I used to listen to Shortwave radio when I lived in West Germany. I didn’t know it was called Shortwave until much later. I got interested in Shortwave decades later, bought an analog receiver, didn’t like it, took it back and got a digital receiver and a book called Passport to World Band radio that was just like a giant TV guide, but for the entire world. I set up an aluminum foil antenna around the top of one of my rooms and began listening to 30 watt stations in Red China and some of those same programs I used to listen to like the BBC, German stations, and Russian stations. That was fun for a while, but I thought I would like to go deeper so I looked into Ham Radio. I bought some old test prep guides from Radio Shack, the question pool was still good, but the books were being surplused so I got a deal. I got into trouble at work so I had some time off. I picked up the Novice/Technician book and read it through. I then went back and marked all of the correct answers so that I would only ever read the questions and right answers again. I read the questions/right answers at least a dozen times and I asked my girlfriend to read me the answers and see if I could remember the questions. I found out where the Ham testing was done in North Everett, went there early one Saturday with a pocket full of cash and passed the Novice and Technician tests with no mistakes. I was a newly minted Ham Radio Operator! I rushed back to Radio Shack and purchased my first 2 meter handheld radio and eagerly waited for my license to be issued. Two months later I sat for a 5 word-per-minute Morse Code test and upgraded to Tech-Plus.