Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David (G4EDR), who writes:
Looking forward to this documentary TV programme tonight. Looks like it will be about the BBC WS during the cold war.
Thanks for the tip, David!
Readers, my post is a bit late–David sent this two days ago. Still, the program is on the BBC website for a few more weeks, however it is very much geo-blocked so you’ll need a work-around if viewing from outside the UK.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Gérard Koopal, who writes:
Dear Thomas, on November 6 it is exactly 100 years ago that Hans Idzerda transmitted the first radio broadcast in the Hague, the Netherlands.
To commemorate this event, the VRZA has a special broadcast using the original Zeedijk studio from radio Veronica and historical NOS/NRU studios. The broadcast is from 10.00 till 21.00 hours CET and there is an internet stream available.
Also rebroadcasting through some lpam stations. For more information see this website (in Dutch):
Greetings, Gérard Koopal
Thank you for sharing this, Gérard!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Hirst, who writes:
I’m something of a Film Noir fan, so I was pleased to have tracked down “Dead Reckoning” on Amazon recently.
Starring Humphrey Bogart and Lizabeth Scott, Bogart’s character is seen early on in this 1947 film listening to police chatter on his bed side radio.
The police conversation sounds a bit contrived, serving the purpose of advancing the story of course, though I’m wondering if this type of radio could be used this way – I’m sure there are experts who would know.
Please comment if you can answer Mark’s question!
Thanks for sharing, Mark. Like you, I love Film Noir and pretty much anything starring Bogie (or especially Lauren Bacall)!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dennis Dura, who shares the following article from SwissInfo.ch. Make sure you visit SwissInfo.ch to listen to their embedded recordings:
What did SWI swissinfo.ch sound like for the first seven decades of its existence? The short answer: a radio station.
From the mid-1930s to 2004, Switzerland’s international service was Swiss Radio International (SRI). The first few decades of SRI’s existence were the heyday of shortwave – it was often the only way of getting news directly from other countries.
A brief history of SRI, the predecessor of swissinfo.ch, helps explain why you hear what you do in the video above.
What began as the Swiss Short Wave Service in 1935, would grow from broadcasting programmes in German, French, Italian and English to include other European languages and Arabic, and eventually change its name to Swiss Radio International.
The international service was considered a voice of neutrality during times of war, first during World War II, followed by the decades of the Cold War and up to and including the first war in the Gulf in the early 1990s.
This decade would mark the beginning of the end for Switzerland’s shortwave broadcasts. Shortwave transmitters gave way to relaying programmes via satellite, and this, in turn, would give way to the internet when the service went online in 1999 as SRI’s website.
In 2004, the plug was pulled for good on SRI as part of budget cuts, but not swissinfo.ch. Now producing exclusively online, the international service extended its linguistic reach by adding Russian, Japanese and Chinese, and publishing more video and audio reports.
Journalists working in swissinfo.ch’s current ten languages collaborate closely to set the editorial agenda, providing the necessary context in their stories so they are understood wherever they are read, seen, or heard in the world.
Project ‘The Sounds of…’
This article is part of the project “The Sounds of…” produced with our partner media organisations Polskie Radio, Radio Canada International, Radio Romania International and Radio Prague International. Further videos have been produced by journalists at these outlets, to give an insight into their work in these countries.
Photo source: Eifeler Radiotage
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Gérard Koopal, who writes:
This might be interesting for your followers in Europe and especially for those living in or nearby Germany.
On the 9th and 10th of November, the Eifeler Radiotage are to start transmitting in German from a Cold War bunker in Germany. There is also a possibility to visit the location (Kall Krekel). Below is a link to their homepage where you can also find a few videos from the Cold War radio room which is still functional and in use.
Thanks for the tip, Gérard!
Radio Malaysia QSL
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Lennart Weirell, who shares the following in reply to our recent posts regarding Radio Malaysia and Radio Sarawak:
Back in early 80-ies (1981-1984) I lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and I used my Panasonic DR-28 with a short indoor wire to listen.
RM Sabah QSL
Of course some of the loggings were “local”, i.e. RAAF Butterworth, RM Sarawak and RM Sabah. RAAF Butterworth answered with a letter and RM Sarawak with card and RM Sabah with letter and card. All these 3 QSLs are from 1982.
RAAF Butterworth
Brilliant, Lennart! Thank you for sharing these QSLs.
I’m very curious how many listeners were able to snag the 1,000 watt Butterworth signal on 1,445 kHz from outside of Malaysia. Please comment!
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Many thanks to SWLing Post executive producer, Scott Gamble, who shares the following article from Hungary Today:
From October 19th until November 12th, Radio Free Europe‘s (RFE) Hungarian broadcast recorded around and during the 1956 Revolution can be listened to online, exactly how it was aired 63 years ago minute by minute, HVG reported.
The Hungarian broadcast of RFE’s 1956 program that was aired on shortwave, through foreign transmitters, was recorded at the repeater stations, and has been preserved thanks to the German government’s examination of the radio’s role in the revolution, launched after the events.
After the inquiry, however, the footage, consisting of 60 tapes, was concealed in a basement for decades, until it was rediscovered in the 90s, transferred to cassettes, and digitized.
In the framework of the First University Radio in Pest’s (Els? Pesti Egyetemi Rádió- EPER) voice memorial project dubbed “SZER56” (derived from the radio’s Hungarian name: Szabad Európa Rádió), people can hear (once again) these recordings. The recordings were restored, digitized, and published by the National Széchényi Library (OSZK), which EPER then restored to the original broadcast session.
The footage includes four days that preceded the outbreak of the Revolution, making it the only available recording that preserved the 50s’ “every day” shows. Moreover, this would be the first time the public can hear this outstanding piece of media history. In addition to political broadcasts, the recordings include radio plays, musical compositions, and even quizzes.
The “broadcast” will be available from Saturday on eper.elte.hu or here and here.
Click here to read the full article at Hungary Today.
Thank you for the tip, Scott!
Readers: If you know of any way we could obtain these recordings, I would love to add them to the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.