Monthly Archives: February 2013

Pirate Radio Recordings: Radio GaGa

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"All we hear is Radio GaGa!"

“All we hear is…Radio GaGa!”

For your listening pleasure: 28 minutes of pirate radio fun, courtesy of Radio GaGa.

Recorded on Saturday, February 2nd, 2013–starting around 00:10 UTC–on 6.925 MHz (USB).

Click here to download the MP3 of the recording, or simply listen below:
Standard Pirate Radio Disclaimer: This is a recording of a real pirate radio broadcast, and as such, may include strong or colorful language or lyrics. In general, if you are easily offended by the words, ideas, music lyrics, or music herein, you should slowly…back… away…

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Radio Australia’s Jazz Notes

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Jazz Notes presenter, Ivan Lloyd (Photo: Radio Australia)

Jazz Notes presenter, Ivan Lloyd (Photo: Radio Australia)

One Radio Australia music program I make a point of listening to each week– besides Saturday Night Country–is a wonderful show called Jazz Notes.

Jazz Notes showcases the best in Australian jazz, often featuring new and original recordings made in ABC’s studios. The show is hosted by Ivan Lloyd and has been offered on Radio Australia for several years.  I listen to the show every Wednesday morning at 8:30 am EST.  If you’ve never heard of Jazz Notes, I can understand why, since it’s only a 30 minute show and begins at the half hour–but it’s certainly worth hearing.

Next week, make a point to tune your shortwave radio to 5940, 9580 or 11945 kHz on Wednesday at 13:30 UTC.  As you will hear in the following recording, listeners in North America will be most impressed by the strong signal out of Shepparton, Australia, on 9,580 kHz. Even an inexpensive portable receiver can pick up this robust broadcast.

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

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Steven Roberts cycled the US with a Sony ICF-2010

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N4RVE working the world from BEHEMOTH, somewhere in Wisconsin. (Photo: Steven Roberts)

Steven (N4RVE) working the world from his bike BEHEMOTH, somewhere in Wisconsin. (Photo: S. Roberts)

One of the most fascinating responses I received after posting the story of my buddy Vlado’s incredible thrift store find (a Sony ICF-2010 for just $5) came from Steven Roberts, who told me that, in the 1980s, he cycled across the United States with the Sony ICF-2010 in tow.

Indeed, Steven carried much more than just the Sony on his memorable trip:  he had a custom designed computer (circa late 80s), a fully-functioning ham radio station, as well as all of his camping and living supplies, mounted on his custom-designed recumbent bike…Wow.

Talk about someone with vision!  I asked Steven if I could post this for SWLing Post readers, to which he replied:

Thanks! I have a pretty good summary of the whole crazy adventure at this link, and the bike is now in the Computer History Museum. Fast-Forward two decades, and I’m geeking-out a 44-foot steel sailboat (including a wrap-around rack console for audio, comms, and electronics lab). Here’s the bike: http://microship.com/resources/technomadic-tools.html

You’re most welcome, Steven–and many thanks, for the inspiring story! We look forward to hearing about your adventures on the water…

If you have a story you’d like to share, please contact me.

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Wired: Listen to a Solar Flare Drown Out Radio Communications on Earth

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(Photo: NASA via Wired)

(Photo: NASA via Wired)

(Source: Wired)

Over the weekend, a tiny spot on the sun erupted into a moderately sized solar flare that was particularly loud in radio waves. With the sound of a roaring wave, it completely drowned out radio communication all over the Earth between 28 MHz and 21.1 MHz.

The recording [found on this page] comes from either a short wave radio station or a Ham radio transmission, said amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft, who works with NASA’s Radio JOVE project. It’s interesting to hear the voices get “swallowed up as the solar wave passes through,” he added in an e-mail to Wired.[…]

Read the full article on Wired.

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Pirate Radio Recordings: Rave On Radio

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1-RadioListening2

“Yep, I can hear him through the static!”

While Rave On Radio‘s upper side band signal was fairly weak, at least in my part of the world, on Friday night, I managed to record it just the same.  The broadcast started around 23:15 UTC (February 1st) on 6,925 kHz.

I believe I recorded the entire broadcast; if not, I at least captured the majority of it. This is not “armchair” copy, of course, but it doesn’t take seasoned ears to hear the IDs and music through the static, either. (Indeed, I rather appreciate this skill-dependent aspect of the listening hobby).

Click here to download an MP3 of the entire show, or simply listen in the embedded Archive.org player below:

Note: This is a recording of a real pirate radio broadcast. Though I don’t think this broadcast applies, if you are easily offended by strong lyrics and offensive music, you should slowly back away.

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Shortwave Radio Recordings: The Giant Jukebox and Kim Elliott’s digital text on The Mighty KBC

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wurlitzerJukeboxThe Mighty KBC’s broadcast from Bulgaria was mighty strong last night into North America. I recorded the full 2 hour show of The Giant Jukebox on 9,450 kHz beginning at 00:00 UTC.

As I’ve come to expect from The Mighty KBC, this show has an marvelous mix of rock-n-roll through the decades along with Eric’s professional DJing. The Mighty KBC has real people behind the music mix, a refreshing alternative to the iHeart Radio and Pandoras of the world.

Click here to download an MP3 of the entire show, or simply listen via the embedded Archive.org player below:

Of course, this recording includes Kim Elliott’s digital text modes. For those of you who would like to decode it, here are the details:

At about 01:30 into the recording, 4xPSK63R is centered on 1000 Hz and MFSK64 centered on 2000 Hz. (For 4XPSK63R, use Fldigi 3.21.65 or newer: OpMode > PSKR > MultiCarrier > 4XPSK63R.)

At just before the end of the transmission, an image will be transmitted in the MFSK16 mode. Also, MT63-2000 (long interleave) will be centered on 1500 Hz. This will be an Flmsg formatted transmission, with html. Fldigi and Flmsg can be downloaded from www.w1hkj.com.

Please comment if you were able to decode.

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Making A Transistor Radio by George Dobbs

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A sample illustration from "How To Build a Transistor Radio"

A sample illustration from “Making a Transistor Radio”

Those of you who are ham radio operators (especially QRPers) are familiar with the name George Dobbs (G3RJV). In 1972, Reverend Dobbs wrote a book called, Making A Transistor Radio and now it’s available online.

Making A Transistor Radio is a clear, simple, step-by-step guide to building your own transistor radio. In each stage of the process you’re rewarded with a working radio. In addition, you’ll learn about all of the stages of a working receiver.

Perhaps what I love best about this book–besides the fact that is resembles the mountains of electronics books I poured through in my youth–are the illustrations.  Each illustration describes exactly how each component of the radio should be built, leaving nothing to be pondered.

If you’ve ever wanted to build your own radio, from scratch, this is a great place to start.

Thanks, Eric, for sending this link!

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