Je parle cinq langues: Anglais, Francais, Espagnol, Latin et Esperanto. J'ai prené six âns des classes Francaises en école, entre 1980 et 1986.

Well, about ham and shortwave....

Shortwave broadcasters tend to be pragmatic as much as reasonable. They want to reach an audience, and if they sense that they are not doing so, will try something else. As such, the BBC has ceased broadcasts aimed at North America because North America is well-wired and can tune them in via the Internet. You can, however, still pick up their broadcasts to the Caribbean, and they come in quite cliearly from what I've been told (I don't listen to SW much these days).

However, if one is trying to hit an audience that is difficult to hit (Africa, for example) then SW will continue, and, given the way it propagates, you will still have something to listen to.

Ham radio is another matter. I can say (and have many times) that there are basically four types of people who have gotten involved in ham radio. These types are not mutually exclusive, and I am in all four categories. These categories are:

- Folks who want cheap communications over long distances. These folks now use the Internet. Obviously, I am an Internet user. :-)

- Folks who want to be able to access a telephone from a car or on foot. These folks now have cell phones. I carry one myself.

- Folks who want intra-family or intra-group communications. The gutsier groups could use CB, but that has been largely overrun by a small handful of idiots. FRS, GMRS and MURS have all stepped in to fill the gap, plus all three of these latter services can also be made more compact, and actually work well as handheld radios. I use MURS radios with my family and FRS radios with my non-ham friends, and occasionally switch on a CB, but usually end up switching it back off again in pretty short order. I don't use GMRS due to a lack of a licence.

- Folks who genuinely love radio. Obviously, I fit in here.

What you are seeing now is that the ranks of amateur radio operators are shrinking. This is perfectly predictable as other technologies have stepped in to satisfy the needs of three of the four groups above. I think, though, that this will cause a concentration of radio lovers in the ranks of ham radio, much like boiling salt water makes a thicker brine as the water evaporates.

Does what I am saying make sense to you?