Radio is something just about everybody, especially my generation (Gen X, dude) & younger, takes for granted without a lot of  thought.  Most listen daily to FM radio for music, or, in the case of National Public Radio, for Archer Daniels Midland advertisements.  Many tune around the AM stations for talk, news, controversy, & to hear Dr. Laura inform idiots who don't know they're idiots that they are idiots.

But for me, radio retains the magic it must have held for those who depended upon & marveled at it decades ago.  As a teenager, I got a portable radio that could recieve "shortwave" stations from all over the world.  That did it.  Take a piece of wire, string it across the ceiling or out in the yard, or extend that telescopic whip antenna, & it captures voices & music & data from any spot on the earth where somebody else bothered to hook another piece of wire to a transmitter.  A simple piece of wire, snagging all those invisible signals.  Ever since then, my interest in radio has been expanding & evolving.  Finally, in February of 1999, I decided that just listening to the signals wasn't enough & I obtained an amateur radio license.  Now I can send those signals right back.  It used to be kind of a geeky, nerdy hobby.  These days, the computer gurus have taken over the geeky nerdy turf, & ham radio is seen as more of a quaint old pastime, pursued mostly by old guys with lots of spare time.  But man, I love it!  There are lot of ways to enjoy radio.  What  I like is monitoring the AM broadcast band, shortwave listening, scanning, & of course hamming.  Hams like to read about other hams' "stuff" & what we do with it, so here:

The Shack:

Main Rig:  Yaesu FT-847 (HF & 6 meters, 100 watts;  2 meters & 70 centimeters, 50 watts).  But I also spend a lot of time on a 20+ year-old Kenwood TS-820S with a Shure 444 microphone on HF.  I think the Kenwood gives me a bit more "punch" on transmit (more power through vacuum tube finals), but the Yaesu definitely has better ears.  I do need to install better filters, though; the 847 has trouble with AGC pumping with strong adjacent signals.  Also on hand is a Rexon 2 meter handheld.  For CW, a Bencher iambic paddles are hooked up to the Yaesu (it has an internal keyer)  & a really really cheap straight key goes to the Kenwood.

Antenna:  Approximately 135 feet of wire horizontal doublet strung between some trees about 35 feet high.  It's the best I can manage here.  I feed it with 300 ohm twinlead through an MFJ antenna tuner.  Works like a charm on all bands.

That's it!  Very simple & spartan compared to some shacks I see & hear, but I've worked all the states & several countries in Europe, South America, & the Carribbean as well as Japan & Anarctica with no trouble.