Photo: NASA
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Nigel Thornbury, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Voice of America (VOA)
Date of recording: July 11, 1979
Receiver and antenna: Sony ICF-5900 long wire
Ioannes Paulus I, by Fotografia Felici, 1978
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: Radio Netherlands
Date of recording: 9/28/1978
Starting time: Unknown
Frequency: Unknown
Reception location: St. Cloud, MN
Receiver and antenna: Sony ICF-5900W using a whip antenna
Notes: Radio Netherland's shortwave transmission announcing the death of Pope John Paul I in 1978. I had tuned in to listen to DX Juke Box and heard that the show was being preempted due to the unexpected passing. Pope John Paul I was head of the Catholic Church for only 33 days, the shortest in papal history.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
WRUL Radio New York Worldwide JFK Assassination Coverage 11/22/1963
WRUL (Radio New York Worldwide) shortwave coverage in English and Spanish of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy including coverage from ABC Radio. Recording provided by Todd Kosovich.
Princess Elizabeth circa 1945 (Image Source: Public Domain)
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Anthony Pavick, who shares the following recording and notes:
Broadcaster: BBC World Service
Date of recording: 9/8/2022
Starting time: 1600 UTC
Frequency: 12025 kHz
Receiver and antenna: SDR at University of Twente in Holland
Mode: AM
Notes: This is an off-air recording the BBC World Service on Thursday 8 September 2022 from 1600 to 1800 UTC on 12025 khz from the Kranji relay station in Singapore. It is the 90 minutes before the announcement of the passing of HRH Queen Elizabeth II, with the news bulletin at about minute 93
This recording was made on September 8, 2022 at 1959 UTC on 12095 kHz using GPD MicroPC, AirSpy Mini, SpyVerter 2, Wellbrook UMB130 balun and a 2x6m dipole. Demodulation and additional signal audio enhancement was performed in SDR#.
Quoting The Diplomat:
For the first time, North Korea has confirmed a positive COVID-19 case within the country. The state-run Korean Central News Agency reported on May 12 that a “specimen from persons with fever” in Pyongyang had come back positive for the Omicron BA.2 variant, a particularly contagious strain of the virus. The phrasing of the announcement makes it unclear how many people are infected. KCNA called the development a “most serious emergency case of the state.”
Below is the recording of this announcement being made on the Voice of Korea's English language service. The recording was made on May 12, 2022 at 1908 UTC on 11635 kHz using GPD MicroPC, AirSpy Mini, SpyVerter 2, Wellbrook UMB130 balun and a 2x6m dipole. Demodulation and additional signal audio enhancement was performed in SDR#.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Matt Tod, who shares the following recording and notes:
Notes: BBC World Service broadcast with the first news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Broadcaster: BBC
Date of recording: 2/22/2022 - 02/27/2022
Starting time: various: see recording titel
Frequency: 6.195 & 7.285 MHz
Reception location: Hugo, MN
Receiver and antenna: SDRplay RSPdx with wire loop around perimeter of attic
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Matt Todd, who shares the following recording and notes:
This is a compilation of radio broadcast from Twin Cities, Minnesota radio stations when the news of the January 6 US Capitol storming was first mentioned.
Time stamps for the following stations and their time of broadcast:
00:00 WCCO 1:07 CST
01:24 KTLK 1:08 CST
02:08 KYCR 1:20 CST
03:31 WLOL 2:04 CST
06:43 WWTC 2:08 CST
09:39 KDIZ 3:06 CST
Image by Marjan Blan | @marjanblan
The following recording of Radio Ukraine International was broadcast via WRMI on 5010 kHz. This recording was made via a KiwiSDR in Bakersville, NC on March 3, 2022 starting at 12:02 UTC.
Note: The first two minutes of the broadcast are missing due to a glitch in recording.
Kiev, Ukraine (Photo by Volodymyr)
The following recording of Radio Ukraine International was made on February 24, 2022 at 12:00 UTC on 5010 kHz via WRMI. The recording was made with an Icom IC-705 connected to a large skyloop antenna.
This is the first broadcast of the English language after the following February 23, 2022 announcement by WRMI:
Due to the increased interest in the current situation in Ukraine, WRMI has resumed its relays of the daily English language broadcast of Radio Ukraine International, the official overseas service of Ukrainian Radio. RUI can be heard daily, except Friday, at 1200-1230 UTC on 5010 kHz.
