I know why shortwave was so important in the early years and over WW2 and I enjoy searching to see what I can pickup. But what is their relevance these days and are they eventually going to disappear. This is something that I have thought about for a long time . Does anyone here have any ideas on this.

SW is disappearing even Radio Australia is a shadow of what it was. The Internet has taken over in populated areas and its only remote ones with limited communications that may need / want SW.

The reality is that every TV & Radio station in Australia could be put on to the WEB and /or run around the country in an optic fibre cable.

In say a city Eg Melbourne there is the reality that they could do what America has done for decades and run a cable service. Bearing in mind that the cable we have now & digitising can squeeze a lot more info into a cable.

Marc

Radio Australia now only broadcasts on 3 channels to the Pacific region, but in the old days they broadcast to Asia, Europe, USA, South Africa and even Antarctica.

The ABC had shortwave outlets in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, but these are long gone now. There are still some stations in NT which are audible country-wide at night. Try 4835 (Alice Springs) for example.

Radio New Zealand has always just used one channel (but on different frequencies depending on the time of day) for decades, and still going strong. They used to broadcast a lot of sport which was of great interest to me, but then they changed to a 'Radio National' boring stuff, and made themselves irrelevant.

The strongest station with the most frequencies is China, even the deafest shortwave radio should be able to pick them up.

The big problem with shortwave stations is the content is of little or no interest to the majority. They might as well switch off and few would notice.

I recall being told that RA, in its heyday, was used by many countries in the Asia Pacific region for learning spoken English.

Yes, that is true. They broadcast in many regional languages and many of those had segments teaching English.

Yes, China booms in on my Skyraider without a outside antenna.

SW stations need to be subsidised by a government or by a group of Jesuscasters. The business model of your typical AM or FM or TV commercial station won't work, as there are not that many listeners, and few advertisers who'd want to reach worldwide customers. That they can't reach on local stations around the world. That's why all you find on SW is propaganda and religion.

That's why all you find on SW is propaganda and religion.

... and spies (numbers stations).

I haven't had a look at the shortwave bands for a few years now but one thing I do remember apart from Radio Australia was the radio fax transmissions. I would imagine that the Internet has made these transmissions obsolete.

This thread and the more recent thread relating to the SW station on 3210kHz brought back memories of when short wave listening was a viable hobby. I bought a Kenwood R5000 receiver about 25 years ago and spent many hours listening to programs from all over the world. Some of the classics were Voice of America, BBC world service, the "big daddy" of religious stations, HCJB out of Ecuador and the US Armed Services programs directed to US troops overseas.

There were also the quirky ones, the "numbers stations", repeating the same blocks of numbers over and over again. There were many suggestions as to what they were, spy stations being the most quoted but I don't think anyone came up with their actual purpose. I also remember Radio Finland, YLE I think, that broadcast the news in Latin once a week.

To get their coverage into their target areas, transmitters were sited in some unlikely spots, I'm fairly sure the BBC transmitted from Rwanda for their African service. Essential reading for the SW listener was the World Radio and Television Handbook. This annual publication listed every broadcaster with frequencies, times and target audience and I still have a couple of well worn issues from that time.

My other interest in this field was that I was the product specialist for Eimac transmitting tubes. They were a source of amazement to many, just because of some of the specifications of their really big tubes. For example, plate dissipation of half a megawatt, with a filament rated at 23V at 540 amps, needing an enormous amount of cooling.

Happy days, I will have to fire up the R5000 and string up an antenna and have a listen.

spy stations being the most quoted but I don't think anyone came up with their actual purpose

QUOTE: The Säkerhetspolisen (Swedish Security Service) has released new info from their archives on their involvement with numbers stations. This is another rare instance of a government agency confirming their use of them. The Counter Intellegence section of their site published a recording of the numbers station identified as S10 – The Czech Lady.

QUOTE: A rare mainstream media article about numbers stations published in the [UK] Daily Telegraph last year [1998] quoted a spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry, responsible for regulating the airwaves in the U.K.: “These [numbers stations] are what you suppose they are. People shouldn’t be mystified by them. They are not for, shall we say, public consumption.”