Tag Archives: The Shortwave Radio Audio Archive

Dan offers services to digitally preserve off-air recordings on legacy formats

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who writes:

Some years ago, I urged those of us survivors in the shortwave listening  community to transfer any reel or cassette tapes to digital format. In recent years we have lost many top DX’ers to illness. Collections of recordings have unfortunately also been lost because family members are not able to preserve them or have no interest in doing so.

If any SWLing Post readers have such recordings, I am able to transfer them from/to to any format — including MD, SONY Microcassette (both of these are obviously still legacy formats but many still use MD for example), and straight to solid state media such as SD, MicroSD, etc

While I realize that most people do have the knowledge and capabilities to transfer old  recordings, I know many lack the time and patience to do so. So I am offering my services here, for reasonable fees to compensate for time invested. You can reach me at: [email protected]

Those who wish to simply donate recordings can send them to me (please get in touch first).  Anyone who does wish to have their recording collection(s) transferred in full and to have  original tapes or cassettes returned, I ask to be compensated for postage costs. If you wish  to provide solid state media for the transfers that is fine, but please make sure that thumb drives  or memory cards are of sufficient size. Otherwise I will obtain memory cards/sticks and add this to the cost.

In recent years I have transferred recordings of about a dozen DX’ers who have passed, and for a few who left the hobby. All of these recordings are valuable as they represent snapshots of the SW broadcasting era and of history — they should be preserved.

I can certainly vouch for Dan and his integrity, so if you would like to have your recordings transferred, he’s the guy to do it. Thanks, Dan!

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Shortwave Radio Recordings: Radio Moscow 1984

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We’ve just posted yet another excellent recording by Jim Jordan to the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. This Cold War recording of Radio Moscow dates back to September 19, 1984.

Jim notes:

A nice Cold War piece from Radio Moscow on the double defection of the Soviet journalist Oleg Bitov. The real story behind it was revealed ten years later [click here to read article].

Also, check out this short mention in the Ukrainian Weekly:

THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY. NOVEMBER 4,1984

THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY. NOVEMBER 4,1984

Jim’s recording was made using a National Panasonic RF-2200 tuned to 9.5 MHz around 08:10 UTC. The location was South Shields, UK.

Click here to download as a (mono) MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

You can listen to more archived shortwave recordings at the SRAA website, or by subscribing to the audio feed via iTunes. You can also listen to the archive on TuneIn radio.

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Shortwave Radio Recordings: KNLS test transmission circa 1983

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We’ve just posted yet another excellent recording by Tom Laskowski to the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. I thought a number of Post readers might appreciate this one.

Tom notes:

KNLS – Anchor Point, Alaska, from what I believe is a test transmission on August 1, 1983. According to Wikipedia, KNLS signed on the air July 23, 1983. The program consists of the sign-on ID in English and Russian then is mostly a mix of Big Band music. This recording is 31 minutes long.

Tom’s receiver was a Sony ICF-2001 and he started recording at 09:00 UTC on 11.820 MHz. His location, at the time, was South Bend, Indiana (USA).

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

You can listen to more archived shortwave recordings at the SRAA website, or by subscribing to the audio feed via iTunes. You can also listen to the archive on TuneIn radio.

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Shortwave Radio Recordings: Radio Netherland’s “What’s New” circa 1976

Paul's 1976 tape reel containing this Radio Netherlands recording. He felt the DeLorean added a touch of time travel.

Paul’s 1976 reel containing this Radio Netherlands recording. He felt the DeLorean added a touch of time travel.

We are fortunate to have a number of active contributors to the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive who have dusted off old magnetic tapes and digitized them for all to enjoy. One such contributor is Paul Harner, who has submitted a number of recordings the past few months. Paul recently submitted a 1976 recording of What’s New from Radio Netherlands.

Paul notes:

Radio Nederland’s “What’s New” was a Saturday night program that featured hits from the weekly Dutch Top 30. The show was co-hosted by American Bruce Parsons and Australian Graham GIll. Based on the charts from that week, this show aired on 6 November 1976. Shows like “What’s New” introduced me to pop/rock artists that didn’t receive airplay in the USA. It also introduced me to other shows on Radio Nederland later on, such as “His And Hers,” “Happy Station,” and especially “Media Network.”

I imagine a number of SWLing Post readers remember listening to What’s NewClick here to download Paul’s 1976 recording, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

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Curating a list of endangered shortwave stations

RCI-Sackville-2012

That’s my minivan parked in front of the RCI Sackville transmitting station in June, 2012. The site was closed by the end of 2012 and towers demolished shortly thereafter.

Recently, my friend and fellow archivist, London Shortwave, and I engaged in a discussion about creating a curated list of “endangered” shortwave radio stations.

The idea being we could use such a list to focus our efforts and those of the archiving community on recording broadcasters that were most likely to disappear in the near future.

London Shortwave published an excellent post about this on his blog.

Please click here to read his post.

We quickly put this page on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive as a starting point.

We need your help to curate this list!

Please comment either on London Shortwave’s blog, or on this post, and suggest any additional broadcasters we may have missed. Please include a link to news item(s) which may indicate the broadcaster faces closure.

Of course, this list and the categories are subjective–we’re simply using our best judgement in this process. Often, broadcasters can shut down with little or no notice.

Thanks in advance for your help!

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Voice of Justice broadcasts to North America?

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Langley, who comments:

It seems that the VOIRI “Voice of Justice” broadcast to North America may have been axed.

[I] did a quick search on that phrase in the [Shortwave Radio Audio Archive] but came up empty.

Might be nice if someone with a personal band archive could extract an example of that program and put in on the SRAA.

Can anyone confirm this for Richard? A VOIRI recording would make a nice addition to the archive, where we’re attempting to collect samples of as many shortwave broadcasters as possible.

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From the Shortwave Archives: BBC World Service report on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

STS-51-L crew: (front row) Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair; (back row) Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik.

STS-51-L crew: (front row) Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair; (back row) Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik.

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who submits the following notes with his timely off-air recording of the BBC World Service from January 28, 1986:

Thirty years ago today the US Space program came crashing down with the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

I was a student at Purdue University at the time, living in a dormitory.

I decided to make some recordings knowing this would be a historic event.

This is a recording I made of the BBC on the evening of Jan 28 (0200 UTC on January 29). The frequency was most likely 5975 kHz or 9590 kHz. The dorm environment didn’t make a great place for SWL reception and the recording is noisy but still of decent quality.

Recorded using a Sony ICF-2001 with a wire attached to a window screen for an antenna.

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

Thank you so much for sharing this recording, Tom. What a brilliant way to remember and honor the Challenger crew.

To listen to a wide array of off-air shortwave radio recordings, explore the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

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