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Author Topic: The importance of being an SWL  (Read 1081 times)

KD7RDZI2

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The importance of being an SWL
« on: May 14, 2021, 12:33:31 PM »

A recent syrvey here in eham.net showed that about a quarter or a third of hams got licenced after having been SWL.
I expected that the majority were CBers, but apparently I was wrong. New GenerationSWL Is the future of ham radio.
 
« Last Edit: May 14, 2021, 12:39:33 PM by KD7RDZI2 »
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W6MK

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Re: The importance of being an SWL
« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2021, 01:00:28 PM »

I expected that the majority were CBers, but apparently I was wrong. New GenerationSWL Is the future of ham radio.

Sorry but your whole approach to the question is wrong:

1. Self-selected respondents in a very narrow population base. Data thus meaningless.

2. Assumption, without evidence or any justification, that there is an "either-or" of CB vs SWL. I had a friend who was interested and he got me interested. Pre-CB. No SWL interest.

3. What might be the other attraction alternatives: friend or parent a ham?
Electronics background? Military communications experience? And so forth.
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WA6BJH

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Re: The importance of being an SWL
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2021, 02:43:38 PM »

Well, I never had any interest in CB, but I was a shortwave listener in high school and when I was in Viet Nam.  I had built a Heathkit shortwave receiver, but I don’t remember the model.  It was alway fun listening to stations from all over the world.  One of the other dog handlers in my unit had a Zenith Trans Oceanic and we used to listen to that on our nights off.  BBC and Radio Moscow (Next Best to Being There) were our favorites.  I still remember the short story that took place in South Africa that an announcer read on BBC one night. 

Always fun.
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WA2EIO

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Re: The importance of being an SWL
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2021, 03:23:40 PM »

Unfortunately, HF shortwave broadcasting is in decline, so I don't think that SW listening is as popular as it once was.  I am sure that some hams were  originally into SWL (remember the Popular Electronics WPE calls?)  and also CB, but I don't see it as the 'future' ham recruiting resource.
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KA9MGC

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Re: The importance of being an SWL
« Reply #4 on: May 14, 2021, 03:32:03 PM »

I started in SWL, on tube radios. Then I added CB which quickly became SSB CB to get away for the usual shenanigans on AM CB.

Then I got licensed as a Novice ham and dropped CB / sold the equipment.

I still kept up with the SWL since I enjoyed listening to stations from all over the world. I got out of radio for over 10 years, and when I returned the first thing I did was turn on my HF rig to hear SW BC stations.

It's different these days, but there are still stations to hear. China has a huge presence these days, but the old big ones are quiet. VOA, BBC, and DW are pretty quiet.
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AF5CC

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Re: The importance of being an SWL
« Reply #5 on: May 14, 2021, 04:03:15 PM »

I actually developed my interest in propagation from TV DXing while in elementary school-does that count as an SWL?  Then became a ham right at the end of my 7th grade year.

73 John AF5CC
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KC6RWI

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Re: The importance of being an SWL
« Reply #6 on: May 14, 2021, 04:38:58 PM »

What amazes me  the amount of shortwave portables being sold, look at cc crane. You would think with conditions the retail market would be way down.
Plus all the stations who have stopped broadcasting.
I can't pick up broadcast tv from my location although I am 10 to 15 miles away, I am in the mountain shadow of the transmitted signal. So I point my antenna to the next large city about 150 miles away to pick up a digital signal.
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W7XTV

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Re: The importance of being an SWL
« Reply #7 on: May 14, 2021, 05:36:16 PM »

It's different these days, but there are still stations to hear. China has a huge presence these days, but the old big ones are quiet. VOA, BBC, and DW are pretty quiet.

China still uses shortwave for its regional broadcasts to rural areas.  Sometimes, they're the only stations audible, which is great if you understand Chinese.

But as far as broadcasts in English go (not including the US religious stations), the BBC, VOA, China, both Koreas, Cuba, Japan, and (believe it or not) Romania are among the few major players remaining.  There are a few others, but not many.

Most of the old South American regional stations on 60 and 90 meters are long gone, having moved to FM.  In fact, the US bible-bangers have been using those bands in the last decade or so, despite the FCC not "officially" allowing those bands to be used for broadcasting.
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He speaks fluent PSK31, in FT8...  One QSO with him earns you 5BDXCC...  His Wouff Hong has two Wouffs... Hiram Percy Maxim called HIM "The Old Man..."  He is... The Most Interesting Ham In The World!

W4MDP

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Re: The importance of being an SWL
« Reply #8 on: May 15, 2021, 12:27:39 AM »

Interesting question that brought back some memories.  I started out with an Emerson AC/DC table top radio that had SW bands in the early to mid 1950s  It had about a 50 foot wire that hung out a window as an antenna.  I collected QSL cards from about 100 SW broadcasters including Radio Moscow that also brought me a visit from the FEDS who were curious a sto why I was geeting all this mail from the "commies".  I got my first Ham license in 1959.

Mark
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N1IG

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Re: The importance of being an SWL
« Reply #9 on: May 15, 2021, 03:52:59 AM »

SWL definitely got me interested in amateur radio, but that was back in the early 1970s.  Things are much different now, and I'm not sure that the SWL draw is the same for today's generation of kids.  Why "try" to pull in a station, when you can just listen on their web page...
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W7XTV

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Re: The importance of being an SWL
« Reply #10 on: May 15, 2021, 12:01:37 PM »

Interesting question that brought back some memories.  I started out with an Emerson AC/DC table top radio that had SW bands in the early to mid 1950s  It had about a 50 foot wire that hung out a window as an antenna.  I collected QSL cards from about 100 SW broadcasters including Radio Moscow that also brought me a visit from the FEDS who were curious a sto why I was geeting all this mail from the "commies".  I got my first Ham license in 1959.

Mark

I had a government clearance when I worked in the defense industry in the 1980s.  I was never hassled by anyone over my SWL or ham activity.  Other than (IIRC) China, Albania, and Vietnam, there were no restrictions on what countries hams could work.
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He speaks fluent PSK31, in FT8...  One QSO with him earns you 5BDXCC...  His Wouff Hong has two Wouffs... Hiram Percy Maxim called HIM "The Old Man..."  He is... The Most Interesting Ham In The World!

AH7I

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Re: The importance of being an SWL
« Reply #11 on: May 15, 2021, 02:49:52 PM »

I listened to AMBCB. The whole idea that I could hear things from far away on a little radio in our Quonset hut fascinated me. Propagation, how the radio worked... I learned a LOT thanks to the bookmobile lady and the AM radio. There are still enough small independent AM stations out there to make listening interesting.

You can't make people interested in things. What you can do is help them become aware of things. Changes in radio propagation can be an annoyance or interesting. Cell phone coverage (or lack thereof) can be an annoyance or interesting. Ditto for broadcast TV and FM radio propagation. Flutter on FM or ghosting on broadcast TV... annoying or interesting....

It's all in how it looks and a little guidance and information can change the way it looks.

73, -Bob ah7i em73ts
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RENTON481

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Re: The importance of being an SWL
« Reply #12 on: May 17, 2021, 03:16:37 PM »

SWLing got me interested in the ham hobby enough to monitor the ham bands, including the CW portions. There was a time I was monitoring the HF ham bands as much or more than the SWBC bands (never got into the utility listening thing all that much). I also got into SSB CB for a while, but that was because of what I was hearing on my SW receivers.

I think that as far as importance goes, SWLing and ham radio are in the same boat, and that's one that is declining in importance. Everything is cellphone and internet now, and that's the future of distance communications. Even commercial radio is seeing a slow decline, in revenue as well as overall audience.

There may always be those who experiment with communicating via the radio waves, but I don't see it as ever coming back to the relative level of importance it had even 20-30 years ago.
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N2HUN

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Re: The importance of being an SWL
« Reply #13 on: July 05, 2021, 03:17:16 AM »

Just as you stated.  I started as a SWL, then  CB'er, then a ham.  After over 60 years in those hobbies am mostly an SWL again.  Came full circle, hihi.

Years back certain countries required you to listen to shortwave and gather QSL cards to verify what you heard.   It was a prerequisite for applying for an amateur license.
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N0TLD

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Re: The importance of being an SWL
« Reply #14 on: July 07, 2021, 04:10:45 AM »

Very early on (8 or 9 years old), it was AM BCB DXing (though it was many years before I knew that's what it was called) and a bit later tuning around on SW, as well as crystal radios. By my late teens it was still all of that but even more emphasis on SWL and antennas. I got pretty heavy into it until my early 20s when my life changed quite drastically but after some years adjusting to my new surroundings, the radio bug returned and became a real monster. But SWL is particularly what got me thinking about becoming a ham. Ironically, when I first got my ticket only some four years ago, and mentioned how shortwave and specifically listening to hams on shortwave for decades helped me gain confidence to get on the air myself, I was often ridiculed for it here and on the zed, with things like "Oh, you watch a cop show for years and think you're a cop?" and the more common "Think you're good in bed cuz you watch porn?" (each written as if they were the only one clever enough to come up with it). Rapier wits, all... but anyway, I knew that was just online tough guy syndrome, the actual airwaves are full of much nicer, saner people most of the time, and it obviously never stopped me from being very glad and proud of my longtime SW hobby and how it brought me to and helps me be an amateur radio operator. I still do a lot of BCB DXing and SWL. No, SW is not even remotely like it once was... but I still love it.

Mike
N0TLD
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