Radio Casablanca: April 19, 2016

Last night at about 00:10 UTC, I was pleased to hear the interval signal of one of my favorite pirate radio stations: Radio Casablanca.

“Rick Blaine” fired up his AM transmitter and pumped out some amazing WWII era music on 6,940 kHz for about one hour and a half. Radio Casablanca only pops up a few times a year, so I always feel fortunate to grab the broadcast (click here to listen to previous recordings).

Signal strength varied over the course of the broadcast and the bands were quite noisy–still, the Casablanca signal punched through quite well at times.

Close your eyes and imagine what it must have been like to hear the great bands of the era over the shortwaves…

Click here to download an MP3 of the full recording, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Note that the interval signal starts around 01:25:

1991 cassette of shortwave IDs, interval signals and numbers stations

SWLing Post reader and SRAA contributor, Frank, writes from Germany:

First let me say that I enjoy your blog a lot.

After a 2005-13 hiatus, I have rediscovered a childhood hobby and your reviews have helped me find my way to the post-Sony portable shortwave radio markets.

First, I obtained my “childhood dream” radio (Sony ICF 2001D), because at the time I made these recordings I was still in school and 1300 DM would have equaled over 1 year of pocket money, so a Supertech SR16HN had to do. I thought I got some fine results with this Sangean-Siemens re-branded receiver then, using a CB half-length antenna, a random wire, and much endurance.

I kept regular logs throughout the years, wrote to 50 international and pirate stations for QSL and compiled this cassette.

A few years before I got that trusty SR16HN, however, I recorded a few number stations (such as G3, Four Note Rising Scale etc) with an ordinary radio cassette recorder, and in 1991 I put them onto this tape as well. The other recordings are done with the same radio placed right in front of the SR 16HN.

Feel free to make use of these recordings. Most of it are the well-known international state-owned shortwave stations of the past; plus European pirates; plus number stations; and at the end, a few (off-topic) local Am and FM stations interval signals.

As I said, this collection I made shortly after the Wende/reunification period, when all former-GDR state broadcasters changed their names, sometimes more than once.

Please continue your good work on the blogs! Weather permitting I am often outside cycling and always have the tiny Sony ICF 100 with me (which I call my then-student’s dream radio of the later 90ies).

Cassette Side 1

Cassette Side 2

beHAVior Night via WBCQ: January 16, 2015

For your listening pleasure: beHAVior Night, a shortwave radio show which showcases music from the first four decades of the 20th Century.

This show was recorded on Friday, January 16, 2015, beginning at 2000 UTC on 7495 kHz:

The Talking Machine Show via WWCR: October 18, 2014

For your listening pleasure: 30 minutes of The Talking Machine Show via WWCR. This broadcast was recorded October 18, 2014 at 2300 UTC, on the shortwave frequency of 9350 kHz. This recording was made with an Elad FDM-S2 and sky loop wire antenna in North Carolina, USA.

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Please subscribe to our podcast to receive future recordings automatically.

beHAVior Night: February 28, 2014

For your listening pleasure: beHAVior Night, a shortwave radio show, relayed by WBCQ, dedicated to showcasing music from the first four decades of the 20th Century.

This show was recorded on 7,490 kHz, starting at 22:00 UTC on February 28, 2014:

beHAVior Night: February 7, 2014

Image Source

For your listening pleasure: beHAVior Night, a shortwave radio show, relayed by WBCQ, dedicated to showcasing music from the first four decades of the 20th Century.

This show was recorded on 7,490 kHz, starting at 22:00 UTC on February 7, 2014.

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

Radio Moscow: circa 1968

Many thanks to David Firth, who is kindly sharing shortwave radio recordings he made on his reel-to-reel recording equipment in the late 1960's. Firth is uncovering and digitizing these recordings as time allows.

We are grateful for this recording of Radio Moscow, which Firth recorded in 1968. 

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

beHAVior Night: January 31, 2014

Last year, I reviewed the Elecraft KX3 transceiver on the SWLing Post as a fantastic radio to consider if you’re an amateur radio operator who also happens to love SWLing.

Last Friday night, at 22:00UTC on 7,490 kHz, I used my KX3 to tune in one of my favorite weekly programs: beHAVior Night, a shortwave radio show, relayed by WBCQ, which showcases music from the first four decades of the 20th Century. We've featured several recordings of beHAVior night here on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

What’s so pleasant about the KX3 is the robust AM audio it delivers, even though its AM filtering is limited to a maximum of 4.2 kHz in width. That’s a very narrow width, by SWLing standards, but the audio sounds wider.

Listen for yourself: click here to download a recording of beHAVior Night made with the Elecraft KX3 (via my Zoom H2N digital recorder) or simply listen via the embedded player below:

beHAVior Night: January 17, 2014

For your listening pleasure: beHAVior Night, a shortwave radio show, relayed by WBCQ, dedicated to showcasing music from the first four decades of the 20th Century.

This show was recorded on 7,490 kHz, starting at 22:00 UTC on January 17, 2014.

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

Radio Free Whatever, Pearl Harbor Tribute: December 15, 2013

Destroyer USS Shaw exploding after her forward magazine was detonated. (Source: Wikipedia)

For your listening pleasure: one hour, seven minutes of the pirate radio station, Radio Free Whatever. 

I recorded this broadcast on December 15 2013, starting around 2:40 UTC (Dec 14, 9:40 PM EST), on 6,925 kHz AM. This broadcast was a tribute broadcast to WWII/Pearl Harbor and contains news clips and music from the same time period.

Simply click here to download an MP3 of the recording, or listen via the embedded player below:

beHAVior Night: December 8, 2013

For your listening pleasure: beHAVior Night, a shortwave radio show, relayed by WBCQ, dedicated to showcasing music from the first four decades of the 20th Century.

This show was receorded on 7,490 kHz, starting at 22:00 UTC on December 8, 2013.

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

Pirate Radio Recordings: Radio Casablanca

Confession time: one of my favorite pirate radio stations is Radio Casablanca.

Why?   

For one thing the format is WWII-era music. When I hear Radio Casablanca, I close my eyes and imagine what it must have been like to hear the great bands of the era over the shortwaves...

Radio nostalgia at its best. 

The signal strength is always sufficient to be heard in relatively good fidelity here in my radio room, but not so strong as to detract from the perceived distance. I believe the recording you'll hear below could very well mimic broadcasts over shortwave, heard across borders during WWII as well as listened to on classic console radios in people's living rooms and front parlors.

When my buddy Mark Coady posted that he was listening to Radio Casablanca last night on 6940 kHz AM, I immediately rushed outside to hook up my antenna, and started rolling.  I didn't want to miss even one more minute (I came across Mark's post about twenty minutes into the broadcast). Though regional storms produced some static pops and crashes, overall fidelity is decent. You will hear the filter and side-band sync being adjusted at times as I attempted to eliminate adjacent noises--which, in the end, are all a part of the listening experience.

Click here to download an MP3 of the recording, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Either way, prepare to go (or at least, send your ears) back in time...