Does anyone know anything about it?

Question

my neighbor is pretty odd..... one day they started setting up these poles in their field. they were set up in a square with 4 poles. then he had this wire strung at the top of them all the way around. my dad kinda made friends with them and they said that the poles are for shortwave radio. is there really a thing for shortwave radio where you do that? the reason im wondering is because my mom & her friend were joking around about it and her friend said that maybe he thinks he can comunicate with aliens so my mom really has the idea that he is trying to get some aliens to talk to him but when you see him and the things hes done yuo can really tell hes very odd and he seems like the type that would believe in aliens. so does anyone know anything about that shortwave radio thing?

Answer 1

Yes, it very well could be a shortwave antenna.  I have built similar antennas in the past for shortwave.  That antenna will allow them to pick up radio stations from all over the world.

Here is a simpler version of what your neighbors built:

http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2....

Answer 2

Shortwave radio operators do tend to be a bit odd.  They sit for hours scanning the frequencies in hopes of contacting someone on the opposite side of the world.  You see, shortwave radio is special...

Other radio communications rely on what's called "line of sight".  In order to send and receive a radio signal between two points, the antenaes of the two stations must have a straight line between them with no obstructions.  Since the Earth is round, the height or your antenae normally limits how far you can send/receive.

But Shortwave can actually "skip" off reflective layers of atmosphere in the Earth's stratosphere.  With the proper weather conditions, it's possible for a shortwave radio signal to skip multiple times and make it all the way to the other side of the Earth.

So...

Shotwave operators spend their time sending out "hello" messages (including their FCC assigned station identification number, city, country, and inclination of their antenae) and hoping someone out there will answer.  When they make contact, they record it in a log book... they include the other oprator's "hello" info and any other little info they may decide to chat about (how's the weather?  do you hear me good?  What time is it there?  blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda).  

Shotwave operators take what they do seriously and take major pride in their little log books and the far-away places they've spoken to.  

Aliens?  No.  

Having a chat with an Australian or maybe a Chinaman would be the height of their fun.  And those occurances are far and in between...

FYI:  Little tid-bit of info for you... when a radio operator asks "How do you hear me?"  the traditional response would be "five-by-five!" which means loud and clear.  It refers to the needle readings on the old-style shortwave sets... most of the new ones no longer have these dials, but the operators still use the traditional response and would get a kick out of a non-operator using it when talking to them (like "ok").