Category Archives: Shortwave Radio

Pirate Radio Recordings: Dit Dah Radio

Santa likes Dit Dah Radio!

Santa likes Dit Dah Radio!

Being a fan of Morse code (or CW), I have a special affinity for pirates that use “the sacred language” in their broadcasts.

Last night, around 00:30 UTC (only a few minutes after WKND began broadcasting) I heard Morse Code on 6.935 MHz USB.

If you, too, love Morse code, you’ll love “Dit Dah Radio;” after their preamble in Morse code, they follow with The Capris’ 1960’s hit, Morse Code of Love.

You can download the full recording as an MP3 file by clicking here, or listen via the embedded player below:

Ears To Our World: Giving the gift of radio

Doulek's Association of Disabled People, Cameroon (Photo: ETOW)

Doulek’s Association of Disabled People, Cameroon (Photo: ETOW)

This holiday season, you might consider giving a charitable donation to Ears To Our World. A one time donation of $40 US can help a community through the power of shortwave radio.

Many readers may know that I’m quite involved with ETOW.

We recently published this article showing the impact of one self-powered shortwave radio in rural Cameroon. It’s pretty amazing and this mission would not be possible without the support of those who understand the importance and impact of shortwave radio; people like you. Thank you!

The SWLing Post Podcast

podcasticonThanks to SWLing Post reader, Michael, I have set up our RSS feed for podcasts.

This means that if you enjoy listening to our shortwave radio recordings, you can now easily subscribe and download all of our audio automatically. This is not edited material–no introductions, nor host–simple shortwave radio recordings.

If you would like to subscribe to the SWLing Post Podcast, point your favorite podcasting application to our RSS feed:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheSwlingPost

In iTunes, for example, go to the “File” menu and select “Subscribe to podcast”–then, simply paste our RSS feed address in the url field.  Other podcast applications will have a similar approach.

Thanks, Michael!

Saturday Night Country takes you ‘down under’ for the holidays

Felicity Urquhart, host of ABC's Saturday Night Country. (photo: ABC)

Felicity Urquhart, host of ABC’s Saturday Night Country. (photo: ABC)

If you’ve been reading the SWLing Post for long, you’ll know how much I love ABC’s Saturday Night Country, which I tune to every Saturday morning starting on 9,580 kHz.

Yesterday, host Felicity Urquhart produced another great mix of interviews and music, including some uniquely Australian Country Christmas songs.

You can download the recordings of the show as MP3s by clicking here for the first hour of Saturday Night Country on 9,580 kHz and here for the rest of the show on 11,945 kHz, or by simply listening via the embedded player below:

Scandinavian Weekend Radio Christmas specials & frequencies

SWR(Source: Scandinavian Weekend Radio via Alokesh Gupta)

Scandinavian Weekend Radio is broadcasting a series of Christmas Specials on 5980, 6170, 11690, 11720 kHz the 24th & 25th of Dec 2012.

The full broadcast schedule can be found here: http://www.swradio.net/schedule.htm

Severance pay of Radio Netherlands CEO under scrutiny

Outgoing Radio Netherlands CEO, Jan Hoek (Photo: RNW)

Outgoing Radio Netherlands CEO, Jan Hoek (Photo: RNW)

(Source: de Volkskrant, translated by Andy Sennitt)

The severance payment for the outgoing CEO of Radio Netherlands Worldwide is excessive. This is what Sander Dekker, deputy minister responsible for the media, wrote on Thursday in a letter to the Lower House of the Dutch parliament.

RNW Director-General Jan Hoek was originally set to receive a fee of 1.1 million euros. Following an urgent request by Mr Dekker and his predecessor, the RNW Supervisory Board agreed with the Director-General to reduce the severance pay to 800,000 euros. Despite the reduction in the amount, according to Mr Dekker it is still “too high and therefore inappropriate and undesirable.”

The Deputy Minister willl investigate the legal issues, but sees no possibility of preventing payment of the severance premium. Mr Dekker says that taking the matter to court offers no solution, because according to the agreement signed in 2001 Mr Hoek is formally entitled to receive his full severance payment.

A new law regulating the salaries of public officials goes into effect on 1 January. This will prevent excessive payments in the future. Under the new rules, a severance payment will be restricted to a maximum of 75,000 euros. But agreements already signed are not covered by the new law.

Pirate Radio Recordings: Radio Casablanca

CasablancaOn Sunday, December 17th, around 22:00 UTC, I happened to pick up the last thirty minutes of Radio Casablanca; a pirate that plays a nostalgic mix of music from the 1930’s and 1940’s. They were broadcasting on 6939 kHz in AM.

Close your eyes, and you can imagine what it must have sounded like back in the day Phyllis Jeanne Creore Westerman graced the shortwaves.

You’ll hear me tweaking the receiver in the first three minutes while, in the background, I was entertaining my children. I though about cutting it out but, on second thought, simply uploaded it as-is. I switched from a very wide AM bandwidth to AM sync and then AM sync with only the lower sideband (to kill some noise in the upper side band) after adjusting the center slightly below 6940 kHz.

I love how the recording starts on a tone and then morphs into Close as Pages in a Book by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra.

You can download the MP3 by clicking here, or simply listen in the embedded player below:

RadioCasablancaQSL122012