RadioBanter - Shortwave's decline over past five years

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Shortwave's decline over past five years

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?

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)

I can go back a little further than 5 years when the tropical bands were
loaded with small stations and it was challenging to hear numerous SW
broadcasters on the 120, 90, 75 and 60 meter bands which many of them are
gone now.
I assume the cost to maintain a station and the falling world economy has
driven many SW broadcasters under

--
Remove NOSPAM to reply
"tommyknocker" wrote in message
...
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?

In article , Dan
writes:

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

- Possibly in 50 - 100 years..

In article k.net,
"gil" wrote:

I can go back a little further than 5 years when the tropical bands were
loaded with small stations and it was challenging to hear numerous SW
broadcasters on the 120, 90, 75 and 60 meter bands which many of them are
gone now.
I assume the cost to maintain a station and the falling world economy has
driven many SW broadcasters under

I don't think "the falling world economy" has anything to do with it.
Back 5 or 10 years the world economy was roaring. No, what happened
was the internet and satellites. It's simply easier and cheaper to
reach greater numbers of people with a higher quality signal over the
net than thru the air. It's actually a win-win situation.

Today's listener doesn't want to fiddle with knobs and antennas just to
hear the news or Top of the Pops, any more than he wants to fiddle with
knobs and antennas to watch CNN. It's simply expected to be there when
you turn on the TV, from anywhere on earth.

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)

"tommyknocker" wrote in message
...
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?

It's not just the changes in the media (transmitters, satellites, the
internet), there's also less message (programs cut, languages dropped).
There's less news/propaganda money as money gets tighter.

But there's good news. There's less interference, and US domestic SW is
dominated by entertaining -- um -- characters. Not only do these characters
want to be on SW, but they're willing to pay for it with their own money.

As I see it, SW radio has never been better.

Frank Dresser

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)

Frank Dresser wrote:

But there's good news. There's less interference, and US domestic SW
is dominated by entertaining -- um -- characters. Not only do these
characters want to be on SW, but they're willing to pay for it with
their own money.

As I see it, SW radio has never been better.

Frank Dresser

Except that the US domestic stations are almost all religious
fundamentalists. About as interesting as static. I long for the days of
the big guns of the cold war: Radio Moscow, BBC, Radio Sofia, etc.

--
Brian Denley
http://home.comcast.net/~b.denley/index.html

"tommyknocker" wrote in message
...
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?

I have finally pretty much given up the hobby after being at it since the
Sixties. I still have a portable hanging around.
I use XM at home and in my car now for great mostly uninterrupted music and
the news programming is pretty good too.
I used to love to tropical band DX but those are mostly gone now or at least
nothing much new is showing up. I have many fond memories of DXpeditions
and all the new catches I got.

If you like a vast wasteland of idiots then American shortwave is still
running large but I was never much of a program person.

It's sad, I really loved the hobby.

Greg