Radio Kudirat Nigeria (Clandestine): March 22, 1998

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:

Some blended audio clips from pro democracy clandestine station Radio Kudirat Nigeria (The Voice of Democracy) operating on 11540 kHz. This recording was made on March 22, 1998 in Thamesford, Ontario, Canada. The station says they are getting reports of poor reception on their other frequency of 6205 kHz, and recommends tuning to 11540 kHz.

Date of recording: 3/22/1998

Frequency: 11.540

Reception location: Thamesford, Ontario, Canada

Receiver and antenna: Panasonic RF-3100 and longwire antenna

The Voice Of Free China: Circa 1971

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:

During my early years of SWLing, The Voice of Free China from Taipei, Taiwan was an exciting catch for me. The signal came direct from Taiwan (no relay) and was often subject to "polar flutter" as it found it's path to Southern Ontario, Canada. My receiver was a Hallicrafters S-52 hooked up to a long wire antenna. This recording is from early 1971 and the frequency used was 15125 kHz. Their interval signal is heard followed by presumed ID in local Chinese dialect and ID in English

Broadcaster: The Voice of Free China, Taipei, Taiwan

Starting time: 0200

Frequency: 15.125 MHz

Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada

Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna

VOA "Talk to America" show by Doug Bernard discussing clandestine radio (Internet Recording): June 14, 2005

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, who shares the following recording.

Note that we occasionally post recordings that are not airchecks or off-air recordings when they relate to the shortwave radio listening hobby. This is one such recording. Tom shares the following notes:

Notes: Voice of America (VOA) "Talk to America" show from 2005 hosted by Doug Bernard discussing clandestine radio. Guests included Nick Grace, Clandestine Radio Watch and Richard Lafayette, Global Crisis Watch.

The Voice of Free Sahara: February 11, 2002

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Enrique Fernandez, who shares the following recording and notes:

The Voice of Free Sahara, 32 kpbs mp3 ripped from a cassette recording. Received with a Sony 2010 and a 40 meter long wire from the France-Switzerland border in 2002.

There is a clear ID at 1”33”.

Frequency: 7.46 MHz

Date/Time: 11 February 2002 at 2333 UTC

Note that the quality of this recording is rather poor due to tape degradation:

The Voice of Free Sahara: February 24, 2002

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Enrique Fernandez, who shares the following recording and notes:

The Voice of Free Sahara, 32 kpbs mp3 ripped from a cassette recording. Received with a Sony 2010 and a 40 meter long wire from the France-Switzerland border in 2002. After the news bulletin in Spanish, there is a clear ID at 5”45.

Frequency: 7.46 MHz

Date/Time: 24 February 2002 at 2300UTC

Voice of the Malayan Revolution: Circa 1979

Image: Universal Radio

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Nigel Thornbury, who shares the following recording and notes:

Broadcaster: Voice of the Malayan Revolution

Date of recording: 1979

Starting time: 0930

Frequency: 15.790

RX location: Singapore

Receiver and antenna: Sony ICF-5900W, random wire

Mode: AM

If SRAA subscribers can ID the exact date of this recording, please comment.

La Voz de Alpha 66: January 20, 1988

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Andy Robins, who shares the following recording and comments:

La Voz de Alpha 66 recorded in Kalamazoo, Michigan, from 0206 hours to 0237 hours UTC on 20 January 1988 on 6,668 MHz. The clandestine station opposed the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The transmitter was reportedly located in the Miami, Florida, area.

Receiver: Sony ICF-2020

Radio Liberacion SRRN: January 20, 1988

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Andy Robins, for the following recording and notes:

Radio Liberación-Sistema Radial de la Resistencia Nicaragüense recorded in Kalamazoo, Michigan, from 0240 hours to 0330 hours UTC on 20 January 1988 on frequency 5,929.3 kHz. The clandestine station opposed the Sandinista regime in Managua. The transmitter may have been in Honduras.

