Zimbabwe: More police raids in search of shortwave radios

In this case it’s not a child who was targeted in the raid, rather, the Prime Minister’s Principal Director:

A top lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, is being held by Harare police after she reacted to early morning raids leading to the arrest of Thabani Mpofu, Principal Director in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Office, a day after Zimbabweans voted in a constitutional referendum.

Thabani Mpofu, the Principal Director for Research and Development in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s office, was taken from his home at 6am.

The police, led by Inspector Mirimbo from Law and Order Harare Central, later raided the Prime Minister’s office in Bath Road in Belgravia, leading to the arrest of feisty human rights lawyer. The police, who did not have a search warrant, are said to have been looking for shortwave radios. [Continue reading on SW Radio Africa’s website…]

Shortwave Radio Recordings: The Disco Palace (in DRM)

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DiscoBall Perhaps one of the things I love the most about SWLing is the sheer variety of broadcasters out there. We can sample diverse offerings across a broad spectrum–from the BBC World Service to Radio Romania International, from pirate stations to numbers stations.

There’s even The Disco Palace: a station that plays only disco music, and each show is mixed thematically. This station broadcasts online and over shortwave radio via DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale).

Last week–specifically, on March 15, 2013–I caught about thirty minutes of The Disco Palace broadcast and was able to record it from my Bonito RadioJet IF Receiver. Reception on 17,875 MHz was excellent, although the DRM signal wasn’t quite strong enough for comfortable stereo decoding.

The following TDP recording starts around 2030 UTC (about halfway through the broadcast). Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Radio Netherlands Worldwide archives in danger

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(Source: NRC Handelsblad, with translation by Andy Sennitt.)

Radio Netherlands Worldwide and the Broadcasting Music Centre must find a new home for their archives by 1 July. RNW is still looking for a home for its extensive music collection, paper archives and recordings of many broadcasts in languages such as Indonesian, Arabic and Sranan Tongo since 1947. The Broadcasting Music Centre has from 1 August no place for five kilometres of sheet music, sometimes handwritten.

Media Historian Huub Wijfjes finds it astonishing. “We have institutions like Sound and Vision and the Eye Film Institute that were established to ensure that we don’t make the mistakes of the sixties and seventies when everything was discarded. Now the same thing is likely to happen again. For me, my sources will be lost. ”

Sound and Vision seems a logical place, but there is a problem. Collection Curator Hans van der Windt explains: “Access to large archives costs money that we don’t have. For example, we need to have the copyright to the material in order to make it available for research, but most organizations don’t want to give up the copyright.”

Many thanks to Andy Sennit for apprising us of this and for translating the original item from the NRC Handelsblad. I do sincerely hope that an educational institution or benefactor steps up to the plate to help RNW find a proper home for these significant and invaluable archives.

Shortwave Radio Recordings: Voice of Greece

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greece For your listening pleasure: alomost four hours of music, and a little Greek commentary, from the Voice of Greece.

Recorded on March 8th, 2013 on 9.42 MHz at 22:00 UTC.

Click here to download the full recording, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

VOA Radiograms Today (17 March 2013)

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(Source: VOA Radiogram)

The third airplay of VOA Radiogram is coming soon, at 1300 UTC, on 6095 kHz. Another, directed to Europe, will be at 1930 UTC on 15670 kHz.

Thanks to the many listeners throughout Europe, North America, and even in Asia, who have sent reports, audio, screenshots, spectrum displays, etc. After the last transmission today, I will summarize the results in this website.

WRMI, Radio Miami International, 9955 kHz, is transmitting IDs in the Olivia 8-1000 mode until 0400 UTC Monday (midnight EDT). These are centered on 1300 and 2500 Hz. Don’t be discouraged by the low signal level of WRMI, or by the Cuban jamming on the frequency. You might get a good decode of Olivia 8-1000 anyway.

Want to buy an HF radio station?

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The Hummel Park Radio Station Site, near Omaha, Nebraska, is up for auction.

Ed writes:

This surplus Federal property includes two towers, including a tall
rotatable HF array and sizeable building:

Notice of surplus determination (PDF)

Surplus properties display

This property could probably be purchased cheaply at auction by anyone who wants to start an HF radio station at the center of CONUS.

Hey, we can dream, can’t we?

Pirate Radio Recordings: The Crystal Ship

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(Source: Sealord on the HF Underground)

Looking through some of my archived recordings from the past month, I found this broadcast from The Crystal Ship, on the TCS Relay Network.

Conditions were a little tough at the time and you’ll hear some some SSB interference near the end, but the mix is worth it. I started this recording around 1:15 UTC on February 26th, 2013, on 6.9255 MHz, capturing the last third of the show (based on HF Underground logs).

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

Standard Pirate Radio Disclaimer: This is a recording of a real pirate radio broadcast, and as such, may include strong or colorful language or lyrics. In general, if you are easily offended by the words, ideas, music lyrics, or music herein, you should slowly…back… away…