In article ,
tommyknocker wrote:

I was just thinking about this today. Has anybody noticed that shortwave
radio has really declined over the past five years or so? We've lost BBC
and Deutsche Welle transmissions to North America, we've lost several
smaller European broadcasters entirely, other stations have drastically
cut back. Are transmitting facilities really going on the blink so soon
after the end of the cold war? Or has everybody jumped on the BBC's
bandwagon and concluded that satellite and internet broadcasting has
replaced shortwave? Any thoughts?

Well, BBC is still available on 5975. I'm listening to it right now,
20 over 9 here.

But yes, satellite and internet are going to replace shortwave. It's
inevitable. BBC is available on many cable TV systems already.
Noisy, static filled, fading, garbled shortwave is about as interesting
to today's digital satellite TV watching, MP3 player toting, cable modem
equipped PC "digital consumer" as smoke signals were to us 40 years ago.
I myself sometimes stream BBC over my cable modem. It's the only way I
listen to Australia.

It may seem a sad state of affairs to us, but the day is surely coming
when all you will hear on a shortwave radio is static.

Dan

Drake R8, Radio Shack DX-440,
Grundig Satellit 650, Satellit 700, YB400
Tecsun PL-230 (YB550PE), Kaito KA1102
Hallicraters S-120 (1962)
Zenith black dial 5 tube Tombstone (1937)
E. H. Scott 23 tube Imperial Allwave in Tasman cabinet (1936)

In article , Dan
writes:

But yes, satellite and internet are going to replace shortwave. It's
inevitable.

- Possibly in 50 - 100 years..

There are several problems with Internet and satellite "shortwave:"

* Limited listener access.
* Impractical surfing for every broadcaster in a given time period.
* Limited originators of broadcasts.
* Etc.

On the other hand, the number of people who can listen to shortwave is the
number of receivers in the readable signal area times the number of people
listening to the receivers. Or something like that.

Certainly shortwave broadcasting should continue to serve third world
countries.

I wish Venezuela had a government shortwave station on the air.

Bill, K5BY

WShoots1 wrote:

Certainly shortwave broadcasting should continue to serve third world
countries.

I wish Venezuela had a government shortwave station on the air.

I think The States will be attacking there via Columbia very shortly.
Venezuela is the fifth largest producer of oil in the world. Bush is
trying to tie the Spain bombings to Venezuelan funding. With his record
of dishonesty, not many will believe him .



mike

In article ,
(Diverd4777) wrote:

In article , Dan
writes:

But yes, satellite and internet are going to replace shortwave. It's
inevitable.

- Possibly in 50 - 100 years..

No, more like 10 - 15 years.

Dan

Drake R8, Radio Shack DX-440,
Grundig Satellit 650, Satellit 700, YB400
Tecsun PL-230 (YB550PE), Kaito KA1102
Hallicraters S-120 (1962)
Zenith black dial 5 tube Tombstone (1937)
E. H. Scott 23 tube Imperial Allwave in Tasman cabinet (1936)

More like ''now''.

On Mon, 05 Apr 2004 08:39:52 -0400, Dan wrote:

In article ,
(Diverd4777) wrote:

In article , Dan
writes:

But yes, satellite and internet are going to replace shortwave. It's
inevitable.

- Possibly in 50 - 100 years..

No, more like 10 - 15 years.

Dan

Drake R8, Radio Shack DX-440,
Grundig Satellit 650, Satellit 700, YB400
Tecsun PL-230 (YB550PE), Kaito KA1102
Hallicraters S-120 (1962)
Zenith black dial 5 tube Tombstone (1937)
E. H. Scott 23 tube Imperial Allwave in Tasman cabinet (1936)

In article ,
David wrote:

More like ''now''.

Good point. Stations *are* disappearing "now".

