I’ll confess that I once had a dim view of ham radio due to The Simpsons, which never passed up an opportunity to lampoon shortwave operators as insular nerds. (There’s a full-list of animated references to ham radio here; few are flattering.) What changed my mind in recent years is my affection for this site, which regularly posts radio recordings from all over the globe. Entries tend to include brief explanations from submitters, who are clearly proud they managed to capture sounds from that emanated from thousands of miles away. Listening to, say, a Kuwaiti signal that a Canadian picked up in 1970, it’s not difficult to feel the pure joy of discovery.
A recent fave: The Voice of the Galapagos, captured by an operator in Washington D.C. some 42 years ago.
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