Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Phil Ewing, who highlights this tweet from @Ea4Hng:
“Testing the good old Sony CRF-320 after many years not in use. It works flawlessly in all bands”
EA4HGN’s photo, above, reminds me that the Sony CRF-320 sports one of the best designs I’ve ever seen in a portable radio. A proper Apollo era aesthetic!
Because I keep my ear to the waves, as well as receive many tips from others who do the same, I find myself privy to radio-related stories that might interest SWLing Post readers. To that end: Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Dennis Dura and Dan Robinson for the following tips:
On July 4th, 1976, as Americans celebrated the country’s bicentennial with beer and bottle rockets, a strong signal began disrupting shortwave, maritime, aeronautical, and telecommunications signals all over the world. The signal was a rapid 10 Hz tapping that sounded like a woodpecker or a helicopter thup-thupping on the roof. It had a wide bandwidth of 40 kHz and sometimes exceeded 10 MW.
This was during the Cold War, and plenty of people rushed to the conclusion that it was some sort of Soviet mind control scheme or weather control experiment. But amateur radio operators traced the mysterious signal to an over-the-horizon radar antenna near Chernobyl, Ukraine (then part of the USSR) and they named it the Russian Woodpecker. Here’s a clip of the sound.
The frequency-hopping Woodpecker signal was so strong that it made communication impossible on certain channels and could even be heard across telephone lines when conditions were right. Several countries filed official complaints with the USSR through the UN, but there was no stopping the Russian Woodpecker. Russia wouldn’t even own up to the signal’s existence, which has since been traced to an immense antenna structure that is nearly half a mile long and at 490 feet, stands slightly taller than the Great Pyramid at Giza.[…]
‘The intelligence coup of the century’. The extraordinary story of the longest running and most successful secret intelligence operation of the 20th Century.
For more than half a century, governments all over the world trusted a single company, Swiss-based Crypto AG, to keep the communications of their spies, soldiers and diplomats secret. But what none of its customers ever knew was that Crypto AG was owned for over 20 Cold War years by the CIA in partnership with the BND, the German Intelligence Service. The machines that many customers bought had deliberately weakened security – a window through which the CIA and BND could read the diplomatic traffic between their embassies, their trade negotiators and their own spies.
The BND sold out its share in 1993 for a tidy profit while the CIA continued until the company was broken up in 2018.
Crypto AG’s own secret was only cracked last year in a combined investigation by German ZDF television, Swiss SRF and the Washington Post following the discovery of a secret history, Operation Rubicon, that had been assembled by some of the operatives who had been involved in the deception.
A Spy in Every Embassy is the story of the story, presented by German intelligence journalist Peter F Muller, who produced last year’s television programme for ZDF, and British journalist David Ridd.
It gives the chronology of the manoeuvrings, arguments, successes and deceptions of the partnership that remained secret for a quarter of a century. Its revelations offer a new perspective on some of the landmark events of those decades – the Falklands War, the US bombing of Libya from British airfields, the negotiations that lead to the Camp David Accords and the Iranian Hostage crisis, as well as the daily churn of intelligence information from around the world about both friends and opponents.
The programme considers the collateral damage of deception on a grand scale. Most employees of Crypto AG knew nothing of the built-in weaknesses of the machinery they were building or trying to sell to governments in some very dangerous parts of the world.
Produced by John Forsyth
Assistant Producer: Alexandra Quinn
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000w499
Extracts read by Lanna Joffrey, Annette Kossow, Blanca Belenguer, Mike Christofferson and Thilo Buergel.
Archive by kind permission of ZDF Television, Crypto Museum, Harry S Truman Library, National Security Agency Archive and Bletchley Park podcast.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000w499
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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Adid, who shares two inexpensive mods he made on his XHDATA D-808 shortly after taking delivery of it in 2018. One is simply clear tape over the display to protect it from scratches. The second is applying three tiny drops of glue which create tactile points on the keypad for nighttime operation.
Thanks for sharing these, Adid!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, John K5MO, who writes:
Hi Thomas
Just a heads up if you didn’t know…openwebrx has a new release and it’s a good one. No more muddling around with a text editor to change configurations, rather there’s a built in editor for this purpose. The release is V1.0 and it can be found
https://github.com/jketterl/openwebrx/wiki/Setup-Guide
73
John K5MO
Thank you for the tip, John!
Dear Listeners,
On Tuesday May 18th, 2021 there will be a special test transmission of VORW Radio International via radio station WWCR. The test broadcast will be 1 hour in length and will feature mixed music, the purpose of this broadcast is to determine propagation and gauge if there is any interference from neighboring stations.
