Oh you should definitely use your opportunity. It's a world full of fun and edification. Although it has to be said that China Radio International seem to be making a bid to rule every frequency lately.

There are estimated to be 1,000,000 stray dogs in and around Bucharest, you know.

As many as all that? Well I never.

All of that information, and more, can be yours at the flick of a switch.

Czech radio are exploring the worsening 'social exclusion' of the Romany minority. Someone has completed a study of 80,000 Romanies are living in 310 'ghettoised' shanty villages. "About 80 percent of the settlements have appeared in the past 10 years. The larger the enclave is, the more it is 'soaking' people from its surroundings."

A very helpful lady on Romanian Radio is currently explaining the culinary delights of the eggplant, complete with recipes.

I had lamb with eggplant sauce last night! Excellent!

After eggplant salad, my interest started to wane, so I'm scanning again. I've got some sort of live (possibly North African) folk music on at the moment.

(I don't think I've ever eaten eggplant)

(edit: oh, yes I have. We call it 'aubergine')

Eggplants great. Especially Indian food with eggplant.

Latest update on that Swedish election: the hot topics at the moment are school grades and the cost of health services.

I'm totally getting the SW radio out of the garage tomorrow. I'll say thanks in advance to the people of this thread, especially Hip Priest, who has really sold it to me.

At the risk of either cementing your resolve or destroying it, I might point out that Radio Sweden have shut up about the election and started playing Abba.

Abba? In Sweden? Who'd've thunk it?

Yeah, I know. It's like the Beatles and Liverpool isn't it? A casual visitor would be forgiven for assuming that nothing of note has happened in the intervening years.

Anyway, radio Sweden are gone for the night so I've got the Omnipresent Ruler of the Shortwave, Radio China International, on at the moment.

Glice: here's a very stylish axample of what you've been missing, just broadcast by Radio Prague*:

..Not too long ago the best anyone was likely to come up with on a rainy day at the cottage was a mouldy edition of "Clovece, nezlob se" - Man, Don't Be Angry, the Czech version of the children's game Ludo, where you try and get your pawns to home base while bumping your opponents off the track! Not a scintillating experience unless you're about eight years old. On the other hand, in the early 1990s there was at least a decent parody of the game developed by comic Czech singer and songwriter Ivan Mladek. His game "Soudruhu, nezlob se" - Comrade, Don't be Angry! made far better use of the original game's simple but ruthless principles in a way that was funny and wonderfully dark.

The idea was to roll-and-move your pawn along a track, gradually collecting cash and cards that either helped or hurt your rise in the echelons of communist power. One card that I remember well read something like "Drunk in the pub, you declare Havel will one day be president. Go straight to psychiatric ward for treatment." In its way, the game perfectly captured the euphoric mood of the 90s following communism's demise. In the very last stage you traded your hard-earned Czechoslovak crowns for West German marks so you could make a final cynical dash over the border to the West. A final roll of the die determined whether you successfully made it past the machine guns, minefields, and electric fence. Like I said, the humour was black...

*Radio Praha, if you prefer.

There's some kind of major religious conference going on in Bucharest, or so I'm told by the people at Radio Romania International. Knowing that it would be of great interest to all, I checked out their website.

THE FIRST EUROPEAN CONGRESS OF THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS IN ROMANIA

Mircea Eliade’s research in the history of religions as well as Ioan Petru Culianu’s studies on gnosticism are well-known to the scholarly and academic world. Both researchers left Romania, as they wanted to develop and refine their research work in the West, where they eventually gained a well-deserved fame. However, Romania’s claim in the field does not go beyond that. The communist regime deliberately downplayed interest in the history of religions, and after December 1989 it took Romania quite a long time to place itself in line with the specialised research from Europe and the US. Romania’s synchronisation in the field has eventually become full-fledged , and a living proof of that is the fact that the European Association for the Study of Religions has chosen Bucharest as the venue for the 6th European Congress of the History of religions.

