Wednesday, July 25, 2007

My Shortwave Radio Hasn’t Gone Silent Yet

Special thanks to Harold Sellers, for permission in posting his editorial from the current issue of Listening-In publication. This is an excellent thought-provoking editorial, one that should be read by every naysayer who insist the hobby is dead, or at least on its last days. There remains a vast radio spectrum to monitor, and plenty to hear. Indeed stations have left the air or downsized, but new stations continue to sign-on. Consider too, we are at the sunspot mimimum, where less than favorable conditions are expected and the norm. This too shall pass, and DXers need to be patient. The sky is not falling folks.
Gayle Van Horn

My Shortwave Radio Hasn't Gone Silent Yet
by Harold Sellers
In recent years there’s been a lot of talk decrying the loss of shortwave broadcasters and the perceived slow death of shortwave. While it’s true that many countries and stations have halted their shortwave broadcasts in favor of the internet and satellite broadcasting, when I spin my radio’s dial I still hear lots of signals. They may be “different” than what I commonly found a decade or more ago, but they are still skipping across the oceans to my antenna.

Twenty years ago I was an enthusiastic DXer who spent many hours at my shortwave receiver, often spending entire weekends listening for as many countries as I could hear. Frequently an intense weekend of listening would fi ll my logbook with over 100 countries. It has been a long-g-g-g time since that has happened!

Although it may be diffi cult to hear 100 countries, you might be surprised to know that there are still about 175 countries still broadcasting on shortwave, according to the Country List of the North American Short Wave Association. Granted that country list was designed to give radio DXers as many “countries” to hear as possible and many have not been independent political entities for a long time (if ever), but it’s still an impressive total.

It’s not all bad news for shortwave broadcast band DXers. Even though we lost Iceland and Hungary’s English broadcasts at the end of June 2007, Hungary continues in Hungarian and Radio Kuwait unexpectedly resumed the English transmissions they dropped months earlier.

I know more countries will discontinue broadcasting on shortwave. Technology is changing and so are the political and cultural scenes in the world. My listening habits haven’t remained the same either (not to mention the changes in my career and family life).

I like hearing music and news from around the world. I feel fortunate that I now have several means at my disposal to hear the programming I enjoy. I can use one of my three shortwave radios in any location I might fi nd myself: at home, at work or while traveling. Plus I have a home computer and also a laptop, so in most locations I can access the internet and listen to a broadcaster streaming over the internet or perhaps via World Radio Network. Add to that the many internet-only broadcasters – such as Putumayo Radio, which I’m listening to via iTunes as I type this – and I’ve got the world at my fingertips!

Going back to that time 20 years ago, I had one radio and it wasn’t very portable. I had a computer, but it never left the house and couldn’t “hear” any broadcasters anyway. But back to shortwave. Is it dying? I’ll ask you a question: Did you think more and more countries would take to shortwave every decade and that they would never fi nd other methods or priorities?

The past we enjoyed was great, but so is the present. In many aspects of life we need to adapt and if you are willing to adapt, you needn’t feel disheartened. Embrace the change by having an attitude of not giving up. We have lots to listen to and some great, new radios to do it with.

I’ve been in this DX hobby for 40 years now and I still haven’t heard all of the 175 “radio countries” still on the air.

Excuse me; I have to get back to listening.
Till next month....73 and good listening,
Harold Sellers
(ODXA-Listening In, Aug 2007)