I recently bought a Realistic DX-160 on Ebay, hooked up about 100 feet
of outside antenna and an indoor ground, and find that it picks up all
sorts of signals. (Although I understand that, as an older, single
conversion circuit, it's not the greatest, I do have a more modern, dual
conversion set (RS DX-398, similar to the Sangean ATS-909), with digital
entry and memory.) So far, I enjoy using the DX-160, with analog
tuning, more than the digital set. I have several novice-level questions.-

First, I can pick up lots of stations on the 40-50 meter bands, and, in
the daytime, a few on the 15 - 20 meter bands. I'm not getting many HAM
or code signals or marine broadcasts. In addition to these stations,
there seem to be lots of other transmissions that can be heard and that
cause the S-meter to jump over, but which aren't speech or code. - Some
of them sound like a rushing noise, and others are like a whine produced
by an electric motor or other machine. Some are just a noticeably silent
station, with no voice or message. - Can anyone suggest what these
"broadcasts" are? Is there any way to filter them out? - Since there
are so many of them, would this suggest that I have an antenna that is
too long?

The DX-160 has bandspread tuning in addition to the main tuning, seen on
a large main tuning dial, and I'm using the bandspread tuning to go back
to a station that couldn't be tuned easily with the main dial. - I'm
wondering how most operators use the bandspread. - Do you actually
"zero" it and then scan (to the left in my case) by a given number of
KH/MH, or do you just go back and forth near the station of interest?

I'm somewhat disappointed in what's available in English (or French)
most of the time. I had hoped to pick up stations from Europe and
England, but there don't seem to be a lot of them. - I can sometimes
pick up BBC stations that I think are in England but haven't noticed
much of anything from France. Is this typical of what others are
receiving? (I'm in Texas, so probably am not in the best US location
except for Cuban and Mexican stations and US religious broadcasts.) On
the other hand, there seem to be lots of oriental language broadcasts. -
I haven't figured out what countries most are from, but the dial on my
RS DX-398 indicates some are from Japan. -

Last, I understand that sunspot activity isn't good at this time. - When
will it improve?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Jim Cate