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As a former DXer, I used the Satellit at a time when the shortwave tropical bands were filled with exotic stations. Nowadays, I have my SDR with technical specs we could only dream about back then but on the same bands I struggle to find any stations at all. Blame the migration of shortwave stations to FM and the Internet over the past 30 years where they enjoy far better fidelity.

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Blame the weather on the sun.

Shortwave DX relies on ionospheric propagation. Solar particles cause ionization of the upper atmosphere, which becomes mostly opaque to shortwave frequencies. Activity on the surface of the sun follows a roughly 11-year cycle, with alternating periods of high and low activity. We're currently approaching the low point of that cycle, but the most recent cycle offered unusually poor propagation conditions.

There has been an overall reduction in shortwave broadcasting, but there's still plenty of activity in Africa and South-East Asia. You're not hearing it because it's all drifting off into space rather than ricocheting around inside the atmosphere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skywave

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle

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