Many of you probably started out as a shortwave listener. I started listening to international broadcasts with an old Deforest-Crosley radio in one of those big old wooden cabinets. Probably with my ear to the speaker I listened to the overseas service of the BBC. I have one of its QSL cards.

I graduated to a Hallicrafters receiver (can’t remember which model) which I purchased for $60 in probably 1963. With a long wire antenna strung between two telephone poles in my parent’s backyard I was able to listen to some really interesting broadcasters. Below I show three of them: Czechoslovakia, Ghana, and the Congo. I received the Czech QSL card five years before they were invaded by the Warsaw Pact.