Med radios

[PLEK]

I want to buy a radio for use in the med which will be good enough to receive lw and shortwave transmissions from the uk and locally.My main use will be for local weather info and also the bbc world service.Can anyone recommend a set which will do the job,or in fact comment on whether or not what I want is possible.

Many thanks

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[Dave99]

I've got a Roberts - its got FM, MW, LW and SW (about 10 bands). Portable type - goes quite loud with next to no distortion. Batteries (3 AA) have lasted over 15 hours and are still going strong. It's not the digital one but I think is costs about £40.

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[DavidJ]

I use a Roberts in the med with good reception. If I were to buy again I would investigate SW side band radio. Apparently amateurs in the Med broadcast on sideband and it would be interesting to pick up their regular transmissions on weather etc.
Sideband is not just a frequency but a technical filter thingy

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[MedMan]

You need to be able to receive all normal AM broadcast bands plus Short Wave. It is essential to have a SSB (single side band) setting as most weather forecasts are on SW SSB. For my money I would also look upon digital tuning as essential as tuning for SSB has to be very accurate.

I have a super one made by Locata who have long since gone to the wall. I believe a company called Lowe may produce a fixed set but I am not sure. Sony do a range of portable sets of good quality if you are happy to go down that route. The top-of-the-range ones can be run off the ship's supply through an inverter and can be used with an external aerial.

Although we use the SSB receiver fairly regularly for forecasts, our primary source of weather information is Navtex which has the advantage of being in English. We also regularly download 5-day forecasts by email using GRIB files. If you have not heard of this system, have a look at http://www.franksingleton.clara.net/grib.html


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[davidbains]

I have done what you require with both a Sony SW55 and Lowe HF150.
Lowe no longer seem to make them, possibly because NASA make a cheaper copy
which will be your best solution.
The Med nets are 08.00Z and 18.00GMT on 14303 Khz SSB
and at 05.30GMT on 8122Khz SSB (April to Oct).
You could also consider a ?Weatherman? which receives German RTTY forecasts.


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[jacscarlett]

I don't think you will get any BBC on Longwave south of Lyon. It is possible to get Radio 5 Live very poorly at night in Greece. I use a Sony pll receiver which cost about £130 [I think with 170 in its SN but it is on the boat and I cant quite remember.] It has SSBs and been produced for decades and is pretty good.

BUT what you need for the World Service is a WorldSpace digital radio. It receives stuff in CD quality sound and also gets you CNN and Bloomberg news etc. The Hitachi set was less than £100 but has since risen for some obscure reason.

It will not get you any other terestial BBC programme despite a request from me a couple of years ago!

It will get you a rolling weather service in English for Europe if you give them about £1 a week.

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