World Band Radio Listening & Shortwave Radio Website Links The BBC World Service website includes a searchable archive of over 1 million news stories. You can view the site in 43 languages. Listen online: BBC World Service Live: Real - WMP - en Español The BBC has a online radio player/directory, which you can load directly at topical pages with the links below. There are about 25 categories in all, and you can switch between them after loading one of these player pages: BBC Speech: BBC News - BBC Sport - BBC Science BBC Music: Rock/Pop - Jazz - Classical Radio Australia provides news in 6 languages. Listen online LIVE: Real - WMP Radio Austria International Listen online: Real - custom WMP China Radio International provides several channels of streaming audio for WMP. Listen online: CRI Round The Clock Live CRI News Live "am846" CRI Music Live "fm91.5" CRI Language Lessons Live "am1008" Radio Taiwan International Listen online: Real Radio Prague, Czech Republic Listen online: via this page (Real or MP3) YLE Radio Finland Listen online: Real The Deutsche Welle, Germany     website has news in 29 languages. Listen online: Custom RealPlayer - schedule, .pdf Islamic Republic of Iran Radio Listen online: Real Israel Radio International Listen online: 6:30AM News, Real - 10PM News, Real Radio Japan Listen online: Real 28kbps WMP - 56kbps WMP Radio Netherlands Listen online: Real Radio New Zealand "The Voice of the Pacific" covers Papua-New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Fiji, and other places in Oceania as well as New Zealand. Listen online (not 24 hrs): Real - schedule Radio Polonia, Poland Listen online: WMP Voice of Russia Listen online: Real Radio Singapore Listen online: WMP English Radio Sweden Listen online: Real Swiss Radio Int'l (custom Real on home page) UN Radio (custom Real on home page) Voice of America, US Listen online: Real Free Player Downloads: Listening to streaming audio online requires an audio player installed on your PC (most already have them). Different formats require different players. You can download these free players here: Real Player (Real), Windows Media Player (WMP). "Custom" indicates a website that uses its own proprietory player page (which usually still requires Real or WMP on your PC). Radio Free Europe RFE has news and links to Internet Real Audio broadcasts from 31 nations. Shortwave Schedules in English has English language shortwave broadcast schedules organized by region and country. There is no good looking website that currently does this, this site appears to be the fastest loading of the ones that do. Radio-Now.co.uk is a directory of UK-based online radio sources. World Radio Network is another central source for listening to world band radio on the Internet. Shortwave.be links to the websites of shortwave broadcasters, including some not listed here. RadioPortal.org is a searchable, categorized database of over 26,000 shortwave links. ClandestineRadio.com monitors and reports on shortwave and other radio stations that disseminate propaganda around the world. Radio Intel has radio links, reviews, tips, and news. OntheShortwaves.com includes articles explaining early radio history in general, and the history of shortwave listening and "DXing" (trying to hear the most distant stations) in particular. Zenith TransOceanic Radios "During its life the Zenith TransOceanic Radio was the finest tube-type portable shortwave radio in the world... The fact is that it had everything necessary to be a luxury item - fine craftsmanship, often to military specs... Tremendous performance." An overview of all of the models of these radio collector's items, with photographs, info on tube and battery replacements, links to other radio collectors sites, and more. Phil's Old Radios, also known as antiqueradio.org, is a comprehensive site with photos of and information about hundreds of collectible radio models, including Zenith TransOceanics. There are a few old TV photos, too. Wumpus´s Old Radio World Old Radio World is another good site for finding data about antique or discontinued receivers. Drake Radio Virtual Museum, from Drake Products in Belgium tells Drake radios' history, from the 1958 R1-A to the present R8B, along with useful information on Drake radio modifications and fixes. Crystal Radios is not about world band, or shortwave, but is an entire society and website dedicated to crystal radios (or "xtal sets"). The site has online plans for cigar box and Quaker oat box crystal sets, information on their email newsletter and books, and more. Sarah's Transistor Radios has photos of over a thousand old transistor radios of all kinds. The Sony 7600 Series Page provides detailed information about this series of fine radios, from the original ICF-7600(W) of 1978 up to the current ICF-SW7600GR. The BBC World Service has curtailed broadcasts targeted at North America and the Pacific to cut costs. Save the BBC World Service is lobbying the BBC to restore these broadcasts. Passport to World Band Radio UPDATES has information, including radio reviews, updating the most recent edition of the popular Passport to World Band Radio. These pages are temporary; the content is deleted every autumn as each new edition of the Passport is about to be released. But you can still see many of the old pages by searching the Internet Archive for them.

