Editing Shortwave radio (section)

==Shortwave listening==
[[File:RADIOBUDAPESTPENNANTLATE80s.JPG|thumb|right|A pennant sent to overseas listeners by [[Magyar Rádió|Radio Budapest]] in the late 1980s]]
{{Main|Shortwave listening}}
The Asia-Pacific Telecommunity estimates that there are approximately 600&nbsp;million [[Shortwave receiver|shortwave broadcast-radio receivers]] in use in 2002.<ref name=AptSec2002/> [[WWCR]] claims that there are 1.5&nbsp;billion shortwave receivers worldwide.<ref name=Anderson2005/>

Many hobbyists listen to shortwave broadcasters. In some cases, the goal is to hear as many stations from as many countries as possible ''([[DXing]])''; others listen to specialized shortwave utility, or "ute", transmissions such as maritime, naval, aviation, or military signals. Others focus on intelligence signals from [[numbers stations]], stations which transmit strange broadcast usually for intelligence operations, or the two way communications by amateur radio operators. Some short wave listeners behave analogously to "lurkers" on the Internet, in that they listen only, and never attempt to send out their own signals. Other listeners participate in clubs, or actively send and receive QSL cards, or become involved with amateur radio and start transmitting on their own.

Many listeners tune the shortwave bands for the programmes of stations broadcasting to a general audience (such as [[Radio Taiwan International]], [[China Radio International]], [[Voice of America]], [[Radio France Internationale]], [[BBC World Service]], [[Voice of Korea]], [[Radio Free Sarawak]] etc.). Today, through the evolution of the Internet, the hobbyist can listen to shortwave signals via remotely controlled or web controlled shortwave receivers around the world, even without owning a shortwave radio.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Live_Tunable_Receivers |title=Live tunable receivers |website=The Radio Reference Wiki |access-date=2020-01-02 |archive-date=2020-01-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102180408/https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Live_Tunable_Receivers |url-status=live }}</ref> Many international broadcasters offer live streaming audio on their websites and a number have closed their shortwave service entirely, or severely curtailed it, in favour of internet transmission.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-03-08 |title=Whatever Happened to Shortwave Radio? |url=https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/whatever-happened-to-shortwave-radio |access-date=2022-03-18 |website=Radio World |language=en-US}}</ref>

Shortwave listeners, or SWLs, can obtain [[QSL card]]s from broadcasters, utility stations or amateur radio operators as trophies of the hobby. Some stations even give out special certificates, pennants, stickers and other tokens and promotional materials to shortwave listeners.