One of the unexpected benefits of our remote anchorage in Great Porth on Bryher was that there was absolutely no mobile signal to be had, without rowing ashore and climbing a small hill. It reminded us of cruising in the Pacific Islands. Out there, of course, we had our satellite phone to pick up plain text emails and weather faxes - no photos or attachments allowed, our month data allowance was only 5MB (yes megabytes, about the size of a single photo!) - so our SSB radio was a great link to the voices of fellow sailors and shore-based weather forecasters.
Out of curiosity, on Thursday evening Graham switched on the SSB, spun the tuning dials and was amazed to get a remarkably clear (for shortwave, that is) news programme from New Zealand. The RNZ news is broadcast from an aerial in Wellington, primarily for consumption in the Pacific region, so the signal was bouncing off the ionosphere from half way around the world (about 11,900 miles) to reach us.
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