Australian Shortwave Guide ceases publication

To all,

I regret to advise that there will be no further editions of the
Australian Shortwave Guide, either in print or electronic format.

The A11 edition, current until October 30 2011 is the final issue.

The Guide started life in 1995 as a multi-page supplement, known as
"Broadcasts to Australia", authored by myself, which was published in a
now-defunct Australian commercial electronics magazine.

When that magazine closed down, the BTA continued as a service of the
Electronic DX Press Radio Monitoring Association, as a stand-alone print
publication, and was offered for a small charge to members and non-members,
to cover research, printing and mailing expenses.

Its target readership was Australia and Oceania, and it was published four
times a year, but this was later reduced to twice-yearly, to coincide with
the international summer and winter transmission seasons, with over 200
copies sold of each edition in the period 1998 to 2005.

There were various changes to title and content.

In total, 26 editions were produced.

By about 2007, demand had started to drop off dramatically, resulting in
a decision to distribute the Guide via Email, for a small charge, as revenue
was insufficient to accommodate direct print-production and postal-mailing
expenses.

Demand continued to fall, and there was a short-lived reactivation of the
printed edition, which was not successful.

In 2010, the Guide was made available at a Website for downloading by
anyone, free of charge, and donations were invited from users, with
extensive promotion given across many E-mail lists, radio monitoring
websites, within radio broadcasts, weblogs and message boards.

These donations were intended to generate a small financial return to me for
my time, internet charges and effort in researching, compiling, and
promoting the Guide.

The A11 edition resulted in over 1000 downloads, with 95% of these
originating from outside of Australia/NZ, but only three users (EDXP
members) assisted with donations, a very disappointing and outcome.

The extraordinary drop in demand across Australia and New Zealand has been
due to the impact of the progressive abandonment of shortwave broadcasts
targeting these regions.

This is coupled with the reality that listening to shortwave radio in
Aus/NZ for entertainment and news has become an obscure archaic hobby,
pursued by a rapidly dwindling number of people.

In the past few years, various freely available lists of SW broadcasts
have become freely accessable on the Internet, further diluting the market
for such references as the ASWG.

Goodbye to the ASWG.

Regards from Melbourne!

Bob Padula