Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Adi, who writes:
Hi Thomas, I browsed a Video stock library when I thought about checking it’s Radio collection.
Among the usual mics and mixer sliders there where these shots/
I’m sure it won’t take long for the spotters to tell us more about these sets.
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Image 5
Readers, if you can ID these radios for Adi, please comment! Not much context in some of these beside a beautiful dial–a proper challenge.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bruce, who writes:
Here is some radio equipment from the 1954 movie “Secret of the Incas”, with Charlton Heston.
This was the best shot I could get so far, not having watched the entire film yet. So not very clear, but perhaps this makes it more challenging to identify (and more fun?).
Not the clearest image, but I’m betting some savvy readers can ID this gear in short order, Bruce! Feel free to comment with details.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who shares the following article:
“Everything got shut off. This place had never been shut off in 50 years.”
WEST CHESTER, Ohio (WXIX) – The Bethany Relay Station at the Voice of America Park is remembering the day its mission of transmitting broadcasts ended.
The historic station was built in West Chester by radio pioneer and Cincinnati native Powel Crosley Jr.
The station and its shortwave broadcasts served as countermeasures to propaganda spreading across Europe during World War II, allowing people from all over the world to receive crucial information about wartime happenings.
On Nov. 14, 1994, the mission of transmitting broadcasts worldwide from the Bethany Relay Station came to an end. […]
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and good friend, BJ Leiderman, who shares the following video on YouTube–a special Shipping Forecast tribute:
On 18 December 1993, as part of the Arena Radio Night, BBC Radio 4 and BBC 2 collaborated on a simultaneous broadcast so the shipping forecast – read that night by Laurie Macmillan – could be seen as well as heard. To date, it is the only time that it has been broadcast on television.
Click here to view/listen on YouTube.
As a huge fan of The Shipping Forecast, I absolutely love this–simply chock-full of radio nostalgia. Thank you for sharing!
Many thanks to Dan Greenall, one of our dedicated Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contributors, who shares the following guest post:
by Dan Greenall
Sometime in the mid 1960’s, I acquired a Japanese made AM only transistor radio similar to the one pictured.
I was entering my teenage years and living in southern Ontario, Canada in relative proximity to the U.S. border, and was immediately fascinated that I could receive American stations from places such as Buffalo and Rochester NY as well as Detroit MI with amazing clarity.
Before long, I discovered that signals from much further afield would begin to come through at dusk and throughout the night time hours. Although I was unaware at the time, many of these would be from so-called “clear channel” stations, those operating on frequencies with the highest level of protection from interference from other stations.
In addition, many of these stations ran a full 50 kw of power. Signals from the Atlantic seaboard to the Midwest could often be heard at near local strength if I turned my radio to just the right angle. At this point, I was beginning to learn about the directional properties of the built-in ferrite rod antenna. It gave me great pleasure to be able to listen to their local ads, newscasts, or a far away sporting event from the comfort of my home.
I recall listening regularly to WOWO in Fort Wayne IN on 1190 for their play by play announcements of the Fort Wayne Komets hockey games. Then there was a station identifying as WFAA in Dallas. That was back when they shared 820 kHz with WBAP whose famous cowbell you can hear in one of the audio clips below.
By the end of 1969, a friend of mine had encouraged me to try shortwave, and I “borrowed” my parents Philips kitchen radio for a few months, but that is another story. I wonder how many others got “hooked” in this manner?
A few brief recordings of clear channel stations that I made in the early 1970’s are presented here. Many, but not all, of the stations heard in the last two links are from clear channel stations. Reception for these recordings was made using a Realistic DX150A or a Hallicrafters S-52 receiver hooked up to an outdoor long wire antenna.
KFI Circa 1971:
WOAI Circa 1973
KSTP Circa 1970s:
Vintage AM Radio Airchecks 1973:
Vintage AM Radio Airchecks 1973 Part 2:
As a sidebar, the National Radio Club has put out a number of books showing the daytime/nighttime directional antenna patterns of AM broadcasting stations in the USA and Canada.
I gave up my copy from 1973 a number of years ago, but you can find this one and others online. I found this very useful.
For example, it is easy to see why I was more likely to hear WBT Charlotte NC on 1110 kHz from my listening post in southern Ontario, Canada, rather than KFAB Omaha, NE.
The links below will take you to the 1973, 1975 and 2018 versions of these books.
https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Logbooks/NRC_Logs/NRC-Pattern-Book-First-1973.pdf
https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Radio-Logbooks/NRC_Logs/NRC-Pattern-Book-8th-2018.pdf
by 13dka
Doing some research on other old technical gems from Japan I stumbled upon this 1976 National/Panasonic TV commercial running on the domestic TV networks back then. While watching, I smiled and thought “only in Japan…” …it would’ve been perfectly normal to advertise something like a shortwave receiver in this fun (and funny) way. Anyway, I think RF/DR/Cougar 2200 owners and collectors (also the resident one on this blog , the blog owner) may want to have this link in their bookmarks!
Many thanks to SWLing Post and Shortwave Radio Audio Archive contributor, Dan Greenall, who writes:
Hi Thomas
From the early 1970’s, where sadly, some of my original logbooks went missing many years ago.
ANTEL, the Administracion Nacional de Telecommunicaciones in Montevideo, Uruguay used to use its telephone time announcement instead of a voice mirror – so they got their name ‘La Senal’ in the 1970’s. Their voice announcements in SSB mode were in Spanish and the station could be found on frequencies all over the shortwave spectrum, including 5772 kHz (CXL20), 8037 kHz (CXL21), 10770 kHz (CXL24), 11660 kHz (CXL25), 14575 kHz (CXL26), 16047.5 kHz (CXL28), and 19525 kHz (CXL33). The accompanying recording was made on January 9, 1971 on about 13550 kHz.
La Senal Uruguay Jan 9 1971 13.55:
In those days, it paid to belong to a good DX club (such as SPEEDX) or I may not have been able to identify this station at all. I was also able to get my hands on a used copy of the Klingenfuss guide to utility stations which had very detailed frequency and callsign information. Unfortunately, I let this valuable resource go a number of years ago.
Around the same time (early 1970’s), I heard and recorded this similar styled transmission, except it was in the French language, and which remains unidentified to this day. I have no exact date/time heard or frequency information for this one.
All recordings made in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. (40 miles SW of Toronto)
Mystery French Time Station:
Any guesses will be greatly appreciated.
73
Dan Greenall
Readers, if you can help Dan identify this recording, please comment!