Rádio Nacional da Amazônia: May 12, 2016 (breaking news of Dilma Rousseff facing impeachment trial)

Last night, my buddy John Figliozzi shared the following tip regarding Rádio Nacional da Amazônia:

Both frequencies active tonight — 6180 and 11780 — with lots of discussion as well as excerpts from speeches in the Brazilian Senate on the impeachment of the President.  All in Portuguese of course.  ID around 0155 with announcement of shortwave frequencies.  Excellent armchair quality signal on 6180; audible with considerable QRN on 11780.

After reading John's message, I immediately tuned to 6180 kHz where Rádio Nacional da Amazônia was quite strong. I recorded almost two hours of their broadcast which includes news about the impeachment and music as well. This recording was made in North Carolina using a WinRadio Excalibur receiver and a Pixel Loop Pro magnetic loop antenna, starting around 02:20 UTC on May 12, 2016:

Radio Polonia: post martial law declaration 1981 (Part 3)

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 Polonia: post martial law declaration 1981 (Part 1)

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:

Recording 3 -The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt (BBC reports): August 19, 1991

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Jack Widner, who shares this third (and final) recording which includes coverage of the August 19, 1991 Soviet Coup Attempt from the BBC. Jack shares the following recording notes:

BBC news & reports.  Starts with battle at Parliament building (known as the White House)
   03:32 Kevin Connaly's on the scene report after the battle started

Recording 2 -The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt (BBC reports): August 19, 1991

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Jack Widner, who shares this second recording which includes coverage of the August 19, 1991 Soviet Coup Attempt from the BBC. Jack shares the following recording notes:

BBC reports

• 03:35 plays R. Moscow reading TASS bulletin of Gorbachev unable to fulfill duties

• 43:00 comments from Frank Gaffney; Gaffney was an ardent supporter of SDI under Weinberger & as late as 1996 was attempting to get new House leader Gingrich to get it going again.

• 43:45 a clip about Gorbachev's (?) attempt to quash Lithuanian independence (report says it was not clear that Gorbachev authorised this).

The majority of this audio assumes Gorbachev will be replaced

Recording 1 -The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt (BBC/Radio Moscow): August 19, 1991

Poster of the putsch of August 1991. The confrontation between the Republican Russian Government and the Union State Government the USSR (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Jack Widner, who shares this recording that includes coverage of the August 19, 1991 Soviet Coup Attempt. Jack shares the following recording notes:

• Reports from BBC, radio Moscow, and a snip at the end of Czech Radio announcing the end of the state of emergency

• Radio Moscow--Slight interruption at 5:15-30

• BBC 05:30 - 12:46

• Radio Moscow 12:47 -- note the news item on Yugoslavia of Slovenia's independence moves 18:25.  This was the beginning of the dissolution of Yugoslavia

• BBC 20:08

• Radio Moscow 26:16 "News & Views"

• BBC 27:10

• Radio Moscow World service 28:11

• Their interval signal at 38:03 the news that Gorbachev is back in control

• BBC 40:24

• Moscow 46:33

• Radio Prague (?) 46:56 announces end of state of emergency

Radio Havana Cuba, Barack Obama and Raúl Castro Press Conference in Cuba: March 21, 2016

The following off-air recording of Radio Havana Cuba was made on March 21, 2016, starting a couple of minutes prior to 1800 UTC on 11,670 kHz (at an AM bandwidth of 12.5 kHz). This was a historic event: the first time a US president has visited Cuba in over 8 decades. The following recording includes the live coverage of the Obama/Casto press conference, followed by one hour of RHC's English language service and a part of RHC's French language service.

The receiver used was a WinRadio Excalibur connected to a Pixel Loop Pro magnetic loop antenna. Location received was North Carolina.

Radio St. Helena, The final hour (sign-off) with Tony Leo: December 25, 2012

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Sarah Boucher, who submits this final sign-off of Radio St. Helena on 1548 kHz and notes:

Closedown begins with the last few seconds of love is everywhere by caught in the act (1995).

Sydney To Hobart Yacht Race HF Recording: December 28, 1998

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Neil Howard, for sharing the following recording and notes:

The Sydney to Hobart Yacht race of 1998 was tragic as huge seas & storms decimated the fleet, leaving 6 people dead and 5 boats sunk.
 

