"RJ" wrote in message
...
On 11 Jun 2004 22:44:54 GMT, (Diverd4777) wrote:
Was in the Netherland antilles a while back ;
Radio Netherlands has a HUGE antenna farm, on Bonaire,
beaming Shortwave down to South America
- where electricity is spotty, telephones not a sure bet
computers a Luxury
and the internet used mostly in large cities..
Once you leave the "Strip Mall Zone" in the civilized world, shortwave
takes
over..
Dan
Does a country like Finland want to spend a million bucks a year
to get its message to "Boondock South America" ??
again;
They can power up a PC,
Write their message in multiple languages.
advantage;
Besides being cheaper for the "broadcaster"
It actually reaches the PC literate in a country,
and chances are they're the people you want to reach.
Back to SWLing;
Perhaps my view is colored by SWLing in the US,
where it's probably the hobby of a few,
rather than the communication media for the many.
I guess there are countrys where folks rely on SW
for their news/info/entertainment......
But then, wouldn't they listen to their own country feeds ??
Short answer: Usually not. Most of the countries that count on SW for their
news and such are also countries where the government (and therefor
government owned radio) is much more likely than not to lie to them, and
they want to hear from other sources. This is why SW broadcasting began in
the first place. In most of those smaller countries, SW cannot serve the
country itself, because of the skip zone.