A sister hobby to amateur radio where the operator only uses a receiver to monitor HF transmissions. Also commonly known by the abbreviation SWL.

With the advent of Internet, the SWL has lost its popularity, but it used to be a starting block for ham radio. Medium quality shortwave units tend to be pretty cheap and easily accessible. With good radio propagation listening to remote countries' programs can be quite entertaining.

Internet literally destroyed SWL because many radios stopped their HF transmissions and started to broadcast over the net. BBC World in USA has stopped transmission, generating many protests. Most of the prominent broadcasters are scaling back their shortwave transmissions or completely terminating them, but especially in Africa shortwave is still very common and active. Many expatriots all around the world listen to shortwave transmissions to keep in touch, even after the advent of internet-based news and publications.

Shortwave listeners also listen to ham radio operators and many Hams will reply QSL cards from SWLs. Not all but some commercial radios also reply to QSL cards.