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.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Harner, for the following recording. Paul notes:
The German service of RTL was recorded late on a Saturday/early Sunday morning Europe in either February or March 1982. For those who speak German, there are news headlines that could pinpoint the exact date, so any help given would be greatly appreciated.
If you can help Paul ID headlines in this recording, please comment!
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Harner, who submits the following recording and notes:
In October 1982, I logged my first short wave broadcast station from Peru. It was during a Friday night when I heard Radio Atlantida. The station broadcast on 4790 kHz from Iquitos. This was recorded on a 3" reel-to-reel machine I had purchased at a yard sale that summer.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Mark Hist, who notes the following:
Thanks for alerting shortwave listeners to the British Antarctic Survey broadcast. It felt very poignant listening to a broadcast aimed at such a small number of people, with the voices of their loved ones being launched around the world.
I was able to record the broadcast from only 100 miles away from the Woofferton transmitter, so needless to say the quality and strength was very good. I imagine hearing that broadcast buried in the noise from far away with those happy birthday songs and best wishes must have been very emotional for its intended audience.
I enclose a short segment from my 30 minute recording, plus a photo (above) taken the next day of my set up (it was dark at the time of the recording).
I also recorded the broadcast from Saint-Anne-de-Beaupré, Québec, Canada. I wrote a post about this on the SWLing Post (click here to read). The following is my recording from 7360 kHz. Reception was not nearly as strong as that of Mark, above:
Note that we collected over 30 recordings--from accross the globe. You can listen to and browse them on the SWLing Post by clicking here.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Jim Jordan, who shares this recording of Radio Moscow from September 19, 1984. This recording was made using a National Panasonic RF-2200 tuned to 9.5 MHz around 08:10 UTC. The location was South Shields, UK.
Jim notes:
A nice cold war piece from Radio Moscow on the double defection of the Soviet journalist Oleg Bitov.
The real story behind it was revealed ten years later here: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/he-came-he-saw-he-couldnt-take-it-he-was-a-soviet-defector-with-a-story-to-sell-and-duff-hart-davis-1383974.html
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Harner, for the following recordings. Jack notes:
Radio Luxembourg used two short wave frequencies for their broadcasts: 6090 and 15350 kHz. On 6090, the station relayed their 1440 kHz service, which included their English and German language broadcasts. The 15350 kHz relayed their French language service on 234 kHz long wave.
This recording of RTL's French service was made in the early evening in the midwestern USA on Friday 4 March 1982, which would have been the early Saturday morning in Europe.
Paul's reel tape containing this Radio Netherland's recording
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Harner, who notes:
Radio Nederland's "What's New" was a Saturday night program that featured hits from the weekly Dutch Top 30. The show was co-hosted by American Bruce Parsons and Australian Graham GIll. Based on the charts from that week, this show aired on 6 November 1976. Shows like "What's New" introduced me to pop/rock artists that didn't receive airplay in the USA. It also introduced me to other shows on Radio Nederland later on, such as "His And Hers," "Happy Station," and especially "Media Network."
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who notes:
Radio Uganda English Service recorded on December 11, 1981. 8:45 in length. I logged this after a hearing a tip on RCI's SWL Digest program of December 7, 1981. They had a strong signal this night and I managed to get a QSL from this broadcast. The disappeared again from shortwave a few days later and I never heard their NA service again.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who notes:
Radio Canada International recorded on December 7, 1981. This is another from my archive of old recordings of Radio Canada International's Shortwave Listeners Digest. This episode contains discussion of a new mediumwave and longwave broadcasting plan; Who's on the Air featuring Azad Kashmir Radio presented by Adrian Peterson; DX News with Glenn Hauser. An item in the DX news mentions the return of Radio Uganda's North American Service. I logged this a few days later and am also including a recording.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Harner, who notes:
In 1980, Daylight Saving Time began on the 27'th of April. When I was in high school, the Saturday night overnight hours were a favorite time for me to listen to shortwave signals. Especially the domestic Latin American stations on 49 and 60 meters.
On that night, two stations from Colombia were coming in reasonably well, and I decided to record an hour of each of them.
Based in the city of Neiva, "La Voz de Huila" was an affiliate of the TODELAR network ('Primeros en sintonia'). One could easily identify stations from this network through their top of the hour ID's (they used chimes similar to the NBC network in the USA). The station's frequency was 6150 kHz.
Here is a recording of "La Voz de Huila," taken during the 4 AM hour (local time) on 27 April 1980
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Jim Jordan, who shares this three part recording of Radio Polonia and notes:
After the declaration of martial law in Poland on December 13, 1981 Radio Polonia ceased broadcasting. Broadcasts in English instead continued from a military base near Warsaw Airport. The staff of Radio Polonia returned to the air soon afterwards and here are three broadcasts from that period in Poland's history. Of some of the presenters that you will hear, Konrad Gocman is in retirement and works as a translator. However Benny Ludkiewicz (aka "Bengt Scotland") unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago. Anyone who is interested in the old North American service from Warsaw may like to read have a read of this. The writer used to work with the late Sol Flapan and his wife Anna, who used to deal with the English section's correspondence right up until the 1990s http://www.tc.umn.edu/~marqu002/Chap10.pdf
Jim made the following recording in South Shields, UK, using a National Panasonic RF2200 and a random long wire on 6.135 MHz:
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who notes:
Radio Canada International recorded on November 22, 1981. This is another from my archive of old recordings of Radio Canada International's Shortwave Listeners Digest. This episode contains Larry Magne's first installment of shortwave equipment reviews this time looking at variables used in evaluating equipment; Harold Sellers with a report from the ANARC DX Equipment Information Committee; Glenn Hauser's DX news.