Here is the time and frequency:
9350 kHz – 2300 UTC (7 PM Eastern) Tuesday May 18th, 2021 – 100 kW WWCR Nashville, TN
Listeners in North America, Europe and West Africa should be able to receive the broadcast.
Reception reports will be extremely helpful and may be sent to [email protected]
Happy listening!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, TomL, who shares the following guest post:
by TomL
Comb Stereo is an old technique being implemented over shortwave by the main sound engineer (Daz) at Radio Northern Europe International (RNEI). It ONLY works on Comb Stereo broadcasts which currently are RNEI, This Is A Music Show (WRMI), and one of the KBC broadcasts. It works in real-time or for SDR recorded files, too. It does NOT need a special HD/DAB+ radio.
A number of pluses for Comb Stereo on shortwave compared to digital:
“The bandwidth is the same as mono – So the SNR should be about the same as mono.
Selective fading doesn’t affect the comb bands much, so the balance is largely unaffected by selective fading notches.
The Comb Stereo artifacts are much like typical music effects of echo, chorus, fast reverb or room reflections.”
You can read about it here on Daz’ web site: homepages.ihug.com.au/~daz2002/tech/CombStereo/
You can also read Roseanna’s comment on the SLWing.com blog post: https://swling.com/blog/2020/04/rnei-now-broadcasting-in-comb-stereo/
An enhanced version is broadcast on WRMI for the RNEI time slot on Thursday morning (01:00 UTC) on 5850 kHz. It sounds very good and is not a pseudo-stereo like in my previous article, Music on Shortwave. For one thing, pseudo stereo is not real two-channel encoding and shifts vocals to one side, depending on which channels are chosen for high and low filters, which might get annoying after awhile. What seems amazing to me is that I have been able apply some minor noise reduction in Audacity and the Comb Stereo stays perfectly intact. It also still works after converting the WAV file to MP3 and sounds much like a regular FM broadcast. Furthermore, it does not require a special patented transmitter or receiver chip. It is compatible with regular mono transmitters.
If you want to try it, go to the RNEI web site; download and install the two files listed (VB Audio Cable and CombStereo Pedalboard x64):
It is slightly tricky to setup and use or you will not hear anything (most Windows systems default to 48000 Hz these days). Right-click on the lower-right taskbar Sounds settings. Make sure to setup Properties – Advanced in both the VB-Audio Virtual Cable (Playback and Recording) and your output speakers (Playback) to 24-bit 44100 Hz processing.
Now run the app Pedalboard BAT file which corresponds to the broadcast you recorded (in this example “Start Comb Stereo for WRMI.bat”). Set the Options – Audio Settings:
Since the VB-Audio Virtual Cable takes over your volume output, adjust the volume of your Speakers in Windows’ Sounds – Levels (or you can adjust the volume in the sound player you are using, too):
Play the mono WAV or MP3 file and you should be hearing stereo!
When you are done, close Pedalboard2 and then disable the VB-Audio Virtual Cable for Playback and Recording to get your Sounds back to normal:
I cannot demonstrate what it sounds like unless you have the VB-Audio Virtual Cable and the Comb Stereo app setup and working properly. Here are snippets from recent RNEI broadcasts captured by my noisy porch antenna:
Here are links to the artists’ YouTube videos for comparison:
Kari Rueslåtten – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFN4O3YrUG4
Ani Glass – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T63QS9enT-A
What is nice is that I can create a space-saving MP3 mono file and this setup will decode the stereo when run from the computer (sounds really nice on a stereo system with a subwoofer). Unlike digital, this analog-friendly stereo seems mostly immune to fading, has a minimum of digital artifacts, and will not go silent and “drop out” like digital does for long, annoying periods of time. It is not perfect stereo but audio players with features like Stereo Widener or Windows Sonic for Headphones can overcome some limitations. Perhaps content providers should consider Comb Stereo for all their shortwave radio shows since it is perfectly compatible with mono AM transmissions!
Enjoying the Music,
TomL
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill (WD9EQD), who shares the following guest post:
by Bill (WD9EQD)
There are quite a few programs on shortwave that I enjoy listening to for the actual program content. If I am lucky, I will receive a strong enough signal to really enjoy the experience. But all too often, I either can’t directly receive the program or conditions are such that listening is just not enjoyable. What I was looking for was good quality sound that I could listen to on my schedule.
I could always just go to the station website and listen to the live stream of the program. But what if there are two programs on different stations at the same time? I would have to choose which one to listen to. What I needed was a way to listen to the program on my schedule.
