Eton Elite E100 - Manual (Page 30)

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12 SHORTWAVE LISTENING GUIDE
E100 OWNER’S MANUAL
UNDERSTANDING SHORTWAVE BANDS:
THE KEY TO ENJOYING YOUR SHORTWAVE RADIO
Introduction
Now that you have a shortwave radio, no doubt you’ll want to hear
worldwide stations right away. If you’re new to shortwave, please
take some time to learn the basics outlined below. To successfully
listen to shortwave stations you must know how to find them. They
are found in the shortwave bands. If you’re an experienced short-
wave listener, you’ll know what bands are and how to use them, but if
you’re new, you’ll need to learn about bands first. After that, you will
have excellent success. Please read on.
What are bands? To fully enjoy shortwave listening,
this is the most important concept to learn right away.
If you have ever listened to AM or FM radio, then you already know
what a band is. The AM band is a frequency range stretching form
530 to 1600 kilohertz, the FM band is 66-108 megahertz. A band
is simply a frequency range where stations are located. When you
look for stations in these “bands”, you simply tune around with your
tuning buttons (or the tuning knob on an analog radio) until you find
a station you like. Shortwave is similar and the shortwave bands have
names like 25 meters, 31 meters, 49 meters, etc. These are abbrevi-
ated 25m, 31m and 49m. Just like in AM and FM radio, one simply
gets into the shortwave band and tunes around, looking for stations.
For example, the 19 meter shortwave band encompasses the
frequency range of 15100 to 15600 kilohertz. In the chart below
is a list of the shortwave bands used for international shortwave
broadcasts and their corresponding frequency ranges. Since some
radios show frequency in megahertz and some in kilohertz, both are