Category: THE SHORTWAVE RADIO AUDIO ARCHIVE

I’m not going to lie - living on the West Coast of Canada in the 1960’s and 1970’s (and hey - for most of my life…) had its challenges where radio reception was concerned. But, and it is a big but, we sat in front of a looking glass that gave us exquisite access to the Eastern and South Asian radio scene that was unique and often tantalizing. Where else in North America did you have an easy shot to Papua New Guinea, Indonesia (at a time when there were hundreds of little shortwave stations!) and medium wave targets from Japan, Russian (on long wave too!), both Koreas, the Philippines and so on — not to mention the Pacific Islands. Now, 46 years later, I am reopening my cassette files for another look see and mastering all of the stuff that has never been touched — and there is a lot. Here now to share with you! Here is a wonderful snippet of North Korea from my “first DX Home…” in the country on a 4 acre ranch (Apples, pears, hazelnuts and sheep!) - I had my trusty DX150B (since November of 1973) and 5 1/2 wave dipoles which I would switch between with a home-brew antenna switch — hence the clicks on this track! North Korea, at the time, had an English series of broadcasts that were almost always sabre rattling harangues - and yet this particular sound-byte sounds somewhat subdued. Either way, it was pretty indicative of the times — and in some way, North Korea has never really changed with the times. The broadcasts were often cryptic and rambling. This was an excellent example.

In terms of sheer bloodshed per square mile, there were few countries that could touch Nicaragua in the 1970’s.

Like Salvador, there were periods of unrest that were sustained and violent, costing lives in the tens of thousands. At the time, radio was the sole social media for getting word out on what was happening on that particular day or week. State radio tended to tow the party line and stations that did not would often just “vanish” from the air… often along with their staff and radio personalities.

The Nicaraguan Revolution was a decades-long process meant to liberate the small Central American country from both U.S. imperialism and the repressive Somoza dictatorship. It began in the early 1960s with the founding of the Sandinista National Liberation front (FSLN), but didn't truly ramp up until the mid-1970s.

It culminated in fighting between the Sandinista rebels and the National Guard from 1978 to 1979, when the FSLN succeeded in overthrowing the dictatorship. The Sandinistas ruled from 1979 to 1990, which is considered to be the year the Revolution ended.

There was, in the 70’s, an incredible opportunity to document a lot of the activities via the shortwave spectrum - sadly, I got little more than snippets - but this one is a powerful one. Have a listen.

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Tom Laskowski, who shares the following recording and notes:

Here is a recording of Radio Australia's DX program called Spectrum from August 15, 1982. I believe this was recorded around 0200 UT on 17795 kHz when Australia used to come in well in the evenings here.

Some of the program highlights are:

A roundup of DX news from Bob Padula and Peter Bunn (sp) from the Australina Radio DX Club and interviews with some of the broadcasters gathered at the 1982 ANARC Convention in Montreal. Over-the-phone audio in those days was not too great so the audio is poor in this segment.

Broadcaster: Radio Australia

Date of recording: 8/15/1982

Starting time: 0200 approx.

Frequency: 17.795 MHz

RX location: South Bend, Indiana

Receiver and antenna: Sony ICF-2001 and longwire

Let’s face it - the late 1970’s were, arguably, the very best years for DXing and Shortwave listening - there was very little manmade interference other than the buzzy power line or the occasional TV set or furnace motor. These were the days. Stations like TIFC had no issue cutting through because all they needed was a relatively clear frequency. This was recorded off air in my Fernwood neighbourhood in Victoria B.C. in the late Fall of 1978 on my DX150B and a modest 75’ Inverted L antenna. Who needed noise reduction? Not me!

Pirate radio was the product of the mid to late 1970’s and one example of one of the more adventurous and ahem professional sounding stations was The Voice of the Voyager - apparently from Minnesota - which was widely received at Christmas 1978 extending into January 1979 on its inaugural run. There are not a lot of recordings of VOV - not a lot of great recordings - and this one is noisy at best - but you get the idea. Received on the West Coast of North America - one cold winter!

Snuck in the middle of this recording a surprise (never before heard track) of the Voice of Clipperton! 6205 Khz New Years Day 1979! At 0130 UTC

Living on the West Coast of North America meant not hearing Africa much - a few times a year - particularly near the equinoxes, we would get some astounding openings on 60 and 49 meters in the early afternoon prior to 2300 UTC when a lot of African regional stations were signing off for the night. It was awesome. It would still be light outside and we were hearing low powered 60 meter West African signals in French, Portuguese and others native African tongues. It was a treat. Here is a not often heard station on the 25 meter band on my DX150B.

