How close is the end of shortwave? - Judah
 

Honestly, I have enjoyed listening to shortwave for a number of years,
and still enjoy it very much. Radio Japan, BBC, Radio New Zealand,
CBC, Radio Tiawan, CHina...etc.

Approxiately how much longer will broadcast shortwave, be around? I
hear alot of people say its dying. And being an older technology,
perhaps it is. I know that most people my age, don't even know what a
shortwave radio is, or what it does. They have never even heard of
shortwave.

How much longer does it have?

Don't hold you breath
The airways are still free to hurl info to the world.
Unlike the internet and cable/satellite) TV

The automobile is ancient technology and it is still around
Light bulbs and telephones too !!!!

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wrote in message
oups.com...
Honestly, I have enjoyed listening to shortwave for a number of years,
and still enjoy it very much. Radio Japan, BBC, Radio New Zealand,
CBC, Radio Tiawan, CHina...etc.

Approxiately how much longer will broadcast shortwave, be around? I
hear alot of people say its dying. And being an older technology,
perhaps it is. I know that most people my age, don't even know what a
shortwave radio is, or what it does. They have never even heard of
shortwave.

How much longer does it have?

It all ends tomorrow at noon. Feel free to send me any and all of your
shortwave gear and I will personally see that it gets a decent burial. It is
an end to an era....my condolences to shortwave listening.

No, all kidding aside, shortwave radio is not coming to an end. As
technology advances, so will monitoring equipment. Just as in digital
scanners, the hobby will keep up with technology - it always has. There will
be doomsayers and pessimists to argue the point, but just watch - shortwave
radio isn't disappearing. If it were, there wouldn't be technical enginners
at Icom and Yaesu right now developing next years' new top of the line
transceivers and receivers. Hang on to your radios, and your wood-burning
stoves. There is much to be said for tradition and simplicity.


wrote in message
oups.com...
Honestly, I have enjoyed listening to shortwave for a number of years,
and still enjoy it very much. Radio Japan, BBC, Radio New Zealand,
CBC, Radio Tiawan, CHina...etc.

Approxiately how much longer will broadcast shortwave, be around? I
hear alot of people say its dying. And being an older technology,
perhaps it is. I know that most people my age, don't even know what a
shortwave radio is, or what it does. They have never even heard of
shortwave.

How much longer does it have?

Not much longer, because there's really only enough room in the world
for a single information medium. Very shortly, television will cause
all movie theaters to close and all newspapers to go out of business.
After that, shortwave (and FM) will disappear. Satellite radio will
also disappear because it doesn't have pictures. Then, in one final
elimination round, television and the internet will have to duke it
out. Then we'll be left with only one medium for information. My guess
is that the internet will win, since it's more 'interactive'.

The question then is, will the internet render the spoken word
obsolete? I say do all the jabbering you can now, because spoken
English will soon be an anachronism.

Steve

I should have known better than to ask....hehehehe

Personally I'm amazed at the sophisticated technology going into even
the inexpensive shortwave receivers today.

I have two radios made in china, neither over $60. And they have the
options only availble on the most expensive recievers of 10-15 years
ago.

I certain have found alot of good broadcast content to enjoy, even
though everyone says the sky is falling. I even have my wife listen
over my should at night when I curl into bed. She'll say, "Take your
headphones off and let me hear." Personally i think more people would
be into shortwave, (especially the younger 35 and under group) if they
just knew about it, and what it offers. I tell my friends I spent
50-50 bucks on a RADIO. And they think I'm crazy. Until I tell them I
can hear Japan and China with it. Then their stunned, like its some
kind of magic box. Even in this day and age of the internet, and cell
phones. I think shortwave just doesn't get enough publicity.

Maybe if Grundig ran ads on MTV....hehehe. I'm just kidding of course.

Personally I don't see shortwave going anywhere any time soon either,
especially with so much news out there about the Middle East, Aids in
africa, North Korea, Nuclear Disarmement, and China's emerging role in
the whole big mess... :) There is alot to monitor on the world scene
today. And when I can take it anywhere I go for 60 bucks (for a life
time subscription) I'm all about it!!!

wrote:
Not much longer, because there's really only enough room in the world
for a single information medium. Very shortly, television will cause
all movie theaters to close and all newspapers to go out of business.
After that, shortwave (and FM) will disappear. Satellite radio will
also disappear because it doesn't have pictures. Then, in one final
elimination round, television and the internet will have to duke it
out. Then we'll be left with only one medium for information. My
guess
is that the internet will win, since it's more 'interactive'.

The question then is, will the internet render the spoken word
obsolete? I say do all the jabbering you can now, because spoken
English will soon be an anachronism.

Steve

) writes:
Honestly, I have enjoyed listening to shortwave for a number of years,
and still enjoy it very much. Radio Japan, BBC, Radio New Zealand,
CBC, Radio Tiawan, CHina...etc.

Approxiately how much longer will broadcast shortwave, be around? I
hear alot of people say its dying. And being an older technology,
perhaps it is. I know that most people my age, don't even know what a
shortwave radio is, or what it does. They have never even heard of
shortwave.

How much longer does it have?

Who knows? But you do realize that the imminent "death of shortwave"
was around in the early seventies when I first learned about shortwave
radio.

I suspect it's as easy, or even easier, to find a shortwave receiver
today than it was back in 1971 when I bought my first shorwave receiver.
Back then, you either could get really cheap multiband radios (ie
am/fm/policeband/some shortwave) as generic imports at the corner store,
or go to a specialty store to buy a receiver from one of the traditional
shortwave receiver manufacturers. Even cheap receivers are now easier to
use with digital tuning (albeit they may not be better performers than
the cheap ones of decades ago), and I think you can get a better receiver
for less than what it used to cost. And you can get them at Radio Shack,
or since mainstream companies are making them, at various other places.
Sony, for instance, because it sells all kinds of consumer electronics,
is better placed to get shortwave receivers into stores than in the
days of Hammarlund and Hallicrafters when they basically only had shortwave
receivers.

Michael

Judah wrote:

Honestly, I have enjoyed listening to shortwave for a number of years,
and still enjoy it very much. Radio Japan, BBC, Radio New Zealand,
CBC, Radio Tiawan, CHina...etc.

Approxiately how much longer will broadcast shortwave, be around?

Among other things, it depends on whether or not the stories about
satellite radio being replaced with pretty much nationwide wi-fi
broadcast antennas by, say, 2015 are accurate. If the stations you
mention are available to pretty much anyone with a digital receiver,
or even a cell phone, then shortwave's low point gets closer and
closer. (I won't say "demise" because it won't die out entirely,
unless broadcasting is legislated out of business for some incredibly
strange reason.) Until then, there will always be a need for
alternative voices to be heard, and shortwave seems to be the only
medium with anything resembling "open availability".

(On the other hand, some organizations may feel that replacing
shortwave with "local rebroadcasting" is a good thing, especially when
it includes the occasional "signal failure" when somebody is saying
something that somebody in the USA doesn't want Joe Lunchpail and
Sally Soapopera to hear...)

-- Don