Listening on the shortwave is a different experience every time.

The Grundig S350DL has lasted me nearly a decade now.

Setting up the 1.5m antenna, tuning the dial and listening for any sound, signal, voice, hum...

Radio waves are everywhere. In the air, beaming through buildings and concrete, trees and windows. It's beaming through you, tickling your cells as it passes by. Straight into your cellphone, communicating with the base station. If you have a wireless router, it's using radio waves to communicate with your PC. Commercial AM and FM radio stations with their towering antennas compete with new satellite radio, all using the same electromagnetic waves just at differing frequencies. What about shortwave radio though? It's a much lower frequency and can transmit and receive far longer distances.

You never know what you'll hear. Nowadays digital software radios can receive all stations at once with a specialized tuner. Not so with the analog S350DL. Whatever the dial is tuned to, you'll be listening to. Inexplicable beeps, boops and other weird fax-like noises populate some of the higher frequencies. Religious programming, talk radio and the raspy voice of conspiracy radio host Alex Jones fill the sub 5000 kHz block. Every now and again, you'll get someone speaking in Japanese, French, Chinese or Spanish - many different languages and probably some you won't recognize. The interesting thing about the shortwave is its low-tech, resilience and usefulness. Not to mention the portability, it even comes with a strap to carry with.

Shortwave radio bounces signals off the ionosphere. During the day, signals over 12000 KHz travel longer than ones that are lower. During the night, this situation is reversed - meaning you can usually hear some interesting stations from far away. Shortwave allows cheap and simple transmitting of voice and signals over oceans, mountains and entire continents. It's been in use for decades and probably will remain a fixture for a long time to come.

If you want to pick up a shortwave radio today, go to any electronics store and you'll find it for pretty cheap. You'll have lots of interesting listening time for sure. Look for places that have a big hill or wide open spaces for best reception. Take notes on your favorite stations and when to listen. In short order you'll be surfing the electromagnetic waves and tuning into one weird station after another.