We’re the largest shortwave broadcast-only radio enthusiasts club in North America.
Welcome!
The hobby of shortwave listening can be challenging, informative and extremely educational for people of all ages. The North American Shortwave Association (“NASWA”) would like the opportunity to help you receive maximum enjoyment from every dimension of shortwave listening.
NASWA is the largest shortwave broadcast club in North America. We cover the entire shortwave spectrum, from tropical band DX’ing to the international shortwave broadcast band powerhouses. We are North America’s oldest shortwave broadcast-only radio club. We have been active in the business of sharing information about shortwave radio since 1961. Our motto is “Unity and Friendship.” The club publishes a monthly bulletin, The Journal (get a sample e-Journal issue here), which is chock full of timely tips, broadcast schedules, programming news and information and in-depth articles invaluable to the informed shortwave listener. There is an incredible variety of programming available from foreign broadcast sources and The Journal can help you maximize your listening opportunities. In addition, NASWA publishes a weekly electronic Flashsheet newsletter and a Group.io discussion group and a Facebook page that are available exclusively to our members, which brings a lot of exciting, late breaking DX news and information. The electronic Flashsheet newsletter and the club’s Group.io and Facebook Groups are excellent supplements to the monthly Journal for the timely dissemination of DX loggings, breaking news the rapid exchange of radio-related news and information.
Dues for the print edition of The Journal are $32.00 in the United States, $39.00 Canada and Mexico; $54.00 overseas. The e-Journal (a PDF version) is available for only $15.00 worldwide. The e-Journal goes to all members with an e-mail address in the database and is delivered by any or all of these methods: link to Google Drive, PDF attachment, PDF to Kindle. If you wish to become a member, send your remittance in U.S. funds to: NASWA, P. O. Box 3292, Allentown, PA 18106. A sample copy of the print Journal is available for $3.00 but a sample copy of the e-Journal is free with an e-mail address. Payments in cash or bank check made payable to NASWA or payment by use of PayPal (please visit Join/Renew).
— Richard D’Angelo, Executive Director
The Journal
NASWA members receive The Journal, a printed monthly digest of the latest logs and news about shortwave radio, as well as various feature articles and columns. Members can receive both the printed and the e-Journal or only the e-Journal. Samples of columns from The Journal are available on this site. Members can also subscribe to our weekly e-mail DX tip sheet, Flashsheet for no additional charge. NASWA’s Flashsheet comes out every Sunday, filled with the latest loggings and tips from NASWA members. See Members Only Content (not enabled at this time).
The Annual SWL Fest
If you haven’t been to a NASWA SWL Fest before, what are you waiting for? The Fest happens every Spring in convenient Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, about a half-hour north of Philadelphia. At a typical Fest, between 150 and 250 dedicated radio hobbyists get together, both in person and via Zoom, to meet with old friends and make new ones. Friday and Saturday are filled with informative sessions by some of the top names in the hobby covering a wide variety of topics, from longwave to microwave and beyond. The weekend is well-lubricated with tuning oil, and a good time is had by all.
Registration forms typically run in several hobby publications, including the NASWA Journal, NRC DX News, and CIDX Messenger. The form is also available starting a few months before the Fest at the Fest web site. And if you want to relive the Fest experience year ’round, or just get to know some of your fellow attendees online before your first visit, you can join the SWL Fest mailing list.
NASWA Country List
NASWA maintains what is widely considered throughout North America as the definitive list of countries from which shortwave broadcasts have originated. Many hobbyists like to count how many countries they’ve heard broadcasts from.
The NASWA Radio Country List is unique. It considers the interests of the longtime listener who has heard and counted some radio countries which, in the political world, no longer exist. Even if war or revolution, conquest or annexation, split-up or merger, change the world map, the listener need not subtract these politically defunct countries from his or her tally.
The interests of the person who began listening much more recently also are taken into consideration. That person can count loggings of stations in countries which, politically, are extinct. This seems fair to all. After all, reception of shortwave stations is not directly linked to such matters as political boundaries or independence dates.
And now, the NASWA Radio Country List is available in PDF format from this web site! Read more about the List here.
