The Mighty KBC: October 6, 2013

Sunday at 00:00-02:00 UTC, I tuned to 7,375 kHz to listen to The Mighty KBC. This was the first time I tuned to their winter frequency this season and wasn’t sure how strong their signal would be on a relatively noisy night on the bands.

KBC’s signal was blowtorch strength into North America. It could have been easily received on even the most simple of portable radios.

As we’ve come to expect, the Mighty KBC’s Giant Jukebox of music has a lot of rock-n-roll and Euro-pop variety, spanning the decades; DJ, “Uncle Eric” knows how to entertain and spin the tunes! Uncle Eric includes Kim Elliott’s digital text modes in this broadcast–if you missed the live broadcast, you can even decode the messages from the recording below.

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Enjoy:

Voice of Greece: July 30, 2013

The following is a recording of the Voice of Greece (9,420 kHz) made on July 30, 2013, beginning around 20:11 UTC. Enjoy: 

RTÉ Radio broadcast of GAA finals

Sunday afternoon--one week ago--I was at home to catch a bit of the GAA finals via RTÉ on 17,725 kHz, starting around 15:00 UTC.

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.

As I listened to the live broadcast, Sunday, I read Norman Freeman’s account of listening to the GAA finals from a ship in the Indian Ocean, back in 1956. He writes:

“Almost 50 years ago, listening to the All-Ireland by radio was uncertain and frustrating.

In 1956, RTÉ knew how much the All-Ireland meant to the Irish diaspora. Arrangements were made with the authorities in the then French Congo to have the match rebroadcast the following evening, on the powerful short-wave transmitter in Brazzaville.

The time and frequencies were published in the Irish newspapers. This information was sent by letter to the Irish on oil rigs off the coast of Borneo, to round-the-year painters on Brooklyn Bridge, and to missionaries within sight of Mount Kilimanjaro.

I had noted the time and frequencies before I was sent out to Mumbai to join my first ship, the Amra, as second radio officer. The hurling final was between two giants, Cork and Wexford.”
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While Freeman doesn’t miss the uncertainty and fickle nature of shortwave radio as the messenger of his favorite sporting event, his look back is certainly nostalgic. After all, Radio Brazzaville transported Freeman and his boss back to Ireland for the length of the game. And to RTÉ’s credit, they continue to broadcast to the Irish diaspora on shortwave radio, if only for this event. 

If you would like to hear my recording of the GAA Finals, click here to download the MP3 recording, or simply listen via the embedded player below: 

IRRS English

Many thanks to SWAA contributor, Frank, for this recording of IRRS radio in English. Recorded in Europe on the 14th of September, 2013, on 9,510 kHz, starting at 08:00 UTC. This broadcast emanated from the IRRS transmitter in Bucharest, Romania, Europe, at a power of 150 kW. The recording includes, inter alia, UN Radio programme.

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Voice of Russia

Syria is one of the biggest international news items at the moment. If you want to hear Russia’s side of the story, there’s no better place than via the Voice of Russia.

Many thanks to Frank for submitting this recording of the Voice of Russia English language service. Frank recorded this broadcast on September 14, 2013 starting at 22:00 on 9,465 kHz with his Kenwood R-5000 receiver.

Click here to download an MP3 of the broadcast, or simply listen via the embedded player below: 

Pirate Radio Recordings: Radio Casablanca

Confession time: one of my favorite pirate radio stations is Radio Casablanca.

Why?   

For one thing the format is WWII-era music. When I hear Radio Casablanca, I close my eyes and imagine what it must have been like to hear the great bands of the era over the shortwaves...

Radio nostalgia at its best. 

The signal strength is always sufficient to be heard in relatively good fidelity here in my radio room, but not so strong as to detract from the perceived distance. I believe the recording you'll hear below could very well mimic broadcasts over shortwave, heard across borders during WWII as well as listened to on classic console radios in people's living rooms and front parlors.

When my buddy Mark Coady posted that he was listening to Radio Casablanca last night on 6940 kHz AM, I immediately rushed outside to hook up my antenna, and started rolling.  I didn't want to miss even one more minute (I came across Mark's post about twenty minutes into the broadcast). Though regional storms produced some static pops and crashes, overall fidelity is decent. You will hear the filter and side-band sync being adjusted at times as I attempted to eliminate adjacent noises--which, in the end, are all a part of the listening experience.

Click here to download an MP3 of the recording, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Either way, prepare to go (or at least, send your ears) back in time... 

Deutsche Welle: September 3, 2013

For your listening pleasure: a recording of the Deutsche Welle English service made this morning, September 3rd, starting at 04:00 UTC.

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below (note about 40 seconds of carrier prior to the beginning of the broadcast):

Voice of Greece: September 1, 2013

Lately, the Voice of Greece has been playing very long sets of music; and not all of it Greek. I assume the break in format has to do with the reorganization of Greek national broadcasting.

I believe VoG could be cut on a moment's notice. With heavy cuts being dealt to national broadcasting, I doubt they'll keep investing in shortwave radio since they no longer even have an English language service. This is one of the reasons I've devoted a lot of recording time to VoG as of late.

I certainly hope I'm wrong about my prediction.

On September 1st, I recorded over five hours of VoG, starting around 22:00 UTC. After about an hour of Greek commentary, you'll hear music ranging from contemporary to classical.

Click here to download the full recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below.

Radio Australia: Saturday Night Country

As on many Saturdays, this morning, I sipped my coffee while listening to ABC’s Saturday Night Country from Radio Australia’s Shepparton shortwave transmission site on 9.58 MHz…some 9,800 miles from my home.

In this program, Catherin Britt continues to fill in for Felicity Urquhart (who is on maternity leave).

I captured a two hour broadcast which you can download by clicking here or simply listening via the embedded player below. 

Saturday Night Country Host, Catherine Britt (Photo: ABC)

Voice of America: French service to Africa

For your listening pleasure: a thirty minute show of Voice of America's French service to Africa. Recorded August 13, 2013 on 9.885 MHz starting at 21:00 UTC.

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below: 

Radio Australia's "Club Forum" 1973

 (Source: Rob Wagner)

Rob Wagner, VK3BVW, shares this historic recording of Radio Australia's Club Forum, from February 4th, 1973.

Below is Bob's description, taken from his blog the Mount Evelyn DX Report, with recording following:

Here's something I found a few days ago! An old cassette tape of part of Radio Australia's Club Forum program, hosted by the legendary Keith Glover. The program went to air on February 4th, 1973 (over 40 years ago). It's only the first 6 minutes of the show, with Keith reporting on the Australian Radio DX Club'sConvention '73, held in Melbourne.

Keith had been invited to the convention as a guest speaker, delivering a wonderful talk on Radio Australia's devoted listeners around the world and the role that the station played in presenting an Australian Voice internationally. For many years, the station was very popular, particularly in Asia.

Keith's Club Forum report on his visit to the convention mentions many names of enthusiastic Melbourne and Sydney DXers from that era. Keith's programs were always well-prepared, but he was able to communicate with listeners with a relaxed and very personal style......with a feeling that he was almost face-to-face with you in the same room! You can hear that style come out in this recording. Indeed for many years, Keith was one of the best-known voices on shortwave. He died in 2006.

Club Forum was a weekly program, connected to the Radio Australia Listeners Club. A special listeners certificate was available, each individual certificate having it's own membership number.

I'm making this recording public after all these years because:

1)  It may bring back memories to the "Old Folks" amongst us, of a fascinating era when the DX hobby and shortwave listening was blooming, and

2)  Just this last month, Radio Australia discontinued their Mandarin and Indonesian shortwave services - what were formerly their two biggest audiences with literally millions of listeners.

How times have changed!!

I hope you enjoy this brief glimpse into the Radio Australia of a bygone age.

Rob Wagner VK3BVW

RNW: The Happy Station Show, 26 July 1992

 (Source: happystationshow.blogspot.com)

Jan Oversteen sends us this recording of the Happy Station Show and comments:

"Part of the Happy Station Show from July 26, 1992. This is the broadcast in where Tom Meijer announced that Pete Meijers is going to take over the program."

Thank you for sharing this recording, Jan!  If you would like to share recordings, simply submit a recording with this form.

BBC World Service's broadcast to the 2013 British Antarctic Survey

Halley VI: The British Antarctic Survey's new base (Source: BBC)

Every year, the BBC broadcasts a special program to the forty one scientists and support staff in the British Antarctic Survey Team; the show containsmusic requests and, most notably, personal messages from back home to the team of forty one. 

The British Antarctic Survey celebrates today (their longest, darkest winter day) with the same enthusiasm as Christmas. The BBC noted:

The base commanders rise early to cook breakfast for their staff, presents are exchanged, there are sports and even, weather permitting, a mad streak in the snow! Feasting continues before they gather round a shortwave set to listen to the traditional broadcast packed with greetings from their family and friends back home together with music requests and messages from the British Antarctic Survey and a few celebrities. Finally the Antarctic horror movie The Thing is screened. For those who know the plot, perhaps it is just as well there are no longer sledge dogs in Antarctica...

Here is the recording of the BBC World Service's thirty minute broadcast to the British Antarctic Survey. I was able to receive a relatively strong signal at 21:30 UTC on 9,890 kHz from the World Service's Wooferton transmission site.

Click here to download the full recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below: 

The Voice of Greece returns

On Tuesday, June 11, 2013, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras called for the complete closure of the Greek National TV and Radio broadcaster, ERT.