HOW this was obtained
 

This recording of the SSB HF transmissions from 1998 was recorded by me from Queensland, using a newfangled unattended recoding program on the PC and a very ordinary Sangean ATS-803a receiver using a random long wire Antenna - from memory this was on the 8 Mhz Marine band, and is the co-ordination of the search and rescue from the 28th Dec 1998 and covers from around 8:30PM till 10PM - The automated recorded stopped recording when the signal noise dropped below a certain level and thus some was lost.
The recording goes for 30 mins, as that was the limit that was set to save disk space, but there is a lot of empty noise.

I present this recording as it was recorded, warts and all for your education *** I dedicate this to those lost at sea ****

HIGHLIGHTS
(Times are approximate)
4:11 "Rescue 253" 9A helicopter) locates a life-raft
6:00 "Air force Sydney" is looking for a position of a yacht " Solo Global Challenge"
6:50 "RCC Canberra" (Who is co-ordinating) has a "hot mic" and is explaining the situation to someone locally
8:35 "Rescue 253" has sighted 2 POB on the life-raft - RTC wants to know if they are from "Winston Churchill"
9:39 Another "hot mic" in Canberra
11:56 "Tiger75" (A Navy Helicopter, I think) has the survivors on board, but still awaiting info on who they are
13:04 13:44 confirmation that there are 2 survivors of the "Winston Churchill" from the life raft, but the tragic news that 3 others had "rolled out" of the raft and are lost (Historical note- these three were listed as drowned)
14:46 Discussion about where the survivors are to be taken by Tiger 75
15:20 Info of the survivors is passed though, along with the news that the life raft they were "in" had no bottom.
16:33 Rescue 253 Says it has heard a beacon & is proceeding to the location
20:00 Another aircraft has gone to the search site from Merimbula (A town in New South Wales)
25:38 Rescue 253 updates beacon location
26;30 Rescue 253 Locates a boat at the beacon site that has been dis-masted & is in serious trouble.

Radio St. Helena: November 4, 2006

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Brian Smith,  who notes:

Beginning in 1990, Radio St. Helena was known for transmitting an international shortwave radio broadcast only once a year -- and sometimes not even that -- on a frequency of 11092.5 kHz USB. I managed to hear its 2006 broadcast to North America for about an hour on Nov. 4 and 5 UTC (straddling the 0000 hour).

Because of its relatively low power, it was never an easy catch in the American Midwest. That's why this recording, which lasts just over an hour -- I spliced together both sides of a cassette -- captures a signal quality that is merely fair at best. But that was typical of Radio St. Helena, whose 1 kw signal in 2006 (it was 1.5 kw in the 1990s) seldom packed much of a punch.

I was listening on the borrowed rig of a now-deceased friend, Mike Koss, W9SU, and have long since forgotten the type of radio (probably a ham rig) he let me use. However, if memory serves, it was attached to a Beverage antenna that stretched across his 10-acre property in the heart of Indianapolis.

Mike deserves the lion's share of the credit for the creation of this recording.

Thanks for sharing such a rare recording, Brian!

National Broadcasting Corporation, Papua New Guinea: July 10, 2015

SRAA contributor, Richard Langley notes:

Live three-hour recording of the 2015 Pacific Games coverage of the National Broadcasting Corporation, the Voice of Papua New Guinea (PNG), via a transmitter in Australia on 10 July 2015 beginning at 07:01:21 UTC on a frequency of 12025 kHz. At the time of the uploading of this sound file, it is not clear if the signal originated from the former Australian Broadcasting Corporation's lower-power facility at Brandon (as registered with the High Frequency Co-ordination Conference (HFCC) organization; 25 kW beamed 80°) or their higher-power Shepparton site with 100 kW transmitters. 

The recording, mostly in English with some Tok Pisin, includes commentary on the games being held in Port Moresby, music, news bulletins, public service announcements, and the NBC's drum, flute and bird call interval signal near the top of some of the hours. Note that PNG time is 10 hours ahead of UTC.  

The broadcast was received on a Tecsun PL-880 receiver with its built-in telescopic whip antenna in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada. Signal quality is generally good and gets better towards the end of the recording as propagation conditions improved.

