Radio stuff - 2007/09/02 at 05:00

Last night, I decided to take out my shortwave radio, to hear what I could hear. This is what I discovered:

• There are more shortwave stations in this part of this world


• My amplified antenna really makes a difference


• There are still evangelical stations in English


• Like home, there's nothing on longwave here


• There are only a couple of stations on FM


• Mediumwave ("AM" in the US) is unheard of here

Mediumwave was the biggest surprise. I found two stations before I got tired of scanning. The first was, I believe, in Portuguese. It was certainly some Roman language, close to Spanish, but pronounced with an accent much different than any I've heard before.

The second, as far as I can tell, is AFRTS, which I've only heard before on shortwave. I can't imagine any other station talking (in an American accent) about how, depending on where you've been stationed, it may be impossible to donate blood.

I'm still trying to figure out when to see RTI. I hope it's possible. If not, well, no big deal, I'll catch it when I go to Australia and New Zealand.