The Voice of Greece went off the air, just like its national radio and TV counterparts, well before the announced midnight deadline. But around 22:44 UTC, the VoG came back on the air–at first with a few audio/technical glitches–and broadcast ERT protest coverage throughout the night.

The following recording was made on June 11, 2013 on 9.42 MHz, around 22:44 UTC, the moment when the Voice of Greece began transmitting audio again. Here’s a four hour recording beginning only a few seconds beforehand:

Voice of Turkey

A few days ago, I posted a recording of the Voice of Turkey that noticeably lacked coverage of the Gezi Park protests.

Friday, I recorded VOT’s English language broadcast and was surprised to find that they actually mentioned the protests (admittedly, without it’s due weight) in several news items. I’m very curious how future VOT broadcasts will cover news of yesterday’s riots in Istanbul as police cleared crowds of protesters with water cannons and tear gas.

Click here to download the full recording, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Myke shares 2012 season of ShortWaveMusic

Myke, over at ShortWaveMusic, has made his entire 2012 season of ShortWaveMusic freely downloadable on SoundCloud. This series was recorded from December 31, 2011 – January 16, 2012 throughout the West African country of Mali. The series contains some remarkable field recordings taken from both the shortwave and medium wave bands.

Note that Myke's ShortWaveMusic series and travels are supported by Kickstarter donors. I don't know where Myke's travels will take him next year, but when the time comes we will post an announcement along with a link for supporters.

Now put on your headphones, close your eyes and you will be transported to Mali:

For full SoundCloud features, click here for the 2012 series on SoundCloud.

Radio Cinco De Mayo

Radio Cinco De Mayo made its annual broadcast on (you guessed it!) May 5th, 2013, starting around 00:17 UTC on 6925 kHz USB.

Early Saturday morning, the band's condition sounded like that of summer, with atmospheric noises (a few static crashes, produced by local thunderstorms), but propagation was steady and the overall quality very respectable.

You can download an MP3 of the full recording by clicking here, or by listening via the embedded player below.

Check out Ragnar's off-air recording of Radio Cinco De Mayo (and more!) on his PiratesWeek podcast.

UPDATE (May 08): Just received my Radio Cinco De Mayo QSL:

The Mighty KBC

The Mighty KBC broadcast again early this morning (from 00:00-02:00 UTC) on their new summer frequency of 9,925 kHz. Their signal from Nauen, Germany was packing 125 kW--it was amazingly strong into North America. As we’ve come to expect, the KBC’s Giant Jukebox of music has a lot of rock-n-roll and Euro-pop variety, spanning the decades; DJ, "Uncle Eric" knows how to entertain and spin the tunes!

You can listen to the full recording below in the embedded player, or simply right click this link and save the MP3 file to your computer.

You’ll notice that Kim Elliott has another installation of digital text modes in this broadcast. Decode these digital modes using Fldigi from www.w1hkj.com. Be sure to check out Dr. Elliott's VOA Radiogram website for full details about this broadcast.

Shrimp Boat Radio, WSBR (a.k.a. Freakin' Awesome Radio, WFAR)

"We're shrimpin,' but they're not bitin'!"

Last night, a very unique pirate radio station emerged from the static on 6,925 kHz USB: Shrimp Boat Radio. It seems a shrimp boat radio pirate found himself bored on board, due to a lack of shrimp--but his boredom became our gain with an offer to talk shrimpin,' fishin,' or just take music requests...live.

This is the stuff great pirate radio is made of.  He started with a request for the Rolling Stones; next Black Cat Radio's Greaser Bob chimed in with a request for GNR.  And there began an evening of pirate radio with live on-air requests.

You can tell that this was a completely impromptu production--and it was all the better for it.  Not too long into the show, he took on the alternate name Freakin' Awesome Radio (WFAR).

Hearing a live pirate radio request show was a first for me, and the sort of thing that gets this "content DXer" enthused. I'm glad I had the tape rolling!  I hope he reappears on the band in the future.

Note that I start the recording at the very first announcement from WSBR. If you want to skip to the first music request, fast-forward to about 11 minutes into the recording (you'll miss some great banter, though). There are a few long breaks of static in the recording where this pirate scrambled to find and play music requests, but this just adds to the authenticity.

Click here to download the full recording of Shrimp Boat Radio, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Enjoy!

Click here to download the full recording of Shrimp Boat Radio, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Enjoy!

Radio Panik injects shortwave audio into mixes

I recently discovered that the radio show L'etranger, on Radio Panik, 105.4 in Brussels, used shortwave radio recordings of pirate radio and numbers stations, from the SWLing Post and other sources, in one of their mixes of eclectic music and sound clips. The end result is a splendid piece of sonic art.

Note that their audio is only available on archive.org until May 23, 2013. Click here to download the show, or listen via the embedded player below. You can also hear the show on the L'etranger website.