This week I'm going to direct you to the many sources of information available to you. These references can be used to find who has programming you're interested in hearing or to help you identify a new station you're hearing for the first time. The references include books, magazines, radio clubs and websites.

Books

Probably the two most useful books to shortwave listeners are Passport to Worldband Radio, and The World Radio TV Handbook.

Passport is available through The Shortwave Store at http://www.shortwavestore.com and is probably the best general reference to shortwave stations there is. Information is listed according to frequency and shows graphically what stations are on a given frequency and their broadcast times and languages. Also included are reviews of most of the popular receivers on the market, articles about broadcasting in different parts of the world and program schedules from selected stations. If you buy one reference book for shortwave listening, it should be Passport to Worldband Radio.

The World Radio TV Handbook (WRTH) is organized a little differently, but provides much more information about the stations. Stations are listed according to their country of origin, and as the name implies, the WRTH contains information on all of a given country's AM, FM, TV, and shortwave stations, along with the networks the stations belong to, broadcast schedules, station mailing addresses, and even the names of the station manager and chief engineer

Both books are published annually. Passport comes out in the fall and the WRTH comes out at the beginning of the year. I buy them both, and depending on your interests you might want to as well.

One of the best references you can have are your own records of the stations you hear. That's why you should seriously consider keeping a logbook of what you have been listening to. A logbook doesn't have to be anything more fancy than a school notebook, although you can purchase pre-printed logbooks at places like Radio Shack and at ham radio dealers. The important things to keep In your logbook are: Station Name, Date, Time, Frequency, Reception Conditions, and a few details about what you heard. Those are the essentials, although you might also want to record other items like what receiver you heard them on, or what antenna you were using in case you have more than one. Logbooks can be valuable references when you want to find a particular station again, or when you want to look back on your listening career years later!

Magazines

Magazines provide more timely information than reference books that are published once a year. It's only natural since they're updated every month, and because they rely on the contributions of their readers you can be reasonable certain that if it's listed in a magazine a real live person actually heard it, and you probably can too!

Three of the best are Monitoring Times, Popular Communications, and Shortwave Magazine. All three are generally available at better-stocked newsstands. Around here they are available at Chapters bookstores, and at most amateur radio dealers. They are also available by subscription and you can get more information from them directly via their own websites:

Monitoring Times: http://www.grove-ent.com/hmpgmt.html

Popular Communications: http://www.popcomm.com

Shortwave Magazine: http://www.pwpublishing.ltd.uk/swm/

Clubs

First of all, I don't mind telling you that as a member of the Board of Directors of the Ontario DX Association I have a vested interest in promotion it to the world. The ODXA is Canada's largest club for shortwave listeners and produces a 40 page monthly bulletin, DX Ontario, which is widely regarded as one of the best of its kind in the world. Visit the ODXA website at http://www.durhamradio.com/odxa

The best of the U.S. shortwave clubs is the North American Short Wave Association (NASWA. Their monthly bulletin, The Journal contains articles and regular columns on many different aspects of the listening hobby. Visit their website at: http://www.anarc.org/naswa/

The National Radio Club is one of many "specialty" clubs that cater to narrower interests. The NRC is devoted to listeners who enjoy listening to mediumwave (AM broadcast) stations. They are also one of the oldest radio clubs in North America. Check them out at: http://www.nrcdxas.org/

Shortwave Stations

Finally, many shortwave stations have their own websites which offer information about upcoming programs, radio personalities, and program schedules. The following is a brief listing of some of the major broadcasters. Many others announce their website addresses over the air and others can be found in the books, magazines and club bulletins listed above.

Radio Australia: http://www.abc.net.au/ra/default.htm BBC World Service: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/ Radio Canada International: http://www.rcinet.ca/pages/index.asp Deutsche Welle (Germany): http://www.dwelle.de/ HCJB World Radio (Ecuador): http://www.hcjb.org/ Radio Japan: http://www.nhk.or.jp/rjnet/ Radio Netherlands: http://www.rnw.nl/ Radio New Zealand International: http://www.rnzi.com/ Voice of America: http://www.voa.gov/

There are hundreds more! Use your favorite web search engine and simply enter the name of the station you're interested in. Chances are you'll get a hit that will take you straight to the station. You'll also find dozens of personal web pages devoted to shortwave listening by searching on keywords like shortwave radio, or shortwave listening. Until next week, happy surfing!

Shorwave stations on the net are now listed at http://www.shortwavestore.com/shortwave-stations.html

Ken Alexander

Click HERE to continue to part #5