"Dan" wrote in message
...



I agree with all of this. I simply don't understand this "Oh My God
Shortwave Is Dieing, Write To xxxx and Save The Station!" attitude.
It's a *good* thing, people. It's progress. Why *not* have all of
the current shortwave broadcasters, along with TV from all of those
countries, available via cable or satellite? In crystal clear stereo
and HDTV?


Why not have all the current international broadcasters? Maybe because the
production costs are expensive and hard to justify when a nation's economy
slumping. To quote the Radio Nederland website story about SRI:

"The cuts now threatened not just shortwave, but the Swissinfo Website as
well. "

Money is the real issue, not shortwave or the technology of program
distribution. Don't expect all of the current shortwave broadcasters to be
available in the future.



Very few people like tuning thru crowded, noisy, fading radio bands,
and then fiddling with fine tuners, sync detectors, AGC & bandwidth
controls just to barely hear Top of the Pops. You notice that few
people manually tune TV sets and adjust fine tuning, color and hue
controls while fiddling with rabbit ears these days?

I myself would much rather just push a button on a remote and be done
with it. It's the same thing with radio. Radio needs to join the
21st century or it's going to die completely. The technology hasn't
changed in what - 80 years?


International broadcasters will stick around if they have the funding. I
suppose they can have fundraisers like the US public broadcasters.



If that means my collection of radios becomes obsolete, well, that's
the way it goes. Just like my TRS-80 and Apple // computers are
obsolete.


AM modulation and shortwave radio need never be obselete. If the
international broadcasters abandon the SW bands, I'm sure the void will be
filled with radio hobbyists.



It just means I get to buy all new computers and radios!

Dan


That assumes somebody will want to pay for international broadcasting in a
new form. Since international broadcasting is a form of public diplomacy,
some countries will continue with it. I wouldn't bet they all will,
however.

Frank Dresser