Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Dan Greenall, who shares the following guest post:
Europe on shortwave in the 1970’s
by Dan Greenall
During the golden years of shortwave listening, many European countries had an international shortwave service and broadcast programs to North America (where I live) in English. As a result, these stations were usually among the first that a newcomer to the hobby would find. However, since there was no internet or e-mail, schedules often had to be found in the various club bulletins and hobby magazines. QSLs arrived through the postal system and could often take months to arrive.
I soon developed the habit of making a brief recording of each station as additional “proof of reception,” and many of these have survived to this day. These were typically made by placing the microphone directly in front of the speaker of my receiver. In recent years, they have been uploaded to the Internet Archive, and links to some of them from the early 1970s can be found here.
[Note that each title links to the Archive.org page where you can find more information and QSLs.]
I still remember all the stations from the 1980s. I was living in East Germany at the time.
Shortwave radio was our gateway to the wider world.
Regards, Steffen
Dan,
Really great stuff. Makes my hair stand up a bit on my arms. I picked up all of these in NE Ohio during the 60’s and 70’s. I clearly remembering having the Sweden QSL shown!! Thanks for taking me down shortwave memory lane.
Ditto, me. Acquired in late 60s from home in Brooklyn, NY.
A blast from the past,Thanks Dan. The recordings and reception were very good.In the early 1960’s my pop picked up a small Channel Master shortwave receiver for me.Although we lived in The Bronx,N.Y. in a old wood frame house the reception on the whip ant.was pretty good on that little guy.I started buying guides for SW listening and decided to open up the playing field with a rooftop long wire ant,WOW ! I seemed to be always modifying it.One Christmas my pop bought me a Zenith Trans Oceanic 3000,I believe,now I was in kid shortwave mecca all through highschool and like you, that thrill of twising knobs stuck with me my whole life.You had the foresight of recording what you tuned into.Thanks,again
That was the soundtrack of my childhood years; listening to the many broadcasters receivable here in the UK. It’s shame there isn’t one of the BBC WS. Later, as I travelled the world on business; setting up my portable radio to listen to London was my only link with home.
You can find some recordings of the BBC WS on the internet including this nice one:
Aaaah, that Radio Moscow interval signal is SO recognizable. It was a fixture in the aural landscape of my youth!