I can't throw it away.

When I was cleaning my room, I found this old radio in the piles of gadgets. I couldn't throw it away though it doesn't work perfectly. It was almost thirty years ago when I bought this multi-band radio. I was in a junior high school and enjoyed listening to the world short wave radio programs with it until late at every night. I was addicted to listening to the bell sound of BBC, birds' song of ABC and so on. I felt an international atmosphere when I was listening to those sounds in large noises. I corrected a lot of so called "verification cards" which I could receive from each radio station in exchange for brief listening reports. Thanks to the Internet and its related digital technology, we can now get various foreign news reports very easily and clearly, but I think it's too easy to feel the reality in each report. A news report about dispute on the other side of the earth is in the same line of a local small fire. Now that we have lost the feeling for distances or scales of the earth, the short wave noise might have some meanings for us to retain the feeling. I'm thinking about repairing the radio someday soon and listening to the noise again.

Comments

[Tanaka]

I think I know what you mean. The Internet is a real good thing but somehow it has deprived us of romanticism that seemed associated with some of the things we used to do, like listening to the shortwave radio.

[Aviatrix]

"I corrected a lot of so called verification cards"

You don't make many mistakes anymore, but that's one. The word you want is "collected." I know they probably sound exactly the the same to your ears. Perhaps you can think of having a List of your coLLection. But you coRRect something to make it Right.

I continue to enjoy your blog even when it's not about airplanes. You give us perfect bite-sized pieces of your life.

[mochi]

> Aviatrix

I don't intend to make an excuse, but I knew the differece between CORRECT and COLLECT... and I made the same mistake. It's so difficult to distinguish R and L that we Japanese always have to take care of it. When we lose the power of concentration, we make this kind of mistake again. English is really difficult.