For your listening pleasure: beHAVior Night, a shortwave radio show, relayed by WBCQ, dedicated to showcasing music from the first four decades of the 20th Century.
This show was recorded on 7,490 kHz, starting at 22:00 UTC on January 17, 2014.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
For your listening pleasure: 1 hour and 17 minutes of pirate radio station, Wolverine Radio–recorded Sunday, January 19, 2014 starting around 1:40 UTC.
Wolverine was broadcasting on 6,94o kHz in the upper side band. Typical of Wolverine, lots of music variety which spans the decades and no commentary other than station ID throughout.
While reception was waning when I decoded Wolverine’s SSTV QSL (see right), signal strength and audio fidelity were excellent as always.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3 or simply listen via the embedded player below:
One of my favorite shortwave radio broadcasters is Radio New Zealand International. RNZI has authoritative news--with a focus on NZ and the Pacific islands--music, sports and their own unique character, though they operate on a very modest budget by international broadcasting standards.
The RNZI interval signal is charming and unmistakable: the call of the New Zealand Bellbird.
For your listening pleasure: two full hours of Radio New Zealand International, recorded on January 17, 2014 starting around 7:59 UTC on 9,765 kHz.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or listen via the embedded player below:
This Radio Japan (Japanese language) broadcast was recorded on January 7, 2014 starting a little before 02:00 UTC on 5,960 kHz. The broadcast begins with a few seconds of Radio Japan's interval signal.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
Wikipedia: Enrico Caruso with a "Victrola"phonograph
For your listening pleasure: beHAVior Night, a shortwave radio show, relayed by WBCQ, dedicated to showcasing music from the first four decades of the 20th Century.
This show was receorded on 7,490 kHz, starting at 22:00 UTC on January 10, 2014.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
(Source: xinhuanet.com)
Many thanks to Brett Saylor, who contributed this recording of the Tibet People's Broadcasting Station from Lhasa, Tibet. This is a short recording of the station ID with time pips at the top of the hour (12:00 UTC) and identification including English.
Recorded in Pennsylvania in the eastern United States on January 20, 2004 using a Drake R8 with a longwire external antenna.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
For your listening enjoyment: The Voice of America's Learning English service (formerly VOA Special English).
This VOA broadcast was recorded on January 4, 2014 starting a little before 01:30 UTC on 7,465 kHz. It begins with a few seconds of VOA’s interval signal.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
Victory Avenue (Calea Victoriei), a major avenue in central Bucharest, Romania (Source: Wikipedia, Mihai Petre)
For your listening enjoyment: Radio Romania International‘s English language service.
This RRI broadcast was recorded on January 4, 2013 starting a little before 01:00 UTC on 7,325 kHz. It begins with a few seconds of RRI’s interval signal.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
The Palace of Culture in Iași, built on the ruins of the Royal Court of Moldavia, hosts the largest art collection in Romania. (Source: Wikipedia)
For your listening pleasure: two hours of Radio Romania International's Romanian language service.
This broadcast was recorded on January 4, 2014, on 7,340 kHz, starting at 01:00 UTC.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
On New Year’s Eve (December 31, 2013), while band scanning, I tuned to 6,955 kHz around 22:15 UTC, and heard a relatively strong pirate station.
For at least 51 minutes, this unidentified pirate played various percussion music, much of which sounded like recordings of live drum circles. I never heard an ID during the broadcast, nor did anyone on the HF Underground board.
Listen for yourself: click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below.
Reginald Fessenden: “The Father of Radio Broadcasting” (Source: Wikipedia)
A few weeks ago, on The SWLing Post, I published an article about Brian Justin’s holiday longwave broadcasts commemorating Reginald Fessenden’s Christmas Eve 1906 AM voice transmission. Click here to read the full article.
I don't spend a lot of time in the longwave portion of the radio spectrum, so this special event station gave me an excuse to venture a little lower on the radio dial. Fortunately, LW propagation was in my favor, and Justin's signal made it the 215 miles to my home. While it's not armchair listening, it's most impressive, especially considering the transmitter used is "home-brewed" with modest output power.
