are called “shortwave
bands” and are classified ac-
cording to wavelength such
as the 60m (60 meter), 41m,
31m, 25m bands etc. In all,
there are approximately a
11. AM broadcast band, 540 –
1710 MHz, through the eyes of
the dongle radio.
12. 31m shortwave band (9.4
– 9.9 MHz) is home to several
shortwave broadcasters
including Radio Romania
International, Radio New
Zealand International, Radio
Habana Cuba, and Radio Japan.