shortwave Radio

thanks for that. A quick google revealed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/schedules/frequencies/index.shtml

Leroy

looking at that bbc link the freq changes at different times. What's the reason for this?

Leroy

because certain times of the day radio waves wont travel the distance , and usually it only the news and or weather they transmit so its only half hour or hour segment any way. get a hf radio, good and interesting hobby , you listen to all sorts of stuff around the world .......

You'll find Radio Australia's Asian broadcasts the best for inland Australia as they're beamed overhead; the Pacific broadcasts tend to miss the mark. RA transmit a lot of stuff found on ABC's normal programming. The news is more international, but it still keeps you in touch with Aust news when nothing else is available. Schedules avail on the RA website.
Also, ABC run regional programmes on SW from Alice, Tenant Ck and Katherine. Not super high power, but still good, esp if you're in the NT. Check their website.
As with all these SW stations, they change down in frequency at night, up in frequency during the day, so you'll need to follow the schedules.
My Patrol radio has SW, and it's useful, but not as good as my HF radio. Suspect that your Sony will be similar. If you have an HF transceiver which is programmable on Receive, then that will pull in the stations a lot better.