ABC Alice Springs Outback Radio Service on 4.835 MHz on Last Day of Shortwave Broadcasting: January 30, 2017

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Live, off-air, two-hour recording of some of final day of shortwave transmissions by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC's) Northern Territory (NT) Outback Radio service on 30 January 2017 (UTC). This recording of station VL8A on 4835 kHz begins just before 18:30 UTC or 04:00 Australian Central Standard Time (ACST) on 31 January. VL8A relayed the ABC Local Radio AM station 8AL on 783 kHz in Alice Springs from a 50 kW transmitter at Alice Springs with a non-directional antenna beam.    

The recording includes part of ABC Local Radio's "ABC Radio Overnights" program with host Lisa Pellegrino and news bulletins.

Two other NT shortwave transmitters were located at Katherine (VL8K) and Tennant Creek (VL8T).

ABC ceased all NT shortwave transmissions shortly after 02:30 UTC on 31 January 2017 or noon, ACST. 
 
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 5.08 kHz total bandwidth RF filtering. Reception was generally poor with a lot of noise but with much of the audio understandable especially when using headphones. The poor quality is understandable given the non-directional transmission and the long propagation path.
 

First Nine Hours of Radio Australia on 12.065 MHz on Last Day of Shortwave Broadcasting: January 30, 2017

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The front of a Radio Australia QSL card received for a report on reception in Toronto of a transmission on 11840 kHz at 19:30 UTC on 23 December 1964.

The front of a Radio Australia QSL card received for a report on reception in Toronto of a transmission on 11840 kHz at 19:30 UTC on 23 December 1964.

Live, off-air, nine-hour recording of some of the final shortwave transmissions of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC's) external service, Radio Australia, on 30 January 2017. This recording of the signal on 12065 kHz begins at 08:59 UTC and has been split into one-hour segments. The signal originated from a 100 kW transmitter at Shepparton, in northern Victoria, with an antenna beam azimuth of 355°. 

Sign-on of the transmitter occurred at about 08:59 UTC. Following an announcement about ABC Radio National programs, the first half-hour of programming is in Tok Pisin or New Guinea Pidgin and this was the last Radio Australia program in this language to be transmitted on shortwave. Various other Radio Australia and Radio National programs follow. There is an item on the termination of Radio Australia shortwave broadcasts in the news bulletin at 16:00 UTC.

The 12065 kHz frequency was used until 20:58 UTC, when the transmitter was switched to another frequency. 

Radio Australia ceased all shortwave transmissions shortly after 01:00 UTC or noon, Australian Eastern Daylight Time, on 31 January 2017.
 
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 5.08 kHz total bandwidth RF filtering. Reception varied from poor to fair during the nine hours recorded.
 

Shortwave Shindig and Short Waves / Long Distance via WRMI: March 11, 2017

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Live recording of the repeat broadcast of the North American Shortwave Association's Winter SWL Fest "Shortwave Shindig" and Wave Farm's "Short Waves / Long Distance" programs by WRMI, Radio Miami International, using a transmitter at Okeechobee, Florida, on 11 March 2017 from 03:00 to 06:00 UTC on a shortwave frequency of 9395 kHz. The listed transmitter power is 100 kW with an antenna beam azimuth of 355°. The recording begins and ends with the WRMI station identification.

The first hour of the broadcast is of the live program "Shortwave Shindig" as recorded at the 30th Annual Winter SWL Fest held in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, 2–4 March 2017. The following two hours are of the program "Short Waves / Long Distance," a montage of shortwave-based audio works compiled by Wave Farm in celebration of its 20th anniversary. The Wave Farm program ends with the digital transmission of an image in MFSK32-mode centred on 1500 kHz.     

The programs were first broadcast live on 4 March 2017 but due to poor propagation conditions, reception throughout North America was poor or nonexistent and so the programs were rebroadcast.

The broadcast was received outdoors on a Tecsun PL-880 receiver with a Tecsun AN-03L 7-metre wire antenna in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada, in AM mode with 5 kHz RF filtering. Reception varied from fair to good during the three-hour broadcast with no interference. Some passages during the "Short Waves / Long Distance" program have low audio levels.
 

Listeners record final moments of the Radio Australia shortwave service: January 31, 2017

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Many thanks to all of the SRAA contributors who have shared their recordings of the final moments of Radio Australia. Below, you'll find a number of recordings from around the world.

If you have a recording you would like to share, please submit it to us and we'll add your recording.

The first SRAA contributor, Mark Fahey, lives near Sydney, Australia. Mark recorded the shortwave service and RA satellite feed simultaneously. Mark shares the following recordings and notes:

Recording 1
This is RA’s final few minutes on shortwave – it was recorded on 17840kHz.
The file picks up the regular program ending, then into a Promo for RA “Pacific Beat” (a Pacific current affairs program), then the classic RA Interval Signal then the transmitter clicks off and the void is heard.
Recording 2
The file starts at exactly the same time as the first file, but in this example we are monitoring the Network Feed from Intelsat 18 at 180.0 degrees east (above the equator right on the international date line). This satellite feed is the way Radio Australia gets to the network of FM Transmitters they have scatted around the Pacific Region (which is why they feel they don’t need shortwave anymore for – most populated areas of Radio Australia’s target area now is covered by a network of Radio Australia FM transmitters).

