Radio Netherlands service to Surinam: circa 1980s
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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tony King, who shares the following recording of Radio Nederland’s Surinam service made in the 1980s on 4850 kHz:
American Forces Antarctic Network (AFAN) McMurdo: circa 1980s
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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tony King, who shares the following recording of the American Forces Antarctic Network (AFAN) at McMurdo Station recorded in the 1980s on 6012 kHz SSB in New Zealand:
Radio Difusora Nacional de Nicaragua: December 1978
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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
Shortwave broadcast of Radio Difusora Nacional de Nicaragua in Spanish received in December 1978 on 5945 kHz.
Frequency: 5.945 MHz
RX location: Plymouth, Minnesota
Receiver and antenna: Hammarlund HQ-180, longwire
Radio Jamahiriya: May 12, 1982
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QSL Image Source: Bruender.de
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
Radio Jamahiriya English language shortwave broadcast from Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya consisting of a newscast, Focus on the Jamahiriya (a general look at the cultural, political, social and economic lives in the Jamahiriya) and music. In the background, you can hear the interval signal for Radio Nacional de España.
Frequency: 11815 MHz
RX location: Plymouth, Minnesota
Receiver and antenna: Hammarlund HQ-180, longwire
Radio Earth on WRNO Worldwide: September 21, 1984
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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
Radio Earth program on WRNO Worldwide (New Orleans) in 1984 hosted by Jeff White and includes letters from listeners, commercials, music and announcements that Radio Earth broadcasts would be leaving WRNO and moving to Radio Clarin in the Dominican Republic.
Date of recording: 9/21/1984
Starting time: 0300 UTC
Frequency: Unknown
RX location: Minnetonka, MN
Receiver and antenna: ICOM R71A with longwire
The Voice of Free Sahara: February 11, 2002
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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Enrique Fernandez, who shares the following recording and notes:
The Voice of Free Sahara, 32 kpbs mp3 ripped from a cassette recording. Received with a Sony 2010 and a 40 meter long wire from the France-Switzerland border in 2002.
There is a clear ID at 1”33”.
Frequency: 7.46 MHz
Date/Time: 11 February 2002 at 2333 UTC
Note that the quality of this recording is rather poor due to tape degradation:
Voice of Malaysia: April 1979
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Imgae: Universal Radio
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Nigel Thornbury, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Voice of Malaysia
Date of recording: April 1979
Starting time: 0625
Frequency: 6.175
RX location: Singapore
Receiver and antenna: Sony ICF-5900W, random wire
KUSW Worldwide Radio: December 26, 1987
/Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the folowing recording and notes:
KUSW Shortwave from Salt Lake City, Utah recorded on December 26, 1987 received at 2040 UTC on 17715 kHz. Includes rock music, national commercials, newscast, frequency schedule and announcements by John Florence. Ends with something similar to an interval signal. Music and commercials are scoped.
Broadcaster: WUSW Worldwide Radio
Date of recording: 12/26/1987
Starting time: 2040 UTC
Frequency: 17.715 MHz
RX location: Minnetonka, MN
Receiver and antenna: ICOM R71A with longwire
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.
Various Shortwave Broadcasts clips from the 1960s recorded by WPE9JEL on Reel-to-Reel
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Photo by Ingo Schulz on Unsplash
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Williams, who shares the following recording and notes:
Recorded by Short Wave Listener WPE9JEL from Crown Point during the 1960s. Receiver: Hallicrafters SX-110, Antenna: Random Wire. There are some duplicates that were not edited out - sorry about that.
Radio Clarin (Dominican Republic): December 12, 1978
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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
Radio Clarin (Dominican Republic) with This is Santo Domingo with Rudy Espinal broadcast in 1978. This English language broadcast includes music from the Dominican Republic, talk about a recent power outage, SPEEDX (Society for the Preservation of the Engrossing Enjoyment of DXing) magazine, ANARC (Association of North American Radio Clubs) convention at Radio Canada International in Montreal, and a NASWA (North American Shortwave Association) DX Report with Glenn Hauser.
Date of recording: 12/12/1978
Starting time: 0300 UTC
Frequency: 11.700 MHz
Recption location: Plymouth, Minnesota
Receiver and antenna: Hammarlund HQ-180, longwire
Radio Moscow: December 3, 1978
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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
Radio Moscow World Service English language broadcast including Moscow Newsreel about the third anniversary of the People's Democratic Republic of Laos, newscasts, music from Moldova, and Soviet Panorama.
Starting time: 0720 UTC
Frequency: Unknown
Reception location: Plymouth, Minnesota
Receiver and antenna: Hammarlund HQ-180, longwire
Radio Kuwait (start of Iraqi invasion): August 2, 1990
/Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
Recording of Radio Kuwait during the start of the invasion by Iraq. My understanding is that the broadcast originated from the Radio Kuwait transmitter site, which had not yet been occupied by Iraqi forces. Transmission consisted of music and announcements in Arabic. If anyone can translate/summarize some of the announcements, it would be appreciated.
Reception location: Minnetonka, MN
Receiver: ICOM R71A
Myanmar Radio: October 25, 2017
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Photo by Sébastien Goldberg on Unsplash
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Tom Laskowski who shares the following recording and notes:
Here is a nice recording of the sign-on and programming of Myanmar Radio, the National Radio Service of Myanmar, broadcasting from Yangon. I was using the Web-based SDR at the University of Twente for this recording. I have been trying for years to add this country to my shortwave logbook but it still eludes me to this day. The best I have been able to get from this station is a very weak carrier but no audio on 5.985 MHz at their sign-on time. This recording lasts about 1h 16m. This may be one of the most exotic countries still left on shortwave.
Voice of Vietnam (announcing the fall of Saigon): April 30, 1975
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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, for the following recording and note:
The Voice of Vietnam, broadcast over Radio Havana Cuba, announcing the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam war.
Reception location: Plymouth, Minnesota
Receiver and antenna: Hammarlund HQ-180, longwire
Radio Moscow (Coverage of end of coup attempt): August 22, 1991
/Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
Radio Moscow coverage of the end of the coup attempt. Per Wikipedia: The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, was an attempt made by members of the government of the Soviet Union to take control of the country from Soviet President and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. The coup leaders were hard-line members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) who were opposed to Gorbachev's reform program and the new union treaty that he had negotiated, which decentralized much of the central government's power to the republics. They were opposed, mainly in Moscow, by a short but effective campaign of civil resistance led by Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who had been both an ally and critic of Gorbachev. Although the coup collapsed in only two days and Gorbachev returned to power, the event destabilized the USSR and is widely considered to have contributed to both the demise of the CPSU and the dissolution of the USSR.
Date of recording: 8/22/1991
Starting time: 0300 UTC
Frequency: Unknown
Reception location: Minnetonka, MN
Receiver and antenna: ICOM R71A
Radio Kahuzi (Democratic Republic of Congo): 2019-2020
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Thanks to SRAA contributor Dan Robinson for these notes and audio of Radio Kahuzi
Radio Kahuzi, a U.S.-funded religious station located in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo has been heard by DX’ers in a number of countries since the mid-2000’s and had been in operation since the 1990s. It was founded by U.S. evangelist Richard McDonald and his wife Kathleen, and was most easily heard via Europe-based SDRs, signing off at anywhere between 1800 and 1830 UTC.
In 2019, the station began to be heard more frequently on its 6,210.20 khz frequency — but was impacted by frequent power outages in the national electricity company of the DRC. In 2020, Radio Kahuzi was still being heard by DX’ers using European SDR sites, with certain locations such as Switzerland, UK, and Sweden bringing the best signals. I did a number of comparison videos showing reception of Kahuzi at these various locations. Interestingly, propagation conditions were such that Kahuzi’s signal had a very rapid rise from about 1700 UTC through to its sign off time around 1800 to 1830 UTC, and was often mistaken by some listeners as a European pirate signal in the 48 meter band.
In February 2020, Richard McDonald reported that power had been increased from 500 to 750 watts with reception in Bukavu 1/4 to 1/2 stronger, adding that they hoped the 750 watt level could be maintained “unless problems develop.” He also said the station had just installed a new digital studio.
In April 2020, McDonald reported problems with lightning strikes in the area with intermittent power issues. McDonald noted that the station had been hoping to begin distance education as the COVID-19 situation was beginning to have impacts: “We are the only radio that can reach all the 8 territories and local schools.”
As of mid-May 2020, Radio Kahuzi remained off the air as DX’ers held out hope that Kahuzi would return to the air. In an email, Richard McDonald reported “complications” regarding the power schedule of the regional power company saying he was hoping RK can get back on the air “between 8 AM to 7 PM”. Here is one of the best recordings of Radio Kahuzi, which took place using the SDR site in Ticino, Switzerland — the station has a unique sign off, playing an instrumental version of a Bluegrass song.
Radio Lesotho: 1970s
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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Robinson, who shares the following recordings and notes on Radio Lesotho
Ranked in terms of difficulty, a few stations on shortwave from Africa topped the most challenging list. One was Radio Lesotho on 4,800 khz, a frequency that suffered from extreme interference from Latin American stations using the 60 meter band. But this small southern African country could nonetheless be heard in the evening on the east coast of North America and other locations at and just after its sign on. I was able to hear the station from Pennsylvania, using a Hammarlund HQ-180 receiver, but also had the opportunity to hear it like a local when I lived in Swaziland for 3 months in the 1970’s. Following is a recording made locally in Swaziland, and one recording made in Pennsylvania.
Radio Pax (Mozambique): 1974
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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Robinson, who shares the following recording and notes on Radio Pax
Though shortwave listeners around the world heard the main Radio Clube de Mozambique stations in what could be called the heart of the shortwave era — the 1960’s through the 1980s — another station also broadcast from the east African country. That was Radio Pax, the Catholic station in Beira, Mozambique, which dates back to 1954. Amazingly, Radio Pax still exists today complete with a Facebook page. But there is no longer any shortwave. In 1974, while living in southern Africa as an exchange student I had the thrill of being able to hear Radio Pax on 3,960 khz, one its two shortwave frequencies and made tis recording using a Drake SPR-4 receiver on a longwire located in Mbabane, Swaziland.
Radio Uganda: 1979
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There are other recordings of Radio Uganda on the archive — this is another, made in Washington, DC by famed DX’er Taylor McNeil. This was made on March 31, 1979 on 15,325 khz which was the frequency many listeners heard Uganda on, with 250 kw of power. Hearing Uganda on the 60 meter band, however, was far more challenging.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor Dan Robinson, who processed and posted this audio recording by Taylor McNeil:
