craigm ) writes:
Peter Maus wrote:


The exit of manufacturers from SW has to do with shrinking customer
base for SW hardware. SW is declining in use, people are exiting the
hobby for, among other things, satellite radio and internet listening,
so there are fewer sets being purchased.

SW may not be declining in use (or it may be). Degen and Tecsun seem to
have found enough of a market for them to produce several new portable
radios. Granted, these are near the low end of the market.

The problem comes with the supply and demand for higher end receivers.
Much of the worldwide listening audience may not be able to afford
several hundred dollars for a tabletop receiver. The big market for
these receivers may be the US and Europe.

There's always been this split. Hobby types who are more interested
in the where rather than the content, and who not only may be interested
in great equipment, but that equipment can be an end as much as a means.

Then you have the people who are only interested in the content. They
emigrated from another country and want to hear news from home, or have an
interest in world affairs. The radio is only a means to that end.

I'm not sure how the latter group was served decades ago, though there
were all those multiband portables you could buy at the neighborhood store.
The Big Name shortwave manufacturers were sold in relatively isolated spots,
ie ham stores, and while you could get cheap ones the good ones cost
a pretty penny.

Nowadays, as you point out, there are quite a few shortwave receivers
available, and available all over the place. I suspect they tend to
be better than the cheap receivers of years gone by. At the very least,
they are easier to use. None of that calibration where there is a mark
every 500KHz (well, it's sort of closer to the 9 than the 9.5); you get
digital readout so you know you are tuned the the right frequency. One might
argue that digital tuning, plus availability, has meant more people tune
into shortwave, or at lest buy such receivers in order to tune in (though
perhaps they don't stick with it after the initial tuning).

Of course it's a loss if the relative high end receivers disappear. But
they cater to a relatively small market, ie those who can afford such
receivers and those who actually want them. Maybe there is a decline
in those numbers, so there is no longer enough of a market. But it
could also mean that the receivers have priced themselves out of the market,
that they can't be manufactured for the limited numbers at a price that
will bring in enough buyers. For that matter, the available of decent
receivers from Sony and Grundig may impact on those expensive receivers.
If once upon a time one could buy an S-38 or an HRO, the performance level
is pretty black and white. But if you can get a fairly decent receiver
for $300, like a Yaught Boy 400 or the Sony 7600, it may be good enough
for far more people than that S-38. And that may cut into the pool
of buyers for the R-75 or the Drake.

Michael