Good on ya Fred, Good stuff. I live in Urkaine for almsot a decade and a Donbas refugee in west Ukraine. I use internet SW SDR sites every now and then to get real radio signals streamed to me, but same problem, no internet no online SDR. I am definitely going ot buy a budget SW radio after checking out some more of your recommendations in the back catalogue of yours!

There is something magical about plucking a radio signal from thin air after its bounced and skipped half way round the world that no digital media could ever compete with.

On that bad day, when the internet goes down, you will be happy to have a real radio.

One of life’s greatest moments: on the deck of a boat in the middle of the ocean on a warm night beneath a vast galaxy of stars, listening to distant SW stations broadcasting in languages I didn’t speak.

I recall back in the late 70's early 1980's listening to the BBC in Vermont on a shortwave receiver in out kitchen.  The unit had a two foot antenna when extended fully.  We could receive the UK and many other countries when they had their broadcasts over the air.  It's still a decent way to bypass censors, cut power and cable lines, as well as geo-blocked internet content.  Shortwave technology should be broght back into areas of conflict to ensure th truth, whatever that is, gets heard.

The internet is around 1% reliable during a disaster. Shortwave has no borders and dead cell towers.

When the power goes out, radio is the ONLY game in town.

Internet radio is fake radio. I'd rather listen to radio frequencies on my own. The thrill of sitting in front of your SW unit and tuning in to faded signals is so much more enjoyable. It brings a sense of accomplishment.

I can't imagine not having at least one good battery/AC all band radio in the the house. Total reliance on the internet very unwise.

Good point. Everybody should have a radio as a basic way of receiving information outside of the internet.

I remember when an antenna was an aerial.

Currently fighting with the wife about installing a wire antenna on the bedside sw radio.

I was gonna buy a sw radio but it looks like Fred already bought them all.

Those were the good old days. I used to be fascinated by the way you could listen to so many countries thousands of miles away!  I am 58 and still like to listen to Ham and some SW transmissions. Currently, I am also listening through SDRs . I could never have imagined that someday we could listen through a computer via a dongle!!

I'm in my mid 70's and worked as an Engineer for over 45 years working in remote areas of Asia, Africa and South America. SW Radio was a must for all of us working in the field. Often I worked in some very unstable countries. Our only link with the outside world was our battery operated SW radios. I still pull out the old set and listen every now and then.

At 11yo I found an old radio that had a selection SW. I had a table with the radio sitting on it. I was moving the antenna around, and the antenna touched our chain link fence.
WOW! I was hearing people speaking different languages! How did this happen? To the library I went, and became a vacuum cleaner when it came to anntena information. I never looked back!
I found that the longer or shorter I made the wire,I could hear different stations! Got my first CB at 13, (tubes, and before circuit boards) got zapped alot, but learned a lot more!🤣 I was very bad with morse code, but really understood theory. Couldn't pass the novice test. Now retired, and no morose code required, I took the Tech & Gen tests together. Now, back into the hobby I loved as a child. All of that knowledge I gained as a teen is now paying off.

Shortwave is always important during emergencies. I pick up broken old shortwaves at ham radio swap-meets for literally next to nothing, free to $5 for a solid-state portable, $5 to $30 for a tube model. Then I fix them and realign them so they work pretty much as well as a modern one. Every once in a while I find someone who is fascinated with SW and I either sell them one of my radios cheap or, if they have little money I simply give them a radio. When I was 13 years old in the 1960's I was given a 12 tube Hallicrafters SX-25 shortwave in good working order. I lived in a rural area so I hung up a 100 foot north/south wire and a 100 foot east/west wire antenna at about 12 to 15 feet and I listened to the world every day all through high school. So now I do the same for others. While I have and use SDR's I don't like how much technology is required to receive anything at all, especially in an emergency. I prefer old tube receivers, and simple transistor radios. They make understanding what is going on much easier, and understanding is important. Whether or not there are a lot of good stations to listen to these days there is a great deal to learn about radio, about emergency communications, about skip conditions, about antennas, about ham radio and electronics which can become a skill as valuable as advanced first aid in an emergency. A shortwave is an invitation to gaining useful knowledge and is still an open door to the world.

Radio, and SW radio are a relief from what passes as television these days, the internet is poor in my area.

Frid in the shed I learn lot from about shortwave receivers and CB radios with AM FM ssb

You nailed it, Fred. I've been talking about this for years. This digital dependance will be a dangerous time if it crashes for a multitude of reasons. Most global systems do not have a backup system to carry on with banking, communications, etc.