Shortwave listening and everything radio including reviews, broadcasting, ham radio, field operation, DXing, maker kits, travel, emergency gear, events, and more
Bob’s archive is all about sharing what essentially amounts to lost and found sound: reel to reel recordings he’s discovered at thrift stores, estate sales, in junk piles, etc.
One of Bob’s shelves chock-full of reel to reel recordings
Bob describes his passion for collecting these recordings in this post on WFMU’s blog. I can say that he’s truly a kindred spirit as we both love taking recordings that would otherwise be lost forever and making them freely available online for everyone to enjoy.
Bob has kindly offered up the off-air shortwave radio recordings he’s collected and digitized over the years. We’ll be slowly adding these to the SRAA.
Many thanks, Bob, for sharing your recordings with the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.
Post readers: I would highly recommend checking out Bob’s numerous recordings and notes on Inches Per Second!
I’m absolutely chuffed to announce that the excellent Cities and Memorysound project has partnered with the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive for an all-new take on the soundscape of cities, and YOU are invited to be part of it.
Shortwave radio is one of the most fascinating sonic worlds – capturing vital moments in world history as well as pirate radio, clandestine stations, secretive number stations and military and spy radio, all of humanity is there to be listened to at the turn of a dial.
We’re delighted to have teamed up with The Shortwave Radio Archiveto present 100 incredible recordings from the history of shortwave radio all over the world for artists to remix and reimagine.
Shortwave Transmissions is our latest global project, and we’re calling for sound artists and musicians to get involved by reimagining shortwave radio recordings from across the world.
Here’s how to get involved:
Email us to let us know you’re interested – and we’ll send you the database of recordings to choose from.
Let us know your top two choices, and we’ll allocate one of those sounds to you to work with.
Create your composition – it must contain some elements of the original recording in some form, but otherwise is a completely free composition (music, sound art, radio art, composition, narrative storytelling – everything is valid!).
Submit your composition – the final deadline will be Sunday 14 November.
There are some incredibly rich recordings to work with as source material – here is just a sample selection:
Recordings from the mysterious “numbers stations” around the world
Coverage of world-changing events such as 9/11, the invasion of Kuwait, Kennedy’s assassination, Tiananmen Square protests, the death of Fidel Castro and many more
Rare international recordings from St. Helena, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, the Falkland Islands and Antarctica
Recordings covering a huge period of time from 1934 through to the present day
Space travel documented, including the Sputnik, Apollo and Challenger missions
Recordings of famous voices such as Winston Churchill and King George V
Station IDs, interval signals and final broadcasts from radio stations
Compositions will be presented in the Shortwave Transmissions project in late November and to thousands of listeners across the Cities and Memory podcast, and a selection of compositions will be chosen for an accompanying album release.
Sound artists and mixers, jump in to the Archive and see what you can unearth from the depths of our audio. We hope you’ll want to part in what we believe will be one of the most intriguing projects we’ve launched; in partnership with Cities and Memory, there’s no doubt it can be. We look forward to your contributions!
Today marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11; a day where we honor all of those who were lost, their families/friends, and all of those who who served during and after the attacks.
This morning, I’ve been listening to a number of off-air shortwave radio recordings made on September 11 and 12, 2001. Many thanks to the amazing contributors at the SRAA who shared these with us over the years. For this radio enthusiast, these recordings brings back memories even more vividly than video coverage.
The Voyager aircraft circles before landing at Edwards Air Force Base (Source: NASA via Wikimedia)
One of the most amazing things about hosting and curating a massive collection of shortwave radio recordings is listening to each recording as they’re published on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive (SRAA).
SRAA contributor, Tom Gavaras, has shared some brilliant off-air and studio recordings over the years including the following shortwave recording of Voyager Experimental Aircraft flight communications with Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager in 1986.
I haven’t even published the recording on the archive yet, as he just submitted it. Tom notes:
The flight took off from Edwards Air Force Base’s runway in the Mojave Desert on December 14, 1986, and ended 9 days later on December 23, setting a flight endurance record.
This shortwave recording is a sample of some of the communications between Dick Rutan and his ground crew including a debate if Dick should walk out of the aircraft after it lands.
Tom made this recording with an ICOM R71A receiver in Minnetonka, MN, and believes the date of this recording is December 22, 1986:
QSL card
This is simply amazing, Tom! Thank you so much for sharing your recording and QSL card with us. A proper radio treasure!
One of the most amazing things about hosting and curating a massive collection of shortwave radio recordings is listening to each recording as they’re published on the site.
I created the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive (SRAA) in 2012 as a dedicated space to post and share off-air recordings with the world. Listening to SRAA recordings and subscribing to the podcast is 100% free, and entirely void of any advertising. The fact is, I pay for this site out of my own pocket, although some of your generous coffee fund and Patreon gifts are used to reinforce the archive’s longevity and future.
Not only does the SRAA serve as a historical record of radio–and even as audio samples for musicians–it’s also for radio listeners like us to enjoy. We have over 3000 podcast and RSS subscribers. We invite you to subscribe as well as to contribute content in the form of your own radio recordings!
Great content, great contributors
Speaking of recordings, check out a sampling of our latest offerings from our amazing contributors:
Very recently, Bob Purse reached out to me through the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. Bob is the owner and curator of the excellent Inches Per Second audio archive and blog.
