[HBR] [AWA] Whither SWL'ing...?

Mon Mar 23 09:05:53 EDT 2009

Eddy......so very true.....times have changed for sure.

When I was a youngster and first acquired a radio that covered the foreign broadcast frequencies I was 14 years old +/-.  I could hardly wait to get home from school to listen to HCJB, BBC, Radio Moscow and the great music from the Caribbean.  It was fascinating for sure.

I am sure that this experience generated my interest in amateur radio.

The Voice of America demise can be attributed to our State Department who applied new restrictions on what could be sent.  Very sad...

73   Norm   K1AA
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Edward Swynar 
  To: Old Tube Radios ; AmRadGear at yahoogroups.com ; boatanchors at mailman.qth.net ; hbr at mailman.qth.net ; Welcome to the Novice Rigs List! ; homebuilttuberadios ; antiquewirelessassociation at yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:52 AM
  Subject: [AWA] Whither SWL'ing...?

  Good Day All, 

  At first blush, this subject may be considered to be off-topic...however, ask yourself first if it was casual SWL'ing that originally interested you in radio, eventually leading you up into the Amateur ranks, before hurling flaming spit balls my way...! Hi Hi.

  I've been engaged recently here with the re-alignment & "...playing around" with my old RCA AR-88LF receiver: this has entailed lots of time cruising the short wave spectrum, and as a consequence, getting re-acquainted with the "feel" of the SW broadcast bands --- something that I haven't done since about 1971.

  What a change for the worse the past 38 years have ushered-in! 

  The lack of the "used-to-be" omni-present former big powerhouse stations like HCJB, Radio Deutche-Welle, the BBC, and Radio Canada --- and their informative broadcasts --- is bad enough, but it's the quality of stuff from the U.S.A. that is most shocking: nine out of ten U.S.-based SW BC'ers seem to be dominated by religious themes...and those that aren't are heavily into radical, extremist political rants that shock and amaze even me with their blatant content...

  Whatever happened to the steadying, re-assuring transmissions from The Voice of America...? It is sadly missed!

  What a poor image of America these current stations are presenting to the world, and what a lousy incentive to-day's SWL'ing is to budding, future, wannabe Hams...

  I often ask myself, as I come across this verbal garbage, if the current state of affairs had existed "...way-back-when", would I have become a Ham...? The answer is always, "Probably not."

  ~73~ Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ

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