This recording of WG2XFG was made when the signal seemed to be at its strongest on December 26th, 2013 starting around 12:40 UTC (Christmas evening, EST). Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Yesterday–New Year's Eve, 2014–I spent some time listening to a few broadcasters as the new year passed through their time zones. While I missed hearing Radio New Zealand International (the first to welcome the New Year on the air), I did manage to catch Radio Australia, and the New Year was celebrated with no fanfare; one program merely ran into the next, and there was a brief mention of 2014's arrival in the headline news.
Oh, but it wasn't that way when we moved into the year 2000...
Back in December of 1999, before setting off to visit family for the New Year, I had a sudden notion: I decided it would be fun–and a bit novel–to record radio broadcasters as each moved into the new millennium. As we were packing the car to travel, I changed my mind about using my Grundig Yacht Boy 400 to accomplish this fairly ambitious, round-the-world listening/recording endeavor; instead, I grabbed my ham radio transceiver, an Icom IC-735, and packed it, along with a hefty 12-volt power supply. While my IC-735 lacked AM filters (at the time) it had much better sensitivity than the YB400, especially when hooked up to a decent antenna. I also had the foresight to take along a few odds and ends, including a mechanical antenna tuner and a spool of long wire.
To record the broadcast, I used my trusty Aiwa AM F70 MiniDisk recorder–remember those? Upon arrival at our extended family's home, they kindly permitted me to erect a long wire antenna in a sloping configuration in their yard. It did a fine job netting the airwaves. The MiniDisk recorder recorded brilliantly, allowing me to monitor levels and even edit afterward.
As a result, I spent New Year's Eve 2000 recording station after station as the earth turned. It was great fun, and meanwhile had very little impact on our family celebrations as I simply left the recorder running for long periods of time.
While I have yet to dissect the many hours of recordings, if memory serves, I think I managed to record Radio New Zealand International, Voice of Russia, Radio France International, NHK, Voice of America, and Radio Canada International as each rang in 2000. The IC-735 performed quite well, save a lack of bandwidth filters, as I only really had two–very wide, and very narrow.
So, for your New Year's Day listening pleasure: I hope you'll enjoy, as much as I did, listening to Radio Australia ring in the new millennium yet again. In the news items, you'll hear that Russian President Boris Yeltson has handed the reigns over to Vladimir Putin, and remarks about the (lack of) problems resulting from the infamous Y2K threat.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen below:
Last Friday, I tried to catch beHAVior Night's Christmas special on 7,490 kHz at 22:00 UTC. Unfortunately, WBCQ was having transmitter problems and the show never aired.
Thankfully, beHAVior Night's "Sir Scratchy" has kindly given me permission to post his studio recording of the entire show. You can listen to the recording below. Please note: this show will be repeated Friday, December 27, 2013 on 7,490 kHz at 22:00 UTC (17:00 EST)--I will attempt to record the broadcast and post it here as well.
Many thanks to SWAA contributor, Andy Robins, for this recording of Radio Fana.
Andy recorded this short eight minute clip between 02:55 - 03:00 UTC on December 15, 2013 on 6.110 MHz using an Icom IC-R75 with a 40-foot PAR EF-SWL end-fed wire. Note that Andy used SSB to tune this very weak AM signal.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
(Image source: Austria Remote DX)
Many thanks to SWAA contributor, Andy Robins, for this recording of the clandestine station, the Voice of the Tigray Revolution.
Andy recorded this broadcast between 02:55 - 03:18 UTC on December 16, 2013 on 5.950 MHz using an Icom IC-R75 with a 40-foot PAR EF-SWL end-fed wire.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
Dakshineswar Kali Temple (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
For your listening pleasure: one hour, forty five minutes of All India Radio's English Language Service.
This broadcast was recorded on December 19, 2013, starting at 20:45 UTC on 9,445 kHz. Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
For your listening pleasure: one hour, seven minutes of the pirate radio station, Radio Free Whatever.
I recorded this broadcast on December 15 2013, starting around 2:40 UTC (Dec 14, 9:40 PM EST), on 6,925 kHz AM. This broadcast was a tribute broadcast to WWII/Pearl Harbor and contains news clips and music from the same time period.
