How does a shortwave radio work?

Answer

Shortwave radio works like an AM broadcast band radio, but has different circuit called HF tunable circuity to respond to the whip antenna or coil antenna inside the radio, the coil antenna however responds to the SW 1 nighttime bands, as long there is a wire antenna connected to the terminals. SW2 is still responsive with the coil without the ferrite, but still needs an wire antenna for better response. Newer shortwave radios use internal circuitry instead of coils to receive the different frequency ranges using the RF tunable circuitry and L/C tunable circuit to receive 3 MHz to 7 MHz SW and SW2 7 MHz to 26 MHz. Most communications receivers use the same way but has better design to handle very strong signals and get rid of images and are analog and digitally tunable HF circuits. WFM shortwave radio is possible, but it will take up bandwidth so Narrow FM is used for 10 meter reception. PLL circuits respond to the L/C tuned circuits to pick up from 1711 kHz to 30 MHz and below 1711 down to 150 kHz.

LW bands use the same coil as the MW antenna and circuitry as the MW but tunes lower than 530 kHz. Some radios use a larger and longer coil for the LW bands and
different OSC IF coil to receive the 144 kHz to 281 kHz bands. The longwave band is like the AM broadcast band, but lower in frequency. And AM and LW is directional so
loop antenna is a must for better reception.

Propagation and Solar Activity is the main reason for SW broadcasting, and thats how
radios travel from all over the world. Depending on space weather conditions.

DRM reception is a mode for digital reception that requires a digital stream decoder to receive the AM transmission that modulates the digital stream via SW. If broadcasted in IBOC (HD Radio Mode) the transmission would be adjecent to the carrier. This is the same technique a radio teletype (RTTY) used in news agencies.

First answer by ID2046219906. Last edit by Gccengineering. Contributor trust: 1 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 17 [recommend question]