Many thanks to both Dan Robinson and Jerry Berg who made me aware of this excellent--extremely rare--recording of the Voice of Biafra.
This broadcast was recorded by Al Sizer in North Haven, CT, on September 8, 1969 on 6,145 kHz starting at 2140 GMT. The receiver used was a Realistic DX-150. Mr. Sizer introduces the recording:
QSL Card courtesy of Paul Greaves (W4FC)
Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who shares the following recording and notes:
I used to make it a habit to tune to this station just to hear this great Inverval
Signal and sign-on. This usually boomed in on 7255 kHz at sign-on. I have not listened
in years but hope it is still there. I probably logged this on my ICF-2001 back then.
Date of recording: 5/16/1982
Frequency: 7.255
Starting time: 0530
Location: South Bend, Indiana
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:
At 06:00 UTC this morning, I recorded one hour of the Nigerian Armed Forces Radio test on 13,775 kHz. This broadcast was transmitted from a 250 kW transmitter in Issoudun, France.
Hypothetically, this may have been the last test transmission of the NAFR as WRMI's announcement stated the test period would last only one week, beginning June 30th.
Click here to download this recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
SRAA contributor, Richard Langley, writes:
Live recording of a test transmission of Nigerian Armed Forces Radio on 4 July 2015 beginning at 06:00:01 UTC (carrier on; audio file begins at 06:01:30; program begins at 06:01:36) on a frequency of 13775 kHz. The test was broadcast from a 250 kW transmitter of TDF in Issoudun, France. The antenna beam direction was 170 degrees towards west Africa.
The test, which is running daily for a week, consists of Nigerian traditional and military music interspersed with brief announcements and identifications in Hausa and English. In addition to 13775 kHz, a frequency of 11825 kHz was announced. The first musical piece features the line "I remember when I was a solider." The IDs include an SMS number to which to send messages: +2348148366886. The test program ended abruptly at 06:57:17 UTC when the transmitter cuts off in mid-song.
The signal was received on a Tecsun PL-880 receiver with a Tecsun AN-03L 7-metre wire antenna in Hanwell, New Brunswick, Canada, in AM mode with 5 kHz RF filtering.
For your listening pleasure: the Voice of Nigeria--recorded on January 28, 2015, starting at 10:00 UTC on 9,690 kHz.
This recording was made with a WinRadio Excalibur SDR hooked up to a horizontal delta loop wire antenna--location is eastern North America (North Carolina).
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
Enugu, Nigeria (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Many thanks to SWAA contributor, Frank, for this recording of the Voice of Nigeria made from his home in Europe. Frank sent some notes with this recording:
"Voice of Nigeria (250 kW transmitter) in French and in English, but in English only as a very short excerpt (at the start of the recording, when the CRI transmitter of 500 kW went off the air). Another short piece of English is audible at the end of the recording, when apparently transmitter problems caused termination of the transmission (there should be 1 hour of English language broadcast at 08:00 GMT, but the transmitter fell silent after several minutes)."
Frank, many thanks for these notes and the many recordings you contribute to the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive!
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
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