"Too_Many_Tools" ) writes:
Good points...does this mean other high end receivers are soon to
disappear?

When I was a kid, back in 1971, there was talk that shortwave listening
was dying, so it seems a constant.

What I really think we've seen is a mainstreaming of shortwave listening
in recent years or decades. Thirty years ago, except for real cheap
stuff, shortwave receivers were made by specialized manufacturers, and
sold in specialized outlets, like the local ham store. It tended to
be, at least in North America, a hobby more interested in hearing
distant stations, with the actual contents of the broadcast secondary.
That's a generalization, and I gather doesn't apply as much to elsewhere
in the world.

But in recent years and decades, manufacturers known to consumers have
been making shortwave receivers, companies like Sony. You'd be able
to buy these at any place that carried a good line of Sony equipment.
The equipment has also gotten easier to use, what with digital tuning and
even the small size of the equipment. I suppose there has always been
those not really expensive radios that included a shortwave band, but
now we have better equipment to reach the type who'd traditionally bought
those. But I suspect the equipment has brought in a range of people
who were interested first in the broadcast contents. They may find
that it's not so great (all that fading), or find that hearing
news broadcasts from Switzerland isn't more informative than CNN, or
to use the bogey, they'll find that listening to those foreign
broadcasts over the internet is easier.

If that new breed of listener fades away, you still remain with
the hobbyist type, who were there all along.

High end receivers tend to be for a very small percentage of the population,
and traditionally had use in commercial activity, so I would think
they'd still exist. It's the mass market types that are likely to
fade away if there's not enough demand, though on the other hand if
you can get a digitally tuned shortwave receiver for fifty dollars it's
hard to believe those will disappear.

Another simple question that would seem hard to answer...why are radio
clubs closing and SWL dying out?

I do know that ham fests are a shadow of what they used to be.

One thing is that the hobbies aren't out there in the public view.
When I was a kid, I learned about amateur radio from an article
in a magazine for those involved in scouting here in Canada. Indeed,
if I'm remembering, there was an article about DXing the broadcast
band, and someone wrote in about amateur radio. I also recall an
article about amateur radio in "HIghlights For Children" though
it might have been "Jack and Jill". Then I found the hobby electronic
magazines, this was 1971, and they still had plenty of material about
amateur radio and shortwave listening.

Now, I barely see notice of the local club's hamfest. It's not
used as an excuse to get the hobby into the public eye, promoting
it in ham circles is seen as good enough.

So the hobbies likely are not reaching the young, who have the
interest and time to immerse themselves in a hobby. And even if
it was being done, I'm not certain the message is what's needed
to lure the young into the hobby. There was something very appealing
about amateur radio when I was ten, but I'm not certain it would appeal
to me if I learned of it at my present age. You can recite how
amateur radio is helpful to society, but I'm not sure that entices
people. You need to convey an excitement, and I don't see that happening.
You also, if you want the young, to be reaching them in a fashion that
actually reaches them. While I'm not sure how to do that at age 45,
I don't think it's done by talking down, or trying to be "hip" without
succeeding. It has to be done by remembering what it was like when you
were that age, rather than decades older when some of the magic is gone.

Michael


I have not been to Dayton for awhile...is it also dying out?

TMT