I dug out my shortwave radio yesterday, and I think I am going to start listening to it again. When I bought it, I had fun with it, but it was hard to find English programs to listen to that were interesting. I ended up listing mostly to the BBC. Now with the internet it is a piece of cake. I found this website (hfradio.org) that lists everything that is currently being broadcast in English and on which frequency. Give it a click. You will be surprised at how much stuff is being broadcast.

I also updated my police scanner with some new police channels to search last night. I also found them on the internet.

I am really fascinated by radio waves. That is probably my attraction to the clocks that set themselves from the atomic clock in Fort Collins, Colorado via radio waves.

I am also excited about the new HD Radio that is being introduced. I know for sure that Chicago Public Radio will begin broadcasting soon in the HD Radio format, but I have not heard of any others. I don't know of any HD receivers being sold yet either. The first one will be for a car. I will probably snatch up the first portable one that hits the market. (The picture to the right is the first portable radio for the XM satellite service. I talk about it in the next paragraph.) The advantage is that FM broadcasts will have CD quality sound, and AM broadcasts will sound like FM used to. They will also be able to transmit digital information at the same time. That means your radio will be able to display the name of the song and artist, the weather forecast, traffic alerts, etc.

It is relatively inexpensive (usually about $75,000 - $100,000) for a radio station to upgrade to the new format, so it should spread fairly quickly. The radios that receive the HD broadcasts are initially expected to cost about $100 over a comparable non-HD radio. I think that will drop very quickly though. Eventually all new radios will be HD. I wonder if this will put pressure on XM and Sirius to drop the monthly subscription fees to their satellite radio services. I think their rates are $10 and $13 per month respectively. Too much for me. I think I would subscribe if it was more like $3 or $4 per month; or if I spent several hours a day in the car, like a travelling salesman (is that redundant?).