Category Archives: Shortwave Radio

AWA Presentation by Matt Zullo: “The US Navy’s On-The-Roof Gang”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Erdle, who shares the following:

Hi Thomas,

I thought that you SWLing visitors might enjoy this presentation from the Antique Wireless Association:

The US Navy’s On-The-Roof Gang – Pioneers of Radio Intelligence:

Video description: Author Matt Zullo is a retired U.S. Navy Master Chief Petty Officer who has more than 35 years’ experience in Radio Intelligence, now more commonly known as Communications Intelligence. He holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Intelligence from the National Intelligence University, where he researched and wrote his master’s thesis on the On-the-Roof Gang, which tells the story of story of the 176 Sailors and Marines who, starting in 1921, learned the Japanese katakana telegraphic code in order to intercept Imperial Japanese Navy communications, setting in motion events that would lead to the birth of the US Navy’s communications intelligence organization. Join Matt in this “AWA Shares” presentation as he discusses the importance of this pioneering effort in signals intelligence.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Click here for more information about the On-The-Roof Gang series.

For more info about AWA’s presentations, click here. 

Eton announces the new Elite Satellit

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Troy Riedel, who notes that Eton has now placed a splash page image of the new Elite Satellit (above) on their home page.

There is no further information yet and the splash page simply links to their current production shortwave models. It does, however, show that Eton is committed to produce the Elite Satellit this year.

Of course, we’ll post any Elite Satellit updates as they become available! Stay tuned!

CHU Time Station heard in “The Book of Boba Fett”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Fred Waterer, who shares a link to the following video from the new series The Book of Boba Fett.

Note that the quality of this video is rather poor, no doubt to keep it from being pulled off of YouTube for copyright violation:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Not the first time CHU appeared in Star Wars!

You might recall that we first heard CHU in the “Battle of Hoth” scenes from The Empire Strikes Back!

In fact, Star Wars Sound Designer, Ben Burtt, gave us some proper insight in a post a few years ago. It was truly an honor corresponding with him directly and learning about his grandfather, Harold Burtt (W8CD).

Click here to read about Benn Burtt’s fascination with radio.

I’m looking forward to watching The Book of Boba Fett and hearing CHU for myself! Thanks for the tip, Fred!

UNESCO World Radio Day and International Marconi Day

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Radio Taboo in Cameroon

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Grayhat, who writes:

With the sponsorship of UNESCO, two “on air” events will take place February and April, 2022. The events will be the UNESCO World Radio Day and the International Marconi Day 2022

World Radio Day

12 to 13 February 2022
from 00:00 UTC of 12 Feb to 23:59 UTC of Feb
(48 hours)

International Marconi Day

23 to 25 April 2022
From 00:00 UTC of 23 Apr to 23:59 UTC of 25 Apr
(72 hours)

For further information, click on the event names above.

Thank you for the tip! I do note that UNESCO has yet to post details about WRD this year, but I believe they typically publish information only a couple of weeks before the event.

Carlos’ Shortwave Art and Recordings of the Voice of Korea (January 15 & 18, 2022)

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares two shortwave reception illustrations and recordings of The Voice of Korea:

VOK: January 15, 2022

Carlos notes:

Voice of Korea, 11910 kHz, broadcasting in English from Kujang, North Korea.
Final part of the news bulletin, January 14, 2022 saw the launch of another North Korean ballistic missile, this time transported by rail.

Click here to listen on YouTube.

VOK: January 18, 2022

Carlos notes:

Voice of Korea, 9650 kHz, broadcasting in Japanese from Kujang, North Korea.

Final excerpt of the newsletter, January 17 saw another North Korean ballistic missile launch.

Signal captured in Rio de Janeiro, 01/18/2022, 05:08, local time.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Shortwave’s Giant: Carlos explores evangelical broadcasting to MENA

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following guest post:

WINNING HEARTS, MINDS AND…SOULS!

Catechizing via shortwave.

by Carlos Latuff, special for The SWLing Post

During the Vietnam War (1955-1975), the expression “hearts and minds” became popular and referred to the US government’s strategy to gain allies among the South Vietnamese against the Vietcong guerrillas. Over the years this strategy has been used in different contexts. What I’m going to talk about in this short article is how the radio waves have served Christian evangelical churches, to win hearts and minds, specially in Africa and Middle East (MENA).

Different from what I did with the Ethiopian clandestine broadcasts, when I spent around 3 months monitoring, with evangelical radios it took only two days in January 2022; quite simple, since they’re stations with regular programming. Most of them have good signal reception, there’s no jamming from other countries and, despite transmitting in different languages, little translation was necessary since the content is always the same: religious preaching.

All listenings happened in Rio de Janeiro. The radio sets used in this monitoring were the XHDATA D-808 and an old analog radio Sanyo RP-8351, made in Brazil in the 70’s. A 7-meter long wire antenna was used in all listenings. Continue reading →