Antique short wave radios

Antique short wave radios have always been a fantasy for antique collectors. Antique short wave radios come in different shapes and sizes that evolved over time and as the technology improved reducing the effective space required. Short wave stands for short wavelength and refers to frequencies from 3 Mhz to 30 Mhz. The name came into being as at its time of discovery by a few amateurs, longer wavelengths were used very commonly.

Shortwave radios came into existence in the pre-war era in the early 1920s. Initially radios were built using large vacuum tubes because of which the size of the set itself became very large. Gradually with improvement in technology, smaller sets were built which were better in quality than and not as heavy as their bigger counterparts. So if you get your hands on any antique short wave radio, you can well be assured that it would be at least more than 50 years old.

Antique short wave radios built in the early 1920s may receive only the short waves but as time passed radios with FM and AM receiving capabilities emerged. So it might be quite a task to find one that only receives short waves. In those times, the radio sets were created for two different classes of people. One that was not very well off would settle down for a Crystal Set. The problem with them was that it would receive only very strong signals. It had a big problem of overlapping signals and the sound quality was not the best in the business, to say the least.

However, one thing that was good with a Crystal Set was it did not need battery, so its run cost was zero and also the making cost was very less. The other type of Antique short wave radios that you would find were built using superhets which was a hit only with the wealthy class as a) they were way too expensive, b) needed powerful batteries to run and c) the construction of the set itself was a sizeable task. But this entire price also gave very good functionality. These sets had exceptional sensitivity and could also receive foreign broadcasts. It was very stable and had high quality sound.

Antique short wave radios of later makes are much smaller in size and also weight due to the use of plastic bakelite. The downside of these sets was that they would break if they fall. Good antique short wave radios in a good shape can be easily found on the net. But before buying it, one must ensure that they are buying a genuine stuff.