[3uh5weutwehow]

If you do not have one, get yourself an RTL-SDR today. This is a cheap ($10) way into radio and you will be impressed with what you can do.

From radio scanning to public safety radio to airplane tracking all with free software!

[squarefoot]

Agreed. While I love the analog scales on old radios and the glowing light behind the dials, SDR is so fun, portable and cheap to play with. After wetting the toes with repurposed cheap TV dongles, I'd suggest to get a dongle from rtl-sdr.com (satisfied customer, no affiliation whasoever). I have two of their dongles and while they're priced almost in the same league of the TV ones ($20 dongle alone, or $25 with 2 antennas) the performance wrt sensitivity and noise floor is remarkably better. Next purchase then will be a upconverter to get the interesting stuff aired in the HF bands. There are ways to convert dongles into direct sampling receivers for these bands; I can't report on their workings as I never tried them but without any filtering on the input I believe the performance won't be that good, at least compared to a full blown converter with filtering at the front end stage.

[ZanyProgrammer]

I use Dump 1090 on my Pi to catch ADSB signals, but I've yet to figure out radio with my sdr.

https://github.com/antirez/dump1090

[jdalgetty]

Ok, I ordered one of these based on your comment. Looking forward with a new toy to play with when it arrives.