Posted on 07/04/2016 9:24:15 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
I wasn't even born then!
Ah yes, those beloved old interval signals (see the YouTube links above). I really liked Radio Nederland's, though I believe Portugal had a very pretty one as well.
And oh yes, the South African birdsong!
Thanks. We’re on the top floor of a four-story apt. building, and have had best results with our little radio by clipping the wire antenna that it came with to a drainpipe off our balcony ;-)
But I want to put a round-the-room antenna near the bedroom ceiling, for night time listening.
-JT
I wonder if he was my "Leningrad Larry?"
I really enjoyed your nusings on SW radio.
When I was in college in the mid 60’s , I used to listen avidly to Willis Conover on the Voice of America as he played and talked (VERY KNOWLEDGABLY!!) about Jazz!
I was introduced over 5 years to various artists from Armstrong, Louis, to Zentner, Zi. What a wonderful world opened up to me! I would listen to the transmittal from Columbo, Ceylon (as it was called in those days).
If Mr Conover (I can not think of the Professor without great respect, admiration and love) featured Ella Fitzgerald, I would try and pick up the re broadcast again from Monrovia, Liberia, and then one more time from South Carolina about dawn my time in India.
Many years later I was fortunate to come to the USA, and got to see the artists I had listened to over my scratchy SW radio; Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughn, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis.
My most treasured recollections are a concert with Old Blue Eyes ( 4th row seats), and a meeting with Ella Fitzgerald after a concert in Dallas, and a phone conversation with a very gracious Mr Conover shortly before his death.
All thanks to SW radio, Mr Conover, and the VOA.
I now live close to Denton, TX, and listen to KNTU on 88.1 FM from the Univ of North Texas all day long. This is as close to heaven as I hope to get!
Thanks for re-kindling my memories!
Sir (or Madam): You have my props and respect!
Yes, the day is coming. They will register guns first. Then communications equipment.
I hate to think what VOA broadcasts to the world today!
"While you capitalist American pigs are starving in the streets! Mwa-ha!!!"
Right? Naw, they were never quite that crude back during the time that I listened.
Yeah . . . a big lefty who later toured America with Phil Donahue (who made him look like a "reactionary"). I used to hear him too.
I have a somewhat similar story. My first radio (the little one from my uncle) would improve in quality when I took a copper wire and attached it to the antenna. The other end of the wire went through the wall to our old TV aerial.
Thank you for that information!
I used to wait anxiously for the latest Popular Electronics, which had the schedules and frequencies of the Shortwave broadcasts to North America.
If such is the case then the most self-actualized people in the world are children.
I discovered SW listening during the late 1960s and progressed through several better radios until buying an Allied SX-190 (http://www.dxing.com/rx/ax190.htm) from Radio Shack in 1972. I still have that radio but seldom use it - there isn’t much that is interesting to hear anymore. Sadly, the Internet has all but killed SWL. I probably logged English broadcasts from 40 foreign countries.
I enjoyed listening to the rabid communist stations, they were all pretty extreme like North Korea today. It gave me a sense of just how dangerous the outside world really was. Radio Tirana (Albania) was probably the weirdest. I have fond memories hearing the Red Chinese screaming against “American imperialists and their running dogs”. I also was thrilled to hear the heroic production figures of Pipe Factory #47, or whatever.
Before I understood how different radio frequencies affected propagation, I used to wonder why there wasn’t such a thing as SW television. At least with the Internet I can now see video from around the world.
I once built a SW crystal radio that would pull in the BBC and a couple other high powered stations. I’m a bit too deaf to do that stunt now.
Way back, before Glenn Beck really lost it, he said he was the GM or PM of WPGC. Until he got fired for drinking.
My "best" LW/MW/SW radio is the Ten-Tec 320. Here's a review of the DRM-ready version.
The conversion to DRM is simple, but I haven't bothered.
What was the really nice thing were the 3rd party apps that would control the radio. Specifically, a db that could import the quarterly, but delayed by a month list of scheduled programming, then sort on say English, active, and click on the station.
Saved a lot of time running around to find the favorite stations as they changed frequencies with Earth's orbit.
One of the most popular programs in the entire world . . . the opening piano of Ellington's Take the A Train followed by that smooth voice saying "time for . . . jazz."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.