Shortwave Broadcast Compilation – Eastern Europe & USSR: Circa 1980s

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Watson, who shares the following recording. Paul notes:

“During the 1980s I was listening to shortwave radio from my home near London, in the southeast of England. I had a cassette recorder connected to the receiver and taped anything interesting that caught my ear. Little did I know that 40 years later the majority of these stations would have disappeared and I would have the opportunity to share these recordings with the world.”

This recording is part of a five-part compilation series Paul has created, grouping international shortwave broadcasters by region. The majority of the clips are in English and feature interval signals, station IDs, and sign-ons/offs—a rich snapshot of shortwave radio during its Cold War-era heyday.

This particular compilation focuses on: Eastern Europe and USSR

All recordings were made during the 1980s, most in the first half of the decade. While frequencies and exact dates aren’t provided, Paul has kindly included timestamps noting when each broadcaster appears in the audio. These are listed below for easy reference.

We’re grateful to Paul for sharing this excellent audio time capsule and for his efforts to preserve and document the golden era of international broadcasting.

  • ALBANIA: Radio Tirana (0)

  • BELARUS: Radio Minsk (1.18)

  • BULGARIA: Radio Sofia (1.41)

  • CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Radio Prague (2.29)

  • ESTONIA: Radio Tallin (2.50)

  • GERMANY (EAST): Radio Berlin Int (3.49)

  • HUNGARY: Radio Budapest (5.22)

  • LATVIA: Radio Riga (6.31)

  • LITHUANIA: Radio Vilnius (7.14)

  • POLAND: Radio Polonia (8.30)

  • ROMANIA: Radio Bucharest (9.37)

  • UKRAINE: Radio Kiev (10.41)

  • USSR: Radio Moscow World Service (12.17)

  • Radio Station Peace & Progress (13.35)

  • Radio Station Rodina (13.59)

  • YUGOSLAVIA: Radio Yugoslavia (14.21)

YOTA Paris 2025 – Day 2

Getting on the air – written by Leon, 2E0VUF Today was another busy day for the group, with a focus on operating and building. We constructed two kits today, both CW related. Firstly, the Winkeyer CW keyer, which was a PCB construction kit. Secondly, a CW paddle which was a 3D printed kit that we […]

CTY-3528 – 21 August 2025

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N3FJP – 21 August 2025

Version entity is Madeira Is., CT3 ADIFCnt.txt has 340 DXCC entities and 62 deleted DXCC entities. arrlpre3.txt has 26111 prefix+callsign mappings. cqwwpre3.txt has 26274 prefix+callsign mappings. [download] Added Prefixes/Callsigns: TX14TOM is French Polynesia, FO GB8JV is Northern Ireland, GI R9GM/P, … Continue reading

Big CTY – 21 August 2025

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DX4WIN.CTY #25.28 – 21 August 2025

Version entity is New Zealand, ZL Entities:      402 Prefixes:    4,715 Callsigns:  33,716 Managers:  107,346 Addresses:  14,418 [download] DX4WIN 8.05 and earlier [download] DX4WIN 9.01 and later [Entities] [Prefixes] [Callsigns] [Managers] [IOTA] Entities Prefixes Callsigns DM5C/LH during 20-21 August 2022 is Federal Republic of Germany, DL … Continue reading

YOTA Paris 2025 – Day 1

An exciting first day in Paris – written by Sophie, M7IJG Yesterday evening and throughout our first day we met other teams and talked about different operating modes, which we all really enjoyed. Sam, M0UEL and Leon, 2E0VUF started the day very early to help the organisers build the multitude of antennas for the radio […]

NDR – Gruss an Bord: December 24, 202

copyright NDR

Live, off-air, three-hour recording of the special annual Gruss an Bord program from German broadcaster NDR, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, on 24 December 2024 with an introductory "warm-up" segment beginning shortly after 18:00 UTC with Gruss an Bord itself starting at 19:00 UTC. The "warm-up segment" featured reports on seafaring, its economic relevance, and everyday life at sea. Gruss an Bord features music and greetings to and from mariners around the world. The Christmas greetings were recorded at an event in Hamburg. Unlike for the past several years, there was no event in Leer.

Relatives and friends had the opportunity to wish their loved ones at sea a happy holiday and a happy new year. The Hamburg event was recorded on 8 December in the Duckdalben International Seamen's Club and was hosted by Birgit Langhammer and Ocke Bandixen. Music was provided by the Swedish-South African duo "Fjarill." The broadcast was primarily in German with some greetings in other languages.

In addition to being carried on the NDR Info and NDR Info Spezial networks, the broadcast was transmitted around the world on shortwave using transmitters at Nauen, Germany; Moosbrunn, Austria; Issoudun, France; Tashkent, Uzbekistan; and Okeechobee, Florida, U.S.A.; and was organized by Media Broadcast.

The frequencies (kHz) were:
6030 (via Issoudun) for the Northeast Atlantic,
6080 (via Tashkent) for Europe,
9635 (via Moosbrunn) for the Indian Ocean,
11650 (via Issoudun) for the Atlantic and Indian Oceans,
13830 (via Nauen) for the Southern Atlantic, and
15770 (via Okeechobee) for the Northwest Atlantic

The "warm-up" segment was not carried on the NDR Info Spezial network, which broadcast the children's program Mikado instead. And as the Moosbrunn transmitter took the feed from the NDR Info Spezial network, the "warm-up" segment didn't go out on this shortwave transmitter.

The recording is of the transmission on the frequency of 11650 kHz for the full three hours.

The program was received outdoors on a Belka-DX receiver in pseudo-synchronous (AM2) mode with a bandwidth of 50 Hz - 2.7 kHz with a Tecsun AN-03L 7-metre wire antenna in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada. Reception was fairly good for the most part with a bit of noise at times.

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VER20250816, Version entity is Samoa, 5W Download: [ CTY-3527 | CT8 | Win-Test | WriteLog | XML ] Added/changed Entities/Prefixes/Callsigns: GB5MEW is Northern Ireland, GI GB0KLP is Scotland, GM GB2SSL is Wales, GW HJ4ADR/0 is Colombia, HK LU1ANG/S, LU4SCM/S, LU7HKH/H, … Continue reading

N3FJP – 16 August 2025

Version entity is Northern Ireland, GI ADIFCnt.txt has 340 DXCC entities and 62 deleted DXCC entities. arrlpre3.txt has 26110 prefix+callsign mappings. cqwwpre3.txt has 26273 prefix+callsign mappings. [download] Added Prefixes/Callsigns: GB5MEW is Northern Ireland, GI GB0KLP is Scotland, GM/t GB2SSL is … Continue reading

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