wrote:


gort581 wrote:
I'm thinking of getting into shortwave radio (listening to it, at
least), but I've heard a lot about satellite radio, the internet, and
problems with power lines making shortwave a moot point. What's the
future of shortwave radio? Will it stick around in its current form?
Is it worth it to even buy a set, or am I better off just listening
online?

Thanks!

Setting concerns about BPL to one side, shortwave isn't going anywhere.
Why would it? It's not like there's only room enough for a single
medium of information in the world. When satellite radio and the
internet lead to the closing of all newspapers, movie theaters,
conventional FM and MW station, publishing houses, etc., then start to
worry. But that's never going to happen.

It might turn out that shortwave isn't as commercially viable as some
other media. This, in fact, is how I *hope* things play out. Granted,
it will result it more major broadcasters moving to other media, but it
will thereby clear up a lot of bandwidth for smaller broadcasters, much
more interesting content, and awesome DX opportunities.

So, you have more reason to buy a shortwave radio now than you ever did
before.

I hope that the only real commercial SW stations in the world-outside of
the third world tropical banders-the US kook stations find that kook
radio isn't viable in the next few years and switch to less weird
programming or shut down altogether. Those stations are like the old
Soviet blasters, all over the place and with signals so strong that they
take up 10 khz of space on the dial. So far Bill Cooper is the only
major kook to self destruct, although after Gene Scott's death I predict
his stations like Caribbean Beacon will eventually wither away and die.
I mean, how much money can the Wal Mart crowd give to their favorite
kooks before they decide that they're either tapped out or that the
apocalypse isn't coming and cut off the funds? If that happens, then
most kooks who don't have local congregations (like Gene Scott did in
LA) will go away, and there will be a lot of excess transmitter
capacity.


Steve

PS: Oh, and I'd be willing to wager that, ten years from now (if not
five years from now), we'll all be straining to remember exactly what
"DRM" was.

Anybody remember Beta videotapes? Didn't think so.


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