The Voice of America Jazz Hour: Circa 1980

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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.

Voice of America (English): November 22, 2022

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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.

Voice of America (via Okinawa, Rhodes, Philippines, Greenville, & Woofferton): Circa 1970's

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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.

Voice of America Hausa (with English Sign-Off): February 26, 2022

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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.”

VOA Communications World (Internet Stream): June 30, 2001

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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 Ireland

Broadcaster: Voice of America

Date of recording: 6/30/2001

Starting time: Unknown

Frequency: Internet Stream

Your receiver and antenna: Internet Stream

VOA Communications World: July 1, 1995

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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

Voice of America (Korean Language Service): circa 2002

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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.

Voice of America (Sign-On Issues): January 11, 2021

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VOA

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

Voice of America (Studio Recording): July 20, 1969

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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

Voice of America covering assassination of President John F. Kennedy: November 22, 1963

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US President, John F. Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963)

US President, John F. Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963)

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:

Voice of America shortwave broadcast from Greenville, NC with English language coverage of the shooting of President John F. Kennedy as they struggle with CBS Television saying President Kennedy is dead and NBC Television saying that he is still alive. Transmission switches to a VOA Polish language broadcast near the end of the recording. Recording provided to me by broadcast historian, Todd Kosovich.

Broadcaster: Voice of America

Date of recording: 11/22/1963

Starting time: Approximately 1300

VOA "Talk to America" show by Doug Bernard discussing clandestine radio (Internet Recording): June 14, 2005

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording.

Note that we occasionally post recordings that are not airchecks or off-air recordings when they relate to the shortwave radio listening hobby. This is one such recording. Tom shares the following notes:

Notes: Voice of America (VOA) "Talk to America" show from 2005 hosted by Doug Bernard discussing clandestine radio. Guests included Nick Grace, Clandestine Radio Watch and Richard Lafayette, Global Crisis Watch.

Voice of America (Apollo 8): December 24, 1968

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Stephen Spicer, who shares the following recording and notes:

Reception location: Melbourne, Australia

Receiver and antenna: AWA CR6A with end feed antenna

Notes: A broadcast by Apollo 8 of the first views of the moon in 1968. The broadcast was transmitted by the Voice of America, and received in Melbourne, Australia on an AWA CR6A communications receiver. The transmission frequency and exact time are unknown.

VOA (Communications World): January 2003

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bruce Atchison, for sharing the following recording and notes:

Recorded Communications World off VOA in January of 2003 but I forget the frequency. I used my Uniden CR-2021 receiver.

Note that Bruce is actually featured in this episode with Kim Andrew Elliott!

Voice of Korea (English) and Voice of America: June 13, 2018

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DPRK_US.jpg

Voice of Korea, DPRK recorded in London, UK on June 13, 2018 at 1300 UTC on the frequency of 15245 kHz using a Tecsun PL-310 radio with a clip-on long wire antenna. In this broadcast, the official announcement is made regarding Kim Jong Un's meeting with the US president, Donald Trump, in Singapore. The transmitter has a power rating of 200 kW and is located in Kujang, DPRK. One hour into the recording, the radio was tuned upwards into the frequency of 15580 kHz to record the news bulletin from the Voice of America. The transmitter of the latter station is located in Selebi-Phikwe, Botswana and has a power rating of 100 kW.

Launch of Apollo 17 (1972)

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Last Apollo flight to the Moon.
Voice of America (VOA) shortwave coverage.
Broadcast begins Thursday [Australian time]
Dec. 7 1972 at 02-30 GMT.

Information on the mission of Apollo 17-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_17

http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-real-story-of-apollo-17-and-why-we-never-went-ba-1670503448

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

Recorded off-air by Ian Holder, Brisbane, Australia.

President Johnson (13 May 1965) VOA

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13 May 1965. LBJ speech on Vietnam to a group of American editorial cartoonists. Shortwave coverage from the Voice of America (VOA)

Excerpt from President Johnson's speech. Recorded off-air from the Voice of America (VOA) by Ian Holder, Brisbane, Australia
Transcript of speech-
http://millercenter.org/president/lbjohnson/speeches/speech-5934
 

Gemini Space Mission (1965)

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Excerpt of shortwave broadcast [recorded off air in Australia] of the
Gemini mission into space in March 1965 with Guss Grissom and John Young.

Voice of America (VOA) announcer [in Special English]* describes landing and replays recording of takeoff.

* Special English- VOA has programs in “slow” English for people
learning the language.

Information-
http://www.astrobio.net/image-of-the-day/march-23-1965-launch-of-first-crewed-gemini-flight/

Voice of America: December 24, 1986

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Scott Nelson, who notes:

Voice of America recorded off shortwave (15.410 MHz) on December 24, 1986 [starting around 1959 UTC].  The receiver was a Sony ICF-6500W with a random wire antenna.  Recorded to cassette tape and later transferred to an mp3 computer file.  The broadcast features Christmas music, IDs, News, and the Nightline Africa program.