When I was a young radio hobbyist, I taped as much as I could and as often as I could - and while I did not always have tape rolling, it was often rolling at the right time. In the 1970’s, my priority seemed to be logging stations and jotting down times and frequencies with not a lot of thought to historical content. Occasionally these little gems would appear… Like a mention of President Gerald Ford in a news clip… or some peculiar phrase unique to one era or another.

In 1975 and 1976 I was blessed to live in the country and have a decent radio (the DX150B) and 5 1/2-wave dipoles for 60, 49, 31, 25 and 19 meters… and living on the West Coast no less. And while the West Coast of North America was something of a radio fringe area, the reception possibilities for the Pacific and South Asia areas were delicious!

Anyway - here are 42 sound clips from days gone by - the PDF master list is below.

The master list of this hodgepodge - right here. And in the page below.

It’s the kitchen sink 1975 to 1977

 

1.   Finnish Broadcasting

2.   VOA English and Spanish

3.   RAI Rome

4.   Radio Canada

5.   Voice of Vietnam

6.   Radio Budapest

7.   IBA Israel

8.   RRI Jakarta

9.   KCBS Pyongyang

10.                 Radio France

11.                 Radio Sweden

12.                 RNE Madrid

13.                 BBC WS

14.                 Radio Prague

15.                 Radio Moscow

16.                 SBC Berne

17.                 Radio New Zealand

18.                 ORF Austia

19.                 RTV Belge

20.                 Vatican Radio

21.                 DW Cologne

22.                 Radio Kiev

23.                 Surinam

24.                 HCJB Quito

25.                 TWR Bonaire

26.                 FEBA Seychelles

27.                 Radio Cairo

28.                 Radio Norway

29.                 Radio Korea

30.                 ABC Australia

31.                 Radio Nederlands

32.                 Radio Mexico

33.                 RS Tikhy Okean

34.                 Liberty Radio Vietnam 1975

35.                 Voice of the Malayan Revolution 1975

36.                 DXCR Mountain View College 2X Harmonic 2654

37.                 Uganda Radio

38.                 Voice of Free China

39.                 Uganda English Service

40.                 Radio Peking 1975

41.                 NHK Tokyo

42.                 RSA South Africa

Back in 1977, when we were still in the throes of the Cold War, there was not only a psychological battle on the ground - there was the war on the airwaves to squelch public opinion. One such example of silencing the opposition was “jamming” - it was immensely popular in the 1960’s and 1970’s. It consisted of one nation switching on transmitters on (or slightly off frequency) and blasting the smaller broadcaster with noise and interference. The USSR, for example, poured megawatts of electricity into silencing the voice of Israel on its scheduled broadcasts to he jewish diaspora in Russia. Like Radio Free Europe at the time, the jamming was merciless - and this is an excellent example of how it worked and what it sounded like… way back in the bad old days of May 1977!

By 1977, I had become and old hand at DXing and digging out some incredible signals on the West Coast - it was the best of times. I had almost finished high school and the future looked bright. I had my sights on a career in Electronics - and as it would turn out (as I look back on that career…) that I lead a truly charmed life. Starting in 1972 I began recording bits and pieces of what I was hearing on the radio dial - it was a modest attempt using some pretty basic gear. By 1974 I had figured out how to tap into the line audio of most receivers and capture superior (all things considered) audio from the source. Between then and the early 1990’s I likely recorded over 20 hours of sound bytes (well cataloged) of World Band radio - now is the time where I am making more of an effort to digitize that material as the cassettes age. In this clip we feature a Christmas Eve recording of WWVH on 5000 khz, the Solomon Islands on 5020 and Noumea, New Caledonia on 7170 Khz. All of these recorded on a “Transonic Executive” tape recorder and a DX150B tabletop communications receiver.

Nothing compares to the carefree pathway of youth. Not a worry. Not a concern. The future is endlessly bright. And at the radio dials in 1977, this idealism could not be closer to the truth. Our solid-state and tube type radios glowed in the waning light of sunset and revealed an endless expanse of fully utilized radio spectrum. The voices were often hard to separate and determining a radio frequency often came down to guesswork or crafty use of band spread dials, crystal calibrators and interpolation charts. But that was our youth and the approaching salad days of International Broadcasting. I had been finding my voice in clubs like CIDX, SPEEDX and the IRCA - learning the ropes of journalistic hobby contributions. Half the fun of the radio hobby was the sharing with the sisters and brothers of the hobby. And here we were. And here I was - at 17. That sounds like a song by Janis Ian and I guess it was. At 17 my ears were full and my heart was well stocked with hope for the future.

Here is part two of my 1977 “Greatest Hits” Interval Signal Series - recorded in Victoria B.C. Canada on my DX150B table-top communications receiver.