It is illegal to listen to any type of radio transmissions which are not intended for you. Ham radio is also a communication service recognized by the Governments all over the world. Obviously you will require a Short Wave Listeners licence (click here for details) to listen to the ham radio transmissions! However, nobody can stop you in listening to the hams even if you don't possess a ham radio licence or short wave listener's licence! I am telling you the legal aspect. But there is more you have to learn about the technical aspects of the the hobby if you are seriously interested in listening to ham radio transmissions.

The radio sets available in the market for general public are designed to receive Amplitude Modulated (AM) or Frequency Modulated (FM) broadcasts only. But the ham radio operators use a very efficient mode of transmission called Single Side Band (SSB) transmission. The power of a ham radio station is also very low ( usually not more than 100 watts) in comparison to the broadcast station (which use power in the kilowatts range). In fact many of the broadcast band radio receivers available in the market also covers some of the frequencies which are allotted to the ham radio stations. A 4 band radio set (inclusive of the Medium Wave band) can be expected to cover some popular ham radio frequencies like 7 to 7.1 MHz (i.e. 7000 to 7100 kHz), 14 to 14.350 MHz (i.e. 14,000 to 14,350 kHz) and 21 to 21.450 MHz (i.e. 21,000 to 21,450 kHz). This kind of receiver can be improvised to receive ham radio transmissions with very little effort.

First, we will need an outdoor aerial. Because, these radio sets are not sensitive to receive low power transmissions. Majority of the hams use power below 100 watts (a broadscast station may use 4000 or 5000 watts of power!). A novice ham radio operator may be found to be operating with a power as low as 0.5 watt!