The Shortwave Radio Audio Archive: Recent Episodes
The Shortwave Radio Audio Archive
The Shortwave Radio Audio Archive is a podcast that contains off-air recordings from the shortwaves. These recordings represent the wide variety of stations found on the shortwave, long wave and medium wave radio spectrums (30-30,000 kHz)
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Trans World Radio, Meyerton, South Africa 1990's
Frequency: 7.215 MHz
Reception location: Thamesford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Notes: Trans World Radio used to air some of it's programs via the SENTECH transmitter at Meyerton, South Africa. Here is a recording of the station in the late 1990's, including identification in English but no transmitter site given. This was made from my receiving post in Thamesford, Ontario, Canada, likely on 7215 kHz shortwave. This transmitter was shut down in March 2019.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Baghdad, Iraq
Date of recording: Circa 1971
Frequency: 15.400 MHz
Recption location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: Another bird call interval signal. Even though Radio Baghdad in Iraq may have had a program beamed to North America in the early 1970's, they were not easily heard at my receiving post in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. This may have had to do with their choice of frequencies used. This recording begins with their mechanical nightingale interval signal, followed by identification in the Arabic language.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Paul Walker, who shares the following recordings of Vatican Radio made on April 26, 2025.
The first recording, pre-funeral in French, was recorded at 07:36 UTC on 17520 kHz:
The second recording, made during the funeral in English, was recorded at 08:18 UTC on 17540 kHz:
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: RAI Italian Radio and Television, Rome 1971
Frequency: 6.010MHz
RX location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: RAI, Italian Radio and Television from Rome, had an interval signal that was described as a mechanically generated chirping canary, mechanical nightingale and even an Italian Sparrow. The station broadcast on a number of different frequencies in English (my QSL has them on 6.010 MHz), however in this recording, that was made circa 1971, the station identification is given in Italian.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Botswana 1983
Frequency: 4.845 MHz
RX location: Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Notes: Radio Botswana used to be famous for their "barnyard" interval signal. While my recording, from 1983, only captures a few seconds of the cowbells, it does include their full national anthem and sign on announcements in Setswana (presumed) and English.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Tom Laskowski, for sharing the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Australia
Date of recording: July 27, 1986
Starting time: 0300
Frequency: 17.795 MHz
RX location: South Bend, Indiana
Receiver and antenna: Sony ICF 2001
Notes: Here is a recording of Radio Australia's DX program called Talkback from July 27, 1986. I believe this was recorded around 0300 UT on 17795 kHz when Australia used to come in well in the evenings here.
Some of the program highlights are:
Review of the 1986 ANARC Convention, which was held in Montreal, Canada. Hosted by Radio Canada International, it attracted over 200 attendees. New Zealand's Arthur Cushen was the Guest of Honor for the event.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bryce Belcher, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: WRMI
Date of recording: January 10, 2024
Starting time: 2000 hours UTC
Frequency: 5.925 MHz
Reception location: Columbus, Ohio
Receiver and antenna: Tecsun PL880 with bilt-in telescopic antenna
Notes: Here's a recording from WRMI from Okeechobee Florida on 5.925 MHz on January 10th, 2024.
BBC World Service in English received in Europe on shortwave frequency of 9410 kHz at 0504 GMT May 9, 2025 using domestic 40-years old shortwave receiver "JS" (with double frequency conversion design) running on bateries. Antenna: 5 meter wire outdoor put on trees. Recorded using old SONY cassette recorder TCM 500V model.
The transmission recorded originated from the BBC Atlantic Relay Station in Ascension Island The station made its first shortwave radio transmission on July 3rd, 1966
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Ian Pillar, who shares the following recording of Radio Symban made on April 26, 2025 on 2368 kHz at 06:10 UTC via a Kiwi SDR and loop antenna in New South Whales, Australia. Ian notes:
Notes: Low Power Radio Symban Back On Shortwave From Sydney NSW Radio Symban Also Broadcast On FM With 24-hour Greek Programming. Some interesting photos found here.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Tahiti 1971
Frequency: 15.170MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: Radio Tahiti was a very popular station with shortwave listeners back in the 1970's. Their island type music was very listenable and the station often put a decent signal into eastern North America with their 20 kw of power on 15170 kHz. The late Dr. Richard E. Wood reported in the Communications Handbook for 1972 that this frequency was activated on April 10, 1971. I made this recording of their sign off announcements in French, closing song and La Marseillaise sometime in 1971.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of The Voice of America made on January 14, 2025 at 0355 UTC on 9775 kHz. The reception location was McGrath, Alaska:
Many thanks to hb9gce for this recording of Radio Dardasha - Bible Voice BCN from May 24, 2021:
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Maritime radio HLS Seoul Korea
Date of recording: October 31, 1998
Frequency: 8.725 MHz
Reception location: Coe Hill, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Mode: Single Side Band
Notes: Maritime radiotelephone station HLS in Seoul, Korea continued to operate in the late 1990's on shortwave. Instead of a repeating voice mirror, this station played Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" over and over so that the receiving station could tune them in. This recording is from October 31, 1998 at Coe Hill, Ontario, Canada, and the frequency they were using was 8725 kHz upper sideband. My receiver was a Panasonic RF-3100 hooked up to a long wire antenna.
The station was identified by Richard "RD" Baker, editor of Communications Confidential, in the January 1999 issue of Popular Communications magazine. In his Reader Mailbag section, he wrote:
"Dan Greenall in Ontario, Canada, has been hearing a new (at least to folks in North America) maritime marker on 8725.0 USB: Beethoven's 9th Symphony "Ode to Joy" is repeated. In trying to track this marker down, we sent the call out over the WUN Club's listserver. Costas Krallis in Greece, Fabrizio Magrone in Italy. Alex Wellner and Robin Harwood. both in Australia. all became involved. They soon began logging the marker on other maritime frequencies. Eventually, it was noted on 6513, 8725, 8797, 13161, and 17341. Only one station has those frequencies in common: HLS, Seoul Radio. South Korea. The marker was completely IDed within 32 hours!"
KiwiSDR (Photo by Mark Fahey)
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Liam Spencer, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: China National Radio 1 The Voice of China
Date of recording: January 30, 2023
Starting time: 20:24 UTC
Frequency: 6.125 MHz
Reception location: KiwiSDR in Japan
Receiver and antenna: Self-made YouLoop
Notes: China National Radio signing on with the interval signal and some music. If my sources are correct this sign on only occurs on Mondays. The echo is due to two different transmitters on the same frequency
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Deutsche Welle, Kigali, Rwanda relay 1971
Frequency: 11.965 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: When this recording was made in 1971, the easiest way to add Rwanda to your "countries heard" totals was to log the Deutsche Welle (Voice of Germany) relay in Kigali. The station could be heard quite well here in southern Ontario, Canada even though broadcasts were not directed to eastern North America. My QSL card has them using 11965 kHz, however I am not fluent in German and this recording could possibly have been made on a different frequency. This relay station was closed down in 2015 after 50 years of operation.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Veritas Asia, Quezon City, Philippines
Date of recording: September 28, 1999
Starting time: 1200 UTC
Frequency: 9.505 MHz
Reception location: Coe Hill, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Drake SW-8 and a very long wire antenna
Notes: Here is Radio Veritas Asia in Quezon City, Philippines as recorded at a DX camp in Coe Hill, Ontario, Canada on September 28, 1999. Part of their interval signal is heard along with a station ID in English. They give their frequency as 9505 kHz and the time as 1200 UTC.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Alma Ata, Kazakh S.S.R. 1971
Frequency: 9,380 kHz
Recption location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: Here is the interval signal and sign on announcement from Radio Alma Ata in Kazakhstan as heard in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada in 1971. They were on 9380 kHz and I was listening on a Hallicrafters S-52 receiver hooked up to an outdoor long wire antenna. Just using an open mike placed in front of the speaker and appears the mike was shut off briefly between the interval signal and the voice announcement.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
XERH Radio Tricolor Mexico City, Mexico 1970 on 11,880 kHz
This station was often heard with a good signal in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada in Spanish with the jingle "La RH, La RH Radio Tricolor"
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of the BBC World Service Dari language service made on July 13, 2024 at 04:35 UTC on 17750 kHz. The reception location was McGrath, Alaska:
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Carlos Latuff, who shares the following recording, notes, and original artwork:
This is part of the Radio Nikkei 1 program (in Japanese), listened by me in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on 6055 kHz, on January 18, 2025, between 08:38 and 09:10 (UTC). The content is as follows:
- Commercial break
- J-Music Time
- Recommended Lani-chan
- Commercial break
- Cinema: Night on the Silver Screen
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
KWHR, World Harvest Radio from Naalehu, Hawaii: November 10, 1996 on 9,930 kHz
The station was heard in Thamesford, Ontario, Canada giving out its QSL mailing address in South Bend, Indiana.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio 4VEH Cap Haitien Haiti 1970's
Frequency: 9.770 MHz
Recption location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: The first audio clip is likely a "recording of a recording." Back in the 1970's, some DX programs, notably DX Jukebox (Radio Nederland) and SWL Digest (Radio Canada International) would occasionally play "off the air" recordings of shortwave stations heard by listeners. Such may be the case here.
The second clip is Radio 4VEH in Cap Haitien, Haiti as heard on 9770 kHz in April 1970. The station only ran 2500 watts of power but could be heard most mornings local time. Received using a Hallicrafters S-52 and long wire antenna at Ancaster, Ontario, Canada.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of the Voice of America’s Korean language service made on December 28, 2024 at 1905 UTC on 9,800 kHz. The reception location was McGrath, Alaska:
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Cairo circa 1971
Frequency: 9.475 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: I don't recall Radio Cairo having an interval signal but this music was heard at the beginning of every broadcast. They used this frequency for as long as I can remember, and I was quite excited to receive their exotic looking QSL. My receiving equipment consisted of a Hallicrafters S-52 hooked up to an outdoor longwire antenna.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: La Voix de la Revolution Congolaise, Brazzaville
Date of recording: Circa 1973
Frequency: 4.765 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: One of the more consistent Africans heard in the 60 metre band shortwave during the early 1970's from here in southern Ontario, Canada was La Voix de la Revolution Congolaise from Brazzaville, Republic of Congo on 4765 kHz. Best reception usually occurred at 0430 UTC sign on, or up to an hour before sign off at 2300 hours UTC. This recording is circa 1973, and you will hear part of the anthem followed by identification in French.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Paul Walker, who shares the following field recording of the BBC World Service on 9,410 kHz made on November 25, 2024 in McGrath Alaska.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Paul Walker, who shares the following field recording of the Voice of America on 9,775 kHz made in McGrath, Alaska on November 25, 2024. Paul notes:
VOA on 9775 via Botswana in English with (one minute and eight seconds) of a dead carrier, then sign-on and programming begins.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following recording and original illustrated listening report (above). This KBS recording was made on December 4, 2024 at 11:00 UTC on 11.795 MHz in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Carlos notes: “Full news bulletin (in Spanish) of KBS World Radio on South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol martial law, listened in Porto Alegre, Brazil.”
Bonus Radiofax:
Kyodo News English Edition radiofax on the same topic, Dec 4, 2024, 12pm UTC, 16970 kHz.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: KWHR (World Harvest Radio) Naalehu Hawaii November 10, 1996
Date of recording: November 10, 1996
Frequency: 9.930 MHz
Reception location: Thamesford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Notes: Here is World Harvest Radio with a brief English language voice announcement from their radio station KWHR, Naalehu, Hawaii as heard in Thamesford, Ontario, Canada on November 10, 1996 at 1330 hours UTC on a frequency of 9930 kHz shortwave.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: XERH Radio Tricolor, Mexico City 1970
Frequency: 11.880 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: XERH from Mexico City, Mexico could often be heard here in southern Ontario, Canada in the Spanish language using the jingle "La RH, La RH, Radio Tricolor" to identify. They were using 11880 kHz shortwave in 1970 when this brief recording was made, and typically played "musica ranchera."
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Vivian Gonçalves, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: RÁDIO CANÇÃO NOVA
Date of recording: October 29, 1990
Starting time: 20:57 UTC
Frequency: 1020 kHz
Reception location: Cachoeira Paulista, SP
Receiver and antenna: Yaesu FRG-8800 with an indoor wire antenna. Direct recording into a cassette recorder.
Mode: AM
Notes: edição da Voz do Brasil em 29-10-1990, segunda-feira
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: WRNO
Date of recording: October 10, 1982
Starting time: 2300
Frequency: 11.955 MHz
Reception location: South Bend, Indiana
Receiver and antenna: Sony ICF-2001
Notes: Here are two back-to-back episodes of Glenn Hauser's World of Radio from October 10, 1982 and October 24, 1982. WOR normally aired on WRNO on Sundays at 2330 UTC on 11.955 MHz. A change of frequencies was announced in this first broadcast and might be the actual time and frequency where I recorded these two. These recordings are almost 42 years old and this program is still on the air.
Some of the program highlights are: Part 1: DX, DX and More DX, Station news, lots of UNIDs (one of my UNIDs is featured), Amateur and utility DX news. Part 2: DX news about many countries, recommended BBC programs, NBC radio cancellations, mediumwave news (mentions of some of my LA mediumwave catches), harmonic DX and TV DX from France.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Here is a brief recording of Radiodiffusion Nationale Centrafricaine from Bangui on 5038 kHz shortwave circa 1971. Reception was made in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada, where the best reception from African stations was usually late afternoon or early evening local time, just about the time many of these stations were signing off for their broadcast day. Programming was in the French language.
Broadcaster: Radiodiffusion Nationale Centrafricaine
Frequency: 5.038 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Shortwave transmissions from Radio Afghanistan from Kabul in English were difficult to hear at my location in eastern North America. Here is a brief recording, made sometime in 1971, of the station as they concluded their half hourly English broadcast at 1830 hours UTC on 15.265 MHz in the 19 metre band. The other frequency they used for this transmission is given as 17.775 MHz.
Broadcaster: Radio Afghanistan
Date of recording: 1971
Frequency: 15.265 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following recording, along with his original artwork (above), and notes:
Opening of Japanese government shortwave radio programs aimed at Japanese citizens abducted by DPRK between 1977 and 1983: "Furusato No Kaze" (in Japanese) and "Nippon No Kaze il bon ue" (in Korean). Broadcasted from a transmitter in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and listened in Florianopolis, Brazil.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bob Purse, curator of the website Inches Per Second, who shares the following recording and notes:
Periodically, I have shared parts of the large collection of shortwave recordings, most of them of Australian programming, which I picked up... somewhere, at some point. I've shared most of it, at this point, but have a few tapes left. I held off on this because the quality is fairly poor, then near the end becomes abysmal, but I thought I should share it, since there is an audience for these recordings. The newscast heard here makes it clear (specifically, the golf results, among other stories) that at least part of this tape is from the second week of March, 1968.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording, images, and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Santa Cruz Bolivia 1996
Date of recording: November 9, 1996
Frequency: 6.135 MHz
Reception location: Thamesford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Notes: Radio Santa Cruz from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia was heard here in southern Ontario, Canada on occasion when propagation favored a North-South path. This brief Spanish language recording was made on November 9, 1996 on 6135 kHz shortwave around 2300 hours UTC.
Radio Santa Cruz Brochure
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Sarah Boucher, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: VLR-6
Date of recording: December 03, 1972
Starting time: 14:00
Frequency: 6.15 MHz
Your location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Notes: Nightly sign off of VLR-6 announcement by Mary Adams, followed by the then-national anthem
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
The majority of my vintage shortwave recordings are unfortunately quite brief. This is mostly due to the fact that they were only kept as "proof" of reception and not generally for program content.
I can still remember the thrill of hearing Radio Japan in Tokyo for the first time back in 1970. I used to pick them up on 9505 kHz shortwave around dawn local time here in southern Ontario, Canada. This is a recording of their interval signal with bilingual announcement played just prior to sign on.
Broadcaster: Radio Japan 1970 interval signal
Frequency: 9.505 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Al Quaglieri, who shares the following recordings and notes:
These are two episodes of an internet "broadcast" I put together sometime in the early 1990's, I believe:
Olivier Hubert with BBC presenter Cerys Matthews for the BBC Midwinter Broadcast (Source: BAS and BBC)
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, TomL, who shares the following recording of the BBC Midwinter Broadcast to Antarctica, recorded on June 21, 2024 at 21:30 UTC on 11,685 kHz.
TomL notes:
BBC 2024 Midwinter broadcast to Antarctica. 11685 kHz using AM-Sync (LSB). Location Campton Hills Forest Preserve, St. Charles IL. Loop-On-Ground antenna amplified by Welbrook Medium Aperture preamp, into AirSpy HF+ SDR & laptop using SDR Console 3.2. RTTY station on 11690 kHz prompted recording on the lower sideband. Thunderstorm noise persistent.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Dada Gorgud, the Voice of Azerbaijan February 21,1999
Date of recording: February 21, 1999
Frequency: 9.165 MHz
Reception location: Coe Hill, Ontario
Receiver and antenna: Drake SW-8 and a very long wire antenna
Notes: Radio Dada Gorgud, the Voice of Azerbaijan from Baku, as heard in Coe Hill, Ontario, Canada, on February 21, 1999 at 0314 UTC on a frequency of 9165 kHz. Using a Drake SW-8 receiver hooked up to a very long wire antenna. Their interval signal is heard at first, followed by sign on in a local language.
Photo: NASA
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Nigel Thornbury, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Voice of America (VOA)
Date of recording: July 11, 1979
Receiver and antenna: Sony ICF-5900 long wire
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recordings and notes:
Foreign BCB DX 1970's
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 or Realistic DX-150A and a longwire antenna
Notes: Although I did not focus much on foreign broadcast band (medium wave) DXing in the 1970's, I did manage to save a few brief recordings of a handful of stations logged from my location in southern Ontario, Canada.
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Radio Margarita, La Asuncion (Isla Margarita) Venezuela 1020 kHz
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Radio Clarin, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 860 kHz
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XEMO, Tiajuana, Mexico 860 kHz
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Radio Sutatenza, Bogota, Colombia 810 kHz
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XERF, Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila, Mexico 1570 kHz (ID given by well known personality Paul Kallinger)
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of Radyo Pilipinas, recorded in McGrath, Alaska, on May 24, 2024 at 19:28 UTC on 12,120 kHz:
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: The Voice of Armenia, Yerevan circa 1999
Frequency: 9.965 MHz
Reception location: Thamesford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Notes: Here is a recording I made of the Voice of Armenia from Yerevan with their interval signal and multi-lingual ID's circa 1999. Somehow, this country managed to elude me in the 1970's and 80's.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Sudan National Broadcasting Corporation November 1996
Frequency: 9.200 MHz
Reception location: Thamesford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Notes: In November 1996, the Sudan National Broadcasting Corporation in Omdurman was relatively easy to spot on their out-of-band frequency of 9200 kHz shortwave. In this brief recording, chanting is heard followed by time pips on the hour. Announcements are in Arabic. According to the 1996 Passport to World Band Radio, this particular transmission is listed as Republic of Sudan Radio.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Antonio Ribeiro da Motta, who shares the following recordings and notes:
In 1980 I participated in the AWR Asia DX Contest promoted by the Radio Monitors International program produced by Mr. Adrian Petersen. The program was produced at the AWR Asia studios in Poona (India) and broadcast through the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Company via transmitters in Ekala and Colombo. Despite the reception being very difficult in South America, I managed to participate in the contest and got eighth place. As a prize, I got a cassette called AWR Historical. And it is this material that I would like to share with my friends at Shortwave Archive.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recordings and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Prague: 1970 and 1999
Frequency: 7.345 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster and Thamesford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 and Drake SW-8 using a longwire antenna
Notes:
Here is a brief recording of Radio Prague in Czechoslovakia circa 1970. They are heard with their interval signal and announcement in English. The frequency was 7345 kHz.
The second recording was made June 22, 1999 at 1727 hours UTC on 21745 kHz, with their interval signal and multi-lingual ID's, as the external service of Czech Radio.
In 1970, I received a beautiful cloth bookmark from Radio Prague, and I gave it to my mother as she liked to read, and I felt it would be a way to include her in my newfound hobby of shortwave listening. She used it for the next 46 years, and I recovered it in 2016 after her passing, still in amazingly good condition.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording made on February 7, 2024 in McGrath Alaska on 5,975 kHz at 05:21 UTC:
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 1971 (interval signal)
Date of recording: 1971
Frequency: 6.175
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: Southeast Asia was one of the toughest areas to DX in my early years of SWLing from my receiving post in southern Ontario, Canada. Radio Malaysia from Kuala Lumpur on 6175 kHz made it through one morning in 1971 with their interval signal, then a very lengthy pause (about 35 seconds) before announcement in an Asian dialect. The lack of QRM and QRN helped to make this reception possible. For this, I was rewarded with their very attractive QSL card.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Gert Irmler, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: HJZW Radio Almirante, Riohacha - Colombia
Date of recording: October 30, 1978
Starting time: 01:17
Frequency: 1.200
Reception location: Schwäbisch Gmünd, BW - Germany
Receiver and antenna: Grundig Satellit 2000, loop antenna
Notes: HJZW R Almirante Riohacha, CLM
QRG: 1200 kHz
QTH: Schwaebisch Gmuend / Germany - distance to Riohacha 5.285 mi
Px: S, anns, IDs, Vallenato mx, "Guajira"
SINPO: 24432
Extremely rare recording of that Colombian AM broadcaster - confirmed as 'first time logged in Germany' by our national ADDX association.
The famous 'Alltime DX list' of the 'Medium Wave Circle' contains following entry: "HJBZ Ondas del Riohacha, Riohacha, Colombia (ex
HJZW R Almirante) (not listed in 2020 WRTH) - first log in the UK 11/78; NG" - Hey! My officially confirmed log is from Oct. 1978 :))
Many thanks to Anthony Messina for sharing the following recordings and notes:
Broadcaster: Voice of Korea
Date of recording: January 28, 2024
Starting time: 6pm UTC (1pm EST)
Frequency: 13760khz, 9730khz, 7570khz
Your location: SDR
Your receiver and antenna: KiwiSDR
Mode: AM
Notes: Recorded via an SDR based in Japan. A collection of recent VOK recordings.
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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Metallica Worldwide (pirate) June 4 1997
Date of recording: June 4, 1997
Frequency: 6.955 MHz
Recption location: Thamesford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Mode: AM
Notes: Here are three recordings of Radio Metallica Worldwide, a powerful shortwave pirate station that was widely heard all over North America and beyond during the late 1990's, using AM mode on 6955 kHz. These clips are from 1997 and were made in Thamesford, Ontario, Canada.
Listen to Doctor Tornado forget the zip code to his Blue Ridge Summit mailing address, claim to be broadcasting from a vessel in the Atlantic Ocean, use his voice reverberator mike, and send greetings out to other pirate radio stations. He certainly provided plenty of entertainment value for his listeners.
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Many thanks to hb9gce for this recording of Radio Austria International from March 12, 1989.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Liam Spencer, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Romania International DX Mailbag Show
Date of recording: January 22, 2024
Starting time: 01:42 UTC
Frequency: 7.325 MHz
RX location: KiwiSDR in Massachusetts
Receiver and antenna: MAG LOOP 80M DIPOLE
Notes: This is the DX Mailbag show for the week of 22nd of January, 2024. I used a KiwiSDR in Massachusetts.
Many thanks to hb9gce for these recordings of Adventist World Radio from 2009 through 2021.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recordings and notes:
Broadcaster: USSR shortwave broadcasters 1970's
Frequency: various
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: Around 1970, there were other stations in the Soviet Union (USSR) that could be found on the shortwaves besides Radio Moscow. Programming on most of these outlets was all in Russian.
Radiostansiya Rodina (Homeland) is heard here with their interval signal and identification in Russian sometime in 1971. Shortwave frequency was likely 7100 kHz.
Radiostansiya Atlantika broadcast to the Soviet fishing fleet circa 1970.
Radiostansiya Mayak (lighthouse) could also be heard on various frequencies during the early 1970's.
Radio Station Peace and Progress, the Voice of Soviet Public Opinion, had some English language programs.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Gert Irmler, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Douala, Cameroon
Date of recording: March 21, 1983
Starting time: 04:24 UTC
Frequency: 4.795 MHz
Reception location: Schwäbisch Gmünd, BW - Germany
Receiver and antenna: Grundig Satellit 2000, 30m longwire
Notes: Px: F/E, s/on, IS, IDs, NA, mx
SINPO: 34232
Provincial station in Cameroon's tropical coastal region 'Littoral/Douala', some interruptions after sign on, then sudden termination of signal.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Trans World Radio Bonaire "The DX Special" circa 1974
Frequency: 11.815 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Realistic DX-150A with a long wire antenna
Notes: Trans World Radio from the island of Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles broadcast on shortwave from 1964 to 1993. They used to put a strong signal into my receiver location in southern Ontario, Canada. The station also used to air a program called "The DX Special", hosted by Al Stewart, which appears to have been produced in their Monte Carlo studio. I recently came across a short recording I made circa 1974, where I happened to catch the end of one of these programs.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Notes: Radio Rabaul on the island of New Britain, PNG, was a rare visitor to my radio shack in 1971. I was able to make this brief recording (along with one of Radio Bougainville submitted separately) using an open mike in front of the speaker on the Hallicrafters S-52.
I posted my first recording of Radio Rabaul in April 2022. Recently, I discovered this second short recording I likely made on that same day, possibly a little later as the signal was beginning to fade. The language was likely Pidgin however you can clearly hear them give out their frequency of "3 point 3 8 5" around the 24 second mark. A 3-tone chime on the hour and station ID are given at the end of the recording.
Broadcaster: Radio Rabaul
Date of recording: 10/21/1971
Frequency: 3.385 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
VOA SiTE B Curtain Antenna Array Near Greenville, North Carolina
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bob Purse, who shares the following recording and notes from his excellent website Inches Per Second:
Here are two more [shortwave recordings], which I recently came across. These are both segments of episodes of "The Voice of America Jazz Hour", circa 1980, each of which features live recordings of Jazz performers in concert in Europe. I suspect that the recordings shared within this programming might be quite rare, if in fact these tapes were made for VOA and not generally broadcast or released elsewhere. However, it could also be that these performances are actually from released albums, or at least that these performances were later released. By some weird coincidence, these two segments are both 35-36 minutes, even though the show original ran an hour.
The styles of jazz performance heard here are not at all similar the styles within jazz that 1I prefer, and I therefore know nothing about these performers nor have I tried to research them or these performances. But perhaps some of you out there have a taste for this, and I don't ever want to limit this site to things that I want to hear. If anyone has information to share about these recordings, by all means, do, and I'll pass it along.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Clube de Mocambique 1973
Date of recording: 1970
Frequency: 4.855 MHz
Recpotion location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Realistic DX-150A with a long wire antenna
Mode: AM
Notes: An infrequent visitor to my listening post in the early 1970's, Radio Clube in Lourenco Marques used a modest 25 kw of power but could occasionally be heard here in southern, Ontario, Canada on 4855 kHz around 0400 or 0500 hours UTC. Their signal had to travel over 13,000 km to reach my receiver and had to fight through the constant static crashes typically found on the 60 metre shortwave tropical band. They commonly aired programs of pop music, and in this brief recording, circa 1973, you will first hear the tune of "In the Summertime." It is followed by the LM chime and identification in Portuguese beginning "Aqui Portugal Mocambique..."
COPYRIGHT NDR
Live, off-air, three-hour recording of the 70th anniversary broadcast of the special annual Gruss an Bord program from German broadcaster NDR, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, on 24 December 2023 beginning at 18:00 UTC. The broadcast features music and greetings to and from mariners around the world. The Christmas greetings were recorded at two events in Leer and Hamburg.
Relatives and friends had the opportunity to wish their loved ones at sea a happy holiday and a happy new year. The Leer event was recorded on 10 December in the Kulturspeiche and featured the Bingumer Shanty Choir and Anne-Fleur Gabor and her band while the Hamburg event was recorded on 17 December in the Duckdalben International Seamen's Club featured the Swedish-South African duo "Fjarill." The broadcast was primarily in German with some greetings in other languages. Many of the songs were in English, too.
In addition to being carried on the NDR Info and NDR Info Spezial networks, the broadcast was transmitted around the world on shortwave using transmitters in Nauen (NAU), Germany; Issoudun (ISS), France; Tashkent (TAC), Uzbekistan; and Okeechobee, Florida (RMI), U.S.A.; and was organized by Media Broadcast.
The schedule (in UTC) was:
1800-2100 on 6030 ISS 250 kW / 251 deg to North/East Atlantic
1800-2100 on 6080 TAC 100 kW / 301 deg to West/Central Europe
1800-2100 on 9635 NAU 250 kW / 130 deg to Indian Ocean - West
1800-2100 on 11650 ISS 250 kW / 148 deg to Indian Ocean - SoAf
1800-2100 on 13725 NAU 250 kW / 205 deg to Southern Atlantic
1800-2100 on 15770 RMI 100 kW / 044 deg to North/West Atlantic
RMI, Radio Miami International, initially had problems with the start of the broadcast and missed about the first 17 minutes.
The recording is primarily of the transmission on the frequency of 11650 kHz for the first two hours and the first part of the third and 6030 kHz for the rest of the third hour as the signal degraded slightly on 11650 kHz with some adjacent frequency interference. Since the receiver was initially tuned to 15770 kHz at the beginning of the broadcast until retuning to 11650 kHz, the first minute and a half of the broadcast was replaced in the recording with the corresponding part of the archived NDR studio recording
The program was received outdoors on a Belka-DX receiver in pseudo-synchronous (AM2) mode with a bandwidth of 50 Hz - 2.7 kHz with a Tecsun AN-03L 7-metre wire antenna in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada. Reception was good for the most part on both recorded frequencies.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Daniel Salo, who shares the following recordings—all made in 2002 in the Boston, MA area—of The Christian Science Monitor broadcast on WSHB.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recordings of Wetterdienst Wetterfunksender made in McGrath, Alaska on November 4, 2023:
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Anthony Messina, who shares the following recordings and notes:
Broadcaster: KCBS Pyongyang
Date of recording:Various (2022-2023)
Frequency: Various frequencies
Reception location: Various locations
Receiver and antenna: KiwiSDR
Mode: AM
Notes: This is a collection of recent recordings I made of DPRK SW radio stations.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Free Speech (pirate)
Date of recording: December 15, 1996
Starting time: 1330 UTC
Frequency: 6.955 MHz
Reception location: Thamesford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Notes: Radio Free Speech was a shortwave pirate radio station heard regularly in the late 1990's here in Southern Ontario, Canada. Here are a few blended airchecks from their Christmas Special broadcast on December 15, 1996 around 1330 hours UTC. This was on 6955 kHz and the announcer was "Bill O. Rights."
**Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recordings and notes:**
Broadcaster: American Telephone and Telegraph Company 1970's
Date of recording: circa 1970s
Frequency: various
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Mode: Single Side Band
Notes: Back in the days before the internet, radiotelephone communications were commonplace, and "voice mirrors" such as these from the American Telephone and Telegraph Company could be heard (usually in sideband mode) all over the shortwaves. These were broadcast so the receiving station could tune them in prior to actual traffic.
These recordings (Dixon and Oakland, California; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and New York City) are from the early 1970's, and receiving location was Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. Receiving equipment consisted of a Hallicrafters S-52 hooked up to a longwire antenna.
Mark Fahey’s KiwiSDR WebSDR
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bryce Belcher, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: The 72 Ragchew Net
Date of recording: December 07, 2020
Frequency: 7272 kHz
Receiver location: Washington DC
Receiver and antenna: The NA5B WebSDR From Washington DC
Mode: Single Side Band
Notes: This is my recording of The 72 Ragchew Net. This net is conducted every week on 7272 MHz. Recorded around 1150 UTC (11:50 AM). Recorded using the NA5BWebSDR from Washington DC. This webSDR covers shortwave, but also some VHF.
Mark Fahey’s KiwiSDR (WebSDR)
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bryce Belcher, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Free Whatever
Date of recording: May 08, 2022
Frequency: 6.955 MHz
Receiver and antenna: The NA5B WebSDR Located in Washington DC.
Mode: Single Side Band
Notes: Here is my recording of radio free whatever on 6.955 MHz, recorded on Mother's Day, May 8, 2022. If I remember correctly, I think this may have been recorded around 9:39 PM Eastern. If any of you haven't heard radio free whatever, they pretty much play all types of music. This was recorded using the NA5B webSDR Receiver that is located in Washington DC.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bryce Belcher, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Thunder Chicken Radio
Date of recording: October 16, 2023
Starting time: 00:13 UTC
Frequency: 6.950 MHz
Reception location: Columbus, Ohio
Receiver and antenna: Tecsun PL880 with telescopic antenna
Mode: Single Side Band
Notes: This is my recording of thunder chicken radio on 6.950 MHz, on October 16. I managed to record two pirate radio stations that night, the first one being this station, and then the second one being Smoky Dog Radio. This station was playing some music, and there were some slow scan television pictures, being transmitted as well. Recorded 8:13 PM Eastern
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bryce Belcher, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Smoky Dog Radio
Date of recording: October 16, 2023
Starting time: 00:35 UTC
Frequency: 6.27 MHz
Reception location: Columbus, Ohio
Receiver and antenna: Tecsun PL880 with the telescopic antenna.
Mode: Single Side Band
Notes: Last night I caught two pirate radio stations. Here is one of them I recorded. Smokey dog radio was on 6.27 MHz last night. It was a pretty good signal here in Columbus, Ohio. I was also able to receive it on the NA5B WebbSDR in Washington DC, But I thought I would record it with my radio because it had a pretty good signal. I'd say it was a pretty good signal for a pirate. especially for me using a telescopic antenna with my Tecsun PL880. Recorded 8:35 PM eastern (00:35, UTC).
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Angelo Prieto, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Saudi International
Date of recording: September 04, 2023
Starting time: 9:00 UTC
Frequency: 15.120MHz
Reception location: Miami, Florida, U.S.A.
Receiver and antenna: Tecsun PL-310ET, homemade copper beam antenna
Notes: This was the Islamic Call to Prayer (Adhan), This was the Bengali service of Radio Saudi International, Bengali is mainly spoken in North Eastern India and so that's where I pointed the antenna instead of pointing directly as Saudi Arabia.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Gert Irmler, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: R Chinchaycocha, Junín / PRU 4860 kHz
Date of recording: July 05, 1978
Starting time: 04:42 UTC
Frequency: 4.860 MHz
Reception location: Schwäbisch Gmünd, BW - Germany
Receiver and antenna: Grundig Satellit 2000, 30m longwire
Notes:
OBZ4Z R Chinchaycocha, Junín, Perú
QRG: 4860 kHz
QTH: Schwäbisch Gmünd / Southern Germany
Rec: 5th July 1978 / 04:42 - ca. 07:15 UTC (GMT) (!)
Rx, Ant: Grundig Satellit 2000 - 30m longwire
Px: S, anns, huaynos, ID
SINPO: 34322
Remark: July 5th, 1978 was a very special day - great LA reception with smooth fade-out far beyond sunrise. Picaflor's spellbinding folk song 'María Alejandrina' caused goosebumps (especially from 3:33 in the MP3). Text goes as:
"María Alejandrina, what a beautiful woman's name you have.
Your name is kindness. Your noble heart ...
I would like them to change my bad life for good.
She isn't Carmen Rosa, nor Ana María,
nor is she Margarita, It's María Alejandrina ..."
ID at 14:58 in sound file ('desde Chinchaycocha'), the station's transmitting power in 1978 was 0.5 kW ...
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Denmark
Date of recording: 1970
Frequency: 15.165 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: Here is Radio Denmark on 15165 kHz shortwave as recorded in 1970. Their interval signal is heard followed by announcement in English, then identification in Danish. Sadly, for most North American listeners, all of their programming was also in Danish in 1970.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bob Purse, who shares the following recording and notes from his excellent website Inches Per Second:
Next up, an hour long tape which is sort of peculiar. It starts off and ends up normally enough - just a couple of guys playing guitars - some instrumental duets, some songs with vocals.
20 minutes into it, though, a man starts speaking, and introduces a recording of a shortwave broadcast of a speech by the first lady of Guatemala, thanking Ham Radio operators who assisted the country during the then-recent (1976) earthquake. Then follows that shortwave recording, and then the man comes back and shares that he will be providing some recordings of his recent performance with another guitarist.
The earlier segment does not appear to be a "live" recording, and at one point, an organist (with one of those beat-box built in drums) joins them. But after the "thank you speech", it seems that we're hearing a club or bar performance. There's no applause, but there is talking in the background.
I guess what I find peculiar about it is that the sender put the "interesting" short wave broadcast right in the middle of the tape, in between highlights of his performance. That strikes me as a weird choice.
The Shepparton transmitter site of ABC/Radio Australia
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bob Purse, who shares the following recording and notes from his excellent website Inches Per Second:
For those of you who like it, here are two more entries in the series of Australian Shortwave [Note: Recording 1 was published on the SRAA last week], which I've been parceling out from time to time since not long after this blog began. I'm fairly certain the person who recorded these programs lived somewhere in North America, because all of the shows (up until this posting) were from episodes directed at that continent. But additionally, I wonder now if the person lived on the west coast of North America, because he or she made an effort (on the same tape as a show from 9/5/74), to capture Australia Shortwave during a program broadcast towards Asia and the South Pacific. The quality of the connection during that portion is, as you'll hear, quite poor, but it did come in, at a level and quality that I would guess it wouldn't have been received in the eastern half of the continent.
Radio Australia’s Shepparton TRansmitting Station
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bob Purse, who shares the following recording and notes from his excellent website Inches Per Second:
For those of you who like it, here are two more entries in the series of Australian Shortwave [Note: Recording 2 will be published on the SRAA next week], which I've been parceling out from time to time since not long after this blog began. I'm fairly certain the person who recorded these programs lived somewhere in North America, because all of the shows (up until this posting) were from episodes directed at that continent. But additionally, I wonder now if the person lived on the west coast of North America, because he or she made an effort (on the same tape as a show from 9/5/74), to capture Australia Shortwave during a program broadcast towards Asia and the South Pacific. The quality of the connection during that portion is, as you'll hear, quite poor, but it did come in, at a level and quality that I would guess it wouldn't have been received in the eastern half of the continent.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Antonio Ribeiro da Motta, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: KGEI San Francisco CA USA
Date of recording: April 01, 1978
Starting time: 2030 UTC
Frequency: 9615 kHz
Recpotion location: São José dos Campos SP Brazil
Receiver and antenna: Philco Transglobe B481 Longwire 22 mt
Notes: Recording of the program Departiendo con La Juventud presented by Mario Barahona (in memorian). There are 2 programs that were merged: days 01 and 02/04/1978.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall who shares the following recording and notes:
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: Prior to July 1, 1971, time and standard frequency station WWV in Fort Collins, Colorado was giving ID's in Morse code as well as voice every 5 minutes. They were best heard here in southern Ontario, Canada on 10 and 15 MHz.
Radio Canada International: Sackville, New Brunswick Transmitting Station
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who shares the following recording and notes:
BROADCASTER: Radio Canada International
DATE OF RECORDING: August 22, 1982
STARTING TIME: 2107 UTC
FREQUENCY: 15.325 MHz
RX LOCATION: South Bend, Indiana
RECEIVER AND ANTENNA: Realistic DX-302
NOTES:
Here are two more episodes from my collection of recordings of Shortwave Listener's Digest from Radio Canada International, this time from August 22, 1982 and September 04, 1982. Part one program highlights are: a continuation of the discussion of undersea cables, Glenn Hauser's DX Tips part one, a look at clocks for use in SWLing and more DX Tips. Part two program highlights are: a short comment regarding ANARC 1982, Mailbag questions, ANARC 1982 recap with an interview with David Meisel and an item on the New World Information Order, Glenn Hauser's DX Tips. The recording from 9/4/82 is poor due to adjacent-channel QRM.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dennis DeMarco, who shares the following recording and notes:
[NOTE: Dennis, please check your SPAM folder, we have been trying to contact you. Thank you!]
Broadcaster: Radio Canada International
Date of recording: February 13, 1983
Starting time: Unknown
Frequency: 11.850 MHz
Reception location: Philadelphia, PA
Receiver and antenna: Realistic DX-120
Notes: Here's "The Shortwave Listeners Digest" from RCI as heard on 2-13-1983 with host Ian McFarland. This audio begins with an RCI newscast and is complete. Radio was Realistic DX-120 with a wire just thrown out of a window.
Photo by Agê Barros
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Prior to July 1, 1971, time and standard frequency station WWV in Fort Collins, Colorado was giving ID's in Morse code as well as voice every five minutes. They were best heard here in southern Ontario, Canada on 10 and 15 MHz.
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Early in 1973, WWV made this announcement that they would make regular broadcasts of planned ATM (Apollo Telescope Mount) schedules by the new Skylab space station.
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Radio Delta broadcasting in English and Dutch on the shortwave frequency of 6060 kHz. Recording made in Europe July 8, 2023 at 1836 UTC using portable SONY ICF SW07 receiver operating on bateries. Receiver has been utilised outdoors to evade noise from building interference. As antenna only 1 meter telescopic internal antenna was used. Please note that in the recordings two short parts have been removed because of strong noise which covered these parts of station's signal (the noise has been generated by a bulb from a street lamp).
Radio WMLK broadcasting in English on the shortwave frequency of 15150 kHz. Recording made in Europe July 5, 2023 at 0416 UTC using portable SONY ICF SW7600G receiver operating on bateries. As antenna only 2 meters of wire was used put on a tree outdoors.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
KC2XIO was an experimental radio station operated by the National Bureau of Standards in Boulder, Colorado between July 1970 and May 1971. This was to gather information in preparation of the format change for WWV and WWVH which happened in July 1971. Here are two recordings of their voice announcement (one male and one female) as heard in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada on a Hallicrafters S-52 receiver that was hooked up to an outdoor longwire antenna. The frequency used for these test transmissions was 13560 kHz shortwave.
