A day late to the party but hey-ho, I can always help tidy up
Lest we forget the meaning behind that all encompassing word, "
radio", check out the following link if you wish :-
https://swling.com/blog/2021/02/today-is-world-
radio-day-2021/
I particularly liked the latter part of the piece about "
Radio Taboo".
I know personally I've saddened at the loss of many of the MW local
radio stations. Some are not completely lost but instead almalgimated so hence losing what it means to be 'local' and often become VHF only services. Bang goes that vintage
radio you loved and listened to providing decades of faithful service! (My VHF set won't pick up a thing in the garden outbuilding whereas my old Soviet set used to manage MW and LW without a hitch and forget DAB reception reliability!)
It's not just local
radio either.
The SW services have all but disappeared too leaving only powerful Chinese transmissions. Some still exists, I listened to the horrifying reports of an earthquake and it's victims in Albania from an English speaking Romanian transmission. It was made mere mention of on our BBC services some four days later squeezed between a report surrounding a typical facially reconstructed 'celeb' and some overpaid sports something or other.
Some communities around the world are reliant on surplus
radio sets for communication. There are no cell-phone towers and internet in poorer jungle communities or atol islands that haven't yet become a holiday destination. Instead they rely on the initiative of individuals fixing up old military surplus sets hooked up to old batteries and maybe less than efficient solar chargers. Some wire up old car alternators to a bicycle and peddle for their electricity! Then they make useful transmissions such as weather reports for the fishermen, local announcements often in a happy vein such as birthdays or the election of a new 'Elder' to lead them in this brash world. Batteries for the listening receivers are like gold dust to some, but luckily some eccentric English gent gave them the marvel of 'wind-up generator' radios. (RIP Trevor Bayliss)
You see, the wonderous method of spewing part of the electromagnetic spectrum out of the back of a box and through a wire can take many forms. The 'humanity' behind it is what inspires me.....
Luckily that's not 'us' is it?
We have multitudes of sometimes the most advanced communication systems reliant on
radio emissions that have ever existed. Yet, we often live in a communication desert, the simple act of talking to another human being a profound problem. That's probably why many of us take up the archaic hobby of
radio communication digging out CB's, purchasing cheap PMR's or studying and gaining our Ham 'ticket'. Maybe that's why we scorn the use of digital modes as it's all 'computers' and not like talking to a 'real' person? (Despite the fact that there is a 'real' person sat staring at that screen hoping for some modicum of response from another human being.)
Maybe next time you've finished talking about the typical '
radio' subjects on your transmission, your next over could entail the simplest thing that
radio can achieve and ask, "So how are you today?"
It's nice that we have a '
radio day', even if for only one day of the year which hopefully enables us to celebrate all aspects of it.
More of my 'waffle', you'll have to forgive me
All the best,
Victor
Yesterday at 10:27 pm by 
Subject: Radio day 2021 
I'll go have a little tune through the bands now... 
