All I have done till now is tune to local FM stations. I would like to tune to AM SW stations all over the world. I think buying a 50 USD RF up converter is the only option ?
http://superkuh.com/rtlsdr.html#directsample
The whole idea of the community figuring out hacks to use this hardware in ways that were never intended by its original designers, including exploiting bugs/artifacts, reminds me of the demoscene.