http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8255790

By Robert MacMillan
NEW YORK, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Somewhere on a lonely mountaintop on a starry
night, or maybe in an apartment on a bustling city block, someone is
channeling the whole world onto a mobile device. It's not a phone; it's a
shortwave radio.
A staple form of broadcasting in many parts of the world since the 1920s and
1930s -- shortwave in North America has been mostly a hobby for decades.
Now that the Internet is a fixture in many homes in the United States and
Canada, there are few practical reasons to buy a shortwave radio. Thousands
of stations that once were available only on the shortwave band are online.
Shortwave also is distinctly old fashioned, cast against the shadow of the
annual Consumer Electronics Show, which was held in Las Vegas earlier this
month. The mother of gargantuan gadget fests featured shortwave radio
makers, but the action these days revolves around digital audio devices.
The contrast is stark: iPods and satellite radios are slim and pocket-sized,
while shortwaves are throwbacks, typically as square as a textbook and just
as serious looking.
So why bother with shortwave?
It's easy and cheap -- and fun. You can hear and learn things that you would
never find even if you work your search engine like a mule. From Swaziland
to Paris to Havana, shortwave broadcasters can surprise an adventurous
listener more than any MP3 playlist.
"You tune carefully, twist the radio from side to side, and there's still a
bit of a 'Hey, I made this happen!' sort of thing," said Harold Cones,
retired chairman of the biology and chemistry department at Christopher
Newport University in Newport News, Virginia.
It's also magic. Shortwave radio enthusiasts acknowledge the thrill -- the
romance, in a way -- of going out at night and snaring news, music, odd
bleeps, religious zealots and other broadcasts from the wild sea of
frequencies in the sky.
In aural terms, the Internet wins. Shortwave by nature sounds dirty: Its
signals whoosh from clouds of static and are subject to the whims of
sunspots and atmospheric disturbances.
But when you hear voices over the noise and squeal, and realize you are
hearing Mongolia, live, there is a warmth and a human connection that are
hard to find on the Web.
Shortwave also can deliver news faster than you might find it online, and in
places where your other devices don't work, said Ian McFarland, a former
host and writer at Radio Canada International.
"It's more portable than a computer, especially if you ... don't have a
laptop and you don't happen to have a hot spot on your favorite beach," he
said. Batteries also keep them going a long time when the power goes out.
On a serious note, shortwave stations often resist many government attempts
to jam them.
"Shortwave is unfettered by intermediaries so it's pretty much always
there," said Lawrence Magne, publisher of the Passport to World Band Radio
(http://www.passband.com).
GETTING STARTED
You can find shortwave radios at a variety of Web retail and auction shops
like Amazon, Universal Radio, The Shortwave Store, Grove Enterprises or even
National Public Radio.
Bob Grove, at Grove Enterprises in Brasstown, North Carolina, also offers a
handy beginner's guide (http://tinyurl.com/8rq3bt).
You could drop thousands of dollars on a radio, but units such as the Eton
E100 (http://tinyurl.com/8x5q9o) generally range from $50 to $250. A
perfectly serviceable radio sells for as little as $30, but more expensive
models are better at pulling in fainter signals.
Listening is best an hour before and after sunrise and sunset -- and away
from urban areas -- because of atmospheric conditions and because many
broadcasters in distant lands are gearing up their broadcasts.
Try searching for distant shortwave signals, identify the station, write to
them and get a "QSL Card," the broadcaster's acknowledgment that you made
contact.
For die hards, listening to shortwave can make hours go by in a dream. For
others, its an acquired taste -- Bob Grove said his wife is "partially
tolerant."
"I've had radio equipment in my car in the past, and I have learned not to
turn it all on when we were going on a date somewhere."
(To find a a partial English-language list of what's on shortwave, try
RadioShack (http://tinyurl.com/6texnw) or C.Crane
(http://tinyurl.com/yjfcrq)). (Reporting by Robert MacMillan; editing by
Richard Chang)