Shortwave listening and everything radio including reviews, broadcasting, ham radio, field operation, DXing, maker kits, travel, emergency gear, events, and more
I asked the AI image-generator DALL-E 2 to create a an image based on this song title.
For those of you who attended David Goren’s Shortwave Shindig at the virtual Winter SWL Fest were treated to a song called Tea With The Queen. This was no ordinary song–as David notes:
This is what happened when I asked ChatGPT to write a country song about a trucker who has tea with Queen Elizabeth whilst they listen to BBC on shortwave radio. Then I got Chris Johnson, an extremely talented and savvy musician, to set it to music.
In celebration of the upcoming World Radio Day 2023, our friend David Goren has produced another amazing World Wide Waves episode with Maria Margaronis presenting. You can listen live, but the audio will also be linked to The Documentary website once it has aired:
(Image source: BBC World Service, The Documentary)
The Documentary
For World Radio Day, we celebrate four vibrant community radio stations on four continents, tuning in to their sounds, their music, and their missions. Northern Malawi’s Rumphi FM supports the Tumbuka tribe while giving young women a space to speak out against early marriage and for education.
From Budapest, Radio Dikh broadcasts “about the Roma, but not just for the Roma,” presenting Romany culture in its own distinctive voice.
In Nunavik, Northern Quebec, Inuit radio beams Inuktitut music and talk to 14 remote villages, helping to keep an ancient language and threatened tradition alive.
And in civil-war-torn Myanmar, brave journalists risk their lives to resist the military dictatorship with news and views sent out from portable transmitters, sometimes under fire.
SWLing Post friend and contributor, David Goren, notes that a piece he’s produced and Maria Margaronis has presented is now available to listen to online via BBC Radio 4:
(Source: BBC Radio 4 with Photo credit from Michael Starghill))
The Allan B. Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas, used to be known as the Terror Dome for its high rates of inmate violence, murder and suicide. Polunsky houses all the men condemned to death in Texas (currently 185) and nearly 3,000 maximum security prisoners. But since the pandemic, a prison radio station almost entirely run by the men themselves has helped to create community–even for those on death row, who spend 23 hours a day locked alone in their cells.
The Tank beams all kinds of programmes across the prison complex: conversations both gruff and tender; music from R&B to metal; the soundtracks of old movies; inspirational messages from all faiths and none. The station’s steady signal has saved some men from suicide and many from loneliness; it lets family members and inmates dedicate songs to each other and make special shows for those on their way to execution. Maria Margaronis tunes in to The Tank and meets some of the men who say it’s changed their lives—even when those lives have just weeks left to run.
Although Irish pirate radio is our main interest, today we explore the lively pirate scene in the Brooklyn area of New York City. The Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map is a fascinating project established by radio producer and audio archivist David Goren and provides interactive maps and historical and contemporary recordings of the many unlicensed stations in Brooklyn.
This is a longer version of an interview by John Walsh with David Goren first featured in Wireless, a series about radio, audio and media on Flirt FM in Galway. It covers the history of pirate radio in Brooklyn and New York generally, attempts to crack down on the unlicensed stations, the role of low-powered FM, the background to the Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map itself and plans for the future. Many thanks to David for taking the time to explain this fantastic project for us. [Read the full article and listen to the interview on the Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive…]
With the advent of the 9V battery-powered transistor radio in the 1950s, the “Emergency Radio” was born.
Unlike vacuum tube receivers with heavy batteries or unpowered crystal radios, these handheld AM portables were small and simple enough to keep in a drawer. They could then be retrieved whenever man-made or natural disasters knocked out the power, providing listeners with lifeline connections to news, weather and relief information. Continue reading →
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Goren, who shares a link to this PDF which is a primer on soldering…in comic book form!
Thing is, this primer is brilliantly illustrated and all of the soldering techniques are truly textbook. No wonder, though: the amazing Mitch Altman provided the “Soldering Wisdom.” (You might recall my love of Mitch’s TV-B-Gone kit.)
David didn’t know this, but I use this comic guide very heavily when teaching classes or individuals how to solder. It connects with all generations of makers and tinkerers.
It is the benchmark, in my opinion!
Mitch specifically designed this tutorial to be spread widely, so he licensed it under Creative Commons. Share this widely!
We encourage you to explore the creative work from over 120 artists and composers.
