Tag Archives: Interval Signals

Radio Botswana barnyard sounds mystery

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Many thanks to SWLing Post and SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following off-air shortwave radio recording and writes:

In all of the recordings of Radio Botswana’s famous barnyard interval signal I can find, the barnyard sounds are accompanied by the sound of cowbells. There is usually a rooster crowing and cows mooing too.

Today, while revisiting some raw tape from an old cassette dated 1973, I came across a short [off-air] recording of some similar barnyard sounds, chickens clucking and cows mooing. No sign of the cow bells here, but perhaps they started up farther into the interval signal?

If this recording is from Radio Botswana, perhaps they were only using the animal sounds in 1973? Maybe someone out there can help with this? Sorry but I have no other info. Many thanks!

Dan Greenall

London, Ontario Canada

Thanks for sharing this, Dan.

If you can shed some light on this recording and if Radio Botswana’s interval signal has changed over the years, please comment with details! Thank you!

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Video: “The Glory Days of Shortwave Radio”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Adi, who writes:

Hi Thomas, this video just popped for me on YouTube. I searched the SWLing Post and didn’t find it, it’s not new so maybe you missed it.

Thank you, Adi. I’m almost positive I’ve posted this one before–but if I have it’s been so long it should be re-posted! A wonderful nostalgia trip! Thanks for sharing.

Click here to view on YouTube.

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David shares a recording of the RTE longwave interval signal

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Shannon, who writes:

Hi Thomas

A little treat for my fellow readers of your blog (is that the right word?). The RTE interval signal, a rendition of O’Donnell Abú (“O’Donnell Forever”), that is played at 0529 daily, apart from the weekend when it’s played at 0629 (even interval signals need a lie in) and received on longwave here in Scotland.

I know that longwave broadcasting is a very European thing with the exception of the likes of Mongolia (holy grail stuff for me) but it’s where my fascination for the bands started way back in 1978/9.

Sláinte mhaith gach duine
(Irish Gaelic for good health everyone)

That’s a beautiful interval signal, David. Thank you so much for sharing it with your fellow Post readers! There are few things in this world that make me feel more nostalgic than an off-air recording of an interval signal. Go Raibh Maith Agat!

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Reading an interval signal in the waterfall

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I’ve been doing a lot of SWLing with the new Icom IC-705. I suppose I’ve not much to post here other than to simply say: I think Radio Exterior de España‘s interval signal looks brilliant on the ‘705 waterfall. I captured this at the end of their scheduled broadcast around 22:02 UTC today.

Of course, the audio was pretty nice, too. Their interval signal is unmistakable:

I’ll admit: I’m loving the native recording capabilities of the IC-705. This came straight off of the MicroSD card. Bandwidth was set to 9 kHz.

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CPRM Lisboa: Another mystery signal solved

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In response to our latest mystery utility signal challenge, SWLing Post contributor, Dean Bianco replies:

This is the musical marker for CPRM Lisboa, a radiotelephone terminal that provided overseas telephone and telegraph communications in the days prior to satellites.

I remembered the non-broadcast HF frequencies being loaded to bursting with many of these radio services. When not scrambled for privacy, one could hear a telephone call in progress. Instead of a musical IS such as this one, most were loop tape voice ID’s in several languages (almost always including English). So naturally these musical loops made it quite difficult to know what exactly one was hearing, to say the least!

To verify check out the following embedded audio file made by Willi Passmann  (via the excellent UtilityRadio.com website):

Once again, thanks to Dean Bianco for solving yet another mystery! Obviously, Dean is a Black Belt SWL and DXer!

FYI: I’ve received a number of emails from readers who really enjoy these mystery signals. Since we all seem to have more time at home these days, I’ll plan to keep them coming!

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Yet another mystery utility signal to solve–!

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Back by popular demand!

On our quest to solve UNID utility signals, SWLing Post contributor David Crawford, is asking for help again to ID yet another interval signal. David writes:

Here’s yet another memorable utili-tune from the deep archives here, again not my recording, origin uncertain.

This one has a date, time and frequency on the filename [19670811-2347-15910-VM unID] and therefore would have been 1967. I heard this one myself occasionally also, which would have been sometime during the mid-to-late 1970s. It would have overlapped with the same time period during which CTNE was using the 14985 kHz tune previously provided, so despite the broad similarity I would assume it wasn’t them. Unless of course they used different tunes for different circuits:

Readers: Can you positively ID this interval signal? If so, please comment!

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Dean solves second interval signal mystery

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(Image source: Madrid.org)

In response to our second mystery interval signal challenge, SWLing Post contributor, Dean Bianco replies:

Mystery solved!

This is the “interval signal” (more accurately, a placeholder with a musical station identifier) for the Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España (CTNW) from Madrid, Spain.

They were a point-to-point HF radiotelephone terminal that provided overseas telephone and telegraph services in the days before satellites became common.

As a young SWL, I would receive all manner of strange musical identifiers for these utility stations. Most of these HF telecommunication services had gone to satellite by the early 1980’s. The HF bands were chock-a-block with signals, whether they be broadcast or utility services.

Glad to help!

To verify his claim, Dean shares the following embedded audio file made by Willi Passmann in the mid 1970s (via the excellent UtilityRadio.com website):

Well done, Dean! Thank you once again for coming to the rescue!

In case you didn’t know, dear readers, Dean Bianco is a force to be reckoned with in the shortwave radio world. 🙂 This year, he won the 3rd Annual Fest Trivia Quiz at the 2020 Winter SWL Fest! An impressive accomplishment, indeed. Not only that, but Dean’s an incredibly nice guy, great friend, and always willing to help out those new to the hobby!

Thank you, Dean!

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