From Childhood to Magnetism

There are two old radios on the shelves to the right of my desk. The larger one is a Graetz (Ger., Eng.) “Comedia” (plugged in and still in operation, pictures), the other smaller one seemingly carries no brand name and type designation. It still works too, I simply have only one electric connection there. The smaller one is from my mother’s side of the family, the larger “Comedia” – with a lot more golden lines to it – belonged to my father’s parents. Both apparatus are filled with tubes or valves and when started they need a bit of time until they reach their operating temperature, you can hear a little “whobb” and then the sound becomes clear – and warm.
Both have a magisches Auge (Ger., Eng.) and two large knobs: One for volume, other for stations. One can receive very short, short, middle and long wave; to change this setting very stable and clunky buttons need to be pressed, you hear a mechanical “clonk” and all of a sudden strange noises hiss and whisper out of the speaker.
I remember the endless numerical series one could hear – was it short wave? Whether from East or West I do not know, German, English, some with accent some not. In the sixties, living a stone’s throw away from The Border, who was communicating what to whom: Where is the spy? I have not heared it for ages, but as I learned it still exists, the Zahlensender (wiki Ger., Eng.) are still working, noises and attempts to blank out the transmission inclusive.
But there is other stuff too, natural sounds that can be heared with an old radio. First of all I had to learn that there ARE natural electromagnetic sounds that can be received. And brings us to Mr. S.P.McGreevy (Eng., Ger.), who on his website collects the “music of the magnetosphere”: He has published since 1996 at least two CD-albums with natural magnetic sounds, that can be found on this page. These magnetic or atmospheral sounds can be called “bioacoustics” – I have no idea whether the links on this page are still valid, sorry. An interesting collection of a wide range of environmental recordings  is here, there are small samples.
In the beginning of this April McGreevy installed a “Very-Low-Frequency-Receiver” that allows him to monitor these from home. More info on VLF should be found here.
And if you are still reading, brave!, have a look on the “Magnetic Movie“, its fun to watch, and a bit frightening.
I originally wanted to write about space-music and the melochord, so it will come later.