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Antonio Ribeiro da Motta, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Peace & Progress
Date of recording: December 30, 1983
Starting time: 0100 UTC
Frequency: 11795 kHz
Reception location: São José dos Campos SP Brazil
Receiver and antenna: Philco Transglobe B481 Longwire 22 mt
Notes: Portuguese transmission of Radio Peace and Progress
A live, off-air, half-hour recording of the BBC World Service special Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast on 21 June 2023 beginning at 21:30 UTC. The broadcast, hosted by Cerys Matthews, featured messages and music for the 37 members of the staff of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) overwintering in Antarctica at the Rothera (Antarctic Peninsula) and King Edward Point and Bird Island (South Georgia) research stations. In addition to personal messages from family and friends, there were interviews withProfessor Dame Jane Francis, Director of BAS and Nadia Frontier, a marine biologist from BAS and former winterer. The transmitter came on the air with a test tone (1108 Hz plus harmonics) about a minute before the program started. As sometimes happens, the first few words of the introduction were missed.
The recording is of the transmission first on a frequency of 12005 kHz but after a few minutes it was switched to 13810 kHz due to interference (QRM) on the former frequency. Both frequencies were from the BBC's Woofferton, England, transmitting station. The sender of the 12005 kHz frequency had a registered power of 300 kW with antenna beam 182 degrees, while that for 13810 kHz was registered as 250 kW with an antenna beam of180 degrees. The transmission was received on a Tecsun PL-880 receiver with a Tecsun AN-03L 7-metre wire antenna outdoors in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada, in AM mode with 2.3 kHz RF filtering. Reception on 13810 kHz was quite good with little noise or fading and very good signal strength. The additional parallel frequency of 7255 kHz from Dhabbaya, United Arab Emirates was not heard.
Image source: http://www.theradiohistorian.org/
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Antonio Ribeiro da Motta, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: KGEI San Francisco CA USA
Date of recording: April 01, 1978
Starting time: 2030 UTC
Frequency: 9615 kHz
Recotion location: São José dos Campos SP Brazil
Receiver and antenna: Philco Transglobe B481 Longwire 22 mt
Notes: Recording of the program Departiendo con La Juventud presented by Mario Barahona (in memorian). There are 2 programs that were merged: days 01 and 02/04/1978.
painting from François-Marie Rosset from 1790
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Gert Irmler, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: 'Voice of the People' Aleppo / SYR
Date of recording: 10/14/1978
Starting time: 18:29
Frequency: 1.313 MHz
Reception location: Schwäbisch Gmünd, BW - Germany
Receiver and antenna: Grundig Satellit 2000 w/loop antenna
Notes: VoP Aleppo, Syria
QRG: 1313 kHz
QTH: Schwaebisch Gmuend / Germany
Rec: 14th Oct. 1978 - 18:29 UTC (GMT)
Rx, Ant: Grundig Satellit 2000 w/loop antenna
Px: A, nx, ID, local mx
SINPO: 23332
From the times before its destruction, when Aleppo was one of the prettiest cities in the Middle East.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Togo, Lome circa 1973
Frequency: 5.047 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Realistic DX-150A with a long wire antenna
Notes: In the early 1970's, Radio Togo from Lome was often the strongest African signal on the 60 metre shortwave band. They could be heard here best in southern Ontario, Canada around 0530 UTC sign on, or around sign off at 2300 hours UTC, on their longtime frequency of 5047 kHz. Programming was mostly in French and identification could be given differently, such as Radiodiffusion du Togo or Radiodiffusion-Television Togolaise. Here are two recordings circa 1973, one at sign on with interval signal and anthem, the other at sign off.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bryce Belcher, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: WTWW “The Voice of Freedom”
Date of recording: 4/25/2022
Starting time: 23:13 UTC
Frequency: 5.085 MHz
Reception location: Columbus Ohio
Receiver and antenna: My Tecsun PL880 with just the telescopic antenna
Notes: My recording of WTWW, the voice of freedom on 5085 MHz from April 25, 2022. The reception was pretty good here in Columbus in this recording. With just the telescopic antenna the station comes in pretty good.
RTL longwave antenna array at Beidweiler, Luxembourg
Live off-air recording of the last approximately two hours of programming from the RTL longwave station on 1 January 2023 beginning at 22:00 UTC on the frequency of 234 kHz. The signal originated from a transmitter located in Beidweiler, Luxembourg, reported to operate with a power of 375 kW at night (and 750 kW during the day). The transmitter was capable of operating at 1500 kW. The three-mast antenna beamed the signal mostly in the direction of Paris.
RTL is a general-interest, news, talk, and music station station owned by the RTL Group with its main studios in Paris. It has an extensive FM network covering France and also uses other broadcasting means such as DAB+ and streaming services.
The final two hours of programming was produced and presented by long-time French broadcaster Georges Lang, a devotee of English-language rock, pop, and blues music primarily from the 1960s through the 1980s. The first hour was a special New Year's version of the "Georges Lang Collection" followed by "Les Nocturnes," a program Lang has done for fifty years. The transmitter left the air at 00:00:05 UTC.
The broadcast was received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in AM mode with 9.00 kHz RF filtering. Reception was excellent.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Matt Todd, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: RAE
Date of recording: 10/30/2022
Starting time: 0200 UTC
Frequency: 5.85 MHz
Recption location: Hugo, MN
Receiver and antenna: Airspy HF+ and Youloop
Notes:
Off air recording of RAE Argentina to the World broadcast on WRMI on 5.85 Mhz on October, 30, 2022. Recorded in Hugo, MN.
Program details
00:00 Introduction and info
02:30 News
08:30 Sports
09:30 Feature about Carlos Gardel the best Tango dancer in the world
27:30 News recap
29:00 Sign-off
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recordings and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Canada International Interval Signal Series 1970's
Date of recording: Circa 1970s
Frequency: 9.625 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 or Realistic DX-150A and a longwire antenna
Notes: Back in the early 1970s, Radio Canada International ran a very popular interval signal series on their SWL Digest program. This was hopefully to help DXer's identify that sought after station. I recall recording a few of these programs, and while going over one of my old cassette tapes recently, I came across a segment where they were presenting a number of African interval signals. Subsequently, I have uncovered five additional segments, or at least, portions of them. As these were originally recorded with an open mike to the speaker of the receiver, some room noise (voices) may be detected, as well as small amounts of unedited material near the ends of some of the segments. These were recorded at Ancaster, Ontario, Canada, likely on 9625 kHz.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Gert Irmler, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Emisoras Jesús del Gran Poder Quito / EQA 5050 kHz
Date of recording: 12/8/1994
Starting time: 00:59
Frequency: 5.050
Reception location: Schwäbisch Gmünd, BW - Germany
Receiver and antenna: Grundig Satellit 2000, 30m longwire
Notes: HCFF1 Emisoras Jesús del Gran Poder Quito, Ecuador
QRG: 5050 kHz
QTH: Schwaebisch Gmuend / Germany
Rec: 8th Dec. 1994 - 00:59 UTC (GMT)
Rx, Ant: Grundig Satellit 2000, 30m longwire
Px: S, ID, El Condor Pasa, 2nd ID, And. mx
SINPO: 23332
Note: Transmitter power 5 kW, distance QTH/Quito 6.150 mi
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Korea, Seoul
Frequency: 15.575 MHz
Reception location: Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Notes: Here is the interval signal of Radio Korea in Seoul as received in Brantford, Ontario, Canada circa 1983 on 15575 kHz shortwave. Bilingual identifications are heard followed by sign on in English. I was always happy to hear a strong clear signal from that part of the world.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of LRA 36. Paul made this recording on Sunday, March 19, 2023, starting at 02:21 UTC in McGrath, Alaska on 15,476 kHz. He was using an ATS25 max radio , an Emtech ZM2 tuner, a DXE preamp, and a 15 foot wellbrook loop.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: ORTF Paris France 1970
Date of recording: 1970
Frequency: 9.620 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: Here is the interval signal of the ORTF in Paris, France circa 1970. In my early days of shortwave listening, their nice clear French language announcement was good practice prior to tackling weaker African signals in the often static ridden tropical bands.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Gert Irmler, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: R Satélite Santa Cruz / PRU
Date of recording: 1/17/1995
Starting time: 03:14 UTC
Frequency: 6.7245 MHz
Your location: Schwäbisch Gmünd, BW - Germany
Your receiver and antenna: Grundig Satellit 2000, 30m longwire
Notes: OAX2L R Satélite Santa Cruz, Perú
Px: S, Huaynos, jingles, ID, N.A., s/off
SINPO: 34333
Note: Transmitter power acc. to WRTH: 0.15 kW at that time - distance 6500 miles
Special transmission of Vatican Radio broadcasting Easter Vigil as of 1725 UTC on April 8, 2023 on the shortwave frequency of 13830 kHz to Africa in English. The recording contains part of the transmission (80 minutes). The recording has been made in Europe using Kenwood R-5000 receiver and Wellbrook ALA 1530+ antenna.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Gert Irmler, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: R Satélite Santa Cruz / PRU - 6724.5 kHz
Date of recording: 1/17/1995
Starting time: 03:14
Frequency: 6.724 MHz
Reception location: Schwäbisch Gmünd, BW - Germany
Receiver and antenna: Grundig Satellit 2000, 30m longwire
Notes: OAX2L R Satélite Santa Cruz, Perú
QRG: 6724.5 kHz
QTH: Schwaebisch Gmuend / Germany
Rec: 17th Jan. 1995 - 03:14 UTC (GMT)
Rx, Ant: Grundig Satellit 2000, 30m longwire
Px: S, Huaynos, jingles, ID, N.A., s/off
SINPO: 34333
Note: Transmitter power acc. to WRTH: 0.15 kW
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Nacional del Paraguay
Frequency: 9.735
Recption location: Thamesford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Notes: It was always a treat to find Radio Nacional del Paraguay in Asuncion on 9735 kHz. and listen to their amazing music typical of that part of South America. This recording was made in early 1997 but is of unfortunately short duration. Announcements including station identification are in Spanish.
BBC in English recorded in Europe on 26 March 2023 at 1733 UTC, the shortwave frequency of 21470 kHz in the 13 meter band. Recording made using Kenwood R-5000 receiver and Wellbrook ALA 1530+ antenna.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: United Arab Emirates Radio from Abu Dhabi
Frequency: 9.605
Reception location: London, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Notes: Here is short clip of United Arab Emirates Radio from Abu Dhabi in English (circa 1990) broadcasting in the 31 metre band on 9605 khz, as heard in London, Ontario, Canada. Using a Panasonic RF-3100 portable receiver and a long wire antenna.
Radio Channel 292 recorded on March 19, 2023 at 1348 UTC broadcasting on shortwave frequency of 9670 kHz. Recording made using Kenwood R-5000 receiver and Wellbrook ALA 1530+ antenna.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Liam Spencer, who shares the following recordings and notes:
Broadcaster: BBC World Service
Date of recording: 1/26/2023
Starting time: 01:00 UTC
Frequency: 15.310 MHz
Reciever location: KiwiSDR in Philippines/Thailand
Antenna: 40M delta loop
Notes: This is part one of two of a one hour broadcast from the BBC World Service Relay in Kranji, Singapore. Reason I had to do two parts was due to the signal becoming weak on the KiwiSDR in the Philippines, So I switched to one in Thailand which had a stronger signal.
Broadcaster: BBC World Service
Date of recording: 1/27/2023
Starting time: 01:00 UTC
Frequency: 15.310 MHz
Receiver location: KiwiSDR in Thailand
Antenna: Wellbrook Loop FLX1530LN
Notes: Part 2, the first KiwiSDR I used the signal became to weak to listen to I switched to one in Thailand which had a better signal.
Part 2 covers from 01:11 UTC to 1:59 UTC.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: PTT voice mirrors from the 1970's Part 3
Frequency: various
Recption location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Mode: Single Side Band
Notes:
Point to point stations were commonly found on shortwave in the 1970's outside of the normal SWBC bands. They could often be heard transmitting a repeating test message so a receiving station could tune them in prior to conducting radiotelephone traffic.
U.S. Army radio station ACA, Panama Canal Zone
Oostende Radio, Belgium
PTT, Dakar, Senegal
Reugen Radio, German Democratic Republic
Venezuelan Telephone Company, Caracas
French Telecommunications Service, Djibouti
British Post Office Phototelegraph Network (no location given)
Canadian Overseas Telecommunications Corporation,
Yamachiche, Quebec
ENTEL, Bogota, Colombia
Belgian Telegraph and Telephone Administration, Brussels
British Post Office, London, England
France Cables and Radio Company, Fort Lamy, Chad
PTT, Blantyre, Malawi
East African External Telecommunications Company Limited,
Nairobi, Kenya
International Telecommunications Corporation, Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Office Congolais des Postes et Telecommunications, Kinshasa,Democratic Republic of the Congo
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Frequency: various
Recption location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Your receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Mode: Single Side Band
Notes: Part 2 of 3
Point to point stations were commonly found on shortwave in the 1970's outside of the normal SWBC bands. They could often be heard transmitting a repeating test message so a receiving station could tune them in prior to conducting radiotelephone traffic.
Radio Telephone Circuit, Godthaab, Greenland
PTT, Papeete, Tahiti
AFA, USAF Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, USA
AFI, USAF McClellan AFB Sacramento, CA, USA
Imperial Board of Telecommunications of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa
Radiografica Costarricense, San Jose, Costa Rica
International Radio Telephone Service, Havana, Cuba
France Cables and Radio Company, Douala, Cameroon
French Telecommunications Service, Noumea, New Caledonia
AEZ, U.S. Army, Asmara, Ethiopia
French Telecommunications Service, Fort de France, Martinique
CUW, USAF Aerospace Communications Complex, Lajes AFB, Azores
Malgache Republic International Telecommunications Company,
Tananarive, Madagascar
French Telecommunications Service, Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe
France Cables and Radio Company, Niamey, Niger
French Telecommunications Service, St. Pierre et Miquelon
France Cables and Radio Company, Monrovia, Liberia
Vatican Radio broadcasting Holy Mass in English. Recorded in Europe on 24 February 2023 at 11.30 UTC. Shortwave frequency of 15595 kHz. Received using Kenwood R-5000 and Wellbrook ALA1530+ antenna.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: PTT voice mirrors from the 1970's Part 1
Frequency: various
Recption location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Mode: Single Side Band
Notes: Part 1 of 3
Point to point stations were commonly found on shortwave in the 1970's outside of the normal SWBC bands. They could often be heard transmitting a repeating test message so a receiving station could tune them in prior to conducting radiotelephone traffic.Point to point stations were commonly found on shortwave in the 1970's outside of the normal SWBC bands. They could often be heard transmitting a repeating test message so a receiving station could tune them in prior to conducting radiotelephone traffic. These recordings were all made at Ancaster, Ontario, Canada, using either a Hallicrafters S52 or Realistic DX150A receiver hooked up to a long wire antenna.
Australian Overseas Radiotelephone Service, Sydney
Reykjavik Radio, Iceland
Moscow Radio Telephone Station, USSR
Radio Telephone Station, Warsaw, Poland
Overseas Station Berlin, German Democratic Republic
Yugoslav Telegraph and Telephone Administration, Belgrade
Swiss Telegraph and Telephone Administration, Bern
ITALCABLE, Rome, Italy
Netherlands PTT, Amsterdam
Cyprus Telecommunications Authority, Nicosia
Cairo Radio Telephone Terminal, Arab Republic of Egypt
PTT and Radio Administration, Tel Aviv, Israel
Saudi Arabian Post, Telegraph and Telephone Administration, Jeddah
Moroccan Radio Electrical Centre, Rabat
Companhia Portuguesa Radio Marconi, Luanda, Angola
RCA Global Communications, New York City
France Cables and Radio Company, Lome, Togo
Zambian Post Office, Lusaka
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Clinton Turner, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Nederlands
Date of recording: 4/20/1980
Starting time: 0530
Frequency: 6.165 MHz
Recption location: North Logan, UT
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-1600 with random wire approx. 50' (15M)
Notes: Happy Station Show with Tom Meijer, 20 April, 1980 - off-air recording
Overview of 1980 Eurovision Song Contest, letters
Live, off-air, three-hour excerpt of a recording of the provincial Cuban station Radio Metropolitana, CMBL, Havana, Cuba, on 10 November 2022 beginning at about 20:00 UTC. The station operates on an frequency of 910 kHz from a transmitter in the Villa Maria area of the Distrito de Guanabacoa municipality of Havana with a power of 5 kW and an omnidirectional antenna. The station also transmits on 98.3 MHz in the FM band.
The transmission was received on a Tecsun PL-880 portable receiver with its built-in ferrite-bar-loop antenna in Marathon, Florida, in AM mode with 2.3 kHz RF filtering. Reception was fairly good with some background noise due to the slightly weak signal associated with the over 200 km long-range reception.
Radio Metropolitana is part of the group of stations that make up the Provincial Directorate of Radio in Havana with studios in the FOCSA building in Havana's Vedado district. It is on the air 24 hours a day and offers cultural programming with a strong presence of music aimed at families in the capital city. Its slogan is "La radio de casa" and its theme tune is a fragment of the familiar song "El Manisero" ("The Peanut Vendor") by Cuban composer Moisés Simons. Both can be heard frequently in this recording.
The recording begins with a song by Puerto Rican singer Kany García followed by the program "De Buena Tinta" (literally "of good ink" but an idiomatic expression meaning "on good authority") beginning at 20:00 UTC. This is a news program for residents of Havana including events taking place, weather, and sports. At 20:30 UTC, there is the program "La Novela" (The Novel) with an instalment of "La Flor de los Sueños" (The Flower of Dreams). Next is "Un Amigo Cincero" (A Sincere Friend), a brief program on the literature of José Martí. The program "Por La Habana" (Around Havana) begins at 21:00 UTC. This program is mostly music with Cuban jazz, blues, and funk. Between every few musical items is a discussion of indigenous languages in Latin America and elsewhere and their impact on music. At 22:30 UTC, the program "Para Luego es Tarde" (meaning colloquially "no time like the present") begins. This edition features a discussion about corn (maize), its history and how it is grown, harvested, marketed, prepared for food and other uses. Midway through the program there is a musical interlude with a short discussion about the Bee Gees with excerpts of several of their songs. During some of the programs in the recording, mention is made of the 503rd anniversary of the founding of Havana on 16 November 1519. Public service announcements about health and other matters are also present throughout the recording.
Radio Free Europe - Radio Liberty presumably test shortwave transmission on the frequency of 3975 kHz at 22.24 UTC on 8 February 2023. Received using SDR web receiver located in Germany.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: United Arab Emirates Radio from Dubai
Date of recording: circa 1983
Frequency: 21.655 MHz
RX location: Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Notes: By the 1980's, UAE Radio stations in Dubai and Abu Dhabi were using high powered transmitters and could often be heard nice and clear here in Southern Ontario, Canada with English language programs.
Here is an aircheck circa 1983 from United Arab Emirates Radio from Dubai broadcasting on 21655 kHz.
BBC in French broadcasting towards Africa in 13 Meter Band. Recorded in Europe February 5, 2023 at 12.00 UTC, the shortwave frequency of 21500 kHz. Recorded using Kenwood R-5000 receiver and Wellbrook ALA 1530+ antenna placed very close to the building wall (therefore gathering some noise interference).
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Moscow
Date of recording: Unknown
Starting time: Unknown
Frequency: Unknown
Reception location: Plymouth, MN
Receiver and antenna: Hammarlund HQ-180
Notes: Radio Moscow's Moscow Mailbag hosted by Joe Adamov from 1978. Questions ranged from why a woman asks the questions on Moscow Mailbag and a male (Joe) gets to answer them, why does the Soviet Union ignore positive aspects of Western society, dissidents in the Soviet Union, and more.
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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker who shares this recording of Radio Romania International’s Hebrew Language Service. This recording was made in McGrath, Alaska, on 7,370 kHz at 17:31 UTC on November 20, 2022. Paul notes. “this is RRI with their once weekly 30 minute broadcast in Hebrew on 7370 from Galbeni, to the Middle East
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of VOA made on November 22, 2022 at 20:34 UTC on 11,850 kHz in McGrath, Alaska. Paul notes that this was actually a program feed error because the Kirundi Language Service is normally broadcast at this time and on this frequency.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recordings and notes:
Broadcaster: Voice of America Okinawa Rhodes Philippines Greenville Woofferton 1970's
Date of recordings: various
Frequency: various
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: In the 1970's, Voice of America relay transmitter sites often gave their location between programs. Some VOA programs were relayed via the BBC site at Woofferton, England (audio from 1971).
Reception of Rhodes in the 41 metre band was not easy here in Ontario, Canada as evidenced by that recording.
The transmitter at Greenville, North Carolina was their largest operation. That recording is circa 1973.
The Okinawa relay was heard on 7165 kHz, and Philippines relay 15185 kHz, both recorded in 1971.
The Yankee Doodle tune was played during most of these interludes.
Photo by Rich Post
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recordings and notes:
Broadcaster: ETLF, Radio Voice of the Gospel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Date of recording: 3/23/1971
Frequency: 11.890 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: Here are two brief recordings from Radio Voice of the Gospel, station ETLF, from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In the first one, from 1971, there is significant QSB (fading) but they are in the clear. Listen for their four note drum interval signal, ID in English, and mention of the date Tuesday 23rd of March.
The second recording, also in English, is from the early 1970's during a transmission to West Africa in the 25 metre band where they are heard signing off.
