Last Updated on September 3, 2020
Summary
Shortwave is a no-frills radio streamer. It certainly lacks the panache of Odio, but makes it up by being open source goodness. While it’s very light on features, what it does it does very well. And it’s great for systems low on RAM. Expect a few crashes along the way though; well that’s my experience.
The re-implementation of Gradio is looking positive. But choosing Shortwave as the name of an internet radio streamer is a bit offbeat.
Website: gitlab.gnome.org/World/Shortwave
Support:
Developer: Felix Häcker
License: GNU General Public License, version 3 or later
Looking for other software offering internet radio? Read our Internet Radio Group Test.
Shortwave is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction / Installation
Page 2 – In Operation
Page 3 – Other Features
Page 4 – Summary
Can you explain why Shortwave is an odd name?
Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave radio frequencies. Shortwave radio can be used for very long distance communication, as short waves directed at an angle into the sky can be reflected back to Earth at great distances, beyond the horizon.
Calling the program Shortwave suggests it acts like a shortwave receiver. But it’s an internet radio streamer.
In a time before internet some people used to listen to a radio called a shortwave radio. It tuned to much higher frequencies (3 to 30 MHz) than the normal AM band which allowed the listener to hear shortwave radio broadcasts from all over the world. The signal would fade in and out with the atmospheric conditions but that was half the fun of listening to it. I used to listen to BBC and VOA from Africa all the time for news. Now those same stations are just a click away via an internet stream.
There’s still lots of us listening to shortwave radios, sending in reports and receiving QSLs.