Radio Polonia: post martial law declaration 1981 (Part 1)

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Jim Jordan, who shares this three part recording of Radio Polonia and notes:

After the declaration of martial law in Poland on December 13, 1981 Radio Polonia ceased broadcasting. Broadcasts in English instead continued from a military base near Warsaw Airport. The staff of Radio Polonia returned to the air soon afterwards and here are three broadcasts from that period in Poland's history. Of some of the presenters that you will hear, Konrad Gocman is in retirement and works as a translator. However Benny Ludkiewicz (aka "Bengt Scotland") unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago. Anyone who is interested in the old North American service from Warsaw may like to read have a read of this. The writer used to work with the late Sol Flapan and his wife Anna, who used to deal with the English section's correspondence right up until the 1990s http://www.tc.umn.edu/~marqu002/Chap10.pdf

Jim made the following recording in South Shields, UK, using a National Panasonic RF2200 and a random long wire on 6.135 MHz:

Radio Riyadh: April 24, 2016

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Radio Riyadh recorded in London, UK on April 24, 2016 at 2100 UTC on the frequency of 9555 kHz using a FunCube Dongle Pro+ SDR, SDR# software, Lowe PR-150 preselector and a DX Engineering NCC-1 phaser connected to two Wellbrook ALA1530S+ antennas (positioned indoors) to mitigate severe local man-made interference. The transmitter has a power rating of 500 kW and is located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The transmission is directed north-westwards (295°) towards the Maghreb region of Africa.

Brief programme summary kindly provided by @K7al_L3afta:

  • Start of the recording: News, followed by music
  • 22m 00s: a program called "Arabic Aether" that compiles segments from Arabic radio stations
  • 51m 15s: the signal is interrupted when the presenter announces the next program's name
  • 57m 40s: later, at the end of it, the program's title is repeated: "A Heart's Swing". A romantic Arabic poetry program.
  • 60m 00s: Weekly Sunday program called "Najdi Air" or "The Air of Najd" (Najd is a Saudi city). Talk and music show discussing various topics each week and people call to give their opinion and insight. The topic in the recording is "Organising work priorities".

Radio Canada International (SWL Digest): November 22, 1981

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who notes:

Radio Canada International recorded on November 22, 1981. This is another from my archive of old recordings of Radio Canada International's Shortwave Listeners Digest. This episode contains Larry Magne's first installment of shortwave equipment reviews this time looking at variables used in evaluating equipment; Harold Sellers with a report from the ANARC DX Equipment Information Committee; Glenn Hauser's DX news.
Date of recording: 11/22/1981
Starting time: 2100
Frequency: 15.325
Location: South Bend, IN
Receiver used: Sony ICF-2001

Radio Casablanca: April 19, 2016

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Last night at about 00:10 UTC, I was pleased to hear the interval signal of one of my favorite pirate radio stations: Radio Casablanca.

“Rick Blaine” fired up his AM transmitter and pumped out some amazing WWII era music on 6,940 kHz for about one hour and a half. Radio Casablanca only pops up a few times a year, so I always feel fortunate to grab the broadcast (click here to listen to previous recordings).

Signal strength varied over the course of the broadcast and the bands were quite noisy–still, the Casablanca signal punched through quite well at times.

Close your eyes and imagine what it must have been like to hear the great bands of the era over the shortwaves…

Click here to download an MP3 of the full recording, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Note that the interval signal starts around 01:25:

All India Radio (GOS): December 4, 2015

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All India Radio's General Overseas Service recorded in London, UK on December 4, 2015 at 2053 UTC on the frequency of 9445 kHz using a Lowe HF-150 radio with the Lowe PR-150 preselector and DX Engineering NCC-1 phaser connected to two Wellbrook ALA1530S+ antennas (positioned indoors) to mitigate severe local man-made interference. Despite these RFI reduction efforts, the initial recording was badly damaged by the noise from several nearby powerline networking adapters (before the correct phasing settings in the NCC-1 unit could be identified, which ultimately nulled this noise) and by degraded propagation towards the end of the transmission. Fortunately, post-processing the recording in SDR# using its noise reduction plugins made the audio listenable once again.

Radio Habana Cuba: March 22, 23, and 27, 2016

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Live, off-air, recordings of three broadcasts in English from Radio Habana Cuba acquired during the week of the visits to Cuba of Barack Obama and the Rolling Stones. These broadcasts were received on the shortwave frequency of 6000 kHz on 22 March 2016 beginning at about 01:00 UTC, 23 March beginning at about 02:00 UTC, and 27 March beginning at about 05:00 UTC. These broadcasts were beamed to North America from a 250 kW transmitter at Quivicán, near La Habana, with an antenna beam azimuth of 10°.

