Category Archives: Recordings

Final episode of the final Maple Leaf Mailbag now online

Help us record shortwave history: Radio Canada International’s final day of broadcasts

RCI's Sackville Transmission Site

As many SWLing Post listeners know, today marks the end of an era. Radio Canada International is being forced to conclude many decades of shortwave radio services in a short-sighted attempt to cut costs. In lieu of exploring numerous cost-cutting solutions, such as implementing the newly-installed remote operations of the Sackville, NB transmission site, they have decided to cut all shortwave broadcasting and all content creation for the medium, essentially throwing out the baby with the bath water.

I have written extensively about the potential harm this will cause to those who rely upon shortwave radio as a lifeline of information, not to mention to Canadian diplomacy as a whole.

We want your RCI broadcast recordings

Nonetheless, for archive purposes, I will attempt to record as many final broadcasts today as possible. We invite listeners from around the world to participate in this process: please send us your recordings of any RCI broadcasts today–any language, any frequency.

Thanks to Glenn Hauser, here is a schedule of broadcasts today:

1500-1559 UTC: Maple Leaf Mailbag (MLMB) Finale–11,675 and 15,125 kHz

1800-1859 UTC: MLMB Finale–11,765, 9,530 and (best for N America) 17, 810 kHz

2000-2059 UTC: MLMB Finale 2–17,735, 15,330, 15235 kHz

RCI Chinese, French, Arabic, Spanish and Portugese final broadcasts should end at 2330 UTC today on 11,990, 13,760 and 15,455

As for our friends with RCI, we wish you well! Many thanks for your years of dedicated service.

Numbers Stations: The English Man came back

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Two weeks ago this Friday, I caught and recorded the numbers station often referred to as the English Man. He was found in the pirate radio watering hole (of 6,925-6,990 kHz) on 6,949 kHz.

After sifting through more spectrum recordings taken the following evening by the Microtelecom Perseus, I realized that I caught him once again at the exact same time and frequency. I have his full transmission in the recording below.

Note: The English Man was broadcast in AM, but I had to dig the signal out of the noise. I used a tuning technique I referred to last year in a post–click here for more info.

Recording Radio History: The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee via BBC World Service

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Diamond Jubilee at Buckingham Palace (photo: BBC)

Ten years ago, my wife–then fiancée–and I lived in the UK, and were fortunate enough to attend The Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebration on the vast lawn at Buckingham Palace. It was without doubt the largest party I’ve ever attended, packed to the gills with the British public–a thoroughly amazing event, featuring a who’s who of past-and-present British musicians and personalities, encouraging attendees to join them in their bit of fun–and, of course, God save the Queen.

Yesterday, I re-lived the energy of that party as I heard (and recorded) the follow-up event these ten years later–The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, on the BBC World Service–as heard from remote Ascension Island.

When hearing live events like this on shortwave–especially ones like this that celebrate national heritage–I know I’m listening to history in the making. The crowds applauding and cheering in a live broadcast over shortwave reminds me of a former era when British Expats across the globe relied on the BBC World Service to connect them with ol’ Blighty.

Ascension Island, marked with an "A" (image: Google Maps)

I recorded these broadcasts from my home in the southeastern US, hearing the BBC World Service relay station on the tiny, isolated Ascension Island in the South Atlantic. The broadcast was heard at first on 15,400 kHz, then moved to 9,915 kHz coinciding with their normal broadcast schedule. The broadcast, while completely intelligible, is weak in the beginning, but gains considerable strength by the end. There are summer static crashes heard as storms moved through the southeast US. I divided the broadcast into two parts, coinciding with my shift from one frequency to the other.

I also included a BBC WS news broadcast in Part 2 which followed the end of the show.

Either use the embedded Archive.org audio player below, or simply click here to download the mp3 files for Part 1 and Part 2.

I used the WinRadio Excalibur to record both of these segments. Its synchronous detection helped deal with fading (QSB) present at the beginning of the recording.

Once again, history is made…and archived on shortwave radio. Enjoy!

Voice of Greece plays music format during strike

Finding the “English Man” numbers station while scanning for pirates

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While listening for pirate radio stations last night, I recorded a numbers station. I found it on 6,949 kHz at 1:30 UTC, 26 May 2012. It was broadcast in USB for almost exactly ten minutes. The ID was sent for a full four minutes of that time. I have a full recording below.

With a quick check on SpyNumbers.com, I’m pretty sure this is a station called, the “English Man.”

If you’re not familiar with numbers stations, check out this previous post where Shortwaveology author, David Goren, explores numbers stations.

If you have trouble listening to the embedded player below, simply click here to listen to the mp3 file.

Pirate Radio Recordings: Undercover Radio

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Saturday night, I had a chance to record three pirates on 6925 kHz: North Woods Radio, Captain Morgan Shortwave and Undercover Radio. For tagging, I’m posting each individually.

The final station from Saturday night is Undercover Radio.

Undercover Radio was broadcasting in AM starting around 03:18 UTC on May 13, 2012. The signal was great and there was a nice mixture of music and plenty of dialog. You can listen to the recording in the player embedded below, or by downloading the mp3 here.