Oh shortwave, where art thou?

(Note: I wrote this after the global warming post, but for purely arbitrary reasons I wanted this to be shown after.)

I love shortwave. Seriously. I also like AM radio. It's not so much that I shun FM radio, because I listen to the CBC and Radio-Canada quite a lot, but AM and shortwave have that sort of gritty, "real-er" quality to them, that makes it that much better. Thing is, I want to listen to stuff from the BBC or the Deutsche Welle, while I'm on the radio. If I'm gonna be sitting there fiddling with the controls, I might as well listen to something that crossed an ocean before getting to me, right?

Thing is, I'm not sure about the other international services, but the BBC and the DW don't have shortwave service to North America anymore. They have everywhere else--I think I even saw "Antarctica" somewhere on the BBC's list--but they don't have North America. So, for foreign radio, that leaves me with American evangelists and Radio Habana Cuba. Now, while I'd love to get my news from the Worker's Paradise, yo no hablo español. Not that ich spreche besonders gut Deutsch but I know enough to... ah... be able to figure out what they're talking about on DW. Besides, I'm not quite sure listening to RHC would go over very well, considering where I am and who I work for.

So that reduces me to listening to RC and CBC.. and whatever else I can sometimes catch on AM and shortwave. I listened to Radio Taiwan International (in English and in French) a few times--even got a QRL card from them--but either I can't read their schedule or, more likely, my building dampens the signal too much because I can't seem to listen to them anymore. Ah, life is hard for those of us who like old-school technology...

...Now where did I put my typewriter?