The future of shortwave?
 

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David Eduardo wrote:

Very little of interst to rural residents in Latin America can be found
on
SW. First, such folk are generally only Spanish or indigenous language
speakers (such as the Quechua and Aymar=E1 and Guaran=ED speakers of the
=
Andean
zone and Paraguay. Second, rural residents are very poor, wtih annual
incomes of less than $600 on the average, where a SW receiver is
generally
not an option.

They might have one radio per village, or something. I remember seeing
pictures
of rural folks all gathered around the radio, listening. But that was
years ago, though...

It reminds me of an old Radio Peking QSL card I received years ago. The view
was taken from inside a grass hut, looking out. You could see the workers in
the fields. The hut had no furniture apart from a wok, a first aid kit, a
transistor radio and a semi-automatic rifle.

Brad.

wrote in message ...


David Eduardo wrote:

Very little of interst to rural residents in Latin America can be found
on
SW. First, such folk are generally only Spanish or indigenous language
speakers (such as the Quechua and Aymar=E1 and Guaran=ED speakers of the
=
Andean
zone and Paraguay. Second, rural residents are very poor, wtih annual
incomes of less than $600 on the average, where a SW receiver is
generally
not an option.

They might have one radio per village, or something. I remember seeing
pictures
of rural folks all gathered around the radio, listening. But that was
years ago, though...

I never saw that in Latin America. And I built my first station there 41
years ago. In the last 3 decades, AM FM receivers have been prevalent and
cheap: nearly everyone has one. AM & FM networking on a national level
brings good local signals to nearly all of Latin America, with no need for
SW, which is now a curiosity.

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David Eduardo wrote:
wrote in message
...
I guess this guy has never been to a less developed country where SW
is
the only radio you can receive

I guess not. Hell, I live right here in NYC and at night the shortwave
bands are bursting at the seams.

And very little of it is of relevance to rural residents in the Third
World,
such as Latin America. Which is why it is almost as difficult to find an
SW
receiver at retail there as it is in the USA.

A shortwave broadcast is "relevant" to anyone who's interested in
listening to it, regardless of culture. It might be hard to find SW
receivers, but it sure isn't hard to find stuff on shortwave. Like I
said, at night the bands are bursting at the seams.

The reference is to rural Latin America, which you can see in the paragraph
above. Except for Spanish and indigenous languages, there is very little
usage of any other tongue in rural Latin America. And what is generally
available in Spanish is limited, and either consists of local stations from
other areas (declining) or mostly religious material. There is not a wealth
of secular international Spanish broadcasting, and that which exists is
often of little interest to the social and educational level of rural Latin
America.