The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Technobuddy Column.

Byline: Bill Husted

Nov. 3--I can remember when the Internet was pure fun for me. It was like stumbling through a mysterious maze of homemade Web sites created with passion and not much glitz. When the Internet was new, just getting an e-mail was a magical experience.

The world opened up, no matter where you lived. You could bounce along the Web -- truly surfing from one spot to another -- and meet people around the world. And e-mail gave me a chance to make friends in places a country boy from Arkadelphia, Ark., was unlikely to ever travel.

If you've been around for a while, you've seen how the neighborhood has changed. The wonderful stuff hasn't gone away. But it often gets overpowered by pop-up ads and commercial e-mails. (I've decided to stop calling them "spam"; that gives canned meat a bad name.) The Web now is mostly filled with slick commercial sites that feel like TV commercials.

That's why I always look forward to the arrival of the latest edition of a book -- the old-fashioned kind, made by putting ink on paper -- called "Passport to World Band Radio." (It's available at big bookstores for $20 or from the Internet at www.passband.com/).

It's a guidebook that will introduce you to thousands of commercial and government stations from around the world. There are big stations like the BBC and Germany's Deutche Welle and thousands of broadcasters located in tiny countries I can't spell or pronounce.

Just as was true in the earliest days of the Internet, the real fun is in surfing blindly through the airwaves. Spin the dial on even a $100 shortwave receiver from Radio Shack, and you'll be immersed in a cacophony of voices that seem to speak every language in the world.

There will be music unlike any you hear on the FM dial. You'll find news reports direct from the source, unfiltered by an American editor or producer. You'll learn more about how America looks to outside eyes in five minutes than in a lifetime of watching network news.

That's why getting the book excites me in a nerdish way. The New York Times calls it the TV Guide of the shortwave radio bands. It gives complete programming information for almost every commercial shortwave station. It also has reviews of almost every model of shortwave radio on the market. Look at the ads in the book, and then glance at its reviews. You'll soon see that manufacturers get no extra editorial points for their advertising dollars. These are hard-nosed reviews.

I don't often recommend specific products. Mostly that's because I don't have the ability to sample and test each competing product. But this is a book without any real competition. Besides, I know enough about the shortwave airwaves to feel comfortable making recommendations. I've messed with shortwave radios since I got my first amateur radio license (I'm now licensed as KQ4YA) at 13. I may not be an expert, but I'll do until you find one.

I can't swear you'll fall in love with shortwave radio in the same way I did at 13. It isn't trendy. It has the same sort of "outsider" feel that messing with computers once had. Listening to shortwave broadcasts won't buy you admiring glances at parties. Your neighbors won't clamor for advice on the latest shortwave receiver -- which, of course, may be a blessing.

Instead, as the Internet still does, it offers a different window from which to view the world. For me, there's more of a feeling of being there, of being a participant, than I get from today's Internet.

In the early days, shortwave receivers were cranky and complicated beasts. My first one was as big as a suitcase and had more knobs, toggle switches and dials than you'd find in a light airplane. For it to work at all, I had to string up a long wire antenna between the pecan trees.

Things have changed. Now you can buy a shortwave radio for very little money. Almost any shortwave portable that costs $100 or more will work fine for casual listening.

No outside antenna is required, so you can avoid tormenting the squirrels in the trees. Simply use the built-in whip antenna.

And using a shortwave receiver is no more complicated than tuning a car radio.

Shortwave radio isn't for everyone. Many of you barely have time to clean out all the junk mail in your in-box. But it's one of those experiences that you'll never understand, never know if you'd like it, without trying for yourself.

I think the $20 you'd spend on the book is the best way to start. You'll get detailed advice that's easy to understand and much more complete than anything I could write in this column. Think of it as a $20 gamble -- if you win, you find a new world.

Give it a try. You may find something increasingly rare these days: pure fun.

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(c) 2002, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.