Radio Moscow - Soyuz 26, Day 11 (EVA): December 20, 1977

Many thanks to Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contributor, Colin Anderton, who shares a series of off-air recordings, originally made on reel-to-reel tape, of Radio Moscow in the late 1970s. This is the fifth recording in this collection. Colin notes:

As a space flight nut, I have many recordings from the 1970s from Radio Moscow. They used to broadcast on the medium wave, and I used to record the news bulletins during some of the space flights.

In particular, there was a period between December 1977 and March 1978 when Soviet cosmonauts first lived aboard the Salyut 6 space station. I recorded each days' news reports on the flights, and also some additional items about them. I have some other flights as well.

I received them all on 227 metres Medium Wave at 22.00 hrs GMT each night. I was in a village called Stetchworth, near Newmarket, Suffolk, England at the time.

In fact, an announcer gives the general daily broadcast details on this first recording.

I used a similar system with all the files, that is: where any edit takes place, I have placed a one-second break to identify the spot. No other editing of any kind has been done.

Radio Moscow - Soyuz 26, Day 10: December 19, 1977

Many thanks to Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contributor, Colin Anderton, who shares a series of off-air recordings, originally made on reel-to-reel tape, of Radio Moscow in the late 1970s. This is the fourth recording in this collection. Colin notes:

As a space flight nut, I have many recordings from the 1970s from Radio Moscow. They used to broadcast on the medium wave, and I used to record the news bulletins during some of the space flights.

In particular, there was a period between December 1977 and March 1978 when Soviet cosmonauts first lived aboard the Salyut 6 space station. I recorded each days' news reports on the flights, and also some additional items about them. I have some other flights as well.

I received them all on 227 metres Medium Wave at 22.00 hrs GMT each night. I was in a village called Stetchworth, near Newmarket, Suffolk, England at the time.

In fact, an announcer gives the general daily broadcast details on this first recording.

I used a similar system with all the files, that is: where any edit takes place, I have placed a one-second break to identify the spot. No other editing of any kind has been done.

BBC World Service report of Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster: January 28, 1986

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:

Voice Of America Science World: March 14, 2015

SRAA contributor, Richard Langley, was fortunate enough to capture this broadcast of VOA Science World where he (Richard Langley!) is interviewed. There are few opportunities for a true DXer to hear themselves over shortwave, thus this is a special recording indeed.  

Richard notes:

Live half-hour recording of the Voice of America in English on 14 March 2015 beginning at 02:56:30 UTC on a frequency of 6080 kHz. The broadcast, directed to Africa, is from Vatican Radio's Santa Maria di Galeria transmitter site (250 kW transmitter power, antenna beam 165 degrees). The African-music tuning signal is followed by VOA News and the program Science World featuring an interview with Dr. Richard Langley from the University of New Brunswick on how GPS is being used to study irregularities in the ionosphere and their effects on radio signals.  

The broadcast was received on a Tecsun PL-880 receiver with its built-in whip antenna in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada. Signal quality was only fair so the recorded file was electronically filtered to reduce background noise. There is still a noticeable jamming signal on the frequency.