Hello Folks,

I would like to ask, is anyone here a member of NASWA (North
American Shortwave Association)? If so, could you please let us
non-members know a little something about the association? Apart from
the annual SWL Fest held in Pennsylvania, what other activities or
efforts does NASWA sponsor or otherwise involve itself with? How is
the monthly publication, the NASWA Journal, and what types of features
are being presented in the Journal these days? Any ideas as to what
membership trends are like within the organization (e.g., is membership
robust and growing? or is NASWA steadily losing members due to the
explosive growth of web-based "virtual" SWL clubs?)?

I am asking these questions because some years back, I had sent off for
and received a sample copy of the NASWA Journal. It was a nice,
56-page publication, filled with interesting and useful information for
the shortwave broadcast listener. Having recently begun active
shortwave listening once more, I visited the NASWA website a few days
back to see what was new with NASWA and with the intention of possibly
taking up membership in the group. The NASWA website was a bit of a
disappointment, however. While, admittedly, there have been some
changes and updates, overall the website seems not to have changed much
since when I last visited in 2001. Since the NASWA website is likely
the organization's most visible interface with the wider world of
(non-member) SWL enthusiasts, they would do well to provide more
periodic updates to the site, perhaps providing various SWL listening
tips, schedule updates (the excellent SWL Guide on the NASWA site,
sadly, has not been updated since January 2004, it seems), DX news,
recent SWL logs, etc (the sort of stuff that keeps so many of us
returning repeatedly to such sites as radiointel.com and
hard-core-dx.com).

Clearly, there are a lot of dedicated SWL enthusiasts within NASWA
who have contributed much to the hobby of shortwave listening. So,
if anyone here is a member of NASWA, could you please let us know a bit
about the club, what it offers that the web-based SWL communities are
not able to provide, and, simply put, why us non-members should want to
join up?

Thanks!

jamulc