Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following illustrated radio listening report of recent Rádio Nacional broadcasts.
Carlos notes:
Obituary: Preta Gil and Ozzy Osbourne, via Radio Nacional and Radio CBN, both Brazilian stations.
Greetings to all SWLing Post community, Imaginary Stations have got a couple of treats for you this week.
There’s more surfboard madness with SURF 3 on Saturday 26th July 2025 at 1100 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 27th July 2025 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and at 2000 UTC on 3975 kHz and 6160 kHz (via the services of Shortwave Gold).
Propagation may be choppy of late but there will be waves you can jump on to enjoy another hour of tunes about wearing fullsuits, watching out for corduroy approaching (that’s not the trousers and jacket combo, we mean “a series of swells marching in from the horizon”) and hopping on those party waves. Tune in and get surfing without getting soaked to the skin.
And we’ve a new episode of the interesting The Shortwave Music Library on Wednesday 30th July 2025 at 0200 hrs UTC via WRMI. Chief music librarian DJ Frederick is behind the reception desk picking out some eclectic tunes from his collection. Expect all sorts of musical goodness from across all genres and we’d appreciated it if you could keep noise down to a minimum during the broadcast as it is a library after all.
Here’s more about the show.
For more information on all our shows, please write to [email protected] and check out our old shows at our Mixcloud page here.
FastRadioBurst 23
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following illustrated radio listening reports of recent Radio Nacional and Voice of Vietnam broadcasts.
Carlos notes:
Brazilian Supreme Court backs ankle monitor, social media ban for former president Bolsonaro
Click here to view on YouTube.
Carlos notes:
Urgent mobilization in the face of the arrival of Typhoon Wipha
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Tilford, who shares the following update:
From the Isle of Music, August 2025
July’s program will be the third of several episodes featuring the best of Cubadisco 2025, Cuba’s most important discographic awards. This is the best of the best of Cuba’s new releases.
Friday, August 8:
6070 kHz at 1700 UTC
3955 kHz at 2100 UTC
Sunday, August 10:
9670 kHz at 1700 UTC using booster beam E to eastern Europe and Eurasia (repeat of August 8 episode).
Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, August 2025
In August we will present music from Syria and the Syrian diaspora.
Friday, August 15:
6070 kHz at 1700 UTC
3955 at 2100 UTC
Sunday, August 17:
9670 kHz at 1700 UTC using beam E (repeat of August 15 episode).
**In addition to direct radio reception, we do honor reception reports using remote SDRs as long as the whole program is described and which SDR is specified.
I recently received a fascinating message from long-time SWLing Post reader Paul, who has graciously shared a remarkable collection of shortwave radio recordings he made from his home near London in the 1980s. Here’s what he wrote:
Hi Thomas,
I have been following your excellent blog for many years. I have noticed that sometimes you feature archive recordings. I have some that might interest you.
During the 1980s I was listening to shortwave radio from my home near London, in the south east of England. I had a cassette recorder connected to the receiver and taped anything interesting that caught my ear. Little did I know that 40 years later the majority of these stations would have disappeared and I would have the opportunity to share these recordings with the world.
I have put together a collection of five audio files of recordings from many of these international shortwave broadcasters, consisting of IDs and interval signals. The majority of these recordings are in English. I’ve grouped the files geographically:
I have uploaded these files to the Internet Archive, under the user name Shortwave Memories.
There are no dates or frequencies but the recordings were made during the 1980s, the majority during the first half of the decade.
I hope you and your readers find this interesting. I certainly enjoy listening to these recordings and a reminder of how shortwave used to sound.
Best regards,
Paul
Paul has organized his recordings by region. You can stream them directly from the Internet Archive or download them to enjoy offline: https://archive.org/details/@shortwave_memories
I’ll also embed the audio players below with Paul’s notes:
AUSTRIA: Radio Austria International (0)
CYPRUS: Cyprus Broadcasting Company (1.40)
DENMARK: Radio Denmark (3.09)
FINLAND: Radio Finland (4.29)
FRANCE: Radio France Internationale (5.30)
GERMANY (WEST): Deutsche Welle (6.30)
GREECE: Voice of Greece (7.53)
ITALY: RAI (9.24)
MALTA: Radio Mediterranean (11.00)
NETHERLANDS: Radio Netherlands (12.21)
NORWAY: Radio Norway (13.34)
PORTUGAL: Radio Portugal (15.34)
SPAIN: Spanish Foreign Radio (16.32)
SWEDEN: Radio Sweden (18.17)
SWITZERLAND: Swiss Radio International (19.53)
Red Cross Broadcasting Service (20.38)
UNITED KINGDOM: BBC World Service (21.49)
ALBANIA: Radio Tirana (0)
BELARUS: Radio Minsk (1.18)
BULGARIA: Radio Sofia (1.41)
CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Radio Prague (2.29)
ESTONIA: Radio Tallin (2.50)
GERMANY (EAST): Radio Berlin Int (3.49)
HUNGARY: Radio Budapest (5.22)
LATVIA: Radio Riga (6.31)
LITHUANIA: Radio Vilnius (7.14)
POLAND: Radio Polonia (8.30)
ROMANIA: Radio Bucharest (9.37)
UKRAINE: Radio Kiev (10.41)
USSR: Radio Moscow World Service (12.17)
Radio Station Peace & Progress (13.35)
Radio Station Rodina (13.59)
YUGOSLAVIA: Radio Yugoslavia (14.21)
Bonaire: Trans World Radio (3.31)
Brazil: Radio Nacional do Brasil (4.32)
Canada: Radio Canada Int (6.58)
Chile: Voice of Chile (8.48)
Colombia: Radio Nacional (11.06)
Radio Sutatenza (12.00)
Cuba: Radio Havana (12.48)
Dominican Republic: La Voz del CID (14.20)
