Tag Archives: Recordings

Pure nostalgia: Mark’s shortwave recording of Radio Tahiti music

(Map Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Pettifor, who writes:

One of the great things about DXing and SWLing is the variety of music one can hear. One of my favorite stations to listen to on shortwave for “exotic music” was Radio Tahiti, Papeete, French Polynesia, when they were still on shortwave.

If my memory serves me correctly, I believe something happened to the transmitter, and they never got back on SW. They were on mediumwave through December of 2016 (738 kHz); now they are on FM only. (Maybe us hobbyists should start a funding website to put them back on shortwave!)

Many a Saturday night I would turn on the DX-160 (my first SW rig) and let it warm up for a while, before tuning in 15170 to see how band conditions were. If the band was good, I’d get ready to record through the air. Once I started recording, I’d often leave the room and shut the door, because having three brothers around meant the possibilities were high for having “extraneous interference” on my recordings.

Saturday evenings were a good time to tune in, because of a music program that aired with a good selection of island music. The program had an announcer who spoke in the island vernacular (Tahitian?), and when that program ended they switched to French.

Here is a 30-min recording of Radio Tahiti on 15170 kHz from a while ago, most likely around one of the solar maxima of either 1980 or 1991. I’m leaning toward the 1980 cycle. My apologies for not being able to be more specific than that. I kept terrible records of my recordings. This would be recorded either with the DX-160 or a DX-302. Apologies too for the jump in volume at around the 2:37 mark.

So close your eyes, imagine you are lying in a hammock on a beach somewhere in the South Pacific, with a warm breeze off the ocean and your favorite cooled beverage nearby, listening to some of the best island music anywhere.

Click here to download an MP3 of this recording.

Wow Mark! Thank you so much for sharing this recording–it certainly brings back memories of listening to Radio Tahiti on my Zenith Trans-Oceanic!

Post readers: Anyone else cruise Radio Tahiti for the amazing music? Please comment!

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Dan catches the Bhutan Broadcasting Service

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who discovered that the Bhutan Broadcasting Service was on the air Friday with an uncharacteristically strong signal into Europe. Dan made the following screencast of his reception using the University Twente WebSDR on August 31, 2018 on 6,035 kHz starting around 2024 UTC:

Click here to watch via Vimeo.

Many thanks for sharing, Dan! I hope to hear them on the air again soon.

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Shortwave Radio Recordings: Radio Nacional de Venezuela (2004) and Media Network (1990)

Shortwave Radio Recordings: RNW Media Network, April 9, 1982

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Former RNW Madagascar site (Photo courtesy of RNW)

Many thanks to SWLing Post and SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who shares the following off-air recording of Radio Netherlands and notes:

Along with RCI’s Shortwave Listener’s Digest, Radio Netherlands Media Network was another favorite DX program of mine.

Here is a recording of an episode from April 9, 1982 which is the first recording of this program from my archive.

The show highlights are:

Media coverage of the Falklands War from the British and Argentinian sides,

Pete Meyers with a report that Radio New Zealand did not shut down, the US-Cuban media war,

Richard Ginbey with African media news and

John Campbell with a clandestine radio report.

Audio quality is only fair for this recording.

Date of recording: 4/9/1982

Starting time: 0230

Frequency: 9.590 MHz

Receiver location: South Bend, IN

Receiver: Realistic DX-302

Click here to download this audio file.

Thank you , Tom! That is, indeed, a most welcome blast from the past!

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Dan records the final transmission of Radio Transmundial Portuguese

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who shares the following notes about the final transmission of Radio Transmundial. [Dan made this recording yesterday, but Internet woes here at SWLing Post HQ prevented me from posting this until now.]

Dan writes:

FYI — I am monitoring Radio Transmundial via [the PY2BS KiwiSDR in] Brazil. They are in the midst of a final discussion in Portuguese between two announcers, mentioning advances/changes in technology, Internet, etc. that are forcing the station off the air. Many mentions of shortwave.

See attachments…..audio files are of studio discussion in Portuguese about their decision to end SW….then another file going right up until 1900 UTC or thereabouts when they went off.

At about the 9:36 mark in the 1st audio file announcer introduces a technical person (sounded like someone from TWR, but also mentioned was “director of communications”) to begin a discussion about their decision to end shortwave — that discussion lasts until about the 34:30 mark when they go into full IDs.

Click here to download audio file.

Second audio file you can hear Zanzibar gradually fading up and dominating the frequency, then in the clear after Transmundial goes off 11,735.

Click here to download audio file.

Would be very interesting to translate this conversation for a post on SWLing.

~~Perhaps SWLing Post readers with a knowledge of Portuguese could help us with any interesting details from this conversation? Please comment!~~ UPDATE: Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Fabiano Barufaldi, who has volunteered to help translate some of the key points from this broadcast!

Dan, thanks for grabbing a recording of this final Transmundial broadcast. When my Internet connection is fully functioning again, I will add these recordings to the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

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