Will Shortwave die?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Shortwave2200

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 6, 2011
Messages
162
Location
Tampa Florida
I hope not, I love it but that thought came to my mind as I was tuning the dial tonight.

What are every ones thought on it?

I personally do not think so but I could be wrong.
 

w2xq

Mentor
Joined
Jul 13, 2004
Messages
2,324
Location
Burlington County, NJ
Easy answer. Shortwave broadcast radio will never die as it is the ONLY delivery system that cannot be controlled by a gatekeeper (e.g., Internet, satellites).
 

Shortwave2200

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 6, 2011
Messages
162
Location
Tampa Florida
It is the only medum that isn't controlled by the powers that be.

And that is a good thing....

You cannot be tracked like on the internet or like cell phones.
 

k9rzz

Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
Messages
3,162
Location
Milwaukee, WI
I think there's plenty to listen to, it's just not the same as it was, and certainly you can't expect it to be.
 

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
The medium itself will always be around; however, with governments (finally) realizing that's there's no such thing as an infinite pocketbook, shortwave broadcasters will have to rely on private funding than ever before.

This could ultimately lead to fewer SW broadcast stations. This is also why religious broadcast stations are increasing as well.

That being said, I don't think the larger governments (USA, China, Japan, Russia, UK) will stop broadcasting any time soon but funding for these projects will likely be very tight.

Usage of private transmission facilities could also drive up the cost of SW broadcasts.

The good news is that many service industries rely on SW as a medium for long-haul communication. The long-term ROI is cheaper than using satellites.

Aviation and marine will continue to use SW for many years. Governments have also realized the low-cost value in the SW medium -- even though a lot of these transmissions are encrypted.

Amateur radio has always played a big role in the SW medium and with new technological advancements, it has helped drive commercial SW development.

Eventually, a new medium will be discovered that will forever change the landscape of communications -- but this likely won't be any time soon.

Enjoy shortwave while you can. :cool:
 

Shortwave2200

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 6, 2011
Messages
162
Location
Tampa Florida
Well in the event of "the internet" going down SW is the original internet, or so it was in the 70's and 80's (for me).

I remember whe there were so many stations on back in that time.... getting older stinks!!!!
 

k9rzz

Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2005
Messages
3,162
Location
Milwaukee, WI
If everything went digital, then THAT would kill shortwave.

The shortwaves will evolve, but never die.
 

w2xq

Mentor
Joined
Jul 13, 2004
Messages
2,324
Location
Burlington County, NJ
If everything went digital, then THAT would kill shortwave.

The shortwaves will evolve, but never die.

Shortwave broadcasting will never go digital. DRM is on life support. Tropical band broadcasters in Latin America, Africa and Asia have audiences that cannot afford much in the way of electronics. And where you have conflicts, shortwave is the only medium that cannot be stopped by man. Even during the height of the Cold War decades ago, Russian and Chinese jammers couldn't do anything to stop VOA and BBC broadcasts.
 

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
For those thinking shortwave radio will be around forever -- better think again. This is happening in all of the countries that support transmission facilities.

Radio World: BBG

It's pretty sad that we can give $1bn to Egypt (a country that will likely hate the USA in the coming years) but we can't afford to support VOA -- or NASA for that matter. :roll:
 

N9NRA

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
Messages
857
I`m not inclined to believe that shortwave will die, as has been said already, it will evolve. While the bulk of the broadcasters may go away (move to modes like sat radio and mabey digital), there will ALWAYS be something to listen to out there. I can recall listening to (fancy this `un :)) piriate radio stations and having fun trying to copy `em through the noise and pick out what they were saying (in some cases using headphones turned up as far as i could stand it). So, i think shortwave will still be around, it`ll just sound a bit different, that`s all :). 73. N9NRA
 

raisindot

Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2008
Messages
247
SW probably won't die, but it in terms of listenership going to be like that proverbial "tree falling in the woods." With most of the major old school broadcaster moving to the web, it's getting harder and harder to find any English language broadcasts other than the ubiquitous Radio China, Radio Moscow, and ten zillion raving religious stations. There's only a limited amount of interest in scanning past foreign-language stations and listening to commercial aircraft gets pretty dull after awhile. I predict that within 25 years SW will be totally gone, as probably broadcast AM and FM will be, as everything moves totally to Internet or satellite based transmission.
 

ridgescan

Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2008
Messages
4,778
Location
San Francisco, Ca.
SW probably won't die, but it in terms of listenership going to be like that proverbial "tree falling in the woods." With most of the major old school broadcaster moving to the web, it's getting harder and harder to find any English language broadcasts other than the ubiquitous Radio China, Radio Moscow, and ten zillion raving religious stations. There's only a limited amount of interest in scanning past foreign-language stations and listening to commercial aircraft gets pretty dull after awhile. I predict that within 25 years SW will be totally gone, as probably broadcast AM and FM will be, as everything moves totally to Internet or satellite based transmission.

just an example of how many English broadcasts there still are..we just cannot pick up on all of them. This is just in the 0400utc hour

transmitter-site-map.php
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top