Recording Radio History: The Queen's Diamond Jubilee via BBC World Service

Ten years ago, my wife--then fiancée--and I lived in the UK, and were fortunate enough to attend The Queen's Golden Jubilee celebration on the vast lawn at Buckingham Palace. It was without doubt the largest party I've ever attended, packed to the gills with the British public--a thoroughly amazing event, featuring a who's who of past-and-present British musicians and personalities, encouraging attendees to join them in their bit of fun--and, of course, God save the Queen.

Yesterday, I re-lived the energy of that party as I heard (and recorded) the follow-up event these ten years later--The Queen's Diamond Jubilee, on the BBC World Service--as heard from remote Ascension Island.

When hearing live events like this on shortwave--especially ones like this that celebrate national heritage--I know I'm listening to history in the making. The crowds applauding and cheering in a live broadcast over shortwave reminds me of a former era when British Expats across the globe relied on the BBC World Service to connect them with ol' Blighty.

I recorded these broadcasts from my home in the southeastern US, hearing the BBC World Service relay station on the tiny, isolated Ascension Island in the South Atlantic. The broadcast was heard at first on 15,400 kHz, then moved to 9,915 kHz coinciding with their normal broadcast schedule. The broadcast, while completely intelligible, is weak in the beginning, but gains considerable strength by the end. There are summer static crashes heard as storms moved through the southeast US. I divided the broadcast into two parts, coinciding with my shift from one frequency to the other.

I also included a BBC WS news broadcast in Part 2 which followed the end of the show.

Either use the embedded audio player below, or simply click here to download the mp3 files for Part 1 and Part 2.

I used the WinRadio Excalibur to record both of these segments. Its synchronous detection helped deal with fading (QSB) present at the beginning of the recording.

Once again, history is made...and archived on shortwave radio.  Enjoy!

Voice of Greece plays music format during strike

On Monday, May 28, I recorded over 2 hours of popular Greek music programming from the Voice of Greece on 9,420 kHz with a Microtelecom Perseus. Propagation was excellent. UPDATE: Once again, SWLing Post reader, Christos, provided more info on the strike and recording below:

This time only the journalists had gone on strike. So, no news were broadcasted, no newspapers, no news in internet portals. Announcements between songs concerned the artists and cultural events of the same day, such as theatre, movies, concerts etc. The programme recorded from 42nd minute till 99th was from ERT’s archive introducing contemporary songs. The announcements of this part were about the songs, the singers and the composers. The programme recorded from 100thminute and on contained songs of 60ties, 50ties and older. Music programmes' producers made no comments about the strike of their colleagues.

Thanks, Christos!!!

You can listen via the player below, or simply download the MP3 by clicking here.

Click here to check out previous Voice of Greece recordings.

Finding the "English Man" numbers station while scanning for pirates

While listening for pirate radio stations last night, I recorded a numbers station. I found it on 6,949 kHz at 1:30 UTC, 26 May 2012. It was broadcast in USB for almost exactly ten minutes. The ID was sent for a full four minutes of that time. I have a full recording below. With a quick check on SpyNumbers.com, I'm pretty sure this is a station called, the "English Man."

If you're not familiar with numbers stations, check out this previous post where Shortwaveology author, David Goren, explores numbers stations.

If you have trouble listening to the embedded player below, simply click here to listen to the mp3 file.

Undercover Radio

Saturday night, I had a chance to record three pirates on 6925 kHz: North Woods Radio, Captain Morgan Shortwave and Undercover Radio. For tagging, I'm posting each individually. The final station from Saturday night is Undercover Radio.

Undercover Radio was broadcasting in AM starting around 03:18 UTC on May 13, 2012. The signal was great and there was a nice mixture of music and plenty of dialog. You can listen to the recording in the player embedded below, or by downloading the mp3 here.

North Woods Radio

Saturday night, I had a chance to record three pirates on 6925 kHz: North Woods Radio, Captain Morgan Shortwave, and Undercover Radio. For tagging, I'm posting each individually. The first station I recorded Saturday night was North Woods Radio.

North Woods was broadcasting in the upper side band starting around 00:55 UTC on May 13, 2012. The signal was weak at first, but got better toward the end. You can listen to the entire broadcast in the player embedded below, or by downloading the mp3 here.

Radio Strange - Outpost No. 7

Saturday night, after listening to some Voice of Greece Jazz, I happened upon Radio Strange - Outpost No. 7. This pirate deserves some recognition for the station's homage to retro 8-bit & spacey sounds. I couldn't tell if I was listening to an NES game soundtrack or an episode of Lost In Space. There's even a Beatles song thrown in the mix...with a twist. Good fun.

Here's the recording I made of the full 16 minute broadcast on 6925 kHz at approx. 00:15 UTC on Saturday, April 21--click here to download as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Voice of Greece Jazz

If you need a little jazz music in your life today, you're in luck. Saturday, I recorded over 2 hours of jazz programming from Voice of Greece (see update below) on 9,420 kHz starting around 20:00 UTC on a Microtelecom Perseus. Propagation was good, and other than an occasional static crash, fidelity excellent for the SW bands. You can listen via the player below, or simply download the MP3 by clicking here.

UPDATE: Once again, this long stretch of music with VOG was due to a strike. SWLing Post reader, Christos, comments below:

Another strike-day of ERT, so another non-stop recording for you. On Saturday they played jazz and on Sunday they continued with Greek music. Doing an exception this time, because of the coming general elections on 6th of May, they provided short news bulletins every hour, along with the usual announcements “we are on strike for our rights”. I enjoyed the same program from local FM. It was the only program transmitted from all national networks in both FM and medium waves. I visited the ERT Radio House, (Radiomegaron), the day before your recording was made, to attend a concert and I took a photo of a banner of VOG, in Greek.

Christos kindly sent me the following ERT image with the Voice of Greece in Greek:

The Voice of Greece and shortwave music

Yesterday, around 7:00PM local, I turned to 7,475 kHz--a favorite spot for Voice of Greece. Once again, they filled my radio room with great Greek and international music...hours of uninterrupted music. Don't believe me? Listen to the four hours of music I recorded. Enjoy!

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

Recording of Radio Bulgaria on shortwave

This morning at 00:00 (Universal Time), I recorded the Radio Bulgaria originating from their Plovdiv, Bulgaria transmitter, 5,420 miles from my home. I started my recording on 5,900 kHz at 00:00, then moved to and stayed on 7,400 kHz after Radio Havana Cuba started transmitting nearby at 00:30 UTC and bled into their frequency (a very common occurrence with RHC). The first hour is (00:00 - 00:59 UTC) Radio Bulgaria's English service, the second hour (1:00 - 2:00 UTC), their Bulgarian Service and third hour, (2:00 - 3:00 UTC) French service.

In this recording, you'll hear multiple announcements regarding the closure of their shortwave service as of Feb 1, 2012. They did mention they will continue services over the internet.

This was recorded with a Zoom H1 on an Alinco DX-R8T--antenna was a vertical delta loop.

Christmas tunes via pirate radio

Last night--Christmas Eve--I recorded a few minutes of pirate radio station, Wolverine Radio on 6,925 kHz USB. Their signal was very strong here into the shack. Wolverine played a selection of several rockin' Christmas songs. Merry Christmas and enjoy!

If media player does not appear above, please click here to listen via Archive.org.

FYI:Receiver - Alinco DX-R8T, Recorder - Zoom H1 recorded in-line, Antenna  - 40 meter vertical delta loop.