Ian P notes:

Recorded from A Global Tuner in Broome, WA, Australia
Receiver: Icom PCR-1000 Antenna: Discone
Last 30 Minutes Of Radio Australia On Short Wave

Phil Brennan writes:

I managed to catch the last 45 seconds of the NT ABC broadcast on 5025 kHz. Unfortunately it's from my phone and not of great quality, but it may be the only recording of it given the time of day and propagation conditions.
Click here to view on YouTube.

Dan Hawkins writes:

I set up the 909X (also my favorite travel radio) on a chair in a backyard and ran the little ANT-60 reel-up antenna up to a pear tree. This is a recording of Radio Australia Pacific Service on 17840 kHz that includes the last top of the hour newscast at midnight, 1-31-2017 UTC. It includes promos, an ID and a news story on the shortwave closure. Less than a hour later there was no more RA on shortwave. RA came in very well for northern California on several frequencies. Conditions were fantastic for this one considering the 7,800 mile transmission distance. Birds and traffic are also heard in this hand-held field recording. I didn’t bring the tripod. I’ll miss Radio Australia, but I still have excellent reception of RNZI.

BBC Radio 4 (LW) - The Archers: December 23, 2016

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Live, off-air recording of the Christmas 2016 episode of "The Archers" broadcast by BBC Radio 4 Longwave (LW) on 23 December 2016 beginning shortly after 19:00 UTC on a frequency of 198 kHz from the 500 kW transmitter at Droitwich, near Worcester, England. 

"The Archers" is the world's longest-running radio soap opera, with a pilot series broadcast in 1950 and the first regular episode broadcast on 1 January 1951. The series was initially broadcast on the BBC Light Programme and subsequently on the BBC Home Service (now Radio 4).

Reception was very good. The recording begins with an introduction to the program and the Greenwich Time Signal (the Six Pips), followed by a short news bulletin. 

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 9.09 kHz RF filtering.

Launch of Apollo 17 (1972)

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Last Apollo flight to the Moon.
Voice of America (VOA) shortwave coverage.
Broadcast begins Thursday [Australian time]
Dec. 7 1972 at 02-30 GMT.

Information on the mission of Apollo 17-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_17

http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-real-story-of-apollo-17-and-why-we-never-went-ba-1670503448

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

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

Abba Eban (Israel's Foreign Minister at UN 1972)

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Relay from the U.N. (29 September 1972)
 
Speech by Abba Eban (Israel’s Foreign Minister terrorist attacks).
Shortwave from New York. 20-20 GMT 19 meters.

Information-

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

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/nov/18/guardianobituaries.israel

Recorded off-air by Ian Holder, Brisbane, Australia

Abba Eban- UN Radio 29 September 1972

Mediumwave Pirate "Batavier": February 06, 2017

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Jordan Heyburn, who shares the following recording of European MW pirate radio station, Batavier and the following notes:

Starting time: 2100 UTC
Frequency: 1.665 MHz
Reception location: Armagh, Northern Ireland
Receiver and antenna: Icom IC-R70 and Wellbrook ALA1530LN Active Loop Antenna

Radio Romania International: 06 February 2017

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This recording of Radio Romania International was made on 06 February 2017--the sixth day of massive protests to stop a Romanian law that would have eased corruption penalties.

This recording was made on 5,960 kHz starting at 0100 UTC. Receiver used was a WinRadio Excalibur with a large horizontal delta loop antenna in North Carolina.

Canadian Shortwave Pirate TNFM: June 2, 1986.

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Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Scott Nelson, who shares this 1986 recording of the Canadian pirate radio station, TNFM and notes:

Date of recording: 6/2/1986
Starting time: 0520
Frequency: 7.415
Receiver location: Minot, North Dakota
Receiver: Sony ICF-6500W
Notes: Canadian pirate station TNFM recorded June 2, 1986 from my location in Minot, North Dakota. IDs, music, and talk - playing listener requests and dedications.

France Inter Longwave 162 kHz Final Sign-off: December 31, 2016

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Live off-air recording of the last hour of programming from Radio France station France Inter Grandes Ondes (Longwave) on 31 December 2016 beginning just before 22:00 UTC on the longwave frequency of 162 kHz. The signal originated from the TDF (formerly known as Télédiffusion de France) 2000 kW transmitter (reportedly reduced to 1000 kW during the hours of darkness) at Allouis, near Bourges, France.

Following the time signal tones for 23:00 CET, the news bulletin, "Le Journal de 23h," is presented followed by the first hour of a special end-of-year episode of the music and chat program "Back to Back des voix de France Inter." At about the 51m:35s point in the recording is an announcement of the ending of France Inter's use of longwave. The "Back to Back" program resumes and the first hour ends with a countdown to midnight and the time signal tones for 00:00 CET and just as the presenter wishes Happy New Year, the audio feed to the transmitter is cut. However, the carrier remains on the air as it will continue to be used for the LTE-SYRTYE (Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais - Système de Références Temps-Espace) carrier-phase-modulated time code, widely used in France for clock synchronization. The recording continues for about one minute after the France Inter audio is cut. What can be heard weakly is the audio of two other powerful longwave stations on quite different frequencies, both in French: RTL (formerly Radio Luxembourg) on 234 kHz with a reported power of 1500 kW and Europe 1 on 183 kHz with a reported power of 2000 kW. These stations cross-modulate the 162 kHz TDF carrier in the ionosphere and the phenomenon is know as the Luxembourg effect as it was first noticed in the 1930s when the powerful Radio Luxembourg transmitter would interfere with the reception of other stations.

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 9.00 kHz RF filtering.