Take your software-defined radio into the shortwave band to receive signals sent around the globe by commercial, government, and amateur stations

In this article Stephen Cass KB1WNR explains how to eavesdrop on long-distance communications with a converter board and a jerry-rigged antenna.

"A couple of months ago, I wrote about how a cheap USB dongle designed to pick up digital television broadcasts could be hacked to act as a software-defined radio, or SDR. With this dongle and a TV antenna, I could decode an impressive range of analog and digital radio transmissions from about 50 megahertz up to a little over 2 gigahertz [see “A $40 Software-Defined Radio,” IEEE Spectrum, July]. But I wanted more. I wanted to get below 50 MHz, into the shortwave bands where signals can be sent vast distances around the globe by commercial, government, and amateur broadcasters."

Read Software-Defined Radio, Part II
https://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/han ... io-part-ii

A $40 Software-Defined Radio
https://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/han ... ined-radio