Ioannes Paulus I, by Fotografia Felici, 1978
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Netherlands
Date of recording: 9/12/1978
Starting time: Unknown
Frequency: Unknown
Reception location: St. Cloud, MN
Receiver and antenna: Sony ICF-5900W using a whip antenna
Notes: Radio Netherland's shortwave transmission announcing the death of Pope John Paul I in 1978. I had tuned in to listen to DX Juke Box and heard that the show was being preempted due to the unexpected passing. Pope John Paul I was head of the Catholic Church for only 33 days, the shortest in papal history.
Live, off-air, three-hour recording of the special annual Gruss an Bord broadcast from German broadcaster NDR, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, on 24 December 2022 beginning at just after 18:00 UTC. The broadcast features music and greetings to and from mariners around the world. The Christmas greetings were recorded at two events on the third Advent Sunday (11 December) in Leer and on the fourth Advent Sunday (18 December) in Hamburg.
Relatives and friends had the opportunity to wish their loved ones at sea a happy holiday and a happy new year. The Leer event featured the Bingumer Shanty Choir and Anne-Fleur Schoch and her band while the Hamburg event featured Beatles experts Stefanie Hempel and The Silver Spoons. The broadcast was primarily in German with some greetings in English, Filipino, and Portuguese as well as German. A number of songs in English, too. A news bulletin (in progress when recording began) precedes the program for a few minutes.
In addition to being carried on the NDR Info and NDR Info Spezial networks, the broadcast was transmitted around the world on shortwave using transmitters in Nauen (NAU), Germany; Issoudun (ISS), France; Tashkent (TAC), Uzbekistan; and Okeechobee, Florida (RMI), U.S.A.; and was organized by Media Broadcast.
The schedule was:
1800-2100 on 6030 ISS 250 kW / 251 deg to North/East Atlantic
1800-2100 on 6080 TAC 100 kW / 301 deg to West/Central Europe
1800-2100 on 9740 NAU 250 kW / 130 deg to Indian Ocean - West
1800-2100 on 11650 ISS 250 kW / 148 deg to Indian Ocean - SoAf
1800-2100 on 13725 NAU 250 kW / 205 deg to Southern Atlantic
1800-2100 on 15770 RMI 100 kW / 044 deg to North/West Atlantic
RMI, Radio Miami International, experienced a power outage and was off the air for about the first two hours of the broadcast.
The recording is primarily of the transmission on the frequency of 11650 kHz for about the first two hours and 6030 kHz for the third hour as the signal degraded on 11650 kHz.
The program was received outdoors on a Tecsun PL-880 receiver with a Tecsun AN-03L 7-metre wire antenna in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada, in AM mode with 2.3 kHz filtering. Reception was good for the most part on both recorded frequencies although, as previously mentioned, signal quality on 11650 kHz degraded during the second hour of the broadcast necessitating the switch to 6030 kHz. There was some adjacent channel interference on 11650 kHz at times. Also, there was about a one-minute dropout of the 11650 kHz frequency around the start of the second hour of the broadcast. The last minute or so of the broadcast on 6030 kHz was interfered with by a co-channel digital transmission from Radio Romania International.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Russ Edmunds, who has kindly shared another collection of mediumwave airchecks (click here to check out all of his contributions).
Russ notes that the reception location was Blue Bell, PA using a Hammarlund modified HQ-150 and a 4' air core amplified loop.
Russ also shares details about each recording in the following table. All recordings have been embedded below:
The following recording of Paul Walker's Christmas Special on KSKO was recorded on a live relay from WRMI on 5900 kHz on Friday, December 24, 2022 starting around 00:10 UTC.
This recording was made on the U Twente WebSDR in the Netherlands.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Ian Pillar, who shares the following recording and notes:
Notes: Number Station Recording
Location Taiwan
Enigma ID V13
Name New Star Broadcasting Station
Voice Female (Mandarin Chinese)
Mode USB + carrierBroadcaster: New Star Broadcasting Station V13
Date of recording: 11/22/2022
Starting time: 0100
Frequency: 13974
Reception location: NSW Australia
Receiver and antenna: KiwiSDR Loop Antenna
QSL courtesY of The Radio Heritage Foundation
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
"You are tuned to ABC Radio in Papua New Guinea; 9PA, VLT, and VLK..." This is the announcement from VLT4, the Australian Broadcasting Commission station in Port Moresby on 4890 kHz shortwave, on May 3, 1971 at 1100 hours UTC. A musical request program is ending, then station ID as above and into ABC national news. This was before independence in PNG. The station used a 10 kw transmitter on this frequency and could sometimes be heard in eastern North America with a readable signal.
Broadcaster: VLT4 ABC Radio Port Moresby Papua New Guinea
Date of recording: 5/3/1971
Starting time: 1100
Frequency: 4.890
Recption location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Matt Todd, who shares the following pirate radio recordings and notes:
Audio recordings of numerous Shortwave Radio Pirates recorded around Halloween 2022. This is typically the most active time of the year for Shortwave Radio Pirates.
Location: Hugo, MN
Receiver and antenna: Sdr Play with a wire loop antenna around the perimeter of the attic
Mode: Single Sideband
Please note that pirate radio broadcasts often contain adult language.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Dan Greenall who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: The Voice of Christmas (pirate radio)
Date of recording: 12/8/1996
Starting time: 1610 UTC
Frequency: 6955 kHz
Reception location: Thamesford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Mode: Single Side Band
Notes: Pirate radio station The Voice of Christmas as heard in Thamesford, Ontario, Canada on December 8, 1996 at around 1610 hours UTC. The frequency was 6955 kHz USB.
Here are a few blended airchecks with Christmas music and frequent station ID's by the Pirate Elf stating they are "the only pirate radio station broadcasting from the North Pole." P.O. Box in Providence, Rhode Island given for reception reports. Concludes with their "interval signal" tune.
Esperanza Base seen from Hope Bay (Image source: NOAA)
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, for sharing the following recording and notes:
Notes: After many tries, this one was finally logged while on a "DXpedition" to a cottage near Bancroft, Ontario. Here is LRA36, Radio Nacional Arcangel San Gabriel from Esperanza Base, Antarctica as recorded in Coe Hill, Ontario, Canada on February 20, 1999 at 2257 hours UTC on 15476 kHz shortwave. They are heard giving announcement in Spanish including station ID, frequency used and transmitter power (10 kilowatts). This station was usually not audible at all or too buried under the noise level, however, on this occasion, the signal came up enough to get a clear ID.
Broadcaster: LRA36 Radio Nacional Arcangel San Gabriel, Base Esperanza, Antarctica
Date of recording: 2/20/1999
Starting time: 2257
Frequency: 15.476 MHz
Reception location: Coe Hill, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bryce Belcher, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: XFM
Date of recording: Oct 30, 2022
Starting time: 8:45 EST
Frequency: 6865 MHz
Your location: Columbus, Ohio
Receiver and antenna: Tecsun PL-880 with just the telescopic antenna
Mode: Single Side Band
Safe for children?: No
Notes: Some RF noise—the signal gets stronger but was weaker in the beginning of the recording. Recorded October 30, 2022
Please note that pirate radio recordings often contain adult language.
Grimeton Radio
Live, off-air, recording of a morse code (CW or continuous wave) transmission in English from station SAQ, Grimeton Radio, Sweden, on 16 November 2022 beginning at 16:00 UTC on a very low frequency (VLF) of 17.2 kHz. The signal originates from the historic Alexanderson alternator transmitter at Grimeton near Varberg on the southwest coast of Sweden, running at about 80 kW. The antenna is essentially omnidirectional.
The transmitter was tuned up before the broadcast with many sequences of VVV VVV VVV DE SAQ SAQ SAQ being sent. The message, titled UNESCO 50th Anniversary Telegram, began at 16:00 UTC, lasted about 9 minutes and 30 seconds, and is as follows:
CQ CQ CQ DE SAQ SAQ SAQQ
Note that
The broadcast was received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in CW mode with 0.40 kHz RF filtering and real-time noise reduction. The CW tone is about 760 Hz and the message was sent at about 15 words per minute. Reception was fairly good with some occasional atmospheric noise (QRN).
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Andy Wang, who shares the following recording and notes:
Notes: Radio Taipei International was the old name of Taiwan's internation radio service. Its name changed to Radio Taiwan International on 2003. There are many online services which can transcribe voice to text, but with mistakes. I don't understand Russian, could not correct the mistakes. Shenyang is located near the Russian Far East region. I could clearly hear the Russian language broadcast.
Broadcaster: Radio Taipei International
Date of recording: 1/22/2002
Starting time: 11:00
Frequency: 9.490
Recption location: ShenYang China
Receiver and antenna: MeiDuo Radio Receiver and Casette Recorder CP6941 with antenna on it.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
WRUL Radio New York Worldwide JFK Assassination Coverage 11/22/1963
WRUL (Radio New York Worldwide) shortwave coverage in English and Spanish of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy including coverage from ABC Radio. Recording provided by Todd Kosovich.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenal, who shares the following recordings and notes:
Notes: With roots over 100 years old, the Tropical Radio Telegraph Company (a subsidiary of the United Fruit Company) used to operate a few radiotelephone stations in Central America during the years prior to the Internet. They often could be heard on various shortwave frequencies transmitting a repeating test message so the receiving station could tune them in. I managed to pick up 4 of their stations in the early 1970's. These recordings are from La Lima, Honduras; Managua Nicaragua; and Panama City, Panama. I have not been able to find the one from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, but maybe it will surface later.
Broadcaster: Tropical Radio Telegraph Company (point to point)
Date of recording: unknown
Starting time: unknown
Frequency: various
RX location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Mode: Single Side Band
Av. Paulista Consolação, São Paulo (Photo by Gabriel Ramos)
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of Radio Cidade Oldies made on Tuesday, April 26, 2022, at 0405UTC on 10215kHz. Note that this is weak signal DXing as Paul’s reception location was McGrath, Alaska.
RIAS BUILDING IN BERLIN WITH NEON LOGOS NOW USED BY DEUTSCHLANDRADIO (AVDA, WIKIMEDIA)
Live, off-air, approximately 45-minute recording of RIAS, Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor, on 22 October 1992 beginning at about 23:15 UTC on 6005 kHz. The signal was broadcast from a 100-kW transmitter in the Britz suburb of Berlin, Germany, using an essentially non-directional antenna.
RIAS began operations as the wired station Drahtfunk im amerikanischen Sektor on 7 February 1946 and began its radio life on 5 September 1946. On 1 January 1994, RIAS was merged into DeutschlandRadio Berlin.
The recording starts with a program of jazz music in progress. Initially, there is a heterodyne of approximately 520 Hz from a co-channel transmitter. At about the 12m:30s mark of the recording, the heterodyne disappears. This might be related to receiver adjustments. At the 15m:50s mark in the recording, station identification is given as "RIAS, Berlin" followed by "Nachrichten" (news). This is followed by autobahn news (preceded by the alert tone) and the program "Nightline." At about the 22m:30S mark of the recording, a new heterodyne appears with a frequency of about 850 Hz but it lasts for only about 30 seconds. This is during a program of pop music. At about the 40m mark of the recoding, the Bow Bells interval signal of the BBC World Service begins in advance of a co-channel transmission to South America from a transmitter at Ascension followed by station identification and the Lilliburlero signature tune.
In the audio file, the 520-Hz heterodyne has been notched out and the audio levels somewhat normalized to make listening a bit more enjoyable.
Reception of the broadcast was fairly good apart from the heterodynes.
The broadcast was received in Hanwell, New Brunswick, Canada, using a JRC NRD-535D receiver operated with a 6 kHz IF filter and with a random-length wire antenna draped around the listening room.
Thanks to Wolfgang Bueschel for help with documenting this recording.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of Radio Exterior de España made on Wednesday, Apr 13, 2022 at 2053UTC on 15520kHz. Paul received and recorded this broadcast in McGrath, Alaska.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of Rádio Inconfidência recorded on Thursday, Apr 14, 2022, at 0410UTC on 15190kHz. Reception location was McGrath, Alaska.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of Rádio Brasil Central made on Saturday, July 8, 2022 at 0349UTC on 11815kHz. Paul’s reception location was McGrath, Alaska.
Béjaïa, Algeria (Photo by Walid Amghar)
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of Radio Algerienne made on July 29, 2022 starting at 2038 UTC on 15,100 kHz. This recording was made by Paul in McGrath, Alaska.
The following recording was made on September 28, 2022 starting at 1157 UTC on 7268 kHz (lower sideband).
At this time, Hurricane Ian hit the Florida coast as a category 4 storm and had been downgraded to a tropical storm over the Florida peninsula.
This recording was made using a WinRadio Excalubur software defined radio connected to a skyloop antenna near Asheville, North Carolina.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of Radio Vanuatu recorded on Sunday June 19, 2022 at 0636UTC on 11835kHz in McGrath, Alaska.
Photo by Hugo Sousa
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Nigel Thornbury, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Independent Broadcasting Authority London
Date of recording: 6/15/1973
Starting time: PM
Frequency: 0.557 MHz
Reception location: Birmingham, England
Receiver and antenna: NordeMende Globe Trotter II, internal ferrite rod
Mode: AM
Notes: Beginning of local independent stations in the UK in 1973
Photo by Jack Krier
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Angelo Prieto, for the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Cairo
Date of recording: 8/11/2022
Starting time: 15:00 UTC
Frequency: 9.440 Mhz
RX location: Miami, FL
Notes: This is a recording of Radio Cairo from my personal magnetic tape collection. This being the only recording of Radio Cairo i have, i digitized it and then decided to upload it to The Shortwave Archive. The cassette recorder made a hissing noise in the background of the cassette recording, but the loud buzzing was interference from the original recording.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Christian Voice, Lusaka, Zambia
Date of recording: 10/14/1996
Starting time: 0400 UTC
Frequency: 3.330 MHz
RX location: Thamesford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Mode: AM
Notes: Tough to log here in southern Ontario, Canada, Radio Christian Voice from Lusaka, Zambia was operating on the same frequency as time signal station CHU, Ottawa, Canada. Here is what 3330 kHz sounded like on October 14, 1996 around 0400 UTC. A good station ID from Radio Christian Voice can be heard in spite of the time beep interference from CHU.
Princess Elizabeth circa 1945 (Image Source: Public Domain)
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Anthony Pavick, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: BBC World Service
Date of recording: 9/8/2022
Starting time: 1600 UTC
Frequency: 12025 kHz
Receiver and antenna: SDR at University of Twente in Holland
Mode: AM
Notes: This is an off-air recording the BBC World Service on Thursday 8 September 2022 from 1600 to 1800 UTC on 12025 khz from the Kranji relay station in Singapore. It is the 90 minutes before the announcement of the passing of HRH Queen Elizabeth II, with the news bulletin at about minute 93
This recording was made on September 8, 2022 at 1959 UTC on 12095 kHz using GPD MicroPC, AirSpy Mini, SpyVerter 2, Wellbrook UMB130 balun and a 2x6m dipole. Demodulation and additional signal audio enhancement was performed in SDR#.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Malawi Broadcasting Corporation
Date of recording: 6/1/1997
Starting time: 0400 UTC
Frequency: 3.380 MHz
RX location: Thamesford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Notes: Back in the days before the internet, tuning into a radio broadcast from a far away land was often the closest many of us would ever get to that particular country. Still, some of these radio visits were not easy. The Malawi Broadcasting Corporation from Blantyre on 3380 kHz was a rare visitor to my listening post. I managed this brief recording on June 1, 1997 around 0400 UTC. My receiver location was Thamesford, Ontario, Canada. In the first clip, "This is the M.B.C. and the time is 6 'oclock" can be heard. A second clip is then blended in where you can here a jingle and promotional announcement regarding "a shared vision for a country (Malawi)".
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Angelo Prieto, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Voice of Korea
Date of recording: 7/13/2022
Starting time: 20:00
Frequency: 11635 kHz
Note that this recording was made via a remote web-based SDR
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares this recording of Deutsche Welle made on June 11, 2022 at 1515 UTC on 15195 kHz. The reception location was McGrath Alaska and receiver an ATS-25 paired with a loop antenna.
Live off-air recording of the final two hours of the shortwave transmissions of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation's (ERT's) Voice of Greece (I Foni tis Elladas) on 15 June 2022 on a frequency of 9420 kHz. Also known as ERA 5, the Voice of Greece broadcast its programs from Avlis about 50 km north-east of Athens using a transmitter with a registered power of 150 kW with an antenna beam of 323° towards western Europe. Avlis had a large transmitting complex with multiple transmitters and antennas but at the end of its service was reduced to just one operational transmitter.
The Voice of Greece continues to be available via Internet streaming and satellite.
The recording, all in Greek, starts with a time check, the beginning of the Voice of Greece interval (tuning) signal with station identification. At just after 16:00 UTC, there is news from ERA 1, the Proto Programma network, before returning to Voice of Greece programming. At the end of the recording, there is the short interval signal and identification of the Voice of Greece just before the transmitter leaves the air.
The broadcast was received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in synchronous AM mode with 5.08 kHz total bandwidth RF filtering. Reception of the broadcast was good with some fading at times and with some slight co-channel interference from a Chinese transmitter especially after 16:00 UTC.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording and notes.
This recording of Radio Tamazuj was made on Friday, June 10, 2022, at 1546UTC on 15150kHz. The receiver used was an ATS-25 paired with two loop antennas and a preamp. The reception location was McGrath, Alaska.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of Rádio Nacional da Amazônia.
This recording was made on July 8, 2022 in McGrath, Alaska, on 11,780 kHz. Paul used an ATS25 receiver paired with a magnetic loop antenna (see photo above).
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who shares the following recording and notes:
Here are two more back to back episodes from my collection of recordings of Shortwave Listener's Digest from Radio Canada International, this time from August 09, 1982 and August 16, 1982. This program's highlights are: more talk about submarine cables, changeover from GMT to UTC, part one of harmonics DXing by Glenn Hauser. The second program highlights are: more talk about submarine cables and ANARC news from Jeff White reporting on the 1982 ANARC convention, part 2 of Glenn Hauser's harmonics report.
Broadcaster: Radio Canada International
Date of recording: 8/9/1982
Starting time: 2107 UTC
Frequency: 15.325 MHz
Reception location: South Bend, Indiana
Receiver and antenna: Sony ICF-2001 and longwire
Photo by Brett Jordan
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Here is Radio Kuwait circa 1970, signing on in English with their interval signal, chimes, and giving their frequency information. They were transmitting on 15345 kHz to Europe at 1600 hours UTC. This recording was made in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada using a Hallicrafters S-52 receiver and a long wire antenna. Only used an open mike next to the speaker for this.
Broadcaster: Radio Kuwait
Starting time: 1600
Frequency: 15.345 MHz
Recption location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Ian Pillar,
New low power station 5 KW out of central Victoria keeping everyone very excited in Australia on all the message boards . Run by David Stuart VK3ASE
Broadcaster: Shortwave Australia
Date of recording: 7/7/2022
Starting time: 0750 UTC
Frequency: 4835 kHz
Receiver location: NSW Australia
Receiver and antenna: KiwiSDR Loop Antenna
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Recorded on February 21, 1999, this is the Qatar Broadcasting Service from Doha signing on with their interval signal and announcement in Arabic. They were using 7210 kHz and a little amateur radio interference can be heard as one might expect. Receiver location was Coe Hill, Ontario, Canada.
Broadcaster: Qatar Broadcasting Service
Date of recording: 2/21/1999
Starting time: 0245 UTC
Frequency: 7.210 MHz
Reception location: Coe Hill, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Drake SW-8 and a long wire antenna
Photo by Kevin Fuentealba Mol
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Radio station Voz Cristiana from Santiago, Chile is heard here with a test transmission and announcement in English on April 28, 1998. My logbook says they were operating on 21550 kHz. Receiving post was in Thamesford, Ontario, Canada and I was using a Panasonic RF-3100 portable receiver hooked up to a longwire antenna.
Broadcaster: Voz Cristiana, Santiago, Chile
Date of recording: 4/28/1998
Frequency: 21.550 MHz
RX location: Thamesford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Some blended audio clips from pro democracy clandestine station Radio Kudirat Nigeria (The Voice of Democracy) operating on 11540 kHz. This recording was made on March 22, 1998 in Thamesford, Ontario, Canada. The station says they are getting reports of poor reception on their other frequency of 6205 kHz, and recommends tuning to 11540 kHz.
Date of recording: 3/22/1998
Frequency: 11.540
Reception location: Thamesford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
A live, off-air, half-hour recording of the BBC World Service special Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast on 21 June 2022 beginning at 21:30 UTC. The broadcast, hosted by Cerys Matthews, featured messages and music for the 32 members of the staff of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) overwintering in Antarctica at the Rothera (Antarctic Peninsula) and King Edward Point and Bird Island (South Georgia) research stations. In addition to personal messages from family and friends, there were special messages from BAS personnel and others including ones from Sir David Attenborough and Maj. Tim Peake. The transmitter came on the air with a test tone (1108 Hz plus harmonics) about a minute before the program started.
