Shortwave radio

Oli was gazing at the peculiar human on his observation screen, one whom he suspected to be an alien. An alien from the distant Alpha Centauri system.

It was a calm and green terrain. He was sitting by under a tree that stood at the edge of a stream. In his lap, he had a piece of rather old human technology, known as, a radio set. The human had an expression of immense serenity on his face as sounds from the device fell on his ears. The mood indicators on Oli’s machines indicated the human was thoroughly enjoying the activity.

“I must investigate this!” thought Oli.

He then teleports to the vicinity and slowly approaches the strange human pretending to be a hiker. He found the human the human enjoying the moments while his fingers were twisting a big knob on the radio set.

Oli: Nice radio set you have got there, friend.

The Human (looks up to see Oli and lights up): Hello, yes! I love radios, especially the shortwave radio.

Oli: Interesting. Is it not a rather obsolete piece of technology today?

The Human: Oh, my interest in it more than mere practicality. Shortwave radio has fascinated me since I was a child. The fact that sounds could be sent across the globe to a such tiny device, amazes me. Sounds riding the radio waves, traveling through the ionosphere, and reaching my ear via this little thing called a radio set! It might be a primitive form of radio-based technologies, yet pretty magical. Don’t you think?

Oli cannot even recall how many thousands of years ago his own civilization had advanced far from the simple radio waves. Although, the fascination of the human fascinated him.

Oli: Hmm… Makes me think after you narrate it like that.

The Human (feeling encouraged): I spent hours every day turning the knobs on my father’s radio set, listening to sounds from around the world when I was little. I did not even know what languages the broadcasts were in. My friends found it odd that I was listening to people speaking in unknown languages, but it was such an experience for me. My tiny brain painted a picture of the person speaking on the radio with imagination. I imagined where those people lived, how they looked, what their lives were like, and so forth.

Oli: Hmm…

The Human: Music was another thing that glued me to shortwave radio. Did not know the origin of music, or to which culture the music belonged. It all awed me regardless. There were several Chinese radio stations that I tuned into often. Listening to Chinese music still pulls me into instant nostalgia.

I lived in a village, and most people went to bed early. The entire village used to be under night’s calmness much before midnight in those days. It seemed then that the entire world was sleeping except for me. It was the time when I took the radio set and perched on the highest point of the roof and turned the radio on. The medium wave used to be rather quiet at that time as most local radio stations stopped broadcasting at midnight. Shortwave, however, was still alive and thriving with enthusiastic voices and music. There were places in the world where it was daytime; this I knew. But listening to the voices and music was a fantastic experience. Made me feel how big and diverse the world was.

Oli (feeling a growing interest): Radio sets now surely sound more interesting to me than before.

The Human (not even paying attention to what Oli was saying): As years passed by, my radio time reduced. FM radio was becoming a thing by the time I gradually embarked into the teens. Although, nearby cities did not have FM radio stations, I managed to tune into a couple of FM radio stations from the state capital sometimes. This was another new experience. Medium and short-wave radio had music, but not the latest local music. FM was ‘cool’.

Oli opened his mouth to say something, but decided otherwise seeing that the human giving him any chance to speak.

Then I entered the world of the Internet and my days of radio began to fade, eventually leading me to stop listening to radio altogether. I did not ever realized it had happened. It’s been years since I even touched a radio set. I bought this radio set yesterday and brought it with me on a hike. It’s such a good atmosphere here to enjoy some old technology… far away from the world.

I still wonder if someday we will have internet the same way we had shortwave — flying freely in the sky, reaching every corner of the world without caring of man-made borders and restrictions.

Oli had seen the tremendous advancements in the field of radio tech that humans still had to discover. Yet he was somewhat intrigued. He left the human with his radio set after some more chatting feeling intrigued himself.