A great many of these remarkable dynamic works draw on a wide array of recordings from the SRAA; the resulting compositions and soundscapes are rich with sonic textures, evocative collages of sound and memory, which emerge into further sources of inspiration.
For World Radio Day 2022, we tune in to radio stations around the world that connect communities, spark conversations, keep traditions alive and give a voice to their listeners. From Aboriginal Koori Radio in Australia to a community station in India run by rural women from the lowest Dalit caste, the airwaves carry intimate wisdom, vital knowledge, beats and tunes that keep reminding us who we are.
Wave Farm, Montez Press Radio, and The North American Shortwave Association are pleased to announce “Short Waves / Long Distance,” an open call for works exploring the sonics of the shortwave radio spectrum (2-30 mHz), and the experience of long distance listening. The call is in conjunction with the 35th Anniversary of the Winter Shortwave Listener’s Fest and Wave Farm’s 25th Anniversary, both of which will be celebrated in 2022.
Selected works will be:
Featured as part of a two-hour segment from 11pm-1am (EST, UTC -5) during David Goren‘s Shortwave Shindig held during the SWL Fest’s Zoom Conference on Friday evening March 4, 2022
Broadcast live worldwide on shortwave via WRMI (Radio Miami International)
Broadcast live on Wave Farm’s WGXC 90.7-FM Radio for Open Ears in New York’s Upper Hudson Valley
Both pre-existing and newly created works are eligible. Please note: Works submitted to the 2017 Open Call are ineligible, regardless of their selection status.
A jury comprised of representatives from The Shortwave Shindig, Montez Press Radio, and Wave Farm will review submissions.
Selections will be announced in late February 2022
About The Shortwave Shindig
The Shortwave Shindig is a live immersion into the wavering, noisy sounds of the shortwave radio spectrum. Live performances, presentations and extended, multi-layered audio mixes combine real time and archival shortwave sounds, taking the listener on a guided tour through the atmospheric neighborhoods where shortwave stations cluster. Reels of archival audio and a bank of receivers are on hand for tuning-in to the distant, elusive sounds of the shortwave bands. http://www.shortwaveology.net/shortwave-shindig/
About the Winter SWL Fest
The Winter Shortwave Listener’s Fest (March 4th-5th 2022) is a conference of radio hobbyists of all stripes who listen to frequencies from “DC to daylight.” Every year scores of hobbyists descend on the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania suburbs for a weekend of camaraderie and talking radio. The Fest is sponsored by NASWA, the North American Shortwave Association, but it covers much more than just shortwave. Additional topics include Medium wave (AM), VHF scanning, satellite TV, and pirate broadcasting. http://www.swlfest.com/
About Montez Press Radio
Montez Press Radio is an experimental broadcasting and performance platform. Founded in 2018 with the goal of fostering greater experimentation and conversation between artists, writers, and thinkers through the medium of radio, MPR allows different corners of the art world to interact with each other in person and on air—a place where media finally meets flesh. We’re drawn to art that exists in the unexpected, the authenticity of sharing without a script, the sounds of ideas in the making, conversation that forgets there’s an audience. We also like books. All in-studio broadcasts are free and open to the public. Stop by when we’re live at 46 Canal Street #2 in NYC or look at the upcoming schedule to see if we’re off-site and broadcasting near you. https://radio.montezpress.com
About Wave Farm
Wave Farm is a non-profit arts organization driven by experimentation with broadcast media and the airwaves. A pioneer of the Transmission Arts genre, Wave Farm provides access to transmission technologies and supports artists and organizations that engage with media and the electromagnetic spectrum as an art form. Wave Farm’s Residency Program provides artists working within the Transmission Arts genre opportunities to research and create new works. Wave Farm’s Archives document and contextualize this work, including the Wave Farm Radio Art Archive, which is a project of an annual fellowship program. The Transmission Art Installation park features long-term projects installed on Wave Farm’s 29-acres in Acra, NY. These projects amplify the environment revealing what is otherwise unheard or unseen. Wave Farm’s WGXC-FM is a full-power, non-commercial, listener-supported station in New York’s Upper Hudson Valley operating out of dedicated studios in Acra and Hudson, NY; as well as pop-up temporary studio locations throughout the listening area and beyond. WGXC transmits 3,300 watts to more than 78,000 potential listeners on 90.7-FM and unlimited international listeners at wavefarm.org/listen. Hands-on access and participation distinguish WGXC as a public platform for information, experimentation, and engagement. https://wavefarm.org
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