The recording is of the transmission on a frequency of 12065 kHz from the BBC's Woofferton, England, transmitting station (300 kW rated transmitter power, antenna beam 182 degrees). The transmission was received on a Tecsun PL-880 receiver with a Tecsun AN-03L 7-metre wire antenna outdoors in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada, in AM mode with 2.3 kHz RF filtering. Reception was quite good with little noise and fading and good signal strength, which was better than that on the parallel frequencies of 9505 kHz from Woofferton and 7305 kHz from Ascension Island.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Probably my favourite interval signal of all time, the Song of the Coconut Islands, used by Radio Republik Indonesia stations. Here we have Jakarta on 15150 kHz signing on April 11, 1998. Their signal had to travel over 15800 km to get to my receiver in southern Ontario, Canada, so there is a little flutter which is expected. Receiving equipment consisted of a Panasonic RF-3100 portable hooked up to a long wire antenna.
Broadcaster: Radio Republik Indonesia Jakarta
Date of recording: 4/11/1998
Frequency: 15.150
Reception location: Thamesford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Rarely logged here, the interval signal from Radio Madagasikara broadcasting from the island of Madagascar, as heard in Thamesford, Ontario, Canada on February 18, 1997 at sign on around 0258 hours UTC on 5010 kHz shortwave. Their national anthem is played followed by announcements which are of unfortunately low modulation. The receiver used was a Panasonic RF-3100 portable and a longwire antenna.
Broadcaster: Radio Madagasikara
Date of recording: 2/18/1997
Starting time: 0258
Frequency: 5.010 MHz
Reception location: Thamesford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
During my early years of SWLing, The Voice of Free China from Taipei, Taiwan was an exciting catch for me. The signal came direct from Taiwan (no relay) and was often subject to "polar flutter" as it found it's path to Southern Ontario, Canada. My receiver was a Hallicrafters S-52 hooked up to a long wire antenna. This recording is from early 1971 and the frequency used was 15125 kHz. Their interval signal is heard followed by presumed ID in local Chinese dialect and ID in English
Broadcaster: The Voice of Free China, Taipei, Taiwan
Starting time: 0200
Frequency: 15.125 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording and notes:
KNLS sister station Madagascar World Voice broadcasts Radio Feda, an Arabic language Christian program from Madagascar to the Middle East on 13670 kHz at 1900-2000UTC and 13710 kHz from 2000-2100UTC.
This is the 13710 kHz broadcast as received in McGrath Alaska on 15 May 2022.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Some of my old audio cassette tapes from the 1970's contain unedited material from my shortwave listening activities that has never been labelled or properly organized. Upon playing one such cassette, I found this recording of radio station FEBA Seychelles. After cross checking this with some entries in my old log book, I discovered it was made on February 22, 1973 around 1800 hours UTC on a frequency of 11955 kHz. My receiver was a Realistic DX150A and a longwire antenna. Receiver location was Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. A part of their interval signal "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" is played in this recording.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, for sharing the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Action Radio (Guyana Broadcasting Service)
Date of recording: 3/12/1972
Starting time: believe it was around 0900 UTC
Frequency: 3.290 MHz
Recption location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: "Action Radio" (the Guyana Broadcasting Service) from Georgetown recorded signing on for the day in March 1972 on 3290 kHz shortwave. Their guitar interval signal is heard at first, a short musical interlude, then announcements in English giving frequencies used and local time as 5 o'clock in the morning. Initially taped on a reel-to-reel recorder, a copy was made shortly thereafter on a cassette (now 50 years old) from which this digital version was made.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of BOM and notes:
BPM on 10 MHz surpassing WWVH’s signal, which does not happen often at all—if ever that I can remember—in McGrath, Alaska.
The dits form BPM are obvious, but the morse code beginning at 39 seconds and the voice at 1 min 21 secs just wipe away WWVH.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Trans World Radio, Swaziland
Date of recording: 11/2/1996
Starting time: 0358
Frequency: 4.750 MHz
Reception location: Thamesford, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Notes: Here is the interval signal of Trans World Radio in Swaziland as received here in Ontario, Canada on November 2, 1996. If you could hear this station well, it was likely a good time to try for other more difficult catches.
Quoting The Diplomat:
For the first time, North Korea has confirmed a positive COVID-19 case within the country. The state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on May 12 that a “specimen from persons with fever” in Pyongyang had come back positive for the Omicron BA.2 variant, a particularly contagious strain of the virus. The phrasing of the announcement makes it unclear how many people are infected. KCNA called the development a “most serious emergency case of the state.”
Below is the recording of this announcement being made on the Voice of Korea's English language service. The recording was made on May 12, 2022 at 1908 UTC on 11635 kHz using GPD MicroPC, AirSpy Mini, SpyVerter 2, Wellbrook UMB130 balun and a 2x6m dipole. Demodulation and additional signal audio enhancement was performed in SDR#.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Juventud, Barquisimeto, Venezuela 1970
Frequency: 4.900 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: Back in the 1970's, many Venezuelan radio stations could be heard throughout the 60 metre band. 5 of these regularly logged here in southern Ontario belonged to La Cadena Venezolana de Radiodifusion. They were Radio Yaracuy, Radio Lara, Radio Universo, Radio Barquisimeto and Radio Juventud, the latter of these recorded in late 1970 on 4900 kHz identifying their AM, SW and FM stations by call letter and frequency in Spanish. Lead in music is the tune "The Age of Aquarius." They were all good verifiers and the cards were quite similar in design.
The Shepparton transmitter site of ABC/Radio Australia
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bob Purse, curator of the excellent Inches Per Second audio archive and blog. Bob kindly shares the following recording originally made on reel to reel tape. All of Bob’s recordings are lost and found sound, so the only information he has for each recording are the notes included on tape labels and boxes. If you can identify the date or any other information about this recording, please comment.
Bob notes the following about this found piece:
[…]I found yet another Shortwave broadcast in my collection to pass along. In this case, it is again Australian Shortwave, from Spring of 1968. An I will acknowledge right off the bat that the recording quality is abysmal. It starts poorly and gets worse and worse as it goes along. This is actually why I hadn't shared it before. But I thought the time was right to offer it up, terrible quality and all.
(Image by Rich Post, K8TAD)
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Notes: Radio Rabaul on the island of New Britain, PNG, was a rare visitor to my radio shack in 1971. I was able to make this brief recording (along with one of Radio Bougainville submitted separately) using an open mike in front of the speaker on the Hallicrafters S-52.
Broadcaster: Radio Rabaul
Date of recording: 10/21/1971
Frequency: 3.385 MHz
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Hallicrafters SX-99 Dial
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Notes: The morning of October 21, 1971, provided some of the best reception of Papua New Guinea stations in the 90 metre band that I ever experienced. These stations were rare visitors to my headphones but I was able to make a couple of short recordings of two PNG stations that morning, and they have survived to this day on that same audio cassette (now 51 years old). This one of Radio Bougainville begins with a local chant followed by announcement on the hour. The station ran 2.5 kw and their signal made it over 13,300 km to my receiver that day. The recording of Radio Rabaul on 3385 kHz will be submitted separately. Audio quality is passable considering the recording was made using an open mic to the speaker of the Hallicrafters S-52.
Broadcaster: Radio Bougainville
Date of recording: 10/21/1971
Starting time: 1100
Frequency: 3.322.5 MHz
Receiver location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Hallicrafters S-52 (Image Source: Rich Post, K8TAD)
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, for the following recording and notes:
Notes: Another short clip from an old 1971 cassette tape, La Voix du Zaire in French with multiple station ID's. In the 1970's, I typically recorded stations in the hope of catching a station identification and a few details for a reception report. This one did help me get a nice QSL letter from the station.
Date of recording: 11/20/1971
Frequency: 15.245 MHz
RX location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bob Purse, curator of the excellent Inches Per Second audio archive and blog. Bob kindly shares the following recording originally made on reel to reel tape. All of Bob’s recordings are lost and found sound, so the only information he has for each recording are the notes included on tape labels and boxes. If you can identify the date or any other information about this recording, please comment.
Bob notes the following about this found piece:
This [recording is] from the spring of 1968. [It] is a recording of broadcasts from Switzerland. The sound quality goes in and out here - it's never great, which is often the case with these shortwave recordings, but it's almost all listenable.
Hallicrafters S-52 (Image Source: Rich Post, K8TAD)
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Notes: The Windward Islands Broadcasting Service heard with banana cutting notices for growers in St. Vincent and Granada prior to closing announcements giving frequencies and target areas. Due to "primitive equipment" and low budget during my high school years, the recording was made using just an open mike placed in front of the speaker of the Hallicrafters. The original cassette tape, which is now 51 years old, was used to produce this digital version.
Frequency: 11.975
RX location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Matt Tod, who shares the following recording and notes:
Notes: BBC World Service broadcast with the first news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Broadcaster: BBC
Date of recording: 2/22/2022 - 02/27/2022
Starting time: various: see recording titel
Frequency: 6.195 & 7.285 MHz
Reception location: Hugo, MN
Receiver and antenna: SDRplay RSPdx with wire loop around perimeter of attic
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following short recording of VOA’s Hausa language service recorded on February 26, 2022 in McGrath, Alaska on 11,900 kHz at 20:58 UTC. This recording was made with a Tecsun PL-880, DXE preamp and two tunable HF loop antennas.
Paul notes: “Hausa language gets lopped off for an English sign-off message and Yankee Doodle Dandy followed by a carrier cut 1 minute 20 seconds later.”
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
Notes: VOA Communications World hosted by Kim Andrew Elliott. Topics covered included:
- BBC to end shortwave World Service broadcasts to US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Radio Netherlands to broadcast on BBC vacated frequencies for two weeks
- Interview with Ralph Brandi who headed up a "Save BBC" campaign
- Radio Canada website hacked
- VOA new Spanish language program for the Andean region of South America
- 75th Anniversary of RTE in IrelandBroadcaster: Voice of America
Date of recording: 6/30/2001
Starting time: Unknown
Frequency: Internet Stream
Your receiver and antenna: Internet Stream
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
VOA's Communications World with Kim Andrew Elliott from 6-24-1995, Topics discussed included:
- International radio news
- Discussion about VOA budget and possible consolidation of VOA into the State Department
- Underwriting messages on VOA
- Weather reports on VOA broadcasts to Africa
- Interview with Radio Prague about their innovative use of the internet
Broadcaster: Voice of America
Date of recording: 6/24/1995
Starting time: Unknown
Frequency: Unknown
Receiver location: Orono, MN
Receiver and antenna: ICOM R71A, Longwire
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Matt Todd, who shares the following recording and notes:
This is a compilation of radio broadcast from Twin Cities, Minnesota radio stations when the news of the January 6 US Capitol storming was first mentioned.
Time stamps for the following stations and their time of broadcast:
00:00 WCCO 1:07 CST
01:24 KTLK 1:08 CST
02:08 KYCR 1:20 CST
03:31 WLOL 2:04 CST
06:43 WWTC 2:08 CST
09:39 KDIZ 3:06 CST
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Matt Todd, who shares the following recording and notes:
Notes: A scan of the phone portion of the 20 Meter Amateur Radio band during the first ten minutes of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Field day June 26, 2021. Field day is the biggest Amateur Radio operating event of the year.
Broadcaster: Amateur Radio
Date of recording: 6/26/2021
Starting time: 1800
Frequency: 20 Meters
Reception location: Hugo, MN
Receiver and antenna: SDRplay RSPdx with wire loop around perimeter of attic
Mode: Single Side Band
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
VOA Communications World 7/1/1995
VOA's Communications World presented by Kim Andrew Elliott. Topics discussed included:
- Report on WCCO-TV (Minneapolis, MN) running a modified newscast on another local TV station (KLGT-TV) at the same time and interviews Brian Lambert of the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper. Plus, discussion on radio competition in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN area.
- Plans of America's public radio broadcasters to distribute programming in Europe
- Radio of-demand and its potential for domestic and international broadcasting
- Interview with VOA's Southeast Asia correspondent, Dan Robinson, about broadcasting in Thailand
Broadcaster: Voice of America
Date of recording: 7/1/1995
Starting time: Unknown
Frequency: Unknown
Receiver location: Orono, MN
Receiver and antenna: ICOM R71A, Longwire
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Matt Todd, who shares the following short clip of the Ham Sci Ionospheric Scientific Modulation Test:
Date of recording: 3/10/2022
Starting time: 1908
Frequency: 15
Your location: Hu
Your receiver and antenna: SDRplay RSPdx with wire loop around perimeter of attic
Mode: AM
Notes: Ionospheric Scientific Modulation Test on WWV recorded March 10, 2022 at 1908UTC on 15Mhz in Hugo, MN.
Information about the signal from the Hamsci website: HamSCI's WWV/H Scientific Modulation Working Group is exploring possibilities for additions to WWV and WWVH's modulation that can be used for science purposes.
https://hamsci.org/wwv
Photo of Hallicrafters S-52 by Rich (KB8TAD)
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following short recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Difusora do Maranhao, Sao Luiz, Brazil
Starting time: believe it was around 0000 UTC
Frequency: 4.755
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna
Notes: This recording was made sometime in 1970 using a Panasonic cassette recorder with an open mike next to the speaker of the Hallicrafters S-52. The familiar tune of Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head can be heard followed by the closing announcements in Portuguese. Lots of QRM and possible het due to station being not exactly on 4755, het disappears when station carrier goes off. Lots of fun on the 60 metre band in those days!
Image by Marjan Blan | @marjanblan
The following recording of Radio Ukraine International was broadcast via WRMI on 5010 kHz. This recording was made via a KiwiSDR in Bakersville, NC on March 3, 2022 starting at 12:02 UTC.
Note: The first two minutes of the broadcast are missing due to a glitch in recording.
Kiev, Ukraine (Photo by Volodymyr)
The following recording of Radio Ukraine International was made on February 24, 2022 at 12:00 UTC on 5010 kHz via WRMI. The recording was made with an Icom IC-705 connected to a large skyloop antenna.
This is the first broadcast of the English language after the following February 23, 2022 announcement by WRMI:
Due to the increased interest in the current situation in Ukraine, WRMI has resumed its relays of the daily English language broadcast of Radio Ukraine International, the official overseas service of Ukrainian Radio. RUI can be heard daily, except Friday, at 1200-1230 UTC on 5010 kHz.
Note that the first half of this broadcast (Part 1) was made in AM mode. The second part was recorded in lower sideband in order to mitigate fading as conditions changed.
We at the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive are truly honored to have been a resource for this incredible and diverse sound project organized by Cities and Memory.
We encourage you to explore the creative work from over 120 artists and composers.
A great many of these remarkable dynamic works draw on a wide array of recordings from the SRAA; the resulting compositions and soundscapes are rich with sonic textures, evocative collages of sound and memory, which emerge into further sources of inspiration.
Our profound thanks to Cities and Memory––and all of the participating artists––for this truly brilliant collection:
13 February 2022
UNIQUE ARCHIVE OF SHORTWAVE RADIO COMPOSITIONS LAUNCHED TO MARK UNESCO WORLD RADIO DAYTo mark UNESCO World Radio Day on 13 February, a unique collection of compositions built from eight decades of shortwave radio recordings is being released.
Shortwave Transmissions, a project by one of the world’s biggest sound projects Cities and Memory in collaboration with the Shortwave Radio Archive (), sees more than 120 artists remix and recompose iconic shortwave recordings to create brand new compositions reflecting on and celebrating our relationship with radio.
The project can be explored in full at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave and features:
- Recordings from the mysterious spy radio and “numbers stations” around the world
- Coverage of world-changing events such as 9/11, the invasion of Kuwait, Kennedy’s assassination, Tiananmen Square protests, the death of Fidel Castro and many more
- Rare international recordings from North Korea, Saudi Arabia, St. Helena, the Falkland Islands and Antarctica
- Recordings covering a huge period of time from 1934 through to the present day
- Space travel documented including the Sputnik, Apollo and Challenger missions
- Recordings of famous voices such as Winston Churchill and King George V
- Station IDs, interval signals and final broadcasts from radio stations
- Stuart Fowkes, founder of Cities and Memory, said:
“Shortwave radio is one of the most fascinating sonic worlds - each recording is a unique time capsule capturing vital moments in world history as well as the thrill of pirate radio, clandestine radio stations, secretive number stations and military and spy radio.
These are sounds to be treasured: all of humanity is truly out there to be listened to at the turn of a dial - and is source material for some extraordinary compositions.”
Taking the world of shortwave radio to an entirely different place, each recording has been reshaped and reimagined as a creative recomposed sound by more than 120 musicians and sound artists, in turn reflecting on current concerns covering everything from climate change to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Shortwave Transmissions is the latest project from Cities and Memory, a global, collaborative network of sound recordists and artists based in Oxford, UK. Previous global sound projects have included #StayHomeSounds (a global mapping of the sounds of the Covid-19 lockdown), Protest and Politics (the biggest ever collection of the sounds of protest) and Sacred Spaces, the first global survey of the sounds of churches, temples, prayer and worship.
It has more than 5,000 sounds on its global sound map covering more than 100 countries and territories, and more than 1,000 worldwide contributing artists since its launch in 2015.
https://youtu.be/v3oVWUUxOOg
In 1974, I was an exchange student with AFS (then known as the American Field Service) in Swaziland, southern Africa. I had taken a Drake SPR-4 with me for the months I lived in Swaziland, and I used the receiver to hear a range of stations in Africa and Asia. Stations using shortwave that were a challenge for listeners in North America and other locations were heard at local levels and one of those was the RBC, in what was then called Rhodesia. These recordings on one of the RBC shortwave frequencies were made in Mbabane, Swaziland. Elsewhere on the SW Archive, there are other recordings including one of RBC heard in the United States on shortwave. The QSL card shown here was the older style with an image of an impala, a photo of Salisbury (later Harare). On the back, under a white sticker, an even older name of the radio station, The Broadcasting Corporation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, can still be seen.
Nelson Mandela was released from prison in South Africa on February 11th, 1990. At the time, Radio RSA was still broadcasting to the world on shortwave radio, and provided live coverage of the event which was heard by many shortwave listeners. It will be recalled that Radio RSA had one of the most powerful shortwave transmission systems of any country for many years — with its familiar interval signal it was a regular for SWLs.
This recording of Radio RSA was made on a SONY ICF-2010 receiver in Silver Spring, Maryland. The first recording is of the full Radio RSA coverage, and the second is the Mandela speech itself, a portion that begins at about the 1 hour 10 mark. Mandela said: “A democratic and non-racial South Africa is the only way to peace and racial harmony.” Radio RSA was so strong, in fact, that it could be heard on my SONY AM-FM-SW Cassette Deck using only a short piece of wire as an antenna. At end end of the Mandela speech recording, can be heard a VOA newscast from the previous day covering the announcement by then President DeKlerk that Mandela would be released.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Matt Todd, who shares the following recording and notes:
Audio recording of a MARS (Military Auxiliary Radio Service) of the establishment of a phone patch between a service member and their family member. This was recorded January 24, 2022 at 2148UTC on 13.927 MHz. It was recorded with an SRDplay RSPdx using a wire loop antenna.
Broadcaster: MARS
Date of recording: 1/24/2022
Starting time: 2148
Frequency: 13927
RX location: Hugo, MN
Receiver and antenna: SDRplay RSPdx with wire loop around perimeter of attic
Mode: Single Side Band
In the early 1970’s, Syria was among the major shortwave broadcasters from the Middle East. The Broadcasting Service of the Syrian Arab Republic, as it was called back then, put in fairly strong signals on 15,165 khz in the 19 meter band, though not as powerful as other stations such as Radio Kuwait and Radio Cairo. In this recording from 1971, we hear a political commentary on the Palestinians, followed by station identification: “You are tuned to Damascus, the broadcasting service of the Syrian Arab Republic. The time is exactly 23 hours and 10 minutes.” While Damascus was still using shortwave, including its old 12,085 khz frequency and 9,330 khz in the first decade of the 2000s, the civil war in Syria along with decisions made to end shortwave, removed this once familiar Middle East voice from the shortwave bands.
In 2022, it is quite astounding that we still have, at least as of now, two Middle East broadcasters still on the air on shortwave: Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. Radio Cairo was making attempts to return as of early 2022 but having great difficulties resolving its longstanding modulation and distortion problems. Jordan is now gone, as is Bahrain it seems. Oman which was still on shortwave as of 2019 is now either gone or intermittent. Radio Kuwait, which returned to shortwave some years ago, began shifting to DRM transmissions though is still being heard on regular AM shortwave, though with some highly variable shifts of frequency.
Which brings us back to the good old days when Radio Kuwait was the new powerhouse in shortwave broadcasting from the Middle East, having taken delivery of 250 kilowatt transmitters. Radio Kuwait was a daily presence on shortwave for decades, with its familiar musical interval before English newscasts, and music programs. As a young SWL, I used to listen to Radio Kuwait almost on a daily basis, usually in the 19 meter band. The signal was so strong and clear that it was easy to tune in on the 1940’s T-133 receiver I used at the time. Here is a recording of Radio Kuwait from 1970. The station was also a superb reliable verifier of reception reports and sent out beautiful folder QSLs.
In 2022, one station in the South Pacific remains on shortwave, to the great delight of shortwave listeners. That station is Radio New Zealand, which as of early 2022 could still be heard with good signals. Back in the 1970’s Radio New Zealand was a prime DX target. Its sign on at 0600 UTC required staying up until 2:00 AM in summer months. For signs of good Pacific propagation, DX’ers often used VNG, the former time signal station in Australia, as a marker. If VNG was coming in well, then New Zealand and Tahiti were likely to be coming in well. It’s hard to explain the feeling a new SWL got hearing Radio New Zealand in those days. At a power of 7.5 kilowatts, the station listed on its QSL card (shown here) 9 frequencies, including 9.54 mHz and 11.780 mHz where I used to hear them. Other frequencies in 1971 were 15.280, 17.770, 6.080, 9.620, 15.220, 6.020, and 15.110 mHz for ZL2/3/4/5/7/8/10/20 and 21 call letters. The verification signer was H. Taylor-Smith at NZBC Broadcasting House in Wellington. Hearing this 7.5 kilowatt signal, with its characteristic fading as the signal made its way the many thousands of miles to Pennsylvania, was a real thrill. Here is the 1971 recording of Radio New Zealand, from sign on with its “Bellbird” interval signal and BBC news relay.
In 1981, a small U.S.- supported station called La Voz de Mosquitia (HRXK) went on air from Puerto Lempira, Honduras. The frequency was 4,910 khz — and it was plagued by interference from other Latin American stations in the 60 meter band. A good write up about the station can be found here. This recording was made in Washington, DC using a Hammarlund HQ-180A receiver. The plain QSL card shown here was signed by Reverend Landon Wilkerson, an independent Baptist Missionary, who spent seventeen years in Honduras with his wife and family helping the Miskito Indians.
The shortwave listening community was stunned some 40 years ago by the sudden appearance of a new station in the Galapagos Islands. It was Radiodifusora La Voz de Galapagos HCVG-8 and broadcast on 4,810 khz in the 60 meter band. Not only did LV de Galapagos put in an excellent signal in the evening in eastern North America, but it was an excellent QSLer, sending out beautiful photo cards showing wildlife in the islands. On the back were wonderful colorful stamps. This recording was made in Washington, DC in 1980.
The Cable & Wireless Ltd point to point station at St. George’s, Bermuda was a regular signal on the shortwave frequencies in the 1960s and 1970s. This recording was made in Levittown, Pennsylvania using a Hammarlund HQ-180A receiver: “This is a test transmission for station adjustment purposes of a radio telephone terminal owned and operated by Cable & Wireless, Ltd. This transmitter is located at St. George’s Bermuda.”
Among the many point to point / utility stations on the shortwave bands was this one, ACA (Alpha Charlie Alpha) located in the Panama Canal Zone. This recording was made in the early 1970s in Levittown, PA: “This is United States Army radio station, Alpha Charlie Alpha, located in the Panama Canal Zone. We are testing for receive alignment and station identification”
In the 1960’s and 1970s, and likely earlier in the 1950s, point to point utility stations were an enjoyable part of the shortwave listening hobby. These stations, run by Cable & Wireless, Ltd, Republique Francois Post et Telecommunications, and companies, and broadcast by transmitters in many of the former colonial territories, were heard on frequencies outside of the main shortwave broadcast bands. Because they were not meant for general consumption, verifications from these stations, usually from the PTT office in the countries concerned, usually were not verifications as such but recognition of reception. Nevertheless, they offered an interesting way for hobbyists to hear countries, including some locations that had no shortwave broadcast stations. The QSL shown here was for my reception in the 1970’s of the PTT station at Cayenne, French Guiana.
Surinam, another of the three non-Spanish countries in South America, has an interesting history when it comes to shortwave broadcasting. The country was represented on shortwave by the old Radio SRS (Surinam Broadcasting Foundation) which sent out beautiful folder QSL cards and which listed frequencies as 4,780 khz, 4,850 khz and 15,450 khz and later by Radio Apintie. The QSL letter shown here was for a reception on 4,990 khz though the station was also on 5,005 khz at one point — the director at the time notes that Apintie started broadcasting on shorrtwave in 1979. The recording here is of Radio Apintie signing on in early morning. At various times the power varied, with the director saying that a 50 watt Philips transmitter had been supplemented by a 350 watt linar amplifier. But later, power on shortwave was given as 1 kilowatt with a new Omnitronics 1000 watt transmitter and six element log periodic antenna beamed to the south. Radio Apintie continued to be reported into the early 2000s.
In South America, three non-Spanish speaking countries — Guyana, French Guiana, and Surinam — were key DX targets for listeners around the world. A history of broadcasting in Guyana can be found here. DX’ers who are still surviving and whose listening stretched back into the 1950’s and 1960s are lucky to have received the classic older ZFY / Radio Demerara QSL cards, whereas later the main station GBS sent out only letter verifications. Guyana was still on shortwave as of 2015 as reported here.
In 1971, Christmas Eve, at the very beginning of my listening career, I used a 1940’s era T-133 Pilot Radio to hear Guyana on 3,290 khz. The station listed a power of 10 kilowatts. One of these two recordings has the transition to Christmas day as an announcer said: “On Action Radio, the proclamation of Guyana, the time is midnight. It is not Christmas morning 1971. On behalf of the management and staff of GBS, this is Ron Standish wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. . .” The broadcast then switched to midnight mass in the cathedral in Georgetown, the capital. A longer recording is also included here. Note the heavy interference on 3,290 khz from a utility station that made hearing Guyana so difficult for years.
Without doubt, Radio Andorra was one of the most sought after stations in the 1970s and with a bonus — it sent out one of the most beautiful QSL cards ever produced by any station. The QSL here was for a reception on 6,230 khz though the station ID, as it went into programming by Adventist World Radio said 6,220 khz. This was very early in the morning eastern U.S. time. This recording was made on a Drake SPR-4 reciver in Washington, DC
In 1978, Radio Condor International was among a number of pirate stations operating from Ireland. I heard the station twice, on 6,243 khz and on 11,463 khz. Claimed power was 100 watts. As can be seen the station verified with a letter QSL that listed another shortwave frequency of 6,200 khz and a mediumwave frequency of 1000 khz and had a return address in Dublin, Ireland. This recording was made in Washington, DC using a Hammarlund HQ-180A receiver.
Radio Euzkadi, the Voice of the Basque Underground, was a clandestine station representing the struggle of the Basque people for autonomy. Much has been written about the station. Radio Netherlands Media Network did an expansive 30 minute program on the station, and the article by the late DX’er Don Jensen is one of the best on the subject. For many shortwave listeners, Radio Euzkadi was a familiar station, usually heard in the 13 mHz band on 13.250 khz though it varied quite a bit due to jamming directed against it. These recordings were made in Levittown, Pennsylvania using a Hammarlund HQ-180 receiver. The station’s familiar “B.P. 59, Paris 16, France” address can be heard. The content of the English commentaries is especially notable for historical reasons. Radio Euzkadi verified with two types of cards, one a map card with a letter on onion skin paper, the other the well-known actual QSL showing a photo of the station’s antenna, either in the Pyrenees or in Venezuela where the transmissions came from later on.
Radio Enoch was one of many Europirate stations active in the late 1970s. As this QSL card shows, Radio Enoch broadcast on 6,248 khz using SSB at a claimed power of 4,000 watts. This reception was between 0800 and 0900 UTC in December in the eastern U.S. which was 3:00 to 4:00 AM eastern time. This was pre-Internet so QSL verifications came in the mail. The approximately 4 minute recording consists of a commentary against Marxism and Communism and a station ID at about the 3:55 mark as “This is Radio Enoch, the Voice of People Against Marxism”
In the 1970s and 1980s the 48 meter band was full of European pirate stations, usually making “test transmissions” in the early morning hours, and usually on weekends, notably on Sundays. SWLs in the United States hunted these Europirates, which required rising at early hours in order to hear them. One of the stations in 1981 was South Dublin Radio, with a power of 1,000 watts on 6,243 khz. This recording of the station was made in Washington, DC using a Hammarlund HQ-180A receiver. The station verified with a plain white QSL card — in those days, eQSLs did not exist.
by Dan Robinson
For shortwave listeners, if there was one station that became a favorite it was ELWA in Monrovia, Liberia. But whereas ELWA was extremely easy to hear, the real DX catch was ELBC, the Liberian Broadcasting Corrporation. Its frequency was 3,255 khz in the 90 meter band and during the “golden” years of tropical shortwave broadcasting, that band was full of stations from Africa and Latin America, which created interference issues. With a power listed as 10 kilowatts, in comparison to 50 kilowatts for most of ELWA’s transmitters, ELBC was a definite challenge for DX’ers, but occasionally was heard before its listed 0000 UTC sign off. This recording was heard on a Hammarlund HQ-180A in Levittown, Pennsylvania. There is a female announcer, perhaps concluding a news segment, followed at about the 10 second mark by drums, followed by an ID: “This is the ELBC, Monrovia”
Dan Robinson
by Dan Robinson
With a transmitter power listed as 100 kilowatts, Malawi should have been one of the easiest African stations to hear during the “golden” years of tropical shortwave broadcasting. But that was not always the case as the 3,380 khz frequency in the 90 meter band was often plagued by interference from Latin American stations that were being heard at the time.
The 1978 WRTH listed Malawi as using 3,380 khz, 5,995 and 7,130 khz. Best time to attempt to hear Malawi was in the evening in eastern North America just before its 0300 UTC sign on. When conditions were good for central Africa, other stations could be heard, such as Rhodesia, as well as Indian Ocean signals from Zanzibar and Reunion and Comoros.
In 1974 I had the opportunity of living in Swaziland as an exchange student, and brought with me my Drake SPR-4 receiver for which I erected a 75 foot longwire antenna on a hill near Mbabane, Swaziland. This recording of MBC in Blantyre was made there, from actual air and is not a studio recording.
by Dan Robinson
Another from the golden era of tropical band shortwave broadcasting, the Central African Republic was among the easiest stations to hear on its 5,038 khz frequency, especially in early to late afternoon as heard in eastern North America. The 1978 WRTH listed two shortwave frequencies including 7,220 khz which was shown as being for 0730 - 1630 UTC. And that 1978 listing had the country identified as “Central African Empire” instead of CAR. The 5,038 frequency made for quite a mash up in the area above WWV on 5.0 mHz as there were a number of stations in that range, including Cabinda/Angola on 5,033 khz, Sudan on 5,039, and Togo on 5,047 khz, Benguela/Angola and Mocamedes/Angola and Niamey/Niger, along with numerous other Latin American stations. This recording of Bangui as it signed off was made in Levittown, PA using a Hammarlund HQ-180A receiver.
by Dan Robinson
During the golden days of shortwave broadcasting, there were more than a dozen stations on the air in Angola, in addition to the main government station in the capital Luanda. In the 1978 WRTH, 14 regional stations are listed, and one of them Emisora Regional da Cabinda, broadcasting from the enclave between Democratic Republic of the Congo and Congo Republic. This station was among the most rarely heard by listeners in North America, but occasionally atmospheric conditions permitted some decent reception of its 5,033 khz frequency which varied quite a bit. This reception took place in Levittown, Pennsylvania using a Hammarlund HQ-180A receiver — the recording has had a bit of noise reduction applied. You can hear the steady interval signal that the station used, consisting of a drum, before a national anthem and sign on announcements as “Aqui, Republica popular da Angola, Emisora Regional da Cabinda….”
by Dan Robinson
Not as much has been written about the history of broadcasting in Sierra Leone in comparison with other countries in Africa — see Wikipedia for this summary. The SLBC broadcast on shortwave on 3,316 khz, one of those odd frequencies that one remembers. Although the power of the station was 50 kw as of 1978 it was exceedingly difficult to hear, with the best time being in the afternoon/early evening in eastern North America. According to the World Radio TV Handbook of that year, the 250 KW transmitter that had been installed for use as a relay of international broadcasters was designated for 5,980 khz but it’s hard to recall any DX’ers ever reporting that frequency. Normal sign off according to the WRTH was 2335 UTC, a bit later on Saturdays.
This reception occurred in Pennsylvania, where I used a Hammarlund HQ-180/A receiver which had numerous capabilities for dragging difficult DX signals out of the mud due to its fine vernier tuning, notch filter, and multiple crystal filter bandwidths. You can hear “Leaving On a Jet Plane” and some talk by an announcer. There was heavy CW interference on the frequency — the 90 meter band in these days was no picnic and always presented a challenge in hearing the African countries that used it. Sierra Leone verified with an aerograme type letter, similar to verifications received from Voice of Kenya over in eastern Africa.
by Dan Robinson
The former Zaire, later the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was a focus of radio activity for decades, including many shortwave stations comprising both the national radio in Kinshasa and regional stations that became targets for radio listeners around the world. Zaire which had that name from 1971 to 1997 was controlled for a very long time by Mobutu Sese Seko who seized power in a coup in 1965. Geographically the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa (after Sudan and Algeria, and 11th-largest in the world, DRC has a population of more than 23 million. As Wikipedia notes, Mobutu set out to “[rid] the country of the influences from the colonial era of the Belgian Congo . . . [but] weakened by the termination of American support after the end of the Cold War, Mobutu was forced to declare a new republic in 1990 to cope with demands for change. By the time of its downfall, Zaire was characterised by widespread cronyism, corruption and economic mismanagement.”
“Zaire collapsed in the 1990s, amid the destabilization of the eastern parts of the country in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide and growing ethnic violence. In 1996, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, the head of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL) militia, led a popular rebellion against Mobutu. With rebel forces successfully making gains beyond the east, Mobutu fled the country, leaving Kabila's forces in charge as the country restored its name to the Democratic Republic of the Congo the following year. Mobutu died within four months after he fled into exile in Morocco.”
Zaire was one of the most radio active of all countries in Africa. Only Angola had more regional stations using shortwave frequencies, and some of these were exceedingly rare to be heard by foreign listeners. The main national station Voix du Zaire was frequently heard on its 15,245 khz frequency (see Jack Widner’s superb recordings here on the archive) and during the 1970’s until transmitters started encountering problems, Zaire was easy and enjoyable listening on that frequency. As noted by Jerry Berg in his excellent Broadcasting on the Shortwaves, the status of smaller lower power stations including Radio Mbandaka, Radio Kananga, and Radio Mbuji-Mayi, was often unknown. Radio Bukavu in the east, and Radio Kisangani were more frequently heard, along with Radio Lubumbashi.
The SWL QSL Card Museum shows QSL cards/letters from four stations in Zaire, three from DRC — so this does not include verifications from some of those extremely rare other stations. Radio Candip, which was widely heard abroad on its 5,066 khz frequency, was still on the air into the 2000s, while Radio Kahuzi, the U.S. missionary-run station in Bukavu, was on and being heard via SDR receiver sites in Europe as of 2020, but after that has remained off as of early 2022.
by Dan Robinson
In 1972, the Voice of the Revolution, Guinea’s national radio carried the funeral ceremony for Francis Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president after independence. Quoting from the history: “Nkrumah was born in the Gold Coast (later Ghana) in 1909 and was educated there before going to the United States in 1935 where he attended Lincoln University and later, the University of Pennsylvania. Nkrumah spent 10 years in the U.S., and later went to England to study at the London School of Economics. At the same time, he intensified his political activities for the independence of his homeland, which he led to full nationhood on March 6,1957. He was toppled in 1966 in a coup by army officers and remained in exile in neighboring Guinea until his death in April 1972 in Bucharest, Romania, where he had gone for medical treatment.
As reported by AFP from Accra: “The body of Kwame Nkrumah was flown back here today in a special Guinean Air Force plane. The military government or declared all flags to be flown at half‐staff until the former President is buried in Nkroful, a village 190 miles southwest of here where he was born on Sept. 1, 1909.
Return of the pan‐African leader's body to Ghana marks the culmination of protracted negotiations between the governing National Redemption Council here and President Sékou Touré of Guinea. Mr. Nkrumah died on April 27 in Rumania, where he was receiving medical treatment, and his body was taken to Guinea.
At first, President Touré refused Ghanaian requests for the body and gave Mr. Nkrumah a state funeral in Conakry, the Guinean capital. The Ghanaian had spent most of the years of his exile in Conakry, following his overthrow in 1966 in Ghana's first military coup. He was given the symbolic title of Co‐President of Guinea by President Touré.
Radio Conakry, also known as The Voice of the Revolution, was frequently heard by listeners around the world, usually on its shortwave frequencies including 9,650 kHz and 7,125 kHz. Nkrumah had used the station to make speeches from Guinea to the people of Ghana in 1966.
In this recording, made in Pennsylvania in 1972, you hear part of what appears to be a funeral observance held in Conakry, mostly in French but some English. Radio Conakry remained on shortwave into the 2000s, but later was intermittent. After repairs to its transmitter, it returned to shortwave in 2016 and was still being heard as of early 2021, though at weaker levels than before, and mostly in European locations.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Matt Todd, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Civil Air Patrol
Date of recording: 1/24/2022
Starting time: 2001
Frequency: 14914 kHz
Receiver location: Hugo, MN
Receiver and antenna: SDRplay RSPdx with wire loop around perimeter of attic
Mode: Single Side Band
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Anthony Messina, who shares the following audio clip and notes:
Notes: Short recording of JOUF-AM heard in full C-Quam Stereo. Note the wide stereo separation that C-Quam can achieve. Shame it never fully took off in the U.S or most other places.
Date of recording: 3/23/2021
Starting time: 11:27PM EST, UTC unknown
Frequency: 1.314mHz
Receiver location: Via Japanese KiwiSDR
Receiver and antenna: Via Japanese SDR
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Matt Todd, who shares the following recording and notes:
Audio recording of Shortwave Pirate going by Wolverine Radio. This was recorded December 25, 2021 at 0056UTC on 6969khz in Hugo, MN. The broadcast consists of a few minutes of the Barenaked Ladies song Testing One Two Three being play and then a male voice announcing a frequency change.
Broadcaster: Wolverine Radio (Pirate)
Date of recording: 12/25/2021
Starting time: 0056 UTC
Frequency: 6.96 MHz
Your location: Hugo, MN
Receiver and antenna: SDRPlay with a wire loop antenna around the perimeter of the attic
Mode: Single Side Band
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Roberto Ciappi, who shares the following recording and notes:
Notes: BFBS Special daily broadcast to the British troops in the Persian Gulf area, during the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq. They were using BBC transmitters in the UK.
Broadcaster: BFBS London
Date of recording: 2/16/1991
Starting time: 0920 UTC
Frequency: 21.59 MHz
Reception location: Northwest Italy
Receiver and antenna: Sony CFD-444S Stereo cassette recorder with telescopic antenna
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Matt Todd, who shares the following recording and notes:
Date of recording: 12/23/2021
Starting time: 0058
Frequency: 7.325 MHz
Reception location: Hugo, MN
Receiver and antenna: SDRPlay with a wire loop antenna around the perimeter of the attic
Notes: Program Information:
0:00 Interval Signal
1:57 Intro
3:00 News
6:45 Story about prime minister in discussion with EU about pandemic
10:05 Story about 1989 uprising
14:35 Personality of the Year
15:50 Music
18:50 Society Today
25:25 Visit Romania
30:00 Sport
32:30 Folk/Christmas Music
44:05 Happenings in Romania
53:25 Music
57:00 Information and Sign off
Station: Radio Piepzender Place of reception: Europe Language: English & Dutch Frequency: 7445 kHz shortwave Date: December 26, 2021 Time: 13.20 UTC Transmitter location: Zwolle, The Netherlands Transmitter power 0,2 kW Receiver: SONY ICF SW1 portable Location of receiver: outdoor (far away from buildings to limit the man-made noise interference) Antenna: internal telescopic 0,5 meter long Recording device: SONY portable cassette tape recorder
Recording of Telstar Radio, December 25, 2021, at 1353 UTC (shortwave frequency of 6045 kHz)Station: Telstar RadioPlace of reception: EuropeLanguage: English & DutchFrequency: 6045 kHz shortwaveDate: December 25, 2021Time: 13.53 UTCTransmitter location: Nauen, GermanyTransmitter power 100 kWReceiver: SONY ICF SW1 portableLocation of receiver: outdoor (far away from buildings to limit the man-made noise interference)Antenna: internal telescopic 0,5 meter long. Recording device: SONY portable cassette tape recorder.
Recording of “Kurzwellenpanorama” programme, a German language media show of Radio Austria International, transmitted on_August 3, 1996 on the shortwave frequency of 6155 kHz. Recording has been made in Europe, using SONY ICF SW 77 receiver and the 20 meter longwire antenna located in the urban downtown city, with the balloon, mount only around 2 meters above earth level close to the building’s walls. For the recording of the programme a small SONY cassette recorder was utilized, with a modified cable connecting the line-out socket of SONY SW 77 receiver and the MIC socket of the cassette recorder.
In the recording you can hear the voice of Mr. Wolf Harranth known to DXers all over the world from his programmes on Radio Austria International (e.g. “Kurzwellenpanorama”, "DX Telegram"). Wolf Harranth died in the night of 3 August this year (2021) at the age of 80 years.
Station: VOA Ashna Radio Place of reception: Europe Language: Pashto & Dari Frequency: 9835 kHz shortwave Date: December 11, 2021 Time: 14.30 UTC Transmitter location: Woofferton, United Kingrom Transmitter power 250 kW Receiver: SONY ICF SW1 portable Location of receiver: indoor Antenna: outdoor 15 meter wire Recording device: portable wav file recorder
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Andy Wang, who shares the following recording and notes:
Notes: The content of this recording is a news: North Korean defectors seek asylum from US consulate in Shenyang.
Broadcaster: Radio France Internationale
Date of recording: 5/10/2002
Starting time: 10:00UTC
Frequency: 12.025MHz
Recption location: Shenyang, China
Receiver and antenna: MeiDuo Radio Receiver and Casette Recorder CP6941 with antenna on it
Station: IRRS Italy Place of reception: Europe Language: English Frequency: 9510 kHz shortwave Date: December 5, 2021 Time: 11.58 UTC Transmitter location: Romania Transmitter power 100 kW Receiver: SONY ICF SW1 portable Location of receiver: indoor Antenna: outdoor 15 meter wire Recording device: portable wav file recorder
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
Voice of the Voyager pirate shortwave radio station transmission starting with interval signal, opening with "We will Rock You/We are the Champions," introductions of staff including RF Wavelength, AF Gain, Disco Dan, Disco Dave and others. Broadcast included The Minnesota-Ohio Corporation Mystery Theater: The Heath Heresy, Nighttime Melodies, beer reviews and more. August 20, 1978 on 5,850 MHZ at 0355 UTC. 100 watts.
The Voice of the Voyager had been broadcasting on Saturday nights for about eight months. One week later on August 28, 1978, a yellow car pulled into the driveway of the house where the Voice of the Voyager had been broadcasting from and two official-looking men got out and walked up to the front door. They flashed credentials identifying them as being from the St. Paul, MN office of the FCC. Since R. F. Wavelength held a ham license for the address, he had no choice but to admit the men to the house. At first, he denied all knowledge of the Voyager but it soon became clear the FCC knew all about the station and had definitely traced it to that location. R. F. Wavelength finally admitted to being behind the Voyager and with that confession the atmosphere immediately changed. The FCC agents became quite friendly, and told the operators how they managed to track down the station. The Voyager operators were surprised to learn the FCC had planned to bust the station during the previous weeks broadcast on August 20, but that plan was aborted when the Voyager left the air earlier than usual. A special monitoring van had been brought in from the FCC’s Chicago office to help trace the station’s location.
More information and some of the background posted above: https://sites.google.com/site/napiratehof/2010-inductees/voiceof-pancho-villa
Broadcaster: The Voice of the Voyager
Date of recording: 8/20/1978
Starting time: 0355 UTC
Frequency: 5.850 MHz
Reception location: Minneapolis, MN area
Receiver and antenna: Sony ICF-5900W with whip antenna
This was one of the bigger and more reliable Colombian voices on the tropical bands in the 1970’s and 1980’s - and according to my crusty and trusty old copy of Passport to World Band Radio from 2007 - Colombia was no longer an entity on the tropical bands of shortwave — or anywhere else on the HF dial from my cursory glance. Received on the DX150B attached to a 60-meter half-wave dipole. Living the dream!
Radio Sutatenza - 5075 Khz from September 1975
A popular (and interesting) listening option in the 1970’s were the AM VOLMET weather broadcasts from, well, everywhere… they were low powered (typically 5 kw or less) and hearing them from a great distance was quite the thrill. Most common on the West Coast was Honolulu, Tokyo, Hong Kong and (I think…) Bangkok Radio… heard most mornings. Here are a couple of less heard ones from the West Coast; NY Radio and Gander Radio from Newfoundland.
These broadcasts are still on the air (link)- different frequencies and single sideband as opposed to AM.
This capture was from September 1975 on my trusty DX150B with one of the many dipoles I had - this one likely a 25 meter 1/2 wave dipole.
Image below is a QSL card from Shannon, Ireland - this was a VOLMET weather-cast that was audible here in the West Coast quite frequently.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bachtiar Aditya, who shares the following recording and notes:
Every morning I listen to NHK radio here we can learn Japanese live and listen to Japanese cultural music with enthusiastic announcers. I really like listening to NHK radio since 2010. Here I use a cheap radio for only 4 dollars type Radio international F-100 . The signal is quite good from the Indonesian metro, Especially in the morning
Received : Metro, Lampung, Indonesia .
Broadcaster: NHK World Radio Japan
Date of recording: 11/24/2021
Starting time: 04:35 UTC
Frequency: 17810 kHz Shortwave
Reception location: Metro, Lampung, INDONESIA
Receiver and antenna: Cooper Wire 10 metres outside
What’s not to love! Latin American music and fast talking DJ’s - life always seemed more exciting down there. From my spot in the NorthWest where it rained for 4 months of the year, the endless sunshine and non-stop party of the tropics seemed irresistible. It always felt like a celebration when one tuned in a station from Venezuela, Colombia or Peru on the tropical bands. Heck, even Ecuador knew how to shake their Quetzal tail feathers with some rocking pan pipes! 1975. It was a bygone era. The radio dial was pure gold from 3 MHz to 10 Mhz at night time. One by one they would slip away into the jasmine memories of time. Thank heavens for cassette tape!
Radio Rumbos - 4970 Khz on the 60 meter band! Hola Amigos!
At the time I had a DX150B (Radio Shack) - classic table top radio and (amongst others…) a 60-Meter band half-wave dipole that kind of favoured East and West - still, when there were Latins to be had on 90 and 60 meters, it was night after night reception for weeks on end!
Those were the days my friends - we thought they’d never end.
Ecos Del Torbes - another popular Venezuelan station on the 60 meter band.
As something of a follow-up to some of my previous posts about life in Latin America - well, Guatemala was not much different or better in 1975. Some months after this clip was recorded in October of 1975, there was a devastating earthquake in Guatemala claiming over 25,000 lives. Government inaction lead to more civic unrest fuelling more resistance to the government of the day.
Interestingly, the mission behind TGNA dates back to the late 1800’s and exists to this day - their network of radio stations in Central America play a valuable role in spreading news of the World (from a biblical and Christian perspective I guess as well…) to the rural areas of Guatemala.
The station TGNA was a regular visitor to the West Coast at my Canadian listening perch - most commonly on 3300 khz - and I have an original QSL card. It was, by some comparison, a “mini-HCJB…” - and regular DXers from that time period will know exactly what I am talking about!
As mentioned previously, living on an Island in the Pacific (100 miles North of Seattle, Washington…) had its benefits — a clear shot to targets in the Pacific and Asia - some of them quite rare. And while this station (FEBC) was not rare - it is still in existence today, it was a treat to hear something more folksy than the traditional party line stuff from Government broadcasters.
As a side-bar, in 1975 I was active in the Canadian International DX Club, the IRCA (International Radio Club of America…) and would soon join SPEEDX for the the very best of what the hobby would offer in the late 1970’s and into the 1980’s - the heyday of Shortwave broadcasting!
This snippet is from FEBC Manila on one of their Saturday or Sunday afternoon shows - on a 46 year old Cassette that still plays just fine! My radio was the Radio Shack DX150B (still have it - still works!) off of one of my many 1/2 wave dipoles at the time. I lived on a very small farm or ranch - 4 acres - and there was a specific amount of room for antennas…. as my mom would tell me!
I’m not going to lie - living on the West Coast of Canada in the 1960’s and 1970’s (and hey - for most of my life…) had its challenges where radio reception was concerned. But, and it is a big but, we sat in front of a looking glass that gave us exquisite access to the Eastern and South Asian radio scene that was unique and often tantalizing. Where else in North America did you have an easy shot to Papua New Guinea, Indonesia (at a time when there were hundreds of little shortwave stations!) and medium wave targets from Japan, Russian (on long wave too!), both Koreas, the Philippines and so on — not to mention the Pacific Islands. Now, 46 years later, I am reopening my cassette files for another look see and mastering all of the stuff that has never been touched — and there is a lot. Here now to share with you! Here is a wonderful snippet of North Korea from my “first DX Home…” in the country on a 4 acre ranch (Apples, pears, hazelnuts and sheep!) - I had my trusty DX150B (since November of 1973) and 5 1/2 wave dipoles which I would switch between with a home-brew antenna switch — hence the clicks on this track! North Korea, at the time, had an English series of broadcasts that were almost always sabre rattling harangues - and yet this particular sound-byte sounds somewhat subdued. Either way, it was pretty indicative of the times — and in some way, North Korea has never really changed with the times. The broadcasts were often cryptic and rambling. This was an excellent example.
In terms of sheer bloodshed per square mile, there were few countries that could touch Nicaragua in the 1970’s.
Like Salvador, there were periods of unrest that were sustained and violent, costing lives in the tens of thousands. At the time, radio was the sole social media for getting word out on what was happening on that particular day or week. State radio tended to tow the party line and stations that did not would often just “vanish” from the air… often along with their staff and radio personalities.
The Nicaraguan Revolution was a decades-long process meant to liberate the small Central American country from both U.S. imperialism and the repressive Somoza dictatorship. It began in the early 1960s with the founding of the Sandinista National Liberation front (FSLN), but didn't truly ramp up until the mid-1970s.
It culminated in fighting between the Sandinista rebels and the National Guard from 1978 to 1979, when the FSLN succeeded in overthrowing the dictatorship. The Sandinistas ruled from 1979 to 1990, which is considered to be the year the Revolution ended.
There was, in the 70’s, an incredible opportunity to document a lot of the activities via the shortwave spectrum - sadly, I got little more than snippets - but this one is a powerful one. Have a listen.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who shares the following recording and notes:
Here is a recording of Radio Australia's DX program called Spectrum from August 15, 1982. I believe this was recorded around 0200 UT on 17795 kHz when Australia used to come in well in the evenings here.
Some of the program highlights are:
A roundup of DX news from Bob Padula and Peter Bunn (sp) from the Australina Radio DX Club and interviews with some of the broadcasters gathered at the 1982 ANARC Convention in Montreal. Over-the-phone audio in those days was not too great so the audio is poor in this segment.
Broadcaster: Radio Australia
Date of recording: 8/15/1982
Starting time: 0200 approx.
Frequency: 17.795 MHz
RX location: South Bend, Indiana
Receiver and antenna: Sony ICF-2001 and longwire
Let’s face it - the late 1970’s were, arguably, the very best years for DXing and Shortwave listening - there was very little manmade interference other than the buzzy power line or the occasional TV set or furnace motor. These were the days. Stations like TIFC had no issue cutting through because all they needed was a relatively clear frequency. This was recorded off air in my Fernwood neighbourhood in Victoria B.C. in the late Fall of 1978 on my DX150B and a modest 75’ Inverted L antenna. Who needed noise reduction? Not me!
TIFC San Jose Costa Rica as received on the West Coast of Canada in 1978
Pirate radio was the product of the mid to late 1970’s and one example of one of the more adventurous and ahem professional sounding stations was The Voice of the Voyager - apparently from Minnesota - which was widely received at Christmas 1978 extending into January 1979 on its inaugural run. There are not a lot of recordings of VOV - not a lot of great recordings - and this one is noisy at best - but you get the idea. Received on the West Coast of North America - one cold winter!
The Voice of the Voyager -
Snuck in the middle of this recording a surprise (never before heard track) of the Voice of Clipperton! 6205 Khz New Years Day 1979! At 0130 UTC
Living on the West Coast of North America meant not hearing Africa much - a few times a year - particularly near the equinoxes, we would get some astounding openings on 60 and 49 meters in the early afternoon prior to 2300 UTC when a lot of African regional stations were signing off for the night. It was awesome. It would still be light outside and we were hearing low powered 60 meter West African signals in French, Portuguese and others native African tongues. It was a treat. Here is a not often heard station on the 25 meter band on my DX150B.
To the best of my knowledge, there are not a lot of recordings of ELWA from that period in radio history.
I taped as much as I could and as often as I could - and while I did not always have tape rolling, it was often rolling at the right time. In the 1970’s, my priority seemed to be logging stations and jotting down times and frequencies with not a lot of thought to historical content. Occasionally these little gems would appear… Like a mention of President Gerald Ford in a news clip… or some peculiar phrase unique to one era or another. Anyway - here are 42 sound clips from days gone by - the PDF master list is below.
Special IRRS Pandemic QSL card
Live, off-air, one-hour recording of the audio of Stephen K. Bannon's "War Room: Pandemic" podcast episode no. 46. The program was broadcast by IRRS Shortwave, the Italian Radio Relay Service of the NEXUS International Broadcasting Association in Milano, Italy, on 16 March 2020 from 20:00 to 21:00 UTC on a shortwave frequency of 9660 kHz from a transmitter believed to be in Kostinbrod, Bulgaria, and beamed to Africa. IRRS does not identify the locations of the transmitters it uses. The transmitter was switched on several minutes before 20:00 UTC but the usual IRRS sign-on music was not broadcast and the first few seconds of the program audio were skipped.
This episode of "War Room: Pandemic," entitled "Black Monday Deuce (Pt. 1)" concerned the effect of the pandemic on the economy on the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped nearly 3,000 points or about 13% of its value. The program lasts about 49 minutes with the rest of the hour being music fill. During the podcast, Bannon mentions the stations carrying the show including IRRS. There is an IRRS identification at the end of the recording before the transmitter signs off. IRRS broadcast "War Room: Pandemic" several times per day for a number of weeks in March and April 2020.
The broadcast was received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in AM synchronous mode with 5.08 kHz total bandwidth RF filtering. Reception was generally good although there is some noise possibly due to local interference.
Back in 1977, when we were still in the throes of the Cold War, there was not only a psychological battle on the ground - there was the war on the airwaves to squelch public opinion. One such example of silencing the opposition was “jamming” - it was immensely popular in the 1960’s and 1970’s. It consisted of one nation switching on transmitters on (or slightly off frequency) and blasting the smaller broadcaster with noise and interference. The USSR, for example, poured megawatts of electricity into silencing the voice of Israel on its scheduled broadcasts to he jewish diaspora in Russia. Like Radio Free Europe at the time, the jamming was merciless - and this is an excellent example of how it worked and what it sounded like… way back in the bad old days of May 1977!
KOL Israel - Israel Radio - Jerusalem - on the 19 meter band
By 1977, I had become and old hand at DXing and digging out some incredible signals on the West Coast - it was the best of times. I had almost finished high school and the future looked bright. I had my sights on a career in Electronics - and as it would turn out (as I look back on that career…) that I lead a truly charmed life. Starting in 1972 I began recording bits and pieces of what I was hearing on the radio dial - it was a modest attempt using some pretty basic gear. By 1974 I had figured out how to tap into the line audio of most receivers and capture superior (all things considered) audio from the source. Between then and the early 1990’s I likely recorded over 20 hours of sound bytes (well cataloged) of World Band radio - now is the time where I am making more of an effort to digitize that material as the cassettes age. In this clip we feature a Christmas Eve recording of WWVH on 5000 khz, the Solomon Islands on 5020 and Noumea, New Caledonia on 7170 Khz. All of these recorded on a “Transonic Executive” tape recorder and a DX150B tabletop communications receiver.
Nothing compares to the carefree pathway of youth. Not a worry. Not a concern. The future is endlessly bright. And at the radio dials in 1977, this idealism could not be closer to the truth. Our solid-state and tube type radios glowed in the waning light of sunset and revealed an endless expanse of fully utilized radio spectrum. The voices were often hard to separate and determining a radio frequency often came down to guesswork or crafty use of band spread dials, crystal calibrators and interpolation charts. But that was our youth and the approaching salad days of International Broadcasting. I had been finding my voice in clubs like CIDX, SPEEDX and the IRCA - learning the ropes of journalistic hobby contributions. Half the fun of the radio hobby was the sharing with the sisters and brothers of the hobby. And here we were. And here I was - at 17. That sounds like a song by Janis Ian and I guess it was. At 17 my ears were full and my heart was well stocked with hope for the future.
Here is part two of my 1977 “Greatest Hits” Interval Signal Series - recorded in Victoria B.C. Canada on my DX150B table-top communications receiver.
It was another time and place. The 1970’s. Radio was alive and well with no sense whatsoever than the decade to follow would not be exactly the same - well, it was in part… but change would come. Even in the late 1970’s, many old stations had a folksy feel to them - Radio Luxembourg was no exception. Based on whatever they were playing you had no idea what was coming next. In this little recording, we have RTL on 6090 playing a mixed bag of what sounds like light German big band music - or folkie pop - or what have you. Station ID at the end…. drifting into a snippet from our old friend CFRB in Toronto on 6070 Khz. All received on a DX150B and an Inverted-L antenna located on the West Coast of Canada.
Recording of Voice of America in English, November 7, 2021 at 13.58 UTC (shortwave frequency of 15580 kHz)
Station: Voice of America Place of reception: Europe Frequency: 15580 kHz shortwave Date: November 7, 2021 Time: 1358 UTC Transmitter location: Botswana Transmitter power 100 kW Transmission direction: Africa Receiver: SONY ICF SW1 portable Location of receiver: outdoor (far away from buildings to limit the man-made noise interference) Antenna: internal telescopic 0,5 meter long Recording device: SONY portable cassette tape recorder
Station: Radio New Zealand Pacific
Place of reception: Europe
Language: English
Frequency: 7390 kHz shortwave
Date: November 11, 2021
Time: 13.03 UTC
Transmitter location: Rangitaiki, New Zealand
Transmitter power 100 kW
Receiver: SONY ICF SW1 portable
Location of receiver: outdoor (far away from buildings to limit the man-made noise interference)
Antenna: internal telescopic 0,5 meter long
Recording device: SONY portable cassette tape recorder
Station: Radio Europa 24 Place of reception: Europe Language: Dutch Frequency: 6150 kHz shortwave Date: October 31, 2021 Time: 13.29 UTC Transmitter location: Datteln, Germany Transmitter power 0,25 kW Receiver: Kenwood R-5000 Location of receiver: outdoor Antenna: 30-meter longwire Antenna location: outdoor, around 8 meters above Earth level Recording device: wav portable recorder
Station: Radio OZ-Viola Place of reception: Europe Frequency: 5825 kHz shortwave Date: July 5, 2020 Time: 12.40 UTC Transmitter location: Denmark Transmitter power: 0,15 kW Receiver: Kenwood R-5000 Location of receiver: outdoor Antenna: 30-meter longwire Antenna location: outdoor, around 8 meters above Earth level Recording device: wav portable recorder
Station: Radio Free Waves Bay Place of reception: Europe Frequency: 7298 kHz shortwave Date: October 24, 2021 Time: 13.19 UTC Transmitter location: unknown Transmitter power: unknown Receiver: Kenwood R-5000 Location of receiver: outdoor Antenna: 30-meter longwire Antenna location: outdoor, around 8 meters above Earth level Recording device: wav portable recorder
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following short recording and translation, along with his artwork above:
Dimtsi Weyane, 17750 kHz, broadcasting in Tigrinya language to Tigray region in Ethiopia, from Issoudun, France.
Region is facing a civil war since November 2020.
Signal received at Catacumba Park, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 21, 2021, 16h57 (UTC).
This recording was translated my Saba Tsen'at Mah'deromt via Twitter:
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording and notes:
873 kHz KCBS Sinuiju, North Korea at 1633UTC on Thursday, Oct 21, 2021 with instrumental North Korean music. Signal held out pretty decently for over 6 minutes. 250KW 3500 miles.
Receiver location: McGrath, Alaska
Receiver and antenna: C.Crane CC Skywave and Gary DeBock 5" FSL antenna
Station: Radio Mystery 21 Place of reception: Europe Frequency: 4870 kHz shortwave Date: October 15, 2021 Time: 18.27 UTC Transmitter location: unknown Transmitter power: unknown Receiver: SONY ICF 2001D (running on batteries - to evade noise from power mains) Location of receiver: in the building Antenna: 1,2 meter CB-radio antenna Atenna location: outdoor, around 4 meters above Earth level, 3 meters away from the building Recording device: wav portable recorder Additional equipment: RF-Systems AA-1 antenna adaptor for portable receivers
Station: Radio Delta Place of reception: Europe Frequency: 6020 kHz shortwave Date: October 10, 2021 Time: 12.59 UTC Transmitter location: Elburg, the Netherlands Transmitter power: 1 kW Receiver: Kenwood R-5000 Location of receiver: outdoor Antenna: 30 meter longwire Atenna location: outdoor, around 8 meters above Earth level Recording device: wav portable recorder
Station: Radio Africa Network Place of reception: Europe Frequency: 21525 kHz shortwave Date: October 10, 2021 Time: 1359 UTC Transmitter location: Okeechobee, Florida, USA Transmitter power: 100 kW Receiver: Kenwood: R-5000 Location of receiver: outdoor Antenna: 30 meter longwire Atenna location: outdoor, around 8 meters above Earth level Recording device: wav portable recorder
Radio Channel 292 recorded in Europe from shortwave frequency of 9670 kHz on Oct. 2, 2021 at 1220 UTC. The transmitter location is in Germany. The power of transmitter is 10 kW. The recording contains part of a programme on radio history. The recording has been made using portable receiver SONY ICF SW1. The receiver was placed outdoor (far away from buildings to limit the man-made interference). During the recording only the internal telescopic 0,5 meter antenna was used. To make the recording old SONY portable cassette tape recorder has been utilised (to evade additional noise usually produced by mp3 portable recorders).
Radio WRMI recorded in Europe from shortwave frequency of 15770 kHz on Oct. 2, 2021 at 1259 UTC. The recording contains "Wavescan"programme of AWR (it is a programme concerning various aspects of shortwave broadcasting and listening).
The recording has been made using portable receiver SONY ICF SW1. The receiver was placed outdoor (far away from buildings to limit the man-made interference).
During the recording only the internal telescopic 0,5 meter antenna was used. The quality of signal shows that also with very simple antenna quite good reception can be achieved when no local noise interference is disturbing the reception.
To make the recording an old SONY portable cassette tape recorder has been utilised (portable wav or mp3 recorders usually produce some noise disturbing the shortwave signal but the old cassette tape recorders are much better in this regard and practically produce no noise interference). At the left side of the receiver SONY ICF SW1 has a special socket for making recordings onto the tape recorders. The level of audio signal output provided on SONY ICF SW1 recording socket seems to be perfectly matching the microphone input socket of cassette tape recorders (I tried two different ones with good results for shortwave recordings). The actual audio quality of SONY ICF SW1 is however much better than the audio of the recording because of poor audio frequency range being recorded on portable casette tape recorders (in this aspect modern mp3 recorders are much better, but using them one must accept some additional noise from recorder, especially annoying when recording weaker shortwave signals).
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Stewart Killeen, who shares the following recording and notes:
Notes: Shannon Volmet - SIGMET. A Shanwick Radio broadcast from the North Atlantic Communications Centre, providing meteorological information for aircraft in flight within the Shanwick area of international airspace (northeast part of the Atlantic).
Name: Stewart Killeen
Date of recording: 8/5/2021
Starting time: 0935UTC
Frequency: 5.501MHz
Reception location: Dublin, Ireland
Teceiver and antenna: Tecsun PL-660
Mode: AM
QSL card for reception of a transmission from Radio Prague on 7 May 1964. ORL is the transmitter call sign.
Live, off-air, recording of the broadcast of two special sequential half-hour programs of Radio Prague International celebrating its 85th anniversary. The programs were broadcast via WRMI, Radio Miami International, using a transmitter at Okeechobee, Florida, on 31 August 2021 from 21:00 to 22:00 UTC on a shortwave frequency of 15770 kHz. The listed transmitter power is 100 kW with an antenna beam azimuth of 44°. The recording includes WRMI station identifications.
Czech Radio officially began its international service on 31 August 1936. Eventually, the service became known as Radio Prague, then for a brief time in the 1990s as Radio Czechoslovakia International and most recently as Radio Prague International. Radio Prague International is mostly an on-line service now with its own transmitters having been shut down on 31 January 2011. It continued to broadcast over the single WRMI transmitter in Miami and currently relays its daily programs in English, French, and Spanish using the WRMI transmitter complex in Okeechobee.
The special anniversary programs include archival recordings, interviews, and comments from listeners. The first half-hour program is in English followed by a second half-hour program in French.
The broadcast via WRMI was received outdoors on a Tecsun PL-880 receiver in AM mode with 2.3 kHz filtering and a Tecsun AN-03L 7-metre wire antenna strung to a nearby tree in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada. Reception was mostly quite good.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Andy Wang, who shares the following recording and notes:
DPRK's international radio service was named "Radio Pyongyang" until year 2002. Now it is called "Voice of Korea".
In Chinese, Korean and Japanese languages, there are different words to distinguish the north and south.
In English language, word "Korea" may stand for both.
I think the name "Radio Pyongyang" is clear, does not have ambiguity. The name "Voice of Korea", we cannot guess which side it is from.
The radio recording was on the Military Foundation Day in DPRK, 25 April 1999. Its content is the celebration of the festival.
The programmes are political promotion news, editorials, songs and music.
The distance from receiving place Shenyang to Pyongyang is about 374.3KM, to Seoul is about 565.4KM, and to Beijing is about 660.5KM.
The two distances are shorter than to China's capital, it is easier to receive the radio programmes from the Korean Peninsula, and no special equipment is required.
Sometimes in the night, in the mid wave band, the radio transmission from North Korea can "mix" with Shenyang local radio signal, unintentionally interferes the local broadcast.
Broadcaster: Radio Pyongyang
Date of recording: 4/25/1999
Starting time: 11:00
Frequency: 9.445 MHz
Reception location: Shenyang China
Receiver and antenna: Philips Radio Receiver and Casette Recorder AW7509 with antenna on it
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Andy Wang, who shares the following recording and notes:
Frequency: 9.350MHz
Reception location: Shenyang China
Receiver and antenna: MeiDuo Radio Receiver and Casette Recorder CP6941 with antenna on it.
Notes: This is a record of VOA Korean Service on the year 2002, I cannot remember the exact month and day of the record. But I think it is on the second quarter of that year.
The background has serious radio interference from the DPRK.
I do not speak Korean, and I did not invoke machine speech recognition to extract transcriptions. I would like to share, anyone who speaks Korean is welcome to interpret the content of the recording.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following frequency announcement recording of Rádio Nacional da Amazônia, recorded on 11,780 kHz. The date of the recording is July 14, 2021 (time not noted) and reception location was McGrath, Alaska.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following recording of Vatican Radio made on August 17, 2021, on 13,380 kHz at 18:00 UTC.
Note that Carlos Latuff, is not only a devoted radio enthusiast, but also a prominent political cartoonist in Brazil and throughout the world. Carlos has kindly included his listening report with his original artwork in the image above. Thank you for sharing, Carlos.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of the Voice of Vietnam Interval Signal.
This was recorded on 11,885 kHz, July 24, 2021 at 19:00 UTC in McGrath, Alaska.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:
Date of recording: 7/29/1997
Frequency: 6.955
Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada
Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna
Mode: AM
Notes: This shortwave pirate broadcaster could be heard well here in Southern Ontario in the late 1990's. They finished each program with their theme song "Secret Agent Man."
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Stewart Killeen, who shares the following recording and notes:
The final show entitled Generation 3.0 at the close of service on Radio Romania International recorded on the 29th July 2021, Dublin Ireland.
Date of recording: 7/29/2021
Starting time: 2149UTC
Frequency: 13.645 MHz
Receiver location: Dublin, Ireland
Receiver and antenna: Tecsun PL-660
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Stewart Killeen, who shares the following recording and notes:
Excerpt from the Round Table China talk show broadcast on China Radio International at 7.419 MHz 08 July 2021 at 22:00 UTC (Dublin, Ireland)
Broadcaster: China Radio International
Date of recording: 7/8/2021
Starting time: 22:08 UTC
Frequency: 7.419 MHz
Reception location: Dublin, Ireland
Receiver and antenna: Tecsun PL-660
Midday at Rothera Research Station in midwinter. Credit: Klara Weaver, Rothera Research Station.
A live, off-air, half-hour recording of the BBC World Service special Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast on 21 June 2021 beginning at 21:30 UTC. The broadcast, hosted by Cerys Matthews, featured messages and music for the staff of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) overwintering in Antarctica. In addition to personal messages from family and friends, there were special messages from BAS personnel and others including one from Sir David Attenborough accompanied by a blackbird. The transmitter had a "crash start" and the first two words of the introductory announcement ("This is") were cut.
The recording is of the transmission on a frequency of 7305 kHz from the BBC's Woofferton, England, transmitting station (300 kW rated transmitter power, antenna beam 182 degrees). The transmission was received on a Tecsun PL-880 receiver with a Tecsun AN-03L 7-metre wire antenna outdoors in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada, in AM mode with 2.3 kHz RF filtering. Reception was fairly good with little noise and fading and reasonable signal strength, which was better than that on the parallel frequencies of 9505 kHz from Woofferton and 6170 kHz from Ascension Island. A fourth frequency, 6035 kHz, transmitted from Dhabbaya, United Arab Emirates, was not heard. At the very end of the program, there is some slight adjacent frequency interference.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dave Zantow, for sharing the following recording and notes:
Kol Israel (15:01)
September 12, 2001 at 0400 UTC
15640 kHz
Receiver used was a Japan Radio Co. NRD-545 (Sync on and 10 kHz bandwidth). One can hear minor DSP artifacts (burps) mixed in the background. Of course a common trait for the NRD-545.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dave Zantow, who shares the following recording and notes:
BBC World Service (16:49)
September 12, 2001 at 0000 UTC on 5975 kHz
Receiver used was a Japan Radio Co. NRD-545 (Sync on and 10 kHz bandwidth). One can hear minor DSP artifacts (burps) mixed in the background. Of course a common trait for the NRD-545.
Image by Moritz Mentges
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Matt Todd, who shares this bit of HF aviation traffic he recently recorded. Matt notes
Air to ground communications between Spirit 558 and New York. A phone patch was established to allow the aircraft to talk to a doctor on the ground about a person who had a seizure while on board the flight.
Date of recording: 5/11/2021
Starting time: 0256 UTC
Frequency: 8.933
Reciever location: Hugo, MN
Receiver and antenna: Sdr Play with a wire loop antenna around the perimeter of the attic
Mode: Single Side Band
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Rosa Sanese, who shares the following recording and notes:
About a month and a half after the previous radio listening recording that I published, here is a new audio file that I got listening to "Yoga Network" (the one that many years ago in Bologna broadcast in medium waves on AM 1503 kHz—?), re-transmitted by "Radio Echo One" in the afternoon of May 15, 2021 on 1710 kHz. I received the station with my Tecsun PL-600 receiver.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording of a Russian language numbers station. Paul recorded this on April 26, 2021 at 0218 UTC in McGrath, Alaska, on 11,615 kHz.
Feel free to comment if you can ID this particular station.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bruce Frederick who shares the following recording and notes:
VOYAGER 1 90 Deg Bank Angle 8.822 MHz 20 Dec 1986 2200 UTC
Recently when cleaning out our attic I came across QSLs that I received from the Voyager crew from their historic1986 circumnavigation of the earth. After continued searching I also came across the cassette recordings I made of some of their communications between Dec 20 - 22, 1986. The first hour provides the most compelling listening, as I started the tape just before Voyage unexpectedly ran into severe weather issues off the coast of Brazil. The small aircraft was tossed to a bank angle of 90 degrees, which theoretically it shouldn't have recovered from, yet Rutan was just barely able to maintain control and keep flying. At the worst possible time, the Vandenburg transmitter went down leaving Rutan and Yeager out of communication with their weather team who they were depending on to give them a safe heading to fly out of the storms. The stress and tension of the situation are very evident in the voices. I have several hours of additional comms, but this excerpt is the most compelling. While preparing this submission, I discovered that Tom Gavaras from MN made a similar contribution on July 28, 2020, covering a period a couple of days after this event. These contributions are complementary and should probably be cross-linked for people interested in hearing different days of the mission. Note that like Tom, I also have the QSLs I received a few months after the mission.
BROADCASTER:
Voyager Mission Control at Vandenburg AFB and Voyage aircraft in-flight near Brazil
DATE OF RECORDING:
12/20/1986
STARTING TIME:
~2200 UTC
FREQUENCY:
8.822 MHz
RX LOCATION:
Boston, MA USA
RECEIVER AND ANTENNA:
Icom 745 with horizontal wire dipole at ~30 ft.
MODE:
Single Side Band
Additional details:
Regarding the QSL card, Bruce notes:
"...I was never a big QSL collector when I was active in the '80s but this was kind of special: QSLs for the Voyager 1 non-stop flight around the world in 1986, signed by Dick Rutan, Jeana Yeager, and Larry Gaskey (Mission Operations Director). Since this this wasn't a commercial broadcast organization, I didn't think they would have QSL cards (or even know what a QSL request was), so I followed the protocol of the time and prepared my own 8.5" x 11" printout and polite cover letter explaining why I was writing. I was blown away when I received not only detailed info on my home brew form, but a classy postcard signed personally by Rutan and Yeager..."
The Voyage flight plan from this website:
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who shares the following recording and notes:
KBS World Radio in Spanish to Latin/North America on 15,575 kHz starting at 0216 UTC.
The signal was so good I recorded it in 5 kHz audio
Receiver and Antenna used: Tecsun PL-880, DXE preamp and Doxytronics tunable loop
Reception location: McGrath, Alaska
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Rosa Sanese, who shares the following recording and notes:
Pirate radio recording made on 1,71 MHz at 6:30 pm on March 31, 2021 from Casalecchio di Reno (BO) with a Tecsun PL-600 receiver and an external wire antenna.
The broadcast begins with the presenter, Lucie Medici, from New York speaking in Italian about scented candles, followed by Radio Echo One jingles and then live replay with the Yoga Network radio host who talks about vegetarian nutrition.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who shares the following recording and notes:
Here are two back to back episodes of Glenn Hauser's World of Radio from August 8 and September 12, 1982. WOR normally aired on WRNO on Sundays at 2330 UTC on 11.955 MHz.
Some of the program highlights are:
Part 1: An expert's view of Cuban broadcasting (Ronald Schatz), Cuban interference to US AM stations, the beginning of AM stereo in the US, new Canadian MW station proposals, SW program notes, items on Radio Quince de Septiembre and Radio Venceremos, La Voz del CID, Radio Tachira Venezuela, a new RRI station from Padang on 6812 kHz.
Part 2: DX from Cape Verde, LRA36 from Antarctica, Argentina, Brazil, mediumwave auroral conditions with good conditions to Cuba and Venezuela, WCCO 830 kHz silent period, Peru and Bolivia SW DX tips, item on Radio New Zealand, Vatican Radio Latin mass, followup on DXing harmonics.
Starting time: 2300
Frequency: 11.855
Your location: South Bend, Indiana
Your receiver and antenna: Sony ICF-2001.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Matt Todd, who shares the following recording and notes:
A shortwave pirate radio station calling itself WFDR which broadcast on Christmas Eve December 24, 2020 at 2259UTC on 6920 kHz.
The broadcast was as follows:
Franklin Roosevelts Christmas Speech in 1942
Winston Churchill Speech
Christmas Music
Date of recording: 12/24/2020
Starting time: 2259
Frequency: 6.92 MHz
RX location: Hugo, MN
Receiver and antenna: Sdr Play with a wire loop antenna around the perimeter of the attic
Mode: Single Side Band
QSL CARD CONFIRMING RECEPTION OF A SHORTWAVE BROADCAST OF POLSKIE RADIO IN DECEMBER 1968
Unedited one-hour podcast of the studio recording of the English stream of Radio Poland, the external service of Polish Radio (Polskie Radio), as aired on 1 March 2021 at 13:00 UTC. The first half hour of the recording is a special program to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the external service of Polish Radio and discusses the history of the service from its founding up to the present time. The external service has been variously called Warsaw Calling, Radio Polonia, and Radio Poland. The remainder of the recording includes a segment on Polish cooking and an episode of "From the Archives" featuring the music of Chopin.
Radio Poland is no longer broadcast on shortwave directly from Poland but it is carried on on a mediumwave transmitter in Lithuania and a low-powered shortwave transmitter in Kall, Germany (German program only). It is also streamed on the Web, 24 hours per day, and broadcast by DAB+ within Poland and by other FM and DAB broadcasters around the world as well as via satellite.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Matt Todd, who shares the following recording and notes:
The VOA had an apparent issue with their sign on. The interval signal was played twice, then an ID for Radio Free Europe and then an Asian language programing was joined in progress.
Date of recording: 1/11/2021
Starting time:1900 UTC
Frequency: 9.8 MHz
RX location: Hugo, MN
Receiver and antenna: SDRplay with a wire loop attic antenna
E-QSL RECEIVED FOR RECEPTION REPORT OF THE BROADCAST
Live, off-air, recording of the broadcast of an hour-long segment of the North American Shortwave Association's Winter SWL Fest "Shortwave Shindig in Exile" session by WRMI, Radio Miami International, using a transmitter at Okeechobee, Florida, on 27 February 2021 from 02:00 to 03:00 UTC on a shortwave frequency of 7780 kHz. The listed transmitter power is 100 kW with an antenna beam azimuth of 44°. The recording begins and ends with the WRMI station identification.
The radio broadcast, from a recording, took place in the same time slot as its airing during the virtual 34th Annual Winter SWL Fest held 26-27 February 2021 via Zoom. The broadcast included the digital transmission of an image in MFSK32 mode centred on 1500 kHz.
The broadcast was received outdoors on a Belka-DSP receiver in pseudosynchronous mode with 50 Hz to 3 kHz filtering and a Tecsun AN-03L 7-metre wire antenna strung to a nearby tree in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada. Reception was mostly good but there was signal fading at times with some attendant noise.
Digital image transmitted in MFSK32 mode during the broadcast
Image source: Gary Deacon
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Sarah Boucher, who shares the following recording and notes:
ZD8VR Volcano Radio 1602 AM Closedown 5 May 1979/AFRTS Accession Island Sign Off
Gary Deacon recorded [this audio]. It has end of jazz show, sign off announcement, station ID and incomplete GSTQ by local gender neutral band.
Receiver and antenna: 1950's Siera domestic valve receiver and 20 metre longwire antenna.
Recording by Gary Deacon
Click here for Gary’s full post.
Live, off-air, one-hour-long recording of Radio Öömrang on 21 February 2021 beginning at 16:00 UTC on a frequency of 15215 kHz from a transmitter at Issoudun, France, operating at 500 kW and beamed to North America. Radio Öömrang broadcasts once a year on the occasion of the Biakendai to the descendants of immigrants from the island of Amrum. Öömrang is a North Frisian dialect and is still spoken on Amrum. Biakendai is an annual celebration where a great bonfire is lit to dispel winter, although reportedly it was not held in 2021 due to the pandemic.The broadcast consisted of talks and interviews in Frisian, German, and English and included new and repeat material from previous years' broadcasts. It began with an introduction in German and then in English:
"Hello. We are broadcasting. This is Radio Öömrang, the Frisian voice coming from Amrum, the island in north Germany. The frequenz is 15.215 shortwave broadcasted with 500 kW. It could be heard on the 21st of February in North America and east coast. And now you can hear us. This is the tenth issue of Radio Öömrang and we are happy to send this anniversary. The initiator of this broadcasting is Mr. Arjan Koelzow, Tanenwai 24, in 25946 Nebel on the island Amrum. My name is Gernot Schrader, the leader of the free assistance school Toosbüy-Schule in Flensburg at the Danish borderline with Germany."
Although the introduction mentions it is the tenth anniversary issue, that actually occurred in 2015 and the English introduction has been reused each subsequent year.
Reception was excellent.
The broadcast was received outdoors on a Belka-DSP receiver in semi-synchronous mode with 50 Hz to 3 kHz RF filtering and a Tecsun AN-03L 7-metre wire antenna strung to a nearby tree in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada.
A recording of the 2016 broadcast can be found here: https://shortwavearchive.com/archive/radio-mrang-february-21-2016
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Lee Herterich, who shares the following recording and notes:
1962 shortwave listening revisited.
Shortwave listening tape recordings from 1962. Included are the BBC, Montreal, Italy, Radio Moscow, Austria and the voice of America. The recording begins and ends with the BBC's Holiday Music Hall.
Receiver location: Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts USA
Receiver and antenna: Lafayette KT-200 receiver and folded dipole antenna
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, for sharing the following recording and notes:
Voice of America studio quality recording of shortwave coverage of Apollo 11. Starts with newscast on the status of Soviet Luna 2 orbiter that was also sent to the moon, Egyptian-Israel conflict at the Suez Canal, Organization of American States call for a cease fire between El Salvador and Honduras, entire cabinet in South Vietnam resigns, American air attacks against the Viet Cong, etc. Followed by latest updates on Apollo 11 (lunar module is on the moon), international reaction to landing on the moon, etc.
Date of recording: 7/20/1969
Starting time: 1730 UTC
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
KGEI General Electric shortwave station in San Francisco, CO. Recording consists of end of Musical Rambling from the National Broadcasting Company, KGEI identification, newscast including extensive war reports including news on German attack on Russia, British offensive in Africa, American government moving cautiously in supporting the USSR, German attacks on merchant ships, Sweden allows Russian troops to cross their territory, British aircrafts shot down over Italy, etc. Plus stock market reports and commodity quotations, KGEI sign off.
Recording provided by broadcast historian, Todd Kosovich.
Starting time: 1700 UTC
Frequency: 9.530 MHz
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker who shares the following recording of KCBS made on January 8, 2021 starting at 1747 UTC in McGrath, Alaska, on 873 kHz.
Old QSL from Radio Tawantinsuyo, Cuzco, Peru
Thanks to SRAA contributor Dan Robinson for these notes and audio of Radio Tawantinsuyo, Cuzco, Peru
Rising early in the morning was a regular activity of DX’ers who wanted to hear the more difficult stations from Latin America that used to fill the shortwave bands. One of those was Radio Tawantinsuyo, located in Cuzco, Peru. The station was on 6,175 khz in the 49 meter band but was more often heard on variable frequencies as low as 6,173 khz. This recording of the station sign on brings back so many memories for DX’ers who focused on South America.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Scott G., for the following recording and notes:
BBC World Service Reporting on the death of Fidel Castro. Believe these broadcasts were targeted to Africa, but reception was good into Europe that morning. I was listening to these using my home receiver in East Anglia, England, but due to local interference, started recording them using the Twente SDR.
Broadcaster: BBC
Date of recording: 11/26/2016
Starting time: 0700 UTC
Frequency: 11.770 & 12.095
Location: University of Twente, Netherlands
Receiver and antenna: SDR, Mini-Whip antenna