Why I still love the ICOM 7000: SWL'ing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over a year ago I wrote about why I still love the ICOM-7000 ([CLICK HERE] to read that).  Since my ICOM 7000 came back from the ICOM repair station (15+ months ago), the only REAL ham radio use I've given it since has been running FD (Field Day) from WB6RUC's boat in Alameda's Aeolian Yacht Harbor.  Otherwise, it sits on the top shelf having been given re-assigned to SWL'ing (Shortwave Listening) duties.

When the radio came back from repair, I was amazed to discover that the 200+ frequency memories had NoT been wiped out!  Over a period of weeks, the memory entries have been upgraded and reorganized to facilitate listening to my "favorite" SWBC stations, while making it easy to find
new stations worthy of my listening time.

Thanks to a relatively superior DSP (compared to most radios), the 7000 makes it extremely easy (and satisfying) to search thru the SW broadcast bands looking for relevant programming related to today's activities happening (or NoT) around the world.  Thanks to the Short-Wave.Info website,
I am able to lookup most of what I hear in the SW BDCST bands.  For UTE (and numbers station) monitoring, I have to rely on other websites for the needed background information.

The website allows us to search for specific stations (such as the BBC), specific SWBC frequencies, or overall SWBC bands (such as the above search of 25-meters).  From there, I use my listening skills to determine exactly what is actually being heard.

The ICOM 7000 has over 500+ memory slots grouped A - F (100 memories each). 
For my use I have organized them as follows:

• A) Relevant Ham radio frequencies (incl. WWV, Beacons & Traffic Nets)
  
• B) Relevant UTE frequencies
• C) Relevant SWBC frequencies
• D) Relevant VHF/UHF frequencies
• E) Relatively UNUSED

With the above-delineated groups, when taking the radio on a trip to wherever, everything is setup
and ready to roll.  To make things easier, some frequencies exist in more than one frequency group.  While somewhat simplistic, the 7000's ability to save/retrieve frequencies does work rather well.

While not the 1950's - 1980's, contrary to popular belief, SW broadcasting is very much alive
and well.  Altho there are many SW receivers out there (including the various SDR approaches),
most amateur transceivers produced in the last 30+ years make for GREAT shortwave receivers;
if they sport over 100 frequency memories, even better.

While Popular Communications (Pop 'Comm) is no longer with us, at least CQ magazine still has
The Listening Post column with LoTs of reported SWBC and PIRATE Radio frequencies listed.

I often end my day with Radio Nikkei2 (08:00z - 10:00z) playing Japanese and American POP music.  While I may not understand the dialogue in between plays, the music (whether Japanese
or English) is essentially universal.

Do YOU use your amateur transceiver for SWL'ing?
Or, do you use a separate receiver for that purpose?

Please, share your thoughts with me.