This is the first time Romania’s capital has been chosen to host to such an event that brings together 250 researchers from 30 countries. Organised by the Romanian Association for the History of Religions, the congress also has the support of the Government and the Presidency. The opening ceremony was held at the Romanian Athenaeum, in the presence of Romanian president Traian Basescu. The event is meant to promote Romanian research in the history of religions, as well as to prove Romania is no longer a “ blank spot on the map of religion research” as Andrei Oisteanu, the President of the Romanian Association for the History of Religions, put it. The driving force of this recognition process is a group of young historians clustered around the ‘”Archaeus” and “Studia Asiatica” specialised magazines. Speaking now is Andrei Oisteanu.

“I should like to begin by mentioning the names of some of the researchers that make up the group: Eugen Ciurtin - the Secretary of the Romanian Association for the history of Religions, Mihaela Timus, Mihail Neamtu, Gabriela Cursaru, Bogdan Tataru-Cazaban, and many others (…)Scientific solidarity became possible first of all due to these young and dedicated people as well as to the support given by a more mature generation. Together we’ve managed to make contemporary Romanian research as well as the history of the history of religions in Romania conspicuous. Saying this I have in mind great names such as Mircea Eliade and Ioan Petru Culianu, but also Moses Gaster, Arion Rosu, Sergiu Al-George, and many others.”

The European Congress of the History of Religions, an event organised for the first time ever in Bucharest, can thus be seen both as a catalyst of academic exchange as well as a fresh impetus for the establishment of a series of university departments and a specialised research institute.

Fascinating Hipster! Romania seems to be a blossoming little republic, vibrant and foward looking. Judging from your broadcast reports anyway, of course stations will always bulk it up a bit.

Last night I had an fun listen to China Radio International, and other random stations I heard while scanning. I'm not sure where the other stations were coming from, one was in Spanish, and another in an Asian dialect, Thai maybe? Anyway, do you ever listen to CRI's program Voices From Other Lands? They were talking to a South African business man that is working in Beijing. I'm a big fan of this program.

I encourage you to send a reception report to one of these stations Hip Priest! I've just got a QSL Card from Brazil! I need to scan these to show them off!

I should do, really, considering how often I listen and how much I enjoy it. I should start emailing them aswell. I might do that tonight, then get some reception reports sent off.

Radio Romania International do a good job. I generally prefer the Eastern European broadcasts, as they take the whole thing very seriously.

I sometimes like to stop and listen to broadcasts in foreign languages, even though I don't understand them. And some of the music programmes are excellent, either folk or trad jazz. Ever since I was a child, it's struck me how much trad jazz is broadcast on shortwave.

AS I've mentioned before, CRI seems to omnipressent nowadays - they're always broadcasting something (often multiple things) on different frequencies - so I tend to skip past them and listen when I can't find anything else. They do try to maintain a high quality though.

On Voice of Russia today, right after 'Moscow Mailbag', there was a programme offering a very nice introduction to the work of Dmitri Shostakovich. If, like myself, you're not too familiar with him then it's worth a listen. Straight after that one, there's now a programme about Russia's maritime activity which sounds like a good listen.

By the end of 2007 there will be a new oil platform in Russia's Pacific area, which will allow Siberian Oil reserves to be further exploited.

Russia seems determined to become oil rich. With that Turkish pipeline going up, and the one through Central Asia, not to mention Kazakhstan making a bid to be opened up to the world through its oil reserves, they must feel left out/paranoid. Interesting situation.

Dmitri Shostakovich is intriguing. I'm not familiar with him, but with some research I what a prominent Russian he was! One thing can be said about the Soviet Union, they sure sure did honor their outstanding citizens, even the bizarre ones. I wonder how widely available his material is. Perhaps a call to my Muscovite cousin is in the works.

If you ever do send a QSL Report to a station, let me know which station, Passport has addresses for all stations, right down to the person you should address it to. It also lets you know how frequently they reply, and what it is they just might send you in return.

oh man shostakovich was an amazing composer. he did some symphonies for stalin but he also did some very "anxious" string quartets on the private side that some people agree are more like it felt living under that monster.

i remember once upon a time i was in some friends apartment smoking a very social joint & they had shostakovich on & i got the most frightful paranoia. but sober is quite fucking amazing.

yes yes, check out the string quartets.