I have to say Michael, I read your story with a tinge of jealousy.

I've been listening for around 10 years, but more intently in the last 4.

What i'd give to have been around to listen to to the SW Broadcast of the
70's and 80's. Still I have many good memories. (I nearly cried when I
tuned into the Linconshire Poacher for the first time. ((But thats only
because I was using a crap radio.)) And I still enjoy stations like Radio
Prague, Voice of Russia etc.

SW Broadcasts are starting to verge on the nostalgic side of modern
communications, in the first world countries especially. I do hope it
doesn't fade into obscurity.

Theres definately a future in the up and coming countries, and it may be
intersting to listen to what broadcasts come from these.

jason

"Michael" wrote in message
...

"dxAce" wrote in message
...
Voice of Russia (darn, I still wish they'd go back to the Radio Moscow
moniker),
heard here at 1500 in English on 15455.

dxAce
Michigan
USA

I know what you mean. I remember the cold war days on shortwave. That
was
before the internet and satellite were available to the general public.
Shortwave was "it". I used to love listening to the Soviet propaganda on
Radio Moscow in the late 70's and early 80's. I got my first sw radio
back
in 1978 when I was 12 and I came across Radio Moscow in English. It was
total garbage, but I loved it. Those were great days for SWL. In addition
to
the heavy propaganda stuff, they also still had some good cultural and
scientific content on Radio Moscow. It was actually a good experience to
be
able to listen to that sort of stuff when I was younger. For the most
part,
it was an early lesson that things aren't always black and white as far as
the "good guy vs. bad guy" thing goes. I think that is almost always the
result that heavy handed and gaudy propaganda has on most people. It is
conspicuous to the point of being its own indictment. Radio Moscow was
clearly a tool of an oppressive post Stalinist state that the world should
be glad to be rid of. At the same time though, exposure to other content
aside from the propaganda was a good thing to have at that time to keep
things square and level apart from the "Red Menace" portrayal in western
media sources. You'd think every Russian actually loved communism, the KGB
and censorship of their speech and media. In short, I wanted the
government
to go under, but by no means did I want to see the people go up in a big
mushroom cloud.

Still.... I really miss that gaudy Soviet propaganda. Ahhhh... Those were
the golden days of shortwave listening.

Michael