When I was a lad, I won a raffle at a minor league baseball game. I used the proceeds to but a big old vintage National shortwave radio, the same model as shown below. I moved my sleeping quarters down to the basement so that I could stay up all night during the weekends and turn the dials. It brought immense joy to hear such distant countries in all of the continents (except Antarctica). I'd send reception reports to hundreds of stations and receive QSL cards (sometimes quite plain but others were colorful glossy picture post cards). The more radical Communist countries would send packages of material (books, records, newspapers, magazines). It helped me resolve that Red Chinese Army operas were never going to be my thing. I always wondered how many FBI, NSA and CIA watch lists I was on because of the mail correspondence. I guess not as a couple of decades later, I was able to gain security clearances. Some years ago, a bit of nostalgia hit me and I tried listening to SW again (on a portable receiver), but there was nothing to listen to anymore. All that was left were religious broadcasters and a few "number" spy broadcasts but that was it. Has anyone found anything differently of late? I was fascinated by Mark in the video. Very patient and knowledgeable.
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