Years ago it was my old Sharp radio and a copy of “International Radio Stations Guide”, by P. Shore.

After that it was my Sony Worldband receiver and the occasional summer night sitting out listening to some distant radio station, DXing as it’s known to radio hams.

I had big hopes for DAB radio and loved the fact that the cricket was now crackle free but, latterly, it seems to be dying a death.

So today I bought a Freecom Internet Radio. Someone asked me why I didn’t just use a PC to listen to all these stations. The practical answers are that sometimes I just don’t have enough CPU cycles when I’m playing around in Photoshop; that it takes more power to run a PC and speakers than this radio; that in the summer I want to be able to sit outside without moving a laptop and cables; that there is too much temptation with a PC on to read blogs and surf the web.

The real reason is I still get a kick from turning a dial, discovering new stations and listening to voices from the other side of the world.