The Duke of Windsor in 1945
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Ian Holder for the following recording. Ian notes that this recording features the BBC World Service news bulletin which reports on the death of the Duke of Windsor.
This recording was made on May 28, 1972 around 13:00 GMT on 11.75 MHz:
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Harner, for the following recording. Paul notes:
The German service of RTL was recorded late on a Saturday/early Sunday morning Europe in either February or March 1982. For those who speak German, there are news headlines that could pinpoint the exact date, so any help given would be greatly appreciated.
If you can help Paul ID headlines in this recording, please comment!
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Harner, who submits the following recording and notes:
In October 1982, I logged my first short wave broadcast station from Peru. It was during a Friday night when I heard Radio Atlantida. The station broadcast on 4790 kHz from Iquitos. This was recorded on a 3" reel-to-reel machine I had purchased at a yard sale that summer.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Paul Harner for the following recordings. Paul notes:
Radio Colosal de Neiva (Colombia) was one of the more reliable signals to be found on 60 meters where I live. The station was an affiliate of the TODELAR network, and broadcast on 4945 kHz. Within a year of this recording, Radio Colosal disappeared and the frequency became part of the Caracol network.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Mark Hist, who notes the following:
Thanks for alerting shortwave listeners to the British Antarctic Survey broadcast. It felt very poignant listening to a broadcast aimed at such a small number of people, with the voices of their loved ones being launched around the world.
I was able to record the broadcast from only 100 miles away from the Woofferton transmitter, so needless to say the quality and strength was very good. I imagine hearing that broadcast buried in the noise from far away with those happy birthday songs and best wishes must have been very emotional for its intended audience.
I enclose a short segment from my 30 minute recording, plus a photo (above) taken the next day of my set up (it was dark at the time of the recording).
I also recorded the broadcast from Saint-Anne-de-Beaupré, Québec, Canada. I wrote a post about this on the SWLing Post (click here to read). The following is my recording from 7360 kHz. Reception was not nearly as strong as that of Mark, above:
Note that we collected over 30 recordings--from accross the globe. You can listen to and browse them on the SWLing Post by clicking here.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Harner, for the following recordings. Paul notes:
Aside from HCJB, Radio Quito was the first signals I ever received from Ecuador. The station would reach the midwestern USA in the evening hours.
On a Saturday evening in May 1985, Radio Quito was playing an enjoyable mix of cumbia and salsa music and I decided to roll tape. The first half hour was recorded on a cassette, and the last hour was recorded on an open reel machine. To reduce interference I recorded the station in single sideband instead of AM. While I am not completely sure of the date, I believe this was recorded on 4 May 1985. The recording starts at around 0130z/UTC and ends with their sign-off at 0300z/UTC.
This morning, I was very curious about the results of the Brexit vote, so I turned to one of the only stations that is strong enough to punch through the noise here at our vacation condo: Radio Australia.
The following recording starts a few minutes prior to the top of the hour ABC news headlines at 12:00 UTC on 9580 kHz on June 24, 2016 (the morning after the Brexit vote and the resignation announcement of Prime Minister David Cameron.
The recording is rather poor as propagation was dismal and the level of RFI significant. Still, this is such an important event, I wanted it in the shortwave archive. Receiver used was the Sony ICF-SW55 in Beaupré, Québec, Canada:
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Jim Jordan, who shares this recording of Radio Moscow from September 19, 1984. This recording was made using a National Panasonic RF-2200 tuned to 9.5 MHz around 08:10 UTC. The location was South Shields, UK.
Jim notes:
A nice cold war piece from Radio Moscow on the double defection of the Soviet journalist Oleg Bitov.
The real story behind it was revealed ten years later here: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/he-came-he-saw-he-couldnt-take-it-he-was-a-soviet-defector-with-a-story-to-sell-and-duff-hart-davis-1383974.html
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Harner, for the following recordings. Jack notes:
Radio Luxembourg used two short wave frequencies for their broadcasts: 6090 and 15350 kHz. On 6090, the station relayed their 1440 kHz service, which included their English and German language broadcasts. The 15350 kHz relayed their French language service on 234 kHz long wave.
This recording of RTL's French service was made in the early evening in the midwestern USA on Friday 4 March 1982, which would have been the early Saturday morning in Europe.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who notes:
Radio Uganda English Service recorded on December 11, 1981. 8:45 in length. I logged this after a hearing a tip on RCI's SWL Digest program of December 7, 1981. They had a strong signal this night and I managed to get a QSL from this broadcast. The disappeared again from shortwave a few days later and I never heard their NA service again.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who notes:
Radio Canada International recorded on December 7, 1981. This is another from my archive of old recordings of Radio Canada International's Shortwave Listeners Digest. This episode contains discussion of a new mediumwave and longwave broadcasting plan; Who's on the Air featuring Azad Kashmir Radio presented by Adrian Peterson; DX News with Glenn Hauser. An item in the DX news mentions the return of Radio Uganda's North American Service. I logged this a few days later and am also including a recording.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Jack Widner, who notes:
The announcement by Radio Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, of the death of Leonid Brezhnev. It includes funerary music between two annoiuncements of the passing of Brezhnev, followed by an English news broadcast, and a commentary later.
This broadcast started around 1200 UTC on 5,985 kHz on November 11, 1982. It was recorded in Indianapolis, IN USA with a Hammarlund HQ-180 connected to a 100 ft v-shaped longwire.
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:
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:
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:
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
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.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Sarah Boucher, for the following Radio St. Helena clip and notes:
“Operating 1548”, a song about Radio St. Helena composed and performed by Bettie Crowie and others."
This recording was made with a tape recorder on the AM/mediumwave band:
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Brian D. Smith, W9IND, who notes:
This recording of shortwave radio broadcasts by Voice of America and other stations was made in mid-May 1976. A newscast reference to a Nebraska presidential primary several days earlier (May 11) provides a solid clue to the approximate recording date.
I recovered this recording from a cassette. At the time I was a 19-year-old shortwave radio enthusiast living near Indianapolis, and most likely I made this recording in hopes of preserving information that would help me obtain a QSL (verification) card from the station.
The longest story on this Voice of America broadcast focuses on the 1976 presidential primary elections and whether they're worth the time and cost. Shorter recordings of other shortwave stations appear before and after the VOA broadcast -- I was obviously doing some dial spinning on my Hallicrafters S-108 receiver. And my recording "technique" was nothing more than setting the cassette microphone next to the radio speaker.
The 40-year-old cassette broke when I first tried to transfer the recording to my computer, so I fixed it with my tried-and-true "broke teenager" method: Scotch tape, scissors and a blank cassette that I cut and spliced to the old tape.
STS-51-L crew: (front row) Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair; (back row) Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who submits these notes with his timely off-air recording of the BBC World Service from January 28, 1986:
Thirty years ago today the US Space program came crashing down with the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger.
I was a student at Purdue University at the time, living in a dormitory.
I decided to make some recordings knowing this would be a historic event.
This is a recording I made of the BBC on the evening of Jan 28 (0200 UTC on January 29). The frequency was most likely 5975 kHz or 9590 kHz. The dorm environment didn't make a great place for SWL reception and the recording is noisy but still of decent quality.
Recorded using a Sony ICF-2001 with a wire attached to a window screen for an antenna.
Click here to download as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
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