Radio Clarin (15.01)
Ecuador: HCJB (15.43)
Grenada: Radio Free Grenada (17.36)
Nicaragua: Voice of Nicaragua (18.42)
USA: Voice of America (19.54)
Radio Earth (20.33)
KCBI (21.39)
WHRI (22.13)
WRNO (22.38)
WYFR (22.49)
Venezuela: Radio Turismo (23.22)
Radio Tachira (24.06)
YVTO (24.41)
Afghanistan: Radio Afghanistan (0)
Australia: Radio Australia (1.55)
Bangladesh: Radio Bangladesh (3.18)
China: Radio Peking (4.23)
India: All India Radio (6.16)
Japan: Radio Japan (7.29)
Korea (North): Radio Pyongyang (9.02)
Korea (South): Radio Korea (12.26)
Malaysia: Voice of Malaysia (14.22)
New Zealand: Radio New Zealand (15.49)
Pakistan: Radio Pakistan (16.13)
Saipan: KFBS & KYOI (16.44)
Taiwan: Voice of the Free China (18.14)
Tajikistan: Radio Dushanbe (19.01)
Uzbekistan: Radio Tashkent (19.22)
Vietnam: Voice of Vietnam (20.16)
ALGERIA: Radio Algiers (0)
EGYPT: Radio Cairo (1.03)
IRAN: Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran (2.33)
IRAQ: Radio Baghdad (4.17)
ISRAEL: Kol Israel (6.33)
KUWAIT: Radio Kuwait (8.00)
LEBANON: Voice of Lebanon (9.29)
LIBYA: Radio Jamariyah (10.18)
NIGERIA: Radio Nigeria (12.15)
QATAR: Qatar Broadcasting Service (13.53)
SAUDI ARABIA: Broadcasting Service of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (14.21)
SOUTH AFRICA: Radio RSA (15.45)
SYRIA: Radio Damascus (17.37)
TURKEY: Voice of Turkey (18.40)
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: UAE Radio (19.50)
A huge thank you to Paul for not only preserving these recordings, but also for taking the time to digitize and share them publicly. This is a nostalgic treat for many of us and a valuable reference for future generations of listeners.
If any readers have similar recordings they’d like to share, feel free to reach out. I’m always happy to help preserve and feature them on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.
— Thomas
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Richard Langley for sharing a recent CBC article that explores the real-world consequences of funding cuts to public broadcasting in the U.S.: Trump-era plan to cut U.S. public broadcasting could hit rural communities hard
While discussions around federal budgets become politicized, it’s important to step back and examine the tangible, local effects such changes will bring — especially in rural and underserved communities where over-the-air (OTA) public radio may be the only consistent, reliable information lifeline.
One such community is served by KSKO 89.5 FM, a public radio station based in McGrath, Alaska, and operated by longtime SWLing Post friend and contributor, Paul Walker. KSKO serves villages across the Upper and Middle Kuskokwim region, many of which have no access to high-speed internet or even cellular service. As KSKO’s press release puts it:
“The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a plan […] to rescind $9 billion in previously allocated federal funding. This includes a devastating $1.1 billion cut to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), effectively eliminating all federal support for KSKO Radio.
As a result, Kuskokwim Public Broadcasting Corporation will begin scaling back operations in a way that allows us to remain on the air for as long as possible.”
This is not an isolated case. Here at SWLing Post HQ in Swannanoa, North Carolina, we’re still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which caused massive infrastructure disruption across the state. When systems failed in the aftermath of the storm (read one of my journal entries here), over-the-air radio stepped up.
A photo of one of the many sections of our mountain road that was washed away in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
According to Ele Ellis, CEO of Blue Ridge Public Radio (BPR), (quoted in the CBC article):
“We hear stories upon stories of people telling us, ‘OK, well, we got a crank radio or we had a crank radio, and we knew you’d be on.’ […] Some would crank up the volume and put the radio on a mailbox, and neighbours would gather to listen… That’s what they had to do to get information that was going to help them live.”
Having grown up in rural western North Carolina myself, I can personally attest to how vital BPR is to so many remote communities. For some, it’s the only station they can receive. If CPB-funded stations like BPR and KSKO lose their transmitter sites due to budget cuts, that critical connection vanishes — not just news, but local announcements, weather alerts, and emergency communications.
Whether or not one agrees with the politics behind these decisions, there is a real-world human cost of eliminating public broadcasting support. While PBS and NPR will certainly survive, it’s the small rural member stations — the ones that reach into mountain hollows and villages across the tundra — that go silent.
We encourage readers to support their local stations (like KSKO and BPR) if they’re able, and to advocate for the preservation of public media access in remote communities.
Combined with recent, severe cuts to the National Weather Service (which has real-world impact), these public broadcasting reductions represent a dangerous erosion of the tools we depend on during times of crisis.
For rural America especially, it’s a recipe for turning natural disasters into human tragedies.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following illustrated radio listening report of a recent CGTN Radio broadcast.
Carlos notes:
Typhoon Wipha makes landfall in Southern China. CGTN Radio, 11770 kHz
Typhoon Wipha makes landfall in Southern China. CGTN Radio, 11770 kHz, listened in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on a Tecsun R-1012 receiver.
“…China’s Central Authorities are offering emergency relief supplies as typhoon Wipha makes landfall in Southern China. They include folding beds (…) for people who have to leave their homes. Guangdong and Hainan provinces are facing strong winds and heavy rain…”