Note that the first half of this broadcast (Part 1) was made in AM mode. The second part was recorded in lower sideband in order to mitigate fading as conditions changed.
by Dan Robinson
In 1972, the Voice of the Revolution, Guinea’s national radio carried the funeral ceremony for Francis Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president after independence. Quoting from the history: “Nkrumah was born in the Gold Coast (later Ghana) in 1909 and was educated there before going to the United States in 1935 where he attended Lincoln University and later, the University of Pennsylvania. Nkrumah spent 10 years in the U.S., and later went to England to study at the London School of Economics. At the same time, he intensified his political activities for the independence of his homeland, which he led to full nationhood on March 6,1957. He was toppled in 1966 in a coup by army officers and remained in exile in neighboring Guinea until his death in April 1972 in Bucharest, Romania, where he had gone for medical treatment.
As reported by AFP from Accra: “The body of Kwame Nkrumah was flown back here today in a special Guinean Air Force plane. The military government or declared all flags to be flown at half‐staff until the former President is buried in Nkroful, a village 190 miles southwest of here where he was born on Sept. 1, 1909.
Return of the pan‐African leader's body to Ghana marks the culmination of protracted negotiations between the governing National Redemption Council here and President Sékou Touré of Guinea. Mr. Nkrumah died on April 27 in Rumania, where he was receiving medical treatment, and his body was taken to Guinea.
At first, President Touré refused Ghanaian requests for the body and gave Mr. Nkrumah a state funeral in Conakry, the Guinean capital. The Ghanaian had spent most of the years of his exile in Conakry, following his overthrow in 1966 in Ghana's first military coup. He was given the symbolic title of Co‐President of Guinea by President Touré.
Radio Conakry, also known as The Voice of the Revolution, was frequently heard by listeners around the world, usually on its shortwave frequencies including 9,650 kHz and 7,125 kHz. Nkrumah had used the station to make speeches from Guinea to the people of Ghana in 1966.
In this recording, made in Pennsylvania in 1972, you hear part of what appears to be a funeral observance held in Conakry, mostly in French but some English. Radio Conakry remained on shortwave into the 2000s, but later was intermittent. After repairs to its transmitter, it returned to shortwave in 2016 and was still being heard as of early 2021, though at weaker levels than before, and mostly in European locations.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Roberto Ciappi, who shares the following recording and notes:
Notes: BFBS Special daily broadcast to the British troops in the Persian Gulf area, during the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq. They were using BBC transmitters in the UK.
Broadcaster: BFBS London
Date of recording: 2/16/1991
Starting time: 0920 UTC
Frequency: 21.59 MHz
Reception location: Northwest Italy
Receiver and antenna: Sony CFD-444S Stereo cassette recorder with telescopic antenna
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dave Zantow, for sharing the following recording and notes:
Kol Israel (15:01)
September 12, 2001 at 0400 UTC
15640 kHz
Receiver used was a Japan Radio Co. NRD-545 (Sync on and 10 kHz bandwidth). One can hear minor DSP artifacts (burps) mixed in the background. Of course a common trait for the NRD-545.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dave Zantow, who shares the following recording and notes:
BBC World Service (16:49)
September 12, 2001 at 0000 UTC on 5975 kHz
Receiver used was a Japan Radio Co. NRD-545 (Sync on and 10 kHz bandwidth). One can hear minor DSP artifacts (burps) mixed in the background. Of course a common trait for the NRD-545.
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bruce Frederick who shares the following recording and notes:
VOYAGER 1 90 Deg Bank Angle 8.822 MHz 20 Dec 1986 2200 UTC
Recently when cleaning out our attic I came across QSLs that I received from the Voyager crew from their historic1986 circumnavigation of the earth. After continued searching I also came across the cassette recordings I made of some of their communications between Dec 20 - 22, 1986. The first hour provides the most compelling listening, as I started the tape just before Voyage unexpectedly ran into severe weather issues off the coast of Brazil. The small aircraft was tossed to a bank angle of 90 degrees, which theoretically it shouldn't have recovered from, yet Rutan was just barely able to maintain control and keep flying. At the worst possible time, the Vandenburg transmitter went down leaving Rutan and Yeager out of communication with their weather team who they were depending on to give them a safe heading to fly out of the storms. The stress and tension of the situation are very evident in the voices. I have several hours of additional comms, but this excerpt is the most compelling. While preparing this submission, I discovered that Tom Gavaras from MN made a similar contribution on July 28, 2020, covering a period a couple of days after this event. These contributions are complementary and should probably be cross-linked for people interested in hearing different days of the mission. Note that like Tom, I also have the QSLs I received a few months after the mission.
