On Tue, 2 Aug 2005 20:46:46 +0100, "Mike Terry"
wrote:

Why are there so few on topic postings on this newsgroup? Is shortwave dying
like stamp collecting and other hobbies of the past?


When I got into shortwave listeniing around 1973, it wasn't popular
then. People around me preferred a solid 24/7 AM or FM signal to the
fading in and out of SW and formats that were just a general 1-3 hour
service. SW was added as an after thought to most cheap portables.
Telescopic antennas and dial slider tuning that would whisk past 6
bands in one sweep.

Anyone really into the hobby wanted a longwire and a "serious" $150+
rig, something anyone in any country saturated with AM/FM stations of
any format did not care for.

While it may have popular in the 1930s to 1960s, magazines like
Popular Electronics started dropping their SW columns as the computing
hobby gained steam.

The growth of the Internet has cut into SWBC. Most can stream their
signals to such users and they want to leave SW to outlying regions
that still use it as a means of contact. Times just change.

SWBC is not going away completely, just as newspapers won't.

Gene