I agree with your comments on shortwave being over.
I really respect the guys in this thread who love the nostalgia and honor the heritage and building blocks of modern communication. But if you are a guy like me who simply wants world news, the net is far better.
Twenty years ago I loved being able to hear BBC reports from the first Gulf war. And to get the European perspective on economic matters. It is just that stuff is now all available on the internet times ten.
But, in an emergency. Katrina for instance, Shortwave is always the first usable news.
I listened to a guy on galveston who broadcast throughout hurricane Ike.
Phones were out,internet was out, cellphones gone..
Of course the Internet is better for news...As are the endless AM radio stations or CNN. You can get the latest news anywhere....Its no big deal.
And by the way, not all but much of the news your getting on the Internet is brought to you by the same people bringing you CNN...It's orchestrated, rehearsed, controlled and tainted.
I love it when people compare amateur radio/shortwave to computers and the Internet...It's two totally different things...
It's like comparing people that collect and restore and drive 1957 chevy's to the latest computerized Pirus, or comparing old clock technology, which work to perfection, to a digital Rolex.
The Internet costs money to use, your subjected to substantial monthly bills, more government control in the future, network infrastructure break downs, power outages, and most of the time and your connect via a leash or wire....Did I mention those monthly bills...lol....
And if your part of the news, in a region affected by some catastrophe, your Internet will be worthless and dead.
With Amateur radio you can talk to a guy on his small boat in the south Pacific, off the coast of Tahiti describing his little dog and his surrounding, talk to a farmer in Ohio, or a guy flying a twin engine aircraft over Alaska...All done with simple basic radios and homemade antennas.
With our standard of living going southbound, and people reverting back to simpler things, going back the basics, watch for things like amateur radio making a come back...Simply because the old technology works, is simple, almost free to operate, is interesting and fun.