The original question remains, and a few of you have danced around it to some extent - what are you trying to hear? Not everyone is looking to hear that flea powered station out of Latin America or Asia; most folks starting off would rather hear some of the powerhouses like the BBC, DW. Netherlands or some of the others. They're just getting their feet wet, so to speak. There are still many stations you can hear, even with a relatively inexpensive portable (listening to Iran is always amusing...).
For a good summary of stations-major broadcasters and some others too- Dan K4VOA's super spreadsheet is worth its weight in gold. It's available from the site below. You will need a good unzipper (WinZip, 7zFM, among many others) and Excel (or a program that can read spreadsheets, like that found in Open Office) to use it.
SHORT WAVE STUFF
It's updated every few days, so be sure to check it regularly if you use it. Personally I don't know how Dan keeps up with it, but he does :.>>
Something else, I think, tends to scare away potential listeners - HF isn't open 24 hours a day. Some freqs are open during the day, others at night, and patterns can and do change around the times the seasons change, not to mention where we are in the Solar Cycle (most seem to agree that we are on the verge of starting 24). This is a very different way of thinking, unlike scanner stuff, which is often around day or nite. I believe that this is a difficult topic for some to understand. I've said this many times before, but it bears repeating - this is a topic you must understand (even at the basic level) if you are to be successful in this game. You don't need to be a geophysics major to get by; we do have several links that can tell you more in our wiki.
The question remains - what do you want to hear? 73 Mike