Recording the 2015 Leap Second via WWV and CHU: June 30, 2015

OOne of four WWV time code generators in late August, 2014

Yesterday, I posted a brief article about the leap second that occurred between 23:59:59 June 30, 2015 and 00:00:00 UTC July 01, 2015.

I decided to record the leap second on as many shortwave time station frequencies as possible. The only viable options for me--based on time of day and my reception location--were the WWV frequencies 10, 15, 20, and 25 MHz, and CHU frequencies 7,850 and 14,670 kHz.

I was able to monitor four different time station frequencies simultaneously on the TitanSDR Pro. (click to enlarge)

Unfortunately, HF propagation was very poor yesterday, so the higher WWV frequencies--20 and 25 MHz--were completely inaudible, as was CHU on 14,670 kHz. There were numerous thunderstorms in our area, so static crashes were prevalent.

Still, since this was a first attempt to record a "leap second," I didn't want to take any chances.  I had the Titan SDR Pro monitoring and recording two CHU and two WWV frequencies [screenshot], the Elad FDM-S2 recording WWV on 15 MHz [screenshot], and the WinRadio Excalibur on WWV's 10 MHz frequency, as well as recording the whole 31 meter band spectrum [screenshot].

In the end, the strongest frequencies I captured were CHU on 7,850 kHz and WWV on 15,000 kHz. WWV on 10,000 kHz was much weaker than normal and the band was quite noisy--still, it's readable, so I included this recording, too. Recordings follow...

Recordings

The sign above WWV's primary 10 MHz transmitter (2014).

All of the recordings start just before the announcement of 23:59 UTC.

WWV added the extra second and higher tone, then continued with their top of the hour announcements, including a note about leap second (which begins after the 00:04 announcement). CHU's adjustment included a long second tone and period of silence.

WWV on 15,000 kHz using the Elad FDM-S2:

CHU on 7,850 kHz using the TitanSDR Pro:

WWV on 10,000 kHz using the WinRadio Excalibur:

One interesting note about the 10 MHz WWV recording above: I believe I may be hearing BPM China in the background. I'm curious if anyone can confirm this because I don't know BPM's cadence/pattern well enough to ID it.

Shortwave Shindig Rebroadcast: March 7, 2015

Many thanks to Sakae Obara and David Goren for sharing their recordings of the Shortwave Shindig rebroadcast via WRMI 7570 kHz on March 7, 2015 starting at 0300Z.

Radio Vilnius 1990-1991 (6th and Final Series Recording): January 30, 1991

Recording 6 (29 minutes):

30 January 1991, 23:00 UTC, 7400 kHz

Strong signal. The recording begins with a few seconds of music from the previous transmission on this frequency. Then, after about one minute (there was no IS), the Radio Vilnius transmission starts with the beginning of the patriotic song “Lietuvninkai Mes Esam Gim?” (Lithuanians We Are Born) and an introduction stating that the broadcast is coming “from the capital of the independent Republic of Lithuania.” This is followed by “News About Lithuania” including items on further acts of violence by Soviet troops and severe winter weather. Then, there are reports on Lithuanian-Polish relations and the work of the commission on Soviet aggression. Next is an eye-witness report on the attack on the TV tower on the night of 13 January, a report on the current feelings of Lithuanians under occupation, and how music and the arts keep the people going. During the recording, the receiver was briefly tuned to other Radio Vilnius frequencies to check on signal quality. In addition to 7400 kHz, only 9750 and 17690 kHz could be heard.

Radio Vilnius 1990-1991 (5th Recording): January 13, 1991

Recording 5 (29 minutes):

13 January 1991, 23:00 UTC, 9750 kHz

Strong signal on this and other frequencies usually received except 17690 kHz; only background noise on that frequency. However, there was no Radio Vilnius transmission on any frequency. It had been replaced by light classical and contemporary orchestral music. No IS or announcement of any kind. Music was faded out at 29m:03s before ending. During the recording, the receiver was briefly tuned to other Radio Vilnius frequencies to check on signal quality.

