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What Can I Hear?
1-800-773- 7931 W W W .PALST AR.CO M
Everyone is familiar with standard AM and FM stations, which
occupy a single frequency and broadcast on it every day. The
biggest difference that you will notice between these standard
broadcast stations and shortwave broadcasters is that shortwave
stations move around a lot. Because the target audiences of short-
wave stations are located all over the world, shortwave broadcast-
ers transmit on frequencies and at times chosen to have the best
chance of reaching the target audience at the correct time of day.
In addition, these frequencies are often changed with the seasons
to take advantage of the seasonal changes in propagation.
Another difference is that there is more day-to-day variability in the
reception shortwave stations. Because the stations are located so
far way, often on another continent, reception is totally dependant
on the condition of the atmosphere between the transmitter and
your receiver. There will be some days when your favorite station
will be very weak or not heard at all.
Amateur Radio Bands
The Amateur Radio (Ham) bands are occupied by ordinary people
from all over the world who have been licensed by their govern-
ments to engage in two-way radio transmissions as a hobby.
Whenever there is a natural disaster such as a tornado, hurricane,
earthquake, etc., the Ham bands are the place to listen. It is com-
mon for Ham radio to be the only communications link into or out
of a disaster area for many days after the occurrence. In fact, the
ability of Hams to provide emergency communications is one of
the primary reasons Ham radio exists.
The primary modes heard on the Ham bands are CW (Morse
Code, usually down at the lower end of each band), and voice
communications in the form of Single Sideband (SSB, there will be
more about SSB later on). There is also a smattering of other
modes: radio teletype, slow-scan TV, and other data communica-
tions methods. These signals require the use of special decoder
devices or computers with special decoding software in order to
read or view them.
1-800-773- 7931 W W W .PALST AR.CO M
Rear Panel Functions/Connections
1. LINE AUDIO:
A standard phono (RCA type) jack is provided to
connect audio to the Line Input jack of a tape recorder so that off-
air recordings can be made.
2. WING NUT GROUND:
To earth ground or water pipe.
3.
CLIP GROUND:
same as wing nut ground.
4. Low impedance coaxial antenna connection.
A standard SO-
239 connector for use with a standard PL-259 plug and coaxial
cable antenna feed line. This connector is for unbalanced anten-
nas. To use with a balanced antenna, an external BALUN
(BALanced to Unbalanced transformer) should be used.
5. High impedance connection for long wire and Hi-Z dipole
antennas
. For connecting a random length wire, or other end-fed,
unbalanced, wire antenna. Antennas of this type require a good
RF ground for best performance. Connect the antenna to the RED
terminal, and the ground to the BLACK terminal.
6. EXTERNAL SPEAKER OUTPUT
: Audio output is DC isolated
Rear Panel Functions
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