Thanks to the Herculodge, I’ve learned that C.Crane Company is celebrating their 30th Anniversary by giving away two prizes each day of September.
It’s easy to enter: simply go to C.Crane’s new blog and make a comment on their daily posts. C.Crane draws a daily winner from the comments section.
Good luck!
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 Tuesday 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…
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.