Short of a successful SETI contact, the best way to get another point of view on what's happening around the universe is to listen to shortwave radio. Problem is, shortwave is haunted by this nerdified image of a greasy-haired kid sporting a pair of humongous head-phones, cloistered in a basement room, surrounded by evil-looking coils. Up on the roof is a bird-strainer of radical antennas that makes your house a CIA target. The aural image is hardly better: whistling, crackling, half-heard contacts with Radio Bulgaria that fade in and out as you frantically twiddle knobs and try to recapture the end of the report that you're pretty certain started with, "A 40-metre sea serpent was...."
It ain't like that no more. Today's phase-locked loops, digital-frequency synthesizers, and carrier suppression and reinsertion circuits make the experience often as easy and clear-sounding as the result of pressing a button on your car radio. If you buy the right receiver.
There are a host of them that do the job. When I travel, I carry the totally cool Sony SW1S pocket-sized receiver that covers the entire shortwave spectrum (not just this band and that). This range includes the regular AM band; and they cram FM and even a speaker into this 1-by-3-by-5-inch jewel. Many times I've been where there was no local programming worth listening to (or in a language I could understand) and used the SW1S to pull in the authoritative British Broadcasting Corporation, the delightful Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, entertaining Deutsche Welle, or the merely informative Voice of America. At a street price less than US$300, it comes with a hard-sided travelling case, earphones and an external antenna that I can put near my hotel window and pick up the world. It sure beats the crummy radios you usually find in hotel rooms, and yes, it does have a clock-radio feature.
Sony has a host of shortwave receivers; the venerable 2010 is one of the best, and it has airband, too (great fun on airplane trips - find out what's really going on). But if you just want to type in the name of the station instead of remembering the frequency, the Sony ICF-SW77 allows just that, on its little alphanumeric keypad.
A couple of big mail-order houses dominate the shortwave field; they've been good to me for years. They carry all the models mentioned and lots more. Get their catalogs; if you haven't been following shortwave developments, it'll open your ears. In shortwave, digital is not hype, it's everything.
Ham Radio Outlet: (800) 854 6046, +1 (510) 534 5757, Electronic Equipment Bank: (800) 368 3270, +1 (000) 000 0000, Sony:+1 (201) 368 9272
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