Date of recording: 11/22/1981
Starting time: 2100
Frequency: 15.325
Location: South Bend, IN
Receiver used: Sony ICF-2001
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Sarah Boucher, for the following Radio St. Helena clip and notes:
“Operating 1548”, a song about Radio St. Helena composed and performed by Bettie Crowie and others."
This recording was made with a tape recorder on the AM/mediumwave band:
Many thanks to SRAA Contributor, Brian D. Smith (W9IND), who notes:
Want to know what shortwave radio sounded like in 1974? This 55-minute recording, recovered from a cassette, was never intended to be anything but "audio notes": I was an 18-year-old shortwave listener who collected QSL cards from international stations, and I was tired of using a pen and a notepad to copy down details of the broadcasts. I wanted an easier way to record what I heard, and my cassette tape recorder seemed like the perfect means to accomplish that goal.
But it wasn't. I soon discovered that it was simpler to just edit my notes as I was jotting them down — not spend time on endless searches for specific information located all over the tape. To make a long story shorter, I abandoned my "audio notes" plan after a single shortwave recording: This one.
Still, for those who want to experience the feel of sitting at a shortwave radio in the mid-1970s and slowly spinning the dial, this tape delivers. Nothing great in terms of sound quality; I was using a Hallicrafters S-108 that was outdated even at the time. And my recording "technique" involved placing the cassette microphone next to the radio speaker.
Thus, what you'll hear is a grab bag of randomness: Major shortwave broadcasting stations from Canada, Argentina, Spain, Germany and Albania; maritime CW and other utility stations; and even a one-sided conversation involving a mobile phone, apparently located at sea. There are lengthy (even boring) programs, theme songs and interval signals, and brief IDs, one in Morse code from an Italian Navy station and another from a Department of Energy station used to track shipments of nuclear materials. And I can't even identify the station behind every recording, including several Spanish broadcasts (I don't speak the language) and an interview in English with a UFO book author.
The following is a guide, with approximate Windows Media Player starting times, of the signals on this recording. (Incidentally, the CBC recording was from July 11, 1974 — a date I deduced by researching the Major League Baseball scores of the previous day.)
GUIDE TO THE RECORDING
0:00 — CBC (Radio Canada) Northern and Armed Forces Service: News and sports.
7:51 — RAE (Radio Argentina): Sign-off with closing theme
9:14 — Department of Energy station in Belton, Missouri: "This is KRF-265 clear."
9:17 — Interval signal: Radio Spain.
9:40 — New York Radio, WSY-70 (aviation weather broadcast)
10:22 — Unidentified station (Spanish?): Music.
10:51— Unidentified station (English): Historic drama with mention of Vice President John Adams, plus bell-heavy closing theme.
14:12 — RAI (Italy), male announcer, poor signal strength.
14:20 — Unidentified station (Spanish): Theme music and apparent ID, good signal strength.
15:16 — Unidentified station (foreign-speaking, possibly Spanish): Song, "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep."
17:00 — Deutsche Welle (The Voice of West Germany): Announcement of frequencies, theme song.
17:39 — Unidentified station (English): Interview with the Rev. Barry Downing, author of “The Bible and Flying Saucers.”
24:36 — One side of mobile telephone conversation in SSB, possibly from maritime location.
30:37 — Radio Tirana (Albania): Lengthy economic and geopolitical talk (female announcer); bad audio. Theme and ID at 36:23, sign-off at 55:03.
55:11 — Italian Navy, Rome: “VVV IDR3 (and long tone)” in Morse code.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who shares this 1981 recording of Radio Canada International's Shortwave Listeners Digest from November 9, 1981. Tom notes:
This is another from my archive of old recordings of Radio Canada International's Shortwave Listener's Digest. This episode contains Ian McFarland's editorial comment on the ANARC Convention of 1981; Steve Webster's Who's On The Air - Radio Kuwait; Larry Magne's final part of his interview with Perry Ferrell of Gilfer Shortwave; Glenn Hauser's DX news.
This recording starts at 2100 UTC on 15,325 kHz on November 9, 1981. The receiver was a Sony ICF-2001 and the location was South Bend, Indiana:
(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.
STS-51-L crew: (front row) Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair; (back row) Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik.
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:
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Richard Collings, who notes:
Surprises galore for host Tom Meijer on his 42nd birthday: includes Tom being caught out by the technical team who play a recording of him trying to sing the classic Perry Como song 'It's impossible' as a send-up. Also birthday wishes in song from several members of the foreign language teams at Radio Nederland (as it was then known) in 1980.
This recording was made on Sunday 16th November 1980 from 0930 to 1020 GMT. Recorded off-air on 9,895Khz in Plymouth, Devon, UK. Tom Meyer also makes reference to the date being the 52nd anniversary of the 'Happy Station Show'.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Richard Collings, who notes:
The Happy Station Show of Sunday 23rd December 1979. A pre-recorded special Christmas show with Tom Meijer. Broadcast from 0930 to 1020GMT [on 9895 kHz and received in Plymouth, Devon, UK].
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who notes:
Radio Canada International recorded on October 26, 1981. This is another from my archive of old recordings of Radio Canada International's Shortwave Listeners Digest. This contains part two of Larry Magne's interview with Perry Ferrel from Gilfer Shortwave (part one aired on October 19, 1981, see previous program) and Glenn Hauser's DX tips. Recorded using my Sony ICF-2001 likely on 15.325 MHz around 2100 UTC. The audio quality isn't the greatest. Enjoy!
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