Dan

Drake R8, Radio Shack DX-440,
Grundig Satellit 650, Satellit 700, YB400
Tecsun PL-230 (YB550PE), Kaito KA1102
Hallicraters S-120 (1962)
Zenith black dial 5 tube Tombstone (1937)
E. H. Scott 23 tube Imperial Allwave in Tasman cabinet (1936)

This is a time of change throughout the broadcasting industry. My local
small-town police force, who I thought would be broadcasting VHF forever,
skipped right by trunking, and now our entire town's communications is
handled through Nextel. As a former newsperson, this breaks my heart,
especially when I have several scanners that won't be a whole lot of use to
me from now on.

Of course, digital television is on its way. I thought that might take 10 to
20 years, but stations are really putting out the programming and consumers
are really buying the receivers. It truly won't be long until analog
televisions will be useless without a converter box and companies are
basically giving away analog tvs right now.

It disturbs me that the Eton E1, successor to the Grundig Satellit 800, is
now XM and DAB ready. But why shouldn't it be? If digital is truly taking
over the airwaves (and it is), why shouldn't the receiver makers build the
newest technology into their newest products?

I guess I'm just a child of the 20th Century who somehow has made it into
the 21st century.

Or in the immortal words of ELO's Jeff Lynne (circa 1980):

"Things ain't how you thought they were
Nothing have you planned
So pick up your penny and your suitcase
You're not a 21st century man."

Cops (especially narcs and detectives) have been using cellphones for
many years due to security issues.

The funny thing is Nextel may have to reconfigure their whole system
to make room for cop radios on 800.

On Mon, 5 Apr 2004 16:01:46 -0400, "Corbin Ray"
wrote:

This is a time of change throughout the broadcasting industry. My local
small-town police force, who I thought would be broadcasting VHF forever,
skipped right by trunking, and now our entire town's communications is
handled through Nextel. As a former newsperson, this breaks my heart,
especially when I have several scanners that won't be a whole lot of use to
me from now on.

Dan wrote:

In article ,
tommyknocker wrote:

I was just thinking about this today. Has anybody noticed that shortwave
radio has really declined over the past five years or so? We've lost BBC
and Deutsche Welle transmissions to North America, we've lost several
smaller European broadcasters entirely, other stations have drastically
cut back. Are transmitting facilities really going on the blink so soon
after the end of the cold war? Or has everybody jumped on the BBC's
bandwagon and concluded that satellite and internet broadcasting has
replaced shortwave? Any thoughts?

Well, BBC is still available on 5975. I'm listening to it right now,
20 over 9 here.

But yes, satellite and internet are going to replace shortwave. It's
inevitable. BBC is available on many cable TV systems already.
Noisy, static filled, fading, garbled shortwave is about as interesting
to today's digital satellite TV watching, MP3 player toting, cable modem
equipped PC "digital consumer" as smoke signals were to us 40 years ago.
I myself sometimes stream BBC over my cable modem. It's the only way I
listen to Australia.

It may seem a sad state of affairs to us, but the day is surely coming
when all you will hear on a shortwave radio is static.

It seems that the "new media" is all about the "digital consumer"
getting exactly what he or she wants and nothing else. The downside to
this is that one can filter out (or have filtered out for them) all the
information one does not want to hear, so one's worldview is shaped
according to one's preconceived notions. This makes the digital consumer
think that everybody agrees with them, or that the only people who
matter are the people who agree with them. For people who are already
inclined to philosophical extremism this makes them more extreme, and it
makes the rest extreme. This means that reasoned, informed discourse in
society-fed by a diversity of sources-is probably a thing of the past,
something that is disturbing for the future of democracy and of
international relations. Fox News and Al Jazeera are two good
examples-one is watched by American policy makers to the exclusion of
anything else, and the other is watched by those who wish to overthrow
the West to the exclusion of anything else. Thus, they think that only
they are right and demand that everybody else agree with them-or else.


Dan

Drake R8, Radio Shack DX-440,
Grundig Satellit 650, Satellit 700, YB400
Tecsun PL-230 (YB550PE), Kaito KA1102
Hallicraters S-120 (1962)
Zenith black dial 5 tube Tombstone (1937)
E. H. Scott 23 tube Imperial Allwave in Tasman cabinet (1936)