Radio Vilnius 1990-1991 (4th Recording): January 12, 1991

Recording 4 (45 minutes):

12 January 1991, 23:00 UTC, 9750 kHz

Strong signal. Initial mix-up of interval signals. The first IS is believed to be that of Moskovskaya Radio, the Russian Service of Radio Moscow, followed by a bit of the Radio Moscow World Service IS, and then finally the Radio Vilnius IS. The transmission begins with the statement “We’re still broadcasting from Vilnius.” This is followed by the Lithuanian news reporting on the acts of aggression of the Soviet occupying forces and “Correspondents’ Reports.” The latter includes a report that the exam session at Vilnius University has been postponed to allow students to help protect buildings from the occupation forces, including the Radio and Television Building, and a report on the restrictions on travel. The reports were interrupted with “some news just come in” about a group trying to break into the building of the Council of Ministers. The announcer subsequently reported that the attackers had been put off and so the conflict has been neutralized. The broadcast ends with the statement “We hope to be with you tomorrow again” followed by the transmission schedule and contact information. The Radio Vilnius transmission is followed by the one from Radio Minsk. News organizations reported that Soviet troops entered the Radio and Television Building about 15 minutes after this Radio Vilnius transmission.

Radio Vilnius 1990-1991 (3rd Recording): January 11, 1991

Recording 3 (32 minutes):

11 January 1991, 23:00 UTC, 7400 kHz​

Strong signal. Recording actually starts at about 22:58 UTC with music, the tail-end of a transmission on this frequency, likely from Radio Kiev. Some transmitter hum. Then, Radio Vilnius IS and ID. “We’re still hold up and we hope you can still hear us.” “News About Lithuania” including occupation news, commentary, and reports from the neighbouring Baltic states. Receiver briefly switched to other usual frequencies to check on signal quality (9750, 15180, 17690, and 17720 kHz; 6100 kHz not heard). Transmission ends with “And that’s all we have for our today’s broadcast, we hope not the last one, from Radio Vilnius in the Republic of Lithuania.” This is followed by the transmission schedule and contact information. After about 45 seconds, the Radio Minsk transmission begins with IS and ID.

RTÉ GAA All-Ireland Finals: September 21, 2014

(Photo: GAA.IE)

Earlier today, I was able to catch the end of the GAA All-Ireland Football Final (Kerry v Donegal) on RTE 17,495 kHz, starting around 15:50 UTC, with my WinRadio Excalibur receiver and sky loop antenna. 

I enjoy hearing sporting events broadcast over shortwave–perhaps it’s my imagination filling in the gaps from the live coverage or the washy sound of the crowds roaring.  Regardless, RTÉ has a long-standing track record of broadcasting the GAA finals on every medium possible.

I recorded the last few minutes of the game and nearly an hour of commentary afterward. Enjoy:

Israel Radio and Radio Cairo: 1973 Yom Kippur War

Egyptian forces crossing the Suez Canal on October 7 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Many thanks to Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contributor, Dan Robinson, who submits two recordings: Israel Radio and Radio Cairo, both made during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

Dan comments:

These recordings of Israel Radio, and Radio Cairo were made during the 1973 Yom Kippur war. A lot of history here -- you hear a newscast from Jerusalem, mentions of King Hussein, President Nixon, and others. This was a time when shortwave radio could actually bring you information that was not immediately available, as it is today in 2014 via the Internet and news alerts.

Click on the recording title below to download each recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded players.

Israel Radio:

Radio Cairo:

BBC World Service, World Cup (Portugal vs. Ghana): June 26, 2014

Yesterday, I tuned to the BBC World Service on 17,830 kHz at 16:00 UTC, hoping they would be covering the USA vs. Germany game of the FIFA World Cup. I was pleased to hear World Cup coverage the moment I tuned in–but was a little disappointed that BBC had selected the Ghana vs. Portugal game.  Still, I can’t complain; this BBC service is, after all, intended for Africa. And a lot was at stake for Ghana…

So, I listened to the BBC coverage of that game while watching the USA vs Germany game stream over ESPN. I also watched a little of the Portugal/Ghana game, and realized I had an advantage over others streaming the game because the shortwave coverage from the BBC was almost 5 seconds ahead of the live stream. That’s the power of shortwave: goals at the speed of light!

For your listening pleasure, here is the full recording I made from the BBC World Service today. Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below: