RX4M - The Voice of Clipperton station ID: Circa Late 1970s

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(Source: North American Pirate Radio Hall Of Fame)

(Source: North American Pirate Radio Hall Of Fame)

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Colin Newell, who shares two recordings from the late 1970s of the pirate radio station RX4M The Voice of Clipperton. 

Colin recorded both of these station IDs from British Columbia, Canada, using his cassette recorder. Colin also notes that he may be the only person to have ever recorded RX4M off-air. RX4M was inducted into the North American Pirate Radio Hall Of Fame in 2011.  The following is an excerpt from an article written by Andrew Yoder on the NA Pirate Radio Hall of Fame site :

RX4M (Radio Experiment on 40 Meters) put in more time and hours to overcome obscurity, only to quickly fall back into obscurity, thanks to a pirate-unfriendly location in Washington State. Even by the mid-‘80s, few DXers or pirate listeners had heard RX4M, and few remembered it.
The first difficulty for RX4M to overcome was the poor communications of the late ‘70s. When the station began broadcasting in August 1979, there was no Internet and all DX news either was discovered via monthly bulletin or magazine, meaning a minimum delay of two months for information to be reported. 
The next problem was the Pacific Northwest. At the time, very few shortwave DXers and almost no pirate listeners were located in the region. Some young pirate listeners were networking in southern California, toward Los Angeles, but even that was a long haul from the Seattle area. 
Despite a nightly broadcast schedule and boasting two transmitters (20 and 100 watts), no DXers in either NASWA or the Newark News Radio Club (two of the largest shortwave clubs of the time, and two of the best for pirate news) reported RX4M until April 1980 on 7370 kHz.
The few listeners who remember RX4M know it as possibly the only North American pirate to operate with a regular shortwave station, like a licensed outlet. It was on nightly from *0550-0630* UTC with a variety of programs produced by different station staff: News with Tony Giles, Post Office Box 80 with Aaron Richardson, DX Forum with Mickey Anderson, Let’s Talk Technical with Larry Adams, and the Good Morning Show with Jerry Nelson. Other time slots were filled with old-time radio programs, such as Burns & Allen, Jack Benny, Fibber McGee & Molly, Sherlock Holmes, Fred Harris & Alice Faye.
[...]RX4M, the Voice of Cliperton, was never heard again and no shortwave pirate since has adopted its style. At a time when many DXers were bitterly anti-pirate, many reporters said that RX4M programming sounded very professional. 

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

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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:

Radio Sana'a: January 22, 2016

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Live off-air four-hour recording of the clandestine station Radio Sana'a* on 22 January 2016 beginning at 13:30 UTC on a shortwave frequency of 11860 kHz. Programming consists of talk in Arabic and music. Vocal pieces are typically accompanied by instruments including drums. The tune "Breath and Life" by audiomachine is frequently used during the music segments. The call (adhan) to sunset (Maghrib = west) prayer starts at about 14:54 UTC. There is a news report starting at about 16:00 UTC for 7 or 8 minutes read by a woman. And there is a possible station identification at about 16:37 UTC.    

The identity of the transmitter(s) used by Radio Sana'a has not been positively established.

The broadcast was received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in USB mode with 2.49 kHz RF filtering to avoid initial interference from Radio Romania International on 11855 kHz. Reception quality varied during the four hours. Between 14:30 and 16:30 UTC, there was co-channel interference from the Voice of America's Radio Ashna Afghanistan service. At times, Radio Sana'a is difficult to hear due to the interference. The recording ends just before Adventist World Radio begins transmitting on the frequency, overpowering Radio Sana'a.

* Added 9 March 2016: The station apparently has not used this identity on air. It has announced itself in Arabic as "Yemen Channel, the channel of all Yemenis." It is also referred to by the shortwave listening community as Republic of Yemen Radio.

Radio Australia: October 7, 2013

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Radio Australia recorded in London, UK on October 7, 2013 at 2029 UTC on the frequency of 11695 kHz using a Eton Satellit 750 radio with a Wellbrook ALA1530S+ antenna (positioned indoors) and a variable attenuator purchased in Maplin. The transmitter is located in Shepparton, Australia and has a power rating of 100 kW. This was Radio Australia's dedicated South East Asia service that could be heard very clearly in Europe on most evenings. It has been discontinued as of 2015.

Radio Kuwait: August 22, 2013

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Radio Kuwait recorded in London, UK on August 22, 2013 at 1830 UTC on the frequency of 15540 kHz using a Tecsun PL-380 radio with its built-in telescopic antenna. The transmitter is located in Kuwait and has a power rating of 250 kW. The recording was made on a clear summer evening, on the rooftop of a multi-storey building in central London. Shortwave broadcasts by Radio Kuwait have now ceased.

Radio Habana Cuba: August 24, 2013

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Radio Habana Cuba recorded in London, UK on August 24, 2013 at 0043 UTC on the frequency of 6060 kHz using a Tecsun PL-380 radio with its built-in telescopic antenna. The transmitter is located in Bauta, Cuba and has a power rating of 100 kW. The recording was made on a clear summer night, on the rooftop of a multi-storey building in central London.

Radio New Zealand International: February 13, 2014

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Radio New Zealand International recorded in London, UK on February 13, 2014 at 1600 UTC, on the frequency of 9765 kHz using a Tecsun PL-660 radio with the built in telescopic antenna. Severe co-channel QRM on both sides of the frequency was mitigated by PL-660's lower-sideband synchronous detector with the narrow bandwidth filter. The transmitter has a power rating of 100 kW and is located in Rangitaiki, New Zealand. The distance from the reception location to the transmitter is 18560km. The recording was made on a clear frosty evening, in one of London's parks.