Receiver: Sony ICF-2010

Nicaraguan clandestine radio station, Radio Sandino: July 17, 1979

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Garavas, who shares the following recording and notes:

Radio Sandino, Nicaraguan clandestine radio station, voice of the Sandinista National Liberation Front. Recorded the day Anastasio Somoza DeBayle resigned the presidency and fled to Miami.

The following is a translation of the first two minutes of the announcement:

"Somoza is leaving. During these moments, [inaudible]. No one shall act freely. Everyone should act under orders of the one responsible [over them], under instruction of the national joint leadership, FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front). We must prevent, at all costs, the individual energy and [inaudible]. The FSLN guarantees publicly and emphatically to respect life and physical integrity of all military and their families once this fight is over. Nicaraguan brothers, abiding by the provisions of the new government, FSLN, reaffirms publicly that executions will not be allowed, nor physical violence against those military members who comply with the orders to ceasefire. Denying disseminated malicious versions by the Somoza [government], the new government of national reconstruction guarantees that the death penalty shall not apply to any military member guilty or not of a crime. The ordinary courts of justice will be the ones who will recognize [inaudible] and judgement. We alert all of the honest officers of the national guard that the Somoza Security Office has initiated a fierce persecution against all honest officers. We call upon you to not let them, and to trust in the guarantee the new government of national reconstruction offers you. We reiterate that every honest officer can integrate to the new patriotic military. We know that many military members have not had the opportunity to get out of the Somoza military. To those, we ask to have confidence in the imminent victory."

This recording was made on July 17, 1979 at 0500 UTC in Plymouth, MN (USA) using a Hammarlund HQ-180 and longwire antenna.

Radio Netherlands (Media Network): April 9, 1982

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who shares the following recording and notes:

Along with RCI's Shortwave Listener's Digest, Radio Netherlands Media Network was another favorite DX program of mine. Here is a recording of an episode from April 9, 1982 which is the first recording of this program from my archive. The show highlights are: media coverage of the Falklands War from the British and Argentinian sides, Pete Meyers with a report that Radio New Zealand did not shut down, the US-Cuban media war, Richard Ginbey with African media news and John Campbell with a clandestine radio report. Audio quality is only fair for this recording. I will try not to post recordings of Media Network which are already available on Jonathan Marks' Media Network Vintage Vault website.

Date of recording: 4/9/1982

Starting time: 0230

Frequency: 9.590 MHz

Receiver location: South Bend, IN

Receiver: Realistic DX-302

The Sound of Hope: April 6, 2016

The Sound of Hope (Xi Wang Zhi Sheng) recorded in London, UK on April 6, 2016 at 1600 UTC, on the frequency of 9155 kHz using AirSpy, SpyVerter, SDR# software and a 2 x 6m long wire dipole antenna. The transmitter has a power rating of 100W and is located in Taiwan. This transmission is usually a difficult catch in Europe due to its low power rating and non-directional nature. SDR#'s IF noise reduction plugin was used to make speech more intelligible.

Radio Lead Africa: March 5, 2016

Live, off-air, approximately two-hour recording of the clandestine station Radio Lead Africa on 5 March 2016 beginning at about 05:02:30 UTC on a shortwave frequency of 15310 kHz. According to a registration at the High Frequency Coordination Conference, this broadcast, aired on Saturdays in the time slot 05:00-07:00 UTC, originates from a Sentech 100 kW transmitter at Meyerton, South Africa, and is beamed in the direction of Uganda with an antenna beam azimuth of 5°.    

The anti-Museveni program, a production of the Uganda Federal Democratic Organisation based in Australia (www.ugandafdo.com) and Radio Lead Africa Media, is one of several broadcast through the week using the Sentech facilities.

The recorded broadcast starts in Luganda, a principal language of Uganda. An English segment runs from about the 59m:31s mark to 1h:29m:05s. The broadcast switched back to the vernacular and sign-off occurred at about 06:59 UTC. 

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 was initially only fair with some noise but it improved to a good level during the broadcast. The broadcast is mostly interference-free but there is a brief period of digital interference starting around 1h:40m:30s.

