Customer Reviews

Passport to World Band Radio: New (Passport to World Band Radio, 2000)

5 star:		(4)
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3 star:		(1)
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I have bought several books on the subject of Shortwave, but I always come back to this one. It's a handy guide with that even has radio ratings to see you are purchasing a great radio or a lemon.

It also has a hour by hour listing of what is on so you can find something to interest you. This is the MUST HAVE book for all SWL! If you only buy one book on sw, this is the book.

This book has it all. For people wondering what model to buy, what external antenna to use, how shortwave radio works, etc.

The schedule in the back is pretty up-to-date as well, and helps you to easily find programming that will interest you.

Just be sure to get the latest version, it's published each year.

This is THE guide to SW listening. Even if you aren't a listener yet, this book contains a SW radio buying guide. Got a radio? Wondering "What station is that?" look in the blue pages in the back. Wanna know "what's on NOW"? It has listings of what's on organized by time.Excellant!

If you're looking for stations or nations this is the ultimate source! No matter your location, it's the easiest, most accurate compendium of stations in existance.

If you are relatively new to shortwave listening (SWL-ing), this is definitely the best book you can buy. You will find meaningful reviews of almost every short wave receiver available on the market and the frequency listings are complete enough to keep you busy hour after hour.

On the other hand, a serious, experienced SWL-er or DX-er will find this book rather incomplete. The receiver reviews are rather superficial and oriented towards non-technically minded. They lack detail on the radio specifications and laboratory measurements - I would definitely not use them as the only input to select a $1000+ tabletop receiver. The frequency listings are VERY incomplete. You will find that 3/4 of the signals you can actually pick up on your receiver are not listed in the book. They are also clearly targeted for English-speaking SWL-ers, and provided very limited information about "local" stations or broadcasters in languages other than English.

In summary, the best book for somebody who wants to get started in SWL, but only an acceptable complementary book for an experiened SWL fan. For a serious DX-er I would definitely recommend the World Radio and TV Handbook as a better option (also available at Amazon).