Option C: Shortwave Listening

Req 8c5 — Smartphone Listening

8c5.

Demonstrate listening to a radio broadcast using a smartphone/cell phone. Include international broadcasts in your demonstration.

How to Listen on a Smartphone

Modern smartphones don’t have traditional radio receivers (most lack even an FM chip). Instead, you listen to radio broadcasts via internet streaming — apps that connect you to live streams from stations around the world.

Recommended Apps

TuneIn Radio — aggregates thousands of live radio streams worldwide; search by country, language, or genre
Radio Garden — a globe-based interface where you spin the Earth and tap on green dots to hear live stations from that location
iHeartRadio — primarily U.S. stations but includes some international content
BBC Sounds — direct access to BBC World Service and BBC radio stations
NHK World Radio — Japan’s international broadcast service

For Your Demonstration

Show your counselor that you can:

Find and play a domestic station — tune to a local or national U.S. radio station through a streaming app.
Find and play at least one international broadcast — listen to a station from another country. Good choices include:
- BBC World Service (UK) — English-language news and programming
- Deutsche Welle (Germany) — English and German broadcasts
- Radio France Internationale (RFI) — French and English
- NHK World (Japan) — English-language service
- All India Radio — multiple languages
Explain the difference between this internet-streamed listening and the over-the-air shortwave listening you did earlier. Key point: the smartphone is using the cellular or Wi-Fi internet connection, not receiving radio waves directly. The audio travels as digital data packets, not as an analog radio signal.

You’ve completed Option C. Continue to Option D below, or jump to Requirement 9 using the sidebar.