For your listening pleasure: three hours of Radio New Zealand International.
This broadcast was recorded on 9,700 kHz, starting at 07:59 UTC on April 5, 2014. This weekend RNZI broadcast includes Peter Fry’s Saturday Night music request show–always a treat to hear.
Click here to download this recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Of course, you will automatically receive this recording if you are subscribed to the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.
Two weeks ago, we posted a video of Evaton Technologies RF Nomad: a modular synthesizer that employs shortwave radio to create unique sounds. As someone who has always been fascinating with music and the sonic texture of the shortwaves, of course I find this product fascinating.
Forbes magazine does too. This morning, @UlisK3LU shared an article in Forbes where Russell Hoffman, who runs Evaton Technologies, explains why he believes using shortwave radio in new RF Nomad will be a hit:
“What’s interesting about shortwave radio is that it isn’t necessarily musical by design, but there are interesting sounds to be found when the station tuning is less than perfect,” he said. “You can hear all sorts of sounds on shortwave, from voice, to music, to Morse Code or encoded digital transmissions. In addition to the sounds that are transmitted intentionally, there are sounds that are artifacts of the medium itself like heterodynes, pops, crackles, hiss, static crashes, fading and the like.”
But here’s my favorite bit:
“Shortwave radio has a long and storied history, full of intrigue, espionage, piracy, rebellion, propaganda, and subterfuge,” he added. “It propagates around the world and can be received on inexpensive equipment. It is universal, because it can be heard anywhere; and yet at the same time, in a world of internet, TV, and satellite radio, it is also the underground — a hidden world parallel to that of our daily experiences. It offers an additional perspective.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself. Thank you, Mr. Hoffman.
Click here to read “How To Make Music (And Money) From Shortwave Radio” in Forbes magazine.
Check out Evaton Technologies and RF Nomad announcements by clicking here.
Radio Gallifrey Intergalactic SSTV QSL (Click to enlarge)
Last night, after returning from nearly two weeks of travel, I recorded pirate station, Radio Gallifrey Intergalactic. It was great to hear their strong USB signal on the air.
RGI appeared on 6,930 kHz USB around 2:45 UTC (or so) and started their broadcast with a set of audio sweeps and then straight into the Dr. Who theme. At the end of the broadcast, I captured RGI‘s SSTV QSL via the CQ SSTV iOS app.
Click here to download their broadcast as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
For electronic musicians who love the sonic texture of shortwave radio, check out the RF Nomad, under development by Evaton Technologies.
Evaton describes the RF Nomad module:
“RF. Radio Frequency. The stuff that Marconi made famous. Or maybe it made Marconi famous. Either way, it’s not just for listening to hockey games anymore.
The RF Nomad voltage-controlled sideband shortwave receiver Eurorack module is currently in final stages of prototype evaluation.
The RF Nomad adds the squealy, squelchy, noisy, unpredictable vintage sounds of shortwave radio to your modular. But this is no ordinary shortwave; it’s been designed to be extra noisy, extra squealy, extra gritty, and just downright nasty. No built-in output filtering means that a rich spectrum of harmonic content is available on the audio output jack. Audio levels can be driven to distortion. CV control lets you add your own creative spin on sound design.
Hissy interstation audio. Squealy heterodynes. Fading stations. Atmospheric noises. Faint voices in foreign languages from distant broadcast stations. Fire and brimstone. It’s all in there, just like your granddad’s old tabletop shortwave.
But, the RF Nomad adds a twist: The tuning is voltage controlled. Sure, when you were a kid, you discovered you could make spacy noises on Papa’s shortwave by slowly turning the tuning dial. But just how fast could you twist that dial? Faster than an audio-rate LFO? Hardly. Voltage controlled tuning means that the RF Nomad will let you explore sounds you never imagined you could get out of a shortwave receiver.”
Check out this demonstration video:
Many thanks to Mitsuhiko Kagawa for the tip!
Referring to my obsession with the BBC Countdown, Jonathan writes:
“You may like to play with the Infinite Juke box at the bottom of this post. You can make the countdown theme go on for hours!”
What an amazing web application! Here’s Jonathan’s version of the BBC News 24 theme on the Infinite Jukebox.
Many thanks, Jonathan!
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Matthew Williams, who recorded The Shortwave Shindig on 7,570 kHz at 2:00 UTC on March 15, 2014. Matthew was using his Kenwood TS-590S and an 80 meter doublet antenna at his home in New York state.
Here’s his recording, hot off the press:
If others were able to record The Shortwave Shindig, please comment with a link to your recording, your location and your receiver. I will post them on them on Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.
Many thanks for making this recording, Matthew!
Check out David Goren’s website Shortwaveology.net and his Facebook page for more shortwave radio productions.
DJ Eric van Willegen, “Uncle Eric”
For your listening pleasure: two hours of The Mighty KBC, recorded on March 9, 2014 starting at 00:00 UTC on their winter frequency of 7,375 kHz.
As we’ve come to expect, the Mighty KBC’s Giant Jukebox of music has a lot of rock-n-roll and Euro-pop variety, spanning the decades; DJ, “Uncle Eric” knows how to entertain and spin the tunes! Uncle Eric includes Kim Elliott’s digital text modes in this broadcast–if you missed the live broadcast, you can even decode the messages from the recording below.
Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:
