For your listening pleasure: a recording of the Deutsche Welle English service made this morning, September 3rd, starting at 04:00 UTC.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below (note about 40 seconds of carrier prior to the beginning of the broadcast):
By the way, if you believe there’s nothing to listen to on shortwave, you should check out our What’s On Shortwave category!
Lately, the Voice of Greece has been playing very long sets of music; and not all of it Greek. I assume the break in format has to do with the reorganization of Greek national broadcasting.
I believe VoG could be cut without notice. With heavy budget cuts being dealt to national broadcasting, I doubt investment in shortwave radio will continue since they no longer even have an English language service. This is one of the reasons I’ve devoted a lot of recording time to VoG as of late. Admittedly, I certainly hope I’m wrong about my prediction.
On September 1st, I recorded over five hours of VoG, starting around 22:00 UTC. After about an hour of Greek commentary, you’ll hear music ranging from contemporary to classical.
Click here to download the full recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below.
Alas–! It’s time to bid a fond farewell to my trusty Alinco DX-R8T. I’m only selling it to raise money to purchase hard drive storage for spectrum recordings and more review radios, which fuel this site.
Needless to say, it’s in great shape and reviews most favorably. Indeed, the sensitivity is so good, I’m a little reluctant to sell it…But sacrifices must be made; there are some 4TB SATA drives with my name on them (plus, admittedly, I still have five other tabletop receivers for consolation).
QSL from BOCHF
Again this morning at 2:20 UTC–and last night, during a very active night of pirate radio activity–BOCHF crept onto the airwaves, this time on 6,920 kHz USB.
Yesterday, BOCHF played the Boards of Canada album Tomorrow’s Harvest; this morning, they played their album In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country.
And how did it sound? Combining the music of the Boards of Canada with the sonic texture of the shortwave ether is a winning combination, in my opinion. Thanks, BOCHF! But don’t take my word for it: take a listen yourself.
Click here to download the full broadcast as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
By the way, I recorded several other pirate stations last night–look for them in upcoming posts!
Sir David Frost has passed away at age 74–no doubt, one of the greatest interviewers of our time.
The BBC has a video tribute on this page. Of course, Frost is possibly best known for his interview with Richard Nixon, post Watergate.
(Source: HF Underground)
Just last night, I came across a new shortwave pirate radio station: BOCHF.
BOCHF started broadcasting around 23:10 UTC on 6,925 kHz USB, and after about a twenty-five minute set, took a five minute break, then returned with a forty-two minute set, ending with an SSTV QSL. The signal, as you can hear below, is fairly strong, but interference was also strong at times; especially from SSB pescadores (fishermen) and the usual summer static crashes.
The entire mix consisted of Boards of Canada music from Tomorrow’s Harvest. There were no vocal ID’s, but there were messages in CW (Morse code) which clearly identifies this pirate as BOCHF.
The artists Boards of Canada have always had an affinity with shortwave radio, so I find a shortwave pirate station playing their music to be an appropriate tribute. Due to sound card problems, I was unable to decode the SSTV QSL, but thankfully a great copy was posted on HF Underground’s pirate radio forum (see above) by forum contributor, Chris Smolinski.
Click here to download MP3s of Part One and Part Two from the full broadcast last night or simply listen via the embedded audio players below:
BOCHF Part One:
BOCHF Part Two:
As I mentioned yesterday, Labor Day weekend is a great weekend to catch a few pirate stations on shortwave. Happy listening!
(Photo: RTE Radio)
RTÉ Radio has announced that it will broadcast the GAA All Ireland Hurling Final on Sunday 8 September and the All Ireland Football Final on Sunday 22 September via multiple sources including shortwave radio (frequencies and times below).
RTÉ Radio explains:
“In Africa, where many Irish people live and work, often in relative isolation with poor communications, RTÉ is providing special transmissions on shortwave radio.
[…]These services are part of RTÉ’s continued commitment to Irish people overseas and, over the years, has proven especially popular with those in geographically or technically isolated areas.”
Of course, RTÉ will broadcast both finals via the Internet, local radio and television.
On shortwave, RTÉ will broadcast on multiple frequencies–attempting to target most regions of Africa–so there’s a very good chance you could hear one.
Both Finals throw in at 3:30 pm Irish Time (14:30 UTC)