Posted on 07/04/2016 9:24:15 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
Way back in the early 70s, my mother's youngest brother (who was a seasonal worker for the US Army Corps of Engineers), as was his habit, brought his car over to our house while he was away on "the boat" (as we all called it). But this time he left something else . . . an very plain-looking, ordinary radio.
Back in those days FM was still fairly exotic. AM was still king, and that's where most of the music and regular radio programming was. This little radio happened to have both AM and FM. But it had a third option--something labeled "SW."
I had no idea what this "SW" was at the time, so naturally I began listening. At first all I got was noise. Then I noticed some of the noise was decidedly atypical for radio static. There were Morse code signals, muffled voices (I found out later they were hams), things that sounded like a constant roar (we assumed these were the "motors" of ships and planes) as well as what most people know as "woodpeckers."
This was all very interesting, but it certainly didn't seem to have any entertainment value. Then before long, I noticed that at night, I started picking up stations (though nowhere near as clear as the other two bands). And what stations!
The first was station HCJB, the Voice of the Andes in Quito, Ecuador (a Protestant missionary station). Then came the Voice of America . . . Radio Canada International . . . BBC World Service . . . and then I discovered the really exotic stuff--Radio Moscow . . . Radio Havana Cuba . . . Swiss Radio International . . . Deutsche Welle . . . Radio Nederland Wereldemroep . . . Swiss Radio International . . .
Yes . . . I had, quite by accident, stumbled upon the wonderful world of international broadcasting!
In those days most adults had lived through World War II and I had of course heard of Tokyo Rose. Here was the same thing! Not only did I get to listen to the government radio of exotic foreign countries, but I had a whole half a world of "bad guys" to listen to, just like the grown ups had thirty years before!
Naturally I gave names to the various Commie announcers. The two most common English language announcers on Radio Moscow I named Moscow Mildred and Leningrad Larry. Radio Havana Cuba had three: Havana Hannah, Santiago Sam, and Cuba Clyde. It was all so magical.
And there was something else as well . . . that wonderful time signal broadcast continuously from the National Bureau of Standards in Fort Collins, Colorado--an obsessive-compulsive's dream!
Then after I graduated from high school I decided I wanted a better radio. I found one in a mail order catalogue . . . a ten band beauty with two short wave bands. Homina-homina-homina!!! I enjoyed that radio so much over the decades. I kept it by my bed so I could listen to it at any time, though of course it was portable. The only problem was that two short wave bands, like the one I had access to previously, wasn't enough. It didn't have the whole spectrum. There were stations out there I couldn't get or couldn't find. Plus my beloved time signal immigrated across the band and at times disappeared completely.
I dreamed of a humongous digital receiving set that could get everything, even the broadcasts of Irish anarchists on a ship at sea whose broadcaster had to be turned off intermittently to keep it from melting down. Well, I was poor and couldn't afford the coveted Grundigs or any such thing. It was just me and my ten band for thirty years (and the old analogue dial slipped a lot and at times couldn't even access everything it should have).
Before going further, I would like to reminisce just a little bit about those stations and those broadcasts.
Voice of America was important to me because I could actually listen to exotic foreign languages I had only read of before, languages my parents had never heard spoken in their lives. There would be the "ding" at the top (or bottom) of the hour followed by a voice saying "This is the Voice of America; the following program is in [fill in the blank]." Wow.
And straight out of World War II was AFRTS, the American Forces Radio and Television Service.
Deutsche Welle was important because it represented a country that not too long ago had been an enemy, but was now an ally. I really enjoyed their 65 minute programs, especially the feature with Larry Wayne, Deutsche Welle's answer to Paul Harvey. And at the end of each of his programs he would always close by saying "with regards from Jezzy, the Cat What Am!" Unfortunately they eventually cut back to just twenty minutes and Larry Wayne and Jezzy were gone.
Sunday nights meant "Happy Station" on Radio Nederland hosted by the redoubtable Tom Meijer. "Happy Station" had begun way back in 1928 with Eddie Startz and was one of the oldest and longest-lasting programs in broadcasting history.
Albania was one of the most isolated and repressive countries on the world under the heel of the unlamented Enver Hoxha (the only country to actually make the worship of G-d a crime), but their signal came in loud and clear. I recall one time the announcer chirping that in Albania "the socialist spring is blooming with all the colors of the rainbow."
HCJB and Family Radio WYFR often carried the old gospel dramatic program "Unshackled." Does anyone else remember that? HCJB also had a program called "The Cracker Barrel" where they read viewer mail.
And of course for many years I was a regular listener (especially on Shabbat and holidays) of Qol Yisra'el, the Voice of Israel.
My QSL card collection (which I still have) is small, but I was very proud of it. I got cards from Qol Yisra'el, HCJB, Radio Nederland's "Family Radio," the Voice of Turkey, Radio Japan, Radio Australia (famous for having gone completely broke at one time), the Voice of Spain, Deutsche Welle, and various other stations (I'm sure I've forgotten several). I had two rules though: I never sent for a card to a Communist or an Arab station.
Other Communist stations I picked up other than those I have mentioned included Radio Peking (yes, that was actually its name at the time), Radio Prague, Radio Sofia, Radio Budapest, Radio Kiev, and Radio Vilnius. I never did find Radio Berlin International (the East German station). One time I actually picked up Qaddafi's Radio Jamahiriya ("the voice of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya") for a few days.
Other exotic stations I picked up were the Voice of Spain, Swiss Radio International, RAI (Italy), Radio Japan, Portugal, the Voice of Turkey, Radio Cairo, Radio RSA (South Africa from Johannesburg), the Voice of Free China (via WYFR in Okeechobee, Florida), and the Pinochet-era Voice of Chile (great music!).
In the early years of this millennium I finally achieved my dream of getting a digital short wave receiver that actually had the entire short wave spectrum on it. Unfortunately, the Internet was already cutting into international shortwave broadcasting as the medium by which governments propagandized each other.
What brought this whole post on was the fