Confused about shortwave band on my radio

[Valya]

Hello all,

I recently purchased an RCA Victor radio, model A-20. It has an AM, FM (doesn't work, radio dates to 1940), and a shortwave band. However, I do not understand how to read the numbers on the shortwave band. Instead of showing the megahertz, eg. 1550 mHz, etc., the numbers just range from 7 at the left, and 22 on the right. The shortwave band works great, but I don't understand how to know what frequency I am at since these numbers are just 7-22. Can someone please explain this to me, as I am very new to radios. Thank you so much!

Valya

 

[LizzieMaine]

The shortwave dial is calibrated in megacycles, equivalent to 1000 kilocycles. Thus, 7 megacycles is the same as 7000 kilocycles. 22 megacycles is 22,000 kilocycles.

Your "Standard Broadcast" band is calibrated in kilocycles, which is the same as today's kilohertz, so you can see those frequencies are much lower than those in the shortwave band.