I don't understand the doom and gloom either. As for Passport, I
thought it had come to be overrated, especially it's equipment
reviews. Plus, print publications now have to compete against online
sources of information and a world of stuff is now on the web about
shortwave, ham radio, etc. Many of these publications are struggling
for the same reason conventional newspapers (and, indeed, SW BC
stations) are struggling: people are going online and getting info
that way.

As for the the SWL hobby more generally, I again don't understand the
doom and gloom. Yes, lot's of big broadcast stations are disappearing,
but they make up only a small percentage of what one can hear on
shortwave. People's reactions here would make one think that, pretty
soon, a big swath of the radio SPECTRUM (roughly 3 to 30mhz) is just
going to disappear!

On Mar 21, 4:48*pm, "Clive" wrote:
*All thats really left for a new publication is

World Radio Television Handbook. Then the monthly magazines such as
Monitoring Times, PopComm, etc.

Ah yes, the naysayers bad rapping the SWL hobby. Wish they'd go the hell
back to their stupid ipods or Blackberry's or whatever other shiny things
captivate them.

First, indeed it is sad that Passport has ceased operations. This was
actually announced last summer
so it is nothing new. Apparently it has more to do with the time its
publisher wished to devote to it,
according to one announcement on QRZ.COM. I don't know why a buyer for
Passport was solicited but often ego plays a role. ("I started it. It was MY
baby. No one else gets the credit." I am not saying this was the case but
we've seen this happen in the last two years to two other prominent radio
publications.

Secondly, back when shortwave was at its so-called "peak" (as defined by the
boneheads to criticize it) *THERE WAS ONLY ONE *PUBLICATION FOR SWLs....World
Radio TV Handbook! And it served us amply and well. You didn't hear the
whiney victims and slit-eyed SWL critics jabbing and poking then like today
but they were there just the same.

In the last 3 months we've gained a dozen new shortwave stations worldwide.
We've seen incredible expansion of coverage of numerous existing stations..
Radio Sweden has announced pulling back, not because of interest but because
their Euro economy sucks. They are eliminating a lot of domestic service
too. The same with the BBC that is part of a gasping and bleeding horrible
economy. One entire BBC network is shutting down as is dozens of regional FM
stations. Meanwhile Eton and Sangean's sales are increasing. Unfortunately
there are no real quality US made shortwave receivers but that has more to
do with the sinister creeps who are trying to destroy our country by sending
all manufacturing elsewhere.

Apparently elsewhere they're not as simple-minded...and gullible... as we
have become here.