RadioBanter - View Single Post

September 5th 04, 04:45 AM

"Frank White" wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...

Time to get real and stop whining.

In case you haven't noticed: SWL'ing, ham radio is dying...the
demand just
ain't there anymore!

(Heavy sigh) We go through this a lot.

Sure do. I remember having these same conversations in
1994, before the internet became THE INTERNET to every
Tom, Dick and Harry.

Condensed version: No, those mediums are not dying, and yes, the
demand
is still there.

As long as it costs a bit of cash to use the internet and
cell phones (not even counting extra for other things like
sending photos and whatnot), other outlets that are free
will continue to hang around.

The internet killed the dial-up bulletin boards and Fidonet,
but it hasn't killed CB, shortwave and other items yet. Hell,
even cable and satellite hasn't killed the radio medium
yet.

Why would any retailer stock a shortwave radio in this
day-and-age?

To make a profit?

Yes. Radio Shack has been for quite a while now the public
face to electronic specialty stores for the general public.
(When the general public gets familiar with Universal Radio
and Parts Express, I'll change my mind.) If you want something
that is specialty oriented, you think about Radio Shack. It used
to be (back when I worked a short stint there in 1991-2) that
when you got a VCR for Christmas, you went to Radio Shack
to get the cables and info on how to hook it up to the damn
multi cable Time Warner boxes. Same thing for cordless telephone
batteries and bulk telephone (and speaker and other) wire.
People who didn't know you could order woofers and tweeters
in catalogs knew that if you wanted to build a speaker, you could
go to Rat Shack to get parts. If your turntable needle needed
replacing or you needed other odds and ends, you could special
order them there. If you wanted to know about electronics,
your local manager (or someone on staff) tinkered in the stuff
you were asking about.

Nowadays, it seems that Tandy is getting away from that
because of the emphasis on cell/satellite/whathaveyou; their
main differentiator between them and their competition (the
in-house knowledge) is no longer there.

--Mike L.