Simply click here to download an MP3 of the recording, or listen via the embedded player below:
(From the SWLing Post)
On the afternoon of November 29th, while traveling during the Thanksgiving holiday, I took my wife to an art supply store. While she was inside shopping, I sat in my truck and remembered that I had my Tecsun PL-660 in tow (after all, never leave home without a radio, right?). I slightly opened the driver’s side window, turned on the PL-660 and extended the telescopic antenna out the window. I instantly I heard a station playing music on 6,925 kHz. What? I couldn’t be hearing a pirate this time of the afternoon, with a portable radio in a crowded parking lot!?!
Then I heard the station ID of Channel Z.
I quickly used my iPhone to log into my home computer (in a different part of the state) and tune my WinRadio Excalibur to record the broadcast. I could clearly see Channel Z’s AM carrier on the spectrum display.
After hearing the station email address, I sent in my signal report using my iPhone. Later, I received an eQSL (see above) and the following about the broadcast and Channel Z:
“You heard the special program, “Before They Were Famous – Part 3” from guest DJ Andy Walker. I was very lucky to have Andy do this show for Channel Z Radio, as he has been in semi-retirement the past three years, with only occasional guest appearances on Crazy Wave Radio in Germany, and now for the third time on Channel Z radio. Since Andy’s shows have received such a huge response from the DX community, there is a good chance he will do another show on Channel Z sometime soon.
Andy has been involved in free radio for over 37 years, and got his start at the age of 15 as part of the site crew with Radio Kaleidoscope in London. He was instrumental in bringing long-time land based pirate Radio Free London (RFL) back to the air waves in the mid 1990’s, and was a regular DJ on WNKR (West and North Kent Radio) for over 20 years. In addition, he was part of the crew on Britain’s first legally licensed offshore station, Offshore Radio 1584 in 1992.
Channel Z has been on the air since November 2004, and started because of my interest in building homemade shortwave transmitters. To date, Channel Z has been heard in 30 states, Canada, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Newfoundland, Norway, Poland and Venezuela; all on homebrewed transmitters. This time I was using my favorite transmitter, the Commando, designed by Dave Martin of WNKR. The Commando does 25 watts carrier on 43 meters with a 14 VDC supply. The antenna was a horizontal dipole, cut for 6925 kHz, and was approximately 15 meters above ground.
Many thanks to Channel Z for the feedback. I’m amazed that I was able to hear the 25 watt Commando with my PL-660 in the middle of a crowded parking lot. Of course, that’s part of the magic of the shortwaves (and pirate radio listening).
For your listening pleasure, here is 50 minutes of Channel Z, staring around 21:40 UTC on 29 November 2013. This broadcast was recorded via my home SDR. Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
President Vladimir Putin (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
(Adapted from original on SWLing Post)
This morning, I tuned to the Voice of Russia (a.k.a. Radio VR) English language service to hear the state news agency's take on the sweeping changes President Vladimir Putin implemented yesterday.
I expected the story to be somewhat buried amongst international headlines, but instead I heard no mention within the one hour news broadcast.
Here's a recording of the broadcast from today at 13:00 on 12,075 kHz (which begins to fade toward the end):
I then searched through some spectrum recordings I made yesterday and discovered VOR's American Hour broadcast on 9,395 kHz, starting at 23:00 UTC.
Even though this is the American Hour, I would have expected some mention of the news agency changes in the international news selection.
So, don't turn to Voice of Russia broadcasts to learn about the overhaul of Russian state media. Ironically, VOR News prominently featured an article on their website regarding these changes within the state media. Indeed, it was this article I posted yesterday on the SWLing Post.
The old fort of Zanzibar, Tanzania (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Many thanks to SWAA contributor, Frank, for this recording of the ZBC Zanzibar made from his home in Europe.
This recording includes Zanzibar Broadcasting Corporation's programme in English and Swahili, recorded on December 4, 2013, at 18:00 GMT. ZBC Zanzibar was using their 50 kW transmitter.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
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