Uganda Diaspora P10 Radio: February 18, 2016

Live, off-air, approximately three-hour-long recording of clandestine station Uganda Diaspora P10 Radio on 18 February 2016 beginning at 13:00 UTC on a shortwave frequency of 17840 kHz. This was one of four scheduled special election-day broadcasts from Uganda Diaspora P10 Radio. It was transmitted using a 250 kW sender at Nauen, Germany, with an antenna beam azimuth of 155°.   

The station is an outlet of Uganda Diaspora P10, an organization working for political change in Uganda and which supports the opposition politician Dr. Kizza Besigye. "P10" refers to the organizational power of each person enlisting 10 other people ("power to the power 10"). The recorded broadcast, in Swahili and English, was on election day in Uganda and included news about the election; voter instructions to ensure "no ... messing around with the vote"; and items, with music, about Dr. Besigye and the P10 movement. Much of the material was repeated in the three-hour broadcast. 

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 was fair with some noise. At around the 2h:30m mark in the recording, there is an audio feed problem at the transmitter site with a temporary switch to a broadcast from Adventist World Radio in Hindi. The problem was rectified a little over one minute later.

Radio Biafra: September 4, 2015

On September 4, 2015, I received a tip from SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson: Radio Biafra, a new clandestine station, was audible on 15,560 kHz via the Universite Twente Web SDR.

Despite miserable propagation conditions, I tuned my receiver to 15,560 kHz and was surprised to hear a weak signal from Radio Biafra, here in the eastern US. I recorded a few minutes before conditions changed and Biafra’s signal began to fade.

This was the first time I had logged Radio Biafra, so I was amazed to have copy clear enough to understand.

Wikipedia has a short entry for Radio Biafra:

Radio Biafra also known as Voice of Biafra, is a radio station that was originally founded by the government of the Republic of Biafra but is currently operated by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Believed to have had its first transmission before the Nigeria-Biafra war, the radio station was instrumental in the broadcast of speeches and propaganda by Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu to the people of the Republic of Biafra.

[…]Radio Biafra currently transmits via the internet and shortwave broadcast targeted majorly around Eastern Nigeria. Radio Biafra claims to be broadcasting the ideology of Biafra –”Freedom of the Biafra people”.

[…]Radio Biafra has been met with mixed reactions. While some critics have criticized the station for “inciting war” through its programmes and “preaching hate messages” against Nigeria which it refers to as a “zoo”, an editor for Sahara Reporters wrote in defence of the radio station after he compared Radio Biafra with the British Broadcasting Corporation Hausa service.

On 14 July 2015, it was reported in the media that the radio station had been jammed because it did not have a broadcast license from the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission. However, the radio station in a swift reaction labelled such claims as “lies” and went on to release its new frequency details to the public.

Note that the Wikipedia entry for Radio Biafra is rather new, having only been created in August, 2015.

The following short recording was made using my WinRadio Excalibur hooked up to a large skyloop antenna:

This two hour recording, by Dan Robinson, was made via the Universite Twente Web SDR in the Netherlands:

Afia Darfur/Hello Darfur: February 8, 2014

For your listening pleasure: Afia Darfur/Hello Darfur. This broadcast was recorded on February 8, 2014 starting around 03:00 UTC on 9,845 kHz. While Afia Darfurt was scheduled for the Selebria-Phikwe transmitter site, I believe this particular broadcast may have been relayed by the Voice of America in Greenville, North Carolina, based on signal strength and the VOA interval signal.

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Voice of the Tigray Revolution: December 16, 2013

(Image source: Austria Remote DX)

Many thanks to SWAA contributor, Andy Robins, for this recording of the clandestine station, the Voice of the Tigray Revolution.

Andy recorded this broadcast between 02:55 - 03:18 UTC on December 16, 2013 on 5.950 MHz using an  Icom IC-R75 with a 40-foot PAR EF-SWL end-fed wire.

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below: