Voice of America: December 24, 1986

/

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Scott Nelson, who notes:

Voice of America recorded off shortwave (15.410 MHz) on December 24, 1986 [starting around 1959 UTC].  The receiver was a Sony ICF-6500W with a random wire antenna.  Recorded to cassette tape and later transferred to an mp3 computer file.  The broadcast features Christmas music, IDs, News, and the Nightline Africa program.

President Sadat's Visit to Israel (1977)

/

Israel Radio (shortwave coverage).
12.00- 12-30 GMT/ 15485 khz/
Sunday 20 November 1977 (Australian Time)

Recorded off-air by Ian Holder,
Brisbane, Australia

Information on the Sadat/Israel visit (1977)-

http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_sadat_1977.php

Other broadcasts-

https://archive.org/details/@i_holder

 

Hong Kong Handover (1997)

/

HONG KONG HANDOVER JUNE 1997

Daily coverage of the Hong Kong Handover between Britain and China in 1997.

The broadcasts are mainly from China Radio International (CRI) which was previously Radio Peking/Beijing.

Other broadcasts are from the BBC World Service and Radio Singapore International.

Intros and off-air recording by Ian Holder, Australia.

Information on the Hong Kong Handover-

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0630.html

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1983718/everything-you-need-know-about-hong-kongs-return

 

 

 

VOA- Mars Landing (20 July, 1976)

/

Voice of America shortwave coverage of the landing of
an unmanned spacecraft (Viking 1) on Mars.

Recorded off-air by Ian Holder, Brisbane, Australia.

Viking 1 (1976) information-

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/viking-1/

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/sunset-at-the-viking-lander-1-site

Other broadcasts-

https://archive.org/details/@i_holder

 

The Czech Crisis (1968)

/
occupation-Czechoslovakia-300x336[1][1].jpg

Friday 23 August,1968. Radio Moscow transmission to Australia
31 metres 13-30 hrs GMT. Announcer, Boris Novikov (1925- 1997)

Twenty nine years after the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia in 1938,
followed by WW2, the Warsaw Pact countries led by Russia invaded the country.
This shortwave broadcast was recorded off-air in Australia by Ian Holder and gives the Russian view of the event. Less than two years after the fall of Communist Russia in 1991, the Republic of Czechoslovakia ceased to exit.
It was divided into two countries- Czech and Slovakia.

Other broadcasts on this topic-

https://archive.org/details/TheCzechCrisis1968

Russian Invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968) information-

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/soviet-invasion-czechoslavkia

 

Space Shuttle (1st Launch) 1981

/
columbia_gallery_spacecraft15_med6373[1][1].jpg

SPACE SHUTTLE (1st launch) (Ap12,1981)
Inaugural launch of the Space Shuttle.
Broadcast via shortwave on the
American Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS).
Relay of the American Broadcasting Company radio commentary.
Sunday April 12, 1981. 11-50 GMT. 9700 khz.

Recorded off-air by Ian Holder, Brisbane, Australia

Space Shuttle information-

https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2488.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle

Other broadcasts-

https://archive.org/details/@i_holder

 

Death of Mao Zedong (1976)

/

Radio Peking- Death of Mao Zedong (9 September 1976)

The death of Chairman Mao at 82 in 1976 brought to an end
the Cultural Revolution which cost millions of lives.

Monitored from Radio Peking shortwave service.
Commentary in English and funeral music.

Recording made off-air by Ian Holder, Brisbane, Australia

Other broadcasts-

https://archive.org/details/@i_holder

Death of Emperor Hirohito (7 Jan.1989)

/

*Date calculated by East Australian Time.

01.Radio Japan- January 7, 1989- 07.50GMT- 15270khz
02.Radio Japan- January 7, 1989- 09.10GMT- 11885khz
03.Radio Japan- January 7, 1989- music, news
04.Radio Japan-funeral, news, comment (Feb 24, 1989)

Recorded off-air by Ian Holder, Brisbane, Australia.

Other broadcasts on this topic-

https://archive.org/details/DeathFuneralOfHirohito1989

Cessation of North Vietnam Bombing (1968)

/

On October 31st, 1968 US President Lyndon Johnson announced that all bombing of North Vietnam would cease as a result of North Vietnam coming to the conference table. In his televised speech President Johnson said, "I have now ordered that all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam cease as of 8 a.m., Washington time, Friday morning. I have reached this decision on the basis of the developments in the Paris talks. And I have reached it in the belief that this action can lead to progress toward a peaceful settlement of the Vietnamese war.

BBC shortwave broadcast recorded off-air
by Ian Holder, Brisbane, Australia.

Voice of Korea: October 17, 2016

/

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Walker, who notes:

This is the English service broadcast for The Voice Of Korea to "Latin America" from Kujang, North Korea. Recorded 0430-0530UTC October 17, 2016 using a Tecsun PL880, Welbrook ALA1530LNP, EmTech ZM2 antenna tuner and DXEngineering HF Preamp.
Listening location is Galena, Alaska. A village of 500 people in the rural central interior, 300 miles east of Nome and 300 miles west of Fairbanks

Radio Cairo: August 17, 2016

/

Live, off-air, approximately one-and-one-half-hour recording of Radio Cairo in English on 17 August 2016 beginning about 23:00 UTC on a shortwave frequency of 9965 kHz. According to a High Frequency Coordination Conference registration, the signal originates from a 250 kW transmitter at the Abis transmitter complex, near Alexandria, Egypt, and was beamed 325° to western Europe and eastern North America. Radio Cairo is operated by the Egyptian Radio and Television Union, the public broadcaster of Egypt, operated by the Egyptian government.

The broadcast includes music and various features, including news (at about the 15-minute mark in the recording) and "Arabic by Radio" -- lesson 94 (starting around the 52-minute mark). The broadcast concludes with the news in brief, sign-off announcement, and about five minutes of music before time pips for 00:30:00 UTC. Times mentioned in the broadcast are Cairo local times, that is, in Central African Time (UTC + 2 hours).

Most Radio Cairo transmissions currently suffer from extremely poor modulation making them completely unintelligible. This recording is a rare example where the broadcast is somewhat understandable for the most part. However, the audio is muffled at times with music passages sounding somewhat better than most of the spoken word. The "Arabic by Radio" segment is, on the other hand, quite clear. The original recorded audio has been amplified by 400% to produce the archived audio file. 

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 AM mode with 5.09 kHz RF filtering. Reception must be considered only fair despite a strong signal since modulation was weak and slightly distorted or "muddy." However, there was no interference and negligible signal fading.