This write-up will be presenting several ways this can be accomplished.
In many cases, it is possible to go to the program’s website and then listen to the latest program or even an archive of past programs at your convenience. Some examples are:
Hobart Radio International http://www.hriradio.org/
Radio Emma Toc https://www.emmatoc.org/worldserviceindex
VORW International https://soundcloud.com/vorw
AWR Wavescan http://eu.awr.org/en/listen/program/143
Blues Radio International: http://www.bluesradiointernational.net/
This is a Music Show https://thisisamusicshow.com/
Radio Northern Europe International: https://www.mixcloud.com/RadioNorthernEurope/
Alt Universe Top 40: https://www.altuniversetop40.com/links
International Radio Report https://www.ckut.ca/en/content/international-radio-report
World of Radio http://worldofradio.com/
The Shortwave Report http://www.outfarpress.com/shortwave.shtml
Lost Discs Radio Show https://www.lostdiscsradio.com/
Grits Radio Show https://archive.org/details/gritsradioshow2020
Le Show with Harry Shearer http://harryshearer.com/le-show/
All HRI programs are available on their Archive.org page.
Quite often, the program’s web site will also let you download the program for listening at a later date. Some examples are:
Hobart Radio International has an Internet Archive page where you can listen to and download their previous programs: https://archive.org/details/@hobart_radio_international
Radio Emma Toc has a button for “broadcast & internet relay services wishing to air our programme”.
But anyone can download the program.
VORW International: https://soundcloud.com/vorw
(Note: You will have to sign into Soundcloud to be able to download the files)
AWR Wavescan: http://eu.awr.org/en/listen/program/143
Your Weekend Show: https://open.spotify.com/show/2RywtSHWHEvYGjqsK6EYuG
International Radio Report https://www.ckut.ca/en/content/international-radio-report
World of Radio http://worldofradio.com/
The Shortwave Report http://www.outfarpress.com/shortwave.shtml
Lost Discs Radio Show https://www.lostdiscsradio.com/
Grits Radio Show https://archive.org/details/gritsradioshow2020
Le Show with Harry Shearer http://harryshearer.com/le-show/
WBCQ has a link to an Archive of some of their programs. Just click on the Archive link and you will go to Internet Archive where there are a lot of programs that can be streamed or downloaded. The programs include:
Check to see if the program has a podcast. Many programs do and this makes it easy to always have the latest program updated into my favorite podcast program.
AWR Wavescan is available on a number of podcasting platforms
Some programs that have podcasts:
This method is a little more difficult and requires some setup. The method is to record the program directly from the internet stream of the station as it is broadcasting the program. Once set up, the procedure is completely automatic and will continue to capture the program until it is disabled in the scheduler.
Let’s walk through a typical program that we want to record. I like Alan Gray’s “Last Radio Playing” program on WWCR. It is broadcast weekly on Wednesday at 6pm Central Time on 6115. While I can receive the program over the air, it’s not very good reception, so I usually just stream it off the internet.
What I want to do is to set up an automatic computer program that will connect to the stream on Wednesday night, record the stream for one hour and then disconnect. I use the program StreamRipper which can run on either Linux or Windows.
http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/
Since I have a spare Raspberry Pi 4 computer, I chose to use the Linux version. The following description is based on Linux. A similar method I’m sure could be done with the Windows version.
Fortunately, StreamRipper is in the current software repository for the Raspberry PI and I could just install it with having to do a compile. I’m sure other Linux distributions probably also have it in their repository. It was a simple matter to install it. In Linux, Streamripper is run from the command line in a terminal window.
A typical command line for SteamRipper is:
streamripper station_URL_stream –a “filename” –A –d directory_path -l seconds
where
station_URL_stream is the http address of the audio stream. Determining this can sometimes be challenging and some methods were recently discussed in a SWLing Post:
https://swling.com/blog/2021/04/robs-tips-for-uncovering-radio-station-stream-urls/
–a says to record the audio as a single file and not try to break it up into individual songs.
“filename” the filename of the resultant mp3 file goes here in quotes
-A again says to create a single file.
-d tells it the directory path to store the mp3 file. Place the full directory path after the –d
-l specifies how long to record. Enter the number of seconds after –l.
(note: this is lower case letter l)
For Last Radio Playing, the command line is:
streamripper http://67.225.254.16:3763 –a “Last Radio Playing” –A –d /home/pi/RIP/wwcr –l 3600
when executed, this would connect to the URL stream, record for 3600 seconds (60 minutes) and then disconnect from the stream A file called “Last Radio Playing.mp3” would be in the wwcr1 directory.
Save this command line to a shell file, maybe wwcr.sh. Then make this shell file executable.
Last is to enter a crontab entry to schedule the shell file wwcw.sh to be run every Wednesday at 6pm ct.
At the command line, enter crontab –e to edit the cron table.
Add the following line at the end:
0 19 * * 3 /home/pi/wwcr.sh
then exit and save the crontab file.
This line says to execute wwcr.sh every Wednesday at 1900 (my computer is on eastern time).
There are many ways to enhance the shell script. For example, I have added the date to the mp3 file name. My wwcr1.sh shell script is:
NOW=$(date +”%Y-%m%d”)
# WWCR1 Last Radio Playing
# Wednesday 7-8pm et
streamripper http://67.225.254.16:3763 -a “$NOW Last Radio Playing” -A -u FreeAmp/2.X -d /media/pi/RIP/wwcr1 -l 3600
This will create a MP3 file with the date in the file name. For example
2021-0505 Last Radio Playing.mp3
Note: I named the file wwcr1.sh to denote that WWCR transmitter 1 was being streamed. Each of the WWCR transmitters have different stream URL.
Most radio streams work fine with the default user agent but WWCR required a different user agent which is why the –u FreeAmp/2.X is added. Normally, –u useragent is not required. The default works fine.
For each program, just create a similar shell file and add it to the cron scheduler.
Streamripper is very powerful and has many options. One option is for it to attempt to divide the stream up into individual files – one for each song. Sometimes this works quite well – it all depends on the metadata that the station is sending over the stream. I usually just go for a single file for the entire show. Some stations are a little sloppy on whether the program starts on time – sometimes they start a minute early and sometimes run a minute over. The solution is to increase the recording time to two minutes longer and then specify in the crontab file that the show starts a minute early. It’s easy to adjust to whatever condition might be occurring.
I have found that the BBC makes it more difficult to use this procedure. For one thing, they have just changed all their stream URL’s. And they have decided NOT to make them public. When they did this some of the internet radios broke since they still had the old URL’s. Of course it didn’t take long for someone to discover and post the new stream URL’s:
https://gist.github.com/bpsib/67089b959e4fa898af69fea59ad74bc3#file-bbc-radio-m3u
I have tested the Radio 4 Extra stream and it does seem to work. For how long is anyone’s guess.
I found that while streamripper did seem to work on BBC, all the mp3 files came out garbled. So the method above doesn’t seem to work with the BBC.
I went back to the drawing board (many hours on Google) and discovered another way to create a shell script that can be scheduled to record a stream. This involves using the programs mplayer and timelimit.
First step is to install the programs mplayer and timelimit to the Linux system. mplayer is a simple command line audio and video player. timelimit is a program that will execute another program for a specific length of time.
First I created a shell script bbc30.sh:
#!/bin/bash
NOW=$(date +”%Y-%m%d-%H%M”)
# BBC Extra 4 – 30 minute program
timelimit -t1800 mplayer http://stream.live.vc.bbcmedia.co.uk/bbc_radio_four_extra -dumpstream -dumpfile /media/pi/RIP/$NOW-bbc.mp3
Note: The bold line above is all on one line in the shell file.
This script will execute the timelimit command. The timelimit command will then execute the mplayer command for 1800 seconds (30 minutes).
The mplayer command then connects to the http stream; the stream instead of playing out loud is dumped to the dumpfile /media/pi/RIP/$NOW-bbc.mp3
The crontab entry becomes:
30 23 11 5 * /home/pi/bbc30.sh
In this case, the program on May 11 at 2330 will be recorded.
In conclusion, Podcasts are the easiest way to get the programs. But automatically recording directly from the station stream is really not that much harder to do. Just be careful. It’s very easy to accumulate much more audio than you can ever listen to in this lifetime.
One final note. The use of a Raspberry Pi makes this a very easy and convenient method. I run the pi totally headless. No keyboard, mouse or monitor. It just sits on a shelf out of the way and does it thing. I either log in using VNC when I want the graphical desktop, Putty for the command line, or WinSCP for transferring files. The Pi stays out of the way and I don’t end up with another computer system cluttering up my desktop.
Besides recording several shortwave programs, I use Streamripper to record many FM programs from all around the United States. It’s great for recording that program that is on in the early morning hours.
73
Bill WD9EQD
Smithville, NJ
Thank you for sharing this with the SWLing Post community, Bill! This weekend, I’m going to put one of my RPi 3 units into headless service recording a few of my favorite programs that aren’t available after the live broadcast. Many thanks for the detailed command line tutorial!