See also: Online A/V Directory & Search Internet Sports Radio Listening Internet Music Radio Listening UTC, GMT, Zulu Time at page load. Passport to World Band Radio is the undisputed annual bible for shortwave listeners, featuring equipment reviews and shortwave schedules. $15.61 at Amazon. SOME of the best world band radios: according to the "Passport"   Budget & Pocket: Kaito KA1101 $59.95 (Amazon) 50 presets 2 bandwidths dual conversion w/ rechargeable AAs     great AM & FM, 5.2 x 3.2 x 1" 10.1 oz with SSB: Kaito KA1102 $79.95 (Amazon)     Compact: Sony ICF-SW7600GR $159.99 (Amazon) Portatop: Grundig Satellit 800 Millenium discontinued, but available used at eBay 2003 Passport: The Grundig Satellit 800 [engineered by R. L. Drake] is "...a benchmark receiver, being the first ever to offer such a level of near-tabletop performance at portable prices. Its audio quality and ergonomics are among the best of any world band receiver on the market, regardless of price..." The Eton E1XM AM/FM/Shortwave XM-ready radio, which was originally to be called the Grundig Satellit 900, is difficult to find in stock. Tabletop: In March, 2005, Drake discontinued their Drake R8B ($1379), the finest tabletop world band listening receiver available. The link is to an eBay search for "Drake R8*". PC Controlled: Ten-Tec RX320D $329 Digital Radio Mondiale shortwave: Ten-Tec RX320D + DRM software $350 Kit: Ten-Tec 1254 $195   Shortwave Listening News Google Usenet Newsgroups rec.radio.shortwave rec.radio

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    Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) is a new system for static-free digital world radio broadcasting. On June 16th, 2003, 16 world broadcasters began live, daily DRM broadcasts. Thus far most broadcasts are considered tests. To hear the broadcasts, you will need to run a DRM software decoder on a PC with a sound card, and input the digital stream to the PC from a DRM capable radio, such as the PC-controlled Ten-Tec RX320D ($329). The DReamM software itself, in version 1.2.4 as of this writing, is free as a C++ source code download, which you would have to compile to a binary executable to run on Windows or Linux. Otherwise, you presumably have to purchase the compiled software, as part of a package along with the receiver and additional control software. However, at least one individual has made the compiled executable code of version 1.2.2 available online as a free download.
    Other DRM-capable PC-controlled radios include the WiNRADiO G303i ($500) PC PCI-slot card and the external USB WiNRADiO G303e ($600), both of which work with WiNRADiO DRM Decoder/Demodulator Plug-in software (DReaM not required). And the very compact Coding Technologies Digital World Traveller USB-powered radio, designed for use with laptop computers (200 euros, software included-- this and the TenTec are apparently the cheapest alternatives).
    A fully-independent DRM receiver (no PC required), the Mayah DRM 2010, was distributed in 2003, but reportedly only about 800 were produced, and they were sold for 700-800 euros.

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Shortwave Search: The DMOZ Open Directory searches for keywords in website titles and descriptions (not page content). You can limit your search to world band radio subcategories, or search all Shortwave links.

find this: in: All Shortwave Listings DX Listening DX & Radio Groups Equipment Int'l Broadcasters Ham Radio

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They're all gone: "Sony's ICF-2010 is the world's finest portable, irrespective of cost or size. Yet it first came on the market all the way back in 1985... This legendary receiver has been the choice of shortwave cognoscenti ever since... Sony's excellence in world band technology resulted from personal attention lavished on it by the company's founder, Akio Morita, and several top-flight engineers at the Shibaura Technology Center... after 18 years Sony's flagship world band receiver is about to get the axe... get it while you can... a tireless companion-- two of our monitor's units are still soldiering away after 15 punishing years." -- Passport to World Band Radio 2003

You can get one here:
eBay Auctions, the number one auction site on the Internet, is a great place to find a Sony ICF-2010, Drake R8, Grundig Satellit 800, Zenith Transoceanic, or other fine radio. eBay Australia -- eBay Canada -- eBay UK
-- The Radio Netherlands Receiver Shopping List, a useful guide to current and discontinued world band radios you might be considering purchasing, has been moved to a site called Medium Wave Circle.
-- Info can also be found at Shortwave Reviews, Shortwave Receiver Survey, and at the newsgroups (links above).

TIME Magazine, March 3, 1947, p. 28: INTERNATIONAL: THE NATIONS: Let's Talk     Many Americans believe that if they could only talk to those Russians, everything would be all right. Last week, the U.S. State Department tried it.     In a nightly one-hour short-wave broadcast, ambitiously titled the "voice of the United States of America," a staff of 15 Russian-speaking Americans would henceforth give Russia what Secretary of State Marshall called the "pure and unadulterated" truth. In the first broadcast last week (9 p.m. Moscow time), the Voice of America included 20 minutes of straight news. Then followed a twelve-minute lecture on the U.S. form of government, which said, among other things, that the U.S. had lost its fear of the "so-called despotism of the central government."     Next came an interlude of cowboy tunes, including The Old Chisholm Trail ("Coma ti yi youpy, yappy yay, yappy yay, Coma ti yi youpy yappy yay," which probably sounded like static to Russian ears), a talk on a new cure for hay fever (the U.S. has 5,000,000 sufferers), and a new method of exploring the Milky Way.     When the closing theme, the Battle Hymn of the Republic, went out over the air, Soviet Russia was still at least as distant as the Milky Way. Just as the Voice of America signed off, the Voice of Russia (Moscow Radio's foreign service) went on the air with a denunciation of "U.S. imperialists" who were seeking to "dominate the entire world."     And how did the Russians like America's Voice? Reported New York's World-Telegram in a memorable headline: RUSSIANS RESTRAIN JOY OVER U.S. BROADCAST. Listeners who were interviewed said that they liked the music, found that the text did "not sound American." But the Voice of America (which has a long way to travel via an insufficient relay station in Munich) was completely inaudible on all but the very best Russian radio sets, which are owned by the very best Communists.