Preface<br > "Tune in the world." Sound glamorous? It is. To a special<br > group of people who spend leisure hours fiddling with the dials<br > of a shortwave radio， nothing compares with the thrill of hearing<br > a station from the other side of the globe.<br > Shortwave listening as a hobby has been around for many，<br > many years. The ranks continue to expand. A real upsurge de-<br > veloped after the transistor brought better equipment at lower<br > prices. Some shortwave receivers are still expensive， but you<br > can also get pretty good equipment without spending an arm<br > and a leg.<br > You can t always spot a shortwave listener. They come from<br > all walks of life. Students， doctors， factory workers， farmers，<br > lawyers， housewives， race drivers， airline pilots， secretaries，<br >~_ even unemployed school dropouts--all sorts listen to shortwave<br >r~ radio.<br >~- Your next-door neighbor might be an SWL. There is little out-<br > ward sign. His basement could house a shortwave listening sta-<br > tion with a half-dozen receivers; yet your only clue could be a<br > slender thread of wire stretched between two trees in his back-<br > yard. A few listeners put up fancy outdoor antennas to pull in<br > distant stations. But you can t know for sure what all that stuff<br > is for unless you ask.<br > Not that shortwave listeners are ashamed of their hobby.<br > They re not. An avid shortwave buff will talk your ear off about<br > it. But he ll seldom bring up the subject himself. For one thing，<br > many people can t understand the excitement he feels. Others<br > associate shortwave radio with tv interference; that s ridiculous<br > unless he runs a transmitter， and shortwave listeners don t.<br > Ask around. Your clergyman may listen to shortwave radio.<br > Your insurance man could be really big on police and fire calls.<br > Shortwave listening is rewarding. You may be astonished at<br > what there is to learn from the activity. You ll discover that a<br > shortwave listener becomes vastly well informed about the<br > world. He also knows what s going on in his own town.<br >