It's true that "shorter" waves would mean higher frequency, but "shortware" radio uses longer (lower-frequency) waves, relative to most other modern radio syste

It's true that "shorter" waves would mean higher frequency, but "shortware" radio uses longer (lower-frequency) waves, relative to most other modern radio systems, so it is true that "fewer waves pass through a single point every second". Also, it is true that for a given amplitude, a higher frequency wave does contain more energy, but typically, higher frequency waves don't travel as far. Shortwave radio travels particularly far because they happen to be in the right frequency to bounce off the ionosphere, which allows them to travel further than line of sight.