BROADCASTER:
Voyager Mission Control at Vandenburg AFB and Voyage aircraft in-flight near Brazil
DATE OF RECORDING:
12/20/1986
STARTING TIME:
~2200 UTC
FREQUENCY:
8.822 MHz
RX LOCATION:
Boston, MA USA
RECEIVER AND ANTENNA:
Icom 745 with horizontal wire dipole at ~30 ft.
MODE:
Single Side Band
Additional details:
Regarding the QSL card, Bruce notes:
"...I was never a big QSL collector when I was active in the '80s but this was kind of special: QSLs for the Voyager 1 non-stop flight around the world in 1986, signed by Dick Rutan, Jeana Yeager, and Larry Gaskey (Mission Operations Director). Since this this wasn't a commercial broadcast organization, I didn't think they would have QSL cards (or even know what a QSL request was), so I followed the protocol of the time and prepared my own 8.5" x 11" printout and polite cover letter explaining why I was writing. I was blown away when I received not only detailed info on my home brew form, but a classy postcard signed personally by Rutan and Yeager..."
The Voyage flight plan from this website:
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, for sharing the following recording and notes:
Voice of America studio quality recording of shortwave coverage of Apollo 11. Starts with newscast on the status of Soviet Luna 2 orbiter that was also sent to the moon, Egyptian-Israel conflict at the Suez Canal, Organization of American States call for a cease fire between El Salvador and Honduras, entire cabinet in South Vietnam resigns, American air attacks against the Viet Cong, etc. Followed by latest updates on Apollo 11 (lunar module is on the moon), international reaction to landing on the moon, etc.
Date of recording: 7/20/1969
Starting time: 1730 UTC
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Scott G., for the following recording and notes:
BBC World Service Reporting on the death of Fidel Castro. Believe these broadcasts were targeted to Africa, but reception was good into Europe that morning. I was listening to these using my home receiver in East Anglia, England, but due to local interference, started recording them using the Twente SDR.
Broadcaster: BBC
Date of recording: 11/26/2016
Starting time: 0700 UTC
Frequency: 11.770 & 12.095
Location: University of Twente, Netherlands
Receiver and antenna: SDR, Mini-Whip antenna
Many thanks to SRA contributor, Matt Todd, who shares the following recording and notes:
On December 17, 2014 it was announced that diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba would be restored and an exchange of prisoners between the two countries would occur. This is the Radio Havana Cuba broadcast from that day. It was recorded December 18, 2014 at 0159 UTC on 6000khz using a Yaesu FT-857 in Hugo, MN.
Program Details:
00:00 Sign-on
01:25 News - Prisioners released in exchange, US and Cuba announced discussion to normalize relations, Complaint filed in relation to Bush era torture programs, Talaban attack in Afghanastan, Jeb Bush running for US President
12:00 Address from Cuban President Raul Castro
18:50 Commentary on ISIS
24:10 Sports
29:45 Cuban Music
34:25 News
39:00 Mailbag
51:15 Arts Roundup
Starting time: 0159 UTC
Frequency: 6 MHz
RX location: Hugo, MN
Receiver and antenna: Yaesu FT-857 and wire loop around the perimeter of the attic
US President, John F. Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963)
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording and notes:
Voice of America shortwave broadcast from Greenville, NC with English language coverage of the shooting of President John F. Kennedy as they struggle with CBS Television saying President Kennedy is dead and NBC Television saying that he is still alive. Transmission switches to a VOA Polish language broadcast near the end of the recording. Recording provided to me by broadcast historian, Todd Kosovich.
Broadcaster: Voice of America
Date of recording: 11/22/1963
Starting time: Approximately 1300
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Lee Herterich, who shares the following recording and notes:
This is an off-the-air recording of shortwave radio station Radio Baghdad made on September 26, 1990. The political situation was about to lead to the first Iraq war. This was the European service on a frequency of 13,660 khz. which was aired between 20-22 UTC. It was recorded in the Boston USA area. Receiver was a Yaesu FRG-8800 with an indoor wire antenna. Direct recording into a cassette recorder.
Date of recording: 9/26/1990
Starting time: 21:15 UTC
Frequency: 13,660 kHz
Reception location: Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts USA
Receiver and antenna: Yaesu FRG-8800 with an indoor wire antenna. Direct recording into a cassette recorder.
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