parnass@ihu1h.UUCP (Bob Parnass, AJ9S) (02/05/85)
x Differences Between SWLs and Hams Here is an interesting passage from Bennett and Helms' "The Complete Shortwave Listener's Handbook - 2nd Edition": "The average person nowadays,though, seems to have a built-in bit of knowledge that, to him, means that anyone with a shortwave radio of any kind is automati- cally a ham radio operator. This is one of the most erroneous impressions that I have ever run up against....." "Oftentimes the average person, when encountering an SWL, will ask the SWL why he doesn't get a license and actually get on the air for two-way contacts. For the SWL to reply that he doesn't want to might give the impression that he's too good for that sort of thing; for the SWL to say that he can't would leave a strong impression with the average person that he (the SWL) is too dumb to get a license. Both impressions are totally incorrect. In my own 30 years of being a ham radio operator, I have had the opportunity of meeting large numbers of SWLs, and I know for a positive fact that the great majority of them prefer to simply listen, rather than engage in on-the-air communica- tions. Like the baseball fan who'd rather watch than play, radio is a spectator sport to the SWL." "Admittedly, there are many SWLs who cannot get a license, but it usually is not due to any lack of abil- ity...." "...the average SWL is perfectly content to be a listener, and believe me, some of them are real addicts! The SWL, more often than not, continues to be actively engaged in the hobby and many of them eventu- ally go on to the ham radio portion of the hobby. Con- versely, I know of a number of ham radio operators who, for various reasons of their own, have elected to let their ham radio licenses lapse, after which they once again become active SWLs. In most cases, it was lear- ned that they found a preference for the one-way aspect of the hobby. Experience has also proven that many ham radio operators continue to be active SWLs. This fact is confirmed by the considerable number of ham radio operators who, through the years, have reported on shortwave station reception to my columns and to the shortwave stations themselves in the form of reception reports." Hank Bennett is well known in SWL circles. He was has been licensed as W2PNA since 1939. For over 30 years, he has been editor of the shortwave department of the Newark News Radio Club. If you don't remember reading his monthly SWL column in the old Popular Electronics (RIP - ed.), you can read his columns in Monitoring Times. -- =============================================================================== Bob Parnass, Bell Telephone Laboratories - ihnp4!ihu1h!parnass - (312)979-5414