Considering that so many of the boxes we own have provisions for shortwave reception how many of us actually use it?

I've been around radios for about 15 years now(since the age of 5)and I've been an avid SWL'er for quite some time and within the past year become a licensed amateur radio operator under the call KC2TAU.

I love being able to hear news and entertainment from all over the world and thus escape the extremely biased view of many US new sources. Listening to news from another country gives you another perspective and helps develop your world view on things. There is also a really big kick out of hearing a signal coming from 4,000 miles away to you. I really don't use my box's option for shortwave for much more than casual listening as the sensitivity and selectivity aren't exactly the best so I use other receivers such as my Telefunken Bajazzo TS 201,my two Kaito portables,my Eton E5 portable or at home I use either my Hammarlund HQ-129X or my Hallicrafters S-53.

I also find the programming to be a cut above anything I hear in the US with great ethnic music programs and stuff like Radio Netherland's look on politics is nearly second to none.

I also just like experimenting and toying around with anything RF related,antennas,etc and this was the reason behind becoming a licensed amateur radio operator. Since receiving my licensed in March I've made about 400 contacts to over 75 countries.

So,anyone else dig shortwave? Your boxes have the option,use it!

I do scan the SW sometimes.
I own a Grundig Satellit 700.
Awesome machinery for SW listening.
After i found something i like on SW , i try to tune in a boombox to that station. Doesn't always work out though. Sw sensitivity on boomboxes is
not all that.

Yeah,you'd be surprised where small portables have come these days. You can pick up a Kaito KA1102 for about $70 shipped and it probably has about 90% of the sensitivity of the famed Sony ICF-2010 and does a fine job. The best small portable I've come across so far is the Eton E5 which I can actually use to monitor numbers stations like E10 MOSSAD and the Lincolnshire Poacher.

Grundig's KILL when it comes to shortwave reception,they're great receiver. Same thing goes for my Telefunken,its a real surprise.

Mostly , i try to scan for SW pirate stations.
There's some cool stuff to be found.
For instance 6220 kHz. A pirate station called mystery radio from Italy. I red reception reports even from the states. Depends on conditions for shure.

Used to scan shortwave more than I do now. Have a ton of radios. The Sony 2010 is probably the best, though the Grundig 700 is certainly a close second. I've done surprisingly well lately with a small Philips LC166 AM/SW analog from India. Also love the National/Panasonic 2600 and 2200, as well as the "biggie" (oversized black radio with the SW spectrum divided up into a kajillion unnecessary bands) National/Panasonic 5000. My current favorite "biggie" is a Channel Master 6248. Biggest desire: a National Panasonic 8000 or 9000. Don't have a car or diamond to trade in on one of those yet, though.

Unfortunately, with the Internet, fast modems and streaming audio/video, listening to overseas programming is quite easy and pretty much makes shortwave radio listening obsolete.

After all these years, the BBC is still my #1 shortwave destination.

P.S. I don't think I can name a boombox where the SW sensitivity matches a dedicated SW radio.

i do listen to midwave am in germany quite often, due to the rubbish on the fm-stations and me driving a lot for work i refuse to listen to that progressive junk-radio with bam-bam-bam in the backround even during news and moderators with a sense of homour that your toe-nails tend to roll'em selfe up - so i choose midwave am and listen to dlf (deutschlandfunk - no ads, no music, just all kinda reports, infos and news). otherwise i just listen to audio-books and leave my passion for music onto the evening hours with a nice single-malt and a spinning vinyl...

I only listen Shortwave at the holidays, when i´m not in Austria.
We have an radio station called "RadioAustriaInternational".
It can be received round the world.

My Grundig died last year.
I will part it out next time

Now i take the INTERSOUND receiver with Digituner. It´s now over 10years old and littlebit compacter than the Grundig.
Very good radio!

Roman , did you see what these RR 1040 's fetch on Epay? Did you try to repair it?
Yep , the Sony ICF 2010 is very cool.
I hope to get one like these some day.
Sw listening is suffering a lot from interference from switching power supplies.
Everything you buy these days works with these rotten things.

I'm an avid swler and also a ham radio operator as well.

I listen to shortwave once in awhile. Lots of creepy religious programming from God knows where. BBC stuff is cool.