Radio Habana Cuba transmits to North America in English between 01:00 and 07:00 UTC on 6000 kHz (as well as on some other frequencies for various periods of time). The daily broadcast is only one-hour long, so there are six repeats one after the other during the evening and overnight. There is a brief interval signal (IS) just before the first broadcast but no IS between the broadcast repeats. On 22 March, the transmitter came up on 6000 kHz at least a couple of minutes before 01:00 UTC with the IS beginning just a few seconds before 01:00 UTC. For the Monday (21st) and Tuesday (22nd) local-time broadcasts, the news bulletins had extended reports on the activities associated with the visit of Barak Obama and there were additional special items on the visit although the regular features like "Focus on Africa," "Arts Roundup," and "DXers Unlimited" were still aired. The Saturday (26th) local-time broadcast had extensive reports on the concert by the Rolling Stones on Friday, the 25th, along with the regular programs "Breakthrough" and "Music with a Message."

Signal quality was fairly good for all three broadcasts although there was a slight bit of transmitter hum and modulation wasn't always perfect. At times during the broadcast of 22 March (UTC), co-channel interference (QRM) from Turkey was noted despite their signal being beamed towards the east. 

The broadcasts were received on a Tecsun PL-880 receiver with its built-in telescopic whip antenna indoors in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada, in AM mode with 5.0 kHz RF filtering.

KBS World Radio (English): April 6, 2016

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KBS World Radio recorded in London, UK on April 6, 2016 at 1559 UTC, on the frequency of 9515 kHz using AirSpy, SpyVerter, SDR# software and a 2 x 6m long wire dipole antenna. The transmitter has a power rating of 250 kW and is located in Kimjae, South Korea.

Voice of Korea: April 9, 2016

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Voice of Korea, DPRK recorded in London, UK on April 9, 2016 at 1638 UTC, on the frequency of 11645 kHz using AirSpy, SpyVerter, SDR# software and a 2 x 6m long wire dipole antenna. SDR#'s IF noise reduction plugin was used to mitigate the severe levels of static arising from poor propagation conditions. The transmitter has a power rating of 200 kW and is located in Kujang, DPRK. In this recording, the testing of a new intercontinental ballistic missile component is announced, possibly making this broadcast historically significant. 

KCBS Pyongyang: April 9, 2016

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Korean Central Broadcasting Station, Pyongyang recorded in London, UK on April 9, 2016 at 1601 UTC, on the frequency of 11680 kHz using AirSpy, SpyVerter, SDR# software and a 2 x 6m long wire dipole antenna. SDR#'s IF noise reduction plugin was used to mitigate the severe levels of static arising from poor propagation conditions. The non-directional transmitter has a power rating of 50 kW and is located in Kanggye, DPRK.

The Sound of Hope: April 6, 2016

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The Sound of Hope (Xi Wang Zhi Sheng) recorded in London, UK on April 6, 2016 at 1600 UTC, on the frequency of 9155 kHz using AirSpy, SpyVerter, SDR# software and a 2 x 6m long wire dipole antenna. The transmitter has a power rating of 100W and is located in Taiwan. This transmission is usually a difficult catch in Europe due to its low power rating and non-directional nature. SDR#'s IF noise reduction plugin was used to make speech more intelligible.

Belaruskaje Radyjo 1 Final Broadcast on Shortwave: 31 March 2016

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Live, off-air, recording of the last half-hour of Belaruskaje Radyjo 1, the First National Channel of Belarusian Radio, on the shortwave frequency of 6080 kHz on 31 March 2016 beginning at about 20:30 UTC. According to a registration with the High Frequency Coordination Conference, this broadcast in Belarusian, was beamed to Russia and Ukraine from a 150 kW transmitter at Kalodzišcy, near Minsk, operated by Belaruski Radyjotelevizijny Peradajučy Centr (BRPC), with an antenna beam azimuth of 127°.

This was the last transmission of Belaruskaje Radyjo 1 on shortwave and longwave due to termination of these services by the state broadcaster. The Radio Belarus external service also stopped using the BRPC mediumwave and shortwave transmitters on 31 March 2016.     

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 5.09 kHz total bandwidth RF filtering. Reception was fair with some co-channel interference from the First Program of China National Radio.

AIR National Channel: September 15, 2015

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All India Radio's National Channel recorded in London, UK on September 15, 2015 at 1652 UTC, on the frequency of 9380 kHz using SDRPlay with SDR# software and a 2 x 6m long wire dipole. The transmitter has a power rating of 250 kW and is located in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. This is an interesting catch in Europe, as the transmission is directed southwards.

Radio Belarus (German): September 24, 2015

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Radio Belarus recorded in London, UK on September 24, 2015 at 1800 UTC, on the frequency of 11730 kHz using SDRPlay with SDR# software and a 2 x 6m long wire dipole. The transmitter has a power rating of 150 kW and is located in Minsk, Belarus. The characteristic hum from the transmitter was removed using Vasili Beliakov's SDR# IF processor plugin.

The Mighty KBC Final Broadcast on 6095 kHz: 27 March 2016

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Live, off-air, recording of the last four hours ever of regular programming from The Mighty KBC on the shortwave frequency of 6095 kHz on 27 March 2016 beginning at 11:00 UTC. According to a registration with the High Frequency Coordination Conference, this broadcast, which lately was on Sundays only, was beamed to Europe from a 100 kW transmitter at Nauen, Germany, with an antenna beam azimuth of 240°. The Mighty KBC is based in Ede, The Netherlands.     

The recording features the last two hours of "The LA Connection" with the DJ Emperor Rosko (Michael Joseph "Mike" Pasternak) and "Rock & Roll Rewind" with DJ Ron O'Quinn. There are many references to these being the last programs to be aired on The Mighty KBC's 6095 kHz frequency. The last words spoken were "But all good things must come to an end. And this is the end of The Mighty KBC on sixty-ninety-five. Good luck to all of you."    

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 8.09 kHz total bandwidth RF filtering. Reception was excellent with a strong interference-free signal.

Radio Reloj, San Jose, Costa Rica: Winter 1980

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Harner, who notes:

In 1980, I purchased my first serious shortwave radio, a Panasonic RF-2200.  While I enjoyed listening to the international broadcasters, it was the smaller domestic broadcasters that I grew to enjoy more.  Especially the Latin American stations on 49 and 60 meters.  Stations from Colombia and Venezuela were prevalent throughout the evening hours.  Two of the most reliable stations were Venezuelans Radio Rumbos from Caracas (4970 kHz), and Ecos del Torbes from San Cristobal (4980 kHz).  
These stations would broadcast in the evenings and sign-off at 0300 or 0400 UTC. Another was Radio Reloj de Costa Rica on 4832 kHz, which would be heard in the evenings and overnight hours. 
I enjoyed the music and the style of programming these stations had, and over the years these stations became longtime friends on the airwaves to me.
Here is a 30 minute recording of Radio Reloj de Costa Rica from the winter of 1980:

Radio Belarus (Russian): March 31, 2016

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Radio Belarus in Russian recorded outdoors in London, UK on March 31, 2016 at 1439 UTC, on the frequency of 11730 kHz using a Tecsun PL-680 radio and the supplied external antenna. The transmitter has a power rating of 150 kW and is located in Minsk, Belarus. The characteristic hum and low modulation typical of Radio Belarus are present in this recording.

Radio Belarus (Belorussian): March 31, 2016

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Radio Belarus in Belorussian recorded outdoors in London, UK on March 31, 2016 at 1256 UTC, on the frequency of 11730 kHz using a Tecsun PL-680 radio and the supplied external antenna. The transmitter has a power rating of 150 kW and is located in Minsk, Belarus. The characteristic hum and low modulation typical of Radio Belarus are present in this recording. At 1330 UTC, BBC Bangla started broadcasting on the same frequency.

Radio Rumbos, Caracas, Venezuela: Winter 1980

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Harner, who notes:

In 1980, I purchased my first serious shortwave radio, a Panasonic RF-2200.  While I enjoyed listening to the international broadcasters, it was the smaller domestic broadcasters that I grew to enjoy more.  Especially the Latin American stations on 49 and 60 meters.  Stations from Colombia and Venezuela were prevalent throughout the evening hours.  Two of the most reliable stations were Venezuelans Radio Rumbos from Caracas (4970 kHz), and Ecos del Torbes from San Cristobal (4980 kHz).  
These stations would broadcast in the evenings and sign-off at 0300 or 0400 UTC. Another was Radio Reloj de Costa Rica on 4832 kHz, which would be heard in the evenings and overnight hours. 
I enjoyed the music and the style of programming these stations had, and over the years these stations became longtime friends on the airwaves to me.
Here is a brief recording of Radio Rumbos from the winter of 1980 on 4970 kHz: