Does anyone use shortwave radios?

I still see license plate with Ham Operator call signs.

Every actor in a apocalyptic movie seems to know how.

quote:

---

Do they still have a purpose today?

---

Barely. Most of the major broadcasters have an internet stream with much better sound quality.

You can get some weird religious programming and overseas stuff not available on the internet directly but even that you can get with an internet rebroadcasting site. Several of those sites. They are like the online radio scanner sites or phone apps where you don't really need a scanner anymore either. You can just tune into the Chicago or Detroit scanner for some entertainment on a Saturday night.

Radio is going the way of newspapers. It's all available online now.

Even ham radio guys use internet relay.

CB radio is another story. Some weird stuff out there by kooks in Arkansas and Oklahoma with huge linears. CB can still be fun.

Most of the ones I know are hobbyists. However, they do from time to time get together for catastrophe planning purposes. They do "prep games" for lack of a better word with other operators around the country to make sure they can communicate using only their rigs in the event critical infrastructure goes tits up. Its kinda cool when they do it too. Most of them make a party out of it and invite people.

quote:

---

Shortwave will be useful in the event of shite hitting the fan because Govt uses it to broadcast wide reaching emergency announcements

---

... that nobody will have the shortwave gear to receive.

they have shortwave in congo?

quote:

---

they have shortwave in congo?

---

LINK

"The network of FM and high-frequency (shortwave) radios in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been growing since 2012 with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to aid workers. It came in handy in May, when Ebola killed at least three people in an extremely remote region where there are almost no roads, no telephones and no internet."

In America, shortwave is mainly used by hobbyists, though their licenses technically make them an emergency line of communication in times of disaster, civil unrest, etc. One operable radio and word of mouth can still be an effective means of communication. Other than that, American non-hobby broadcasts tend to be the religious fringe.

Over much of the planet, shortwave radio is still a vital way to communicate and disseminate news over large distances because the signal will bounce between layers of the atmosphere and the ground, allowing cheap two way communication over hundreds or thousands of miles. Outside of America, many governments still run large shortwave broadcast operations. The BBC World Service is probably the best known of these.

Militaries still use encrypted shortwave communication as a backup to satellite communication because the signal can propagate so far. It's most important to units like naval traffic and airplanes crossing the ocean that don't have ground stations that might be able to relay messages. Submarines relied HEAVILY on shortwave communications to receive orders until relatively recently. Commercial marine shipping operations also relied heavily on utility shortwave stations for the same reasons.

Air traffic control still uses shortwave for oceanic traffic, as not every airplane has satellite communication ability, and shortwave can reach several hundred miles offshore to provide long range communications for planes approaching and leaving a continent and also providing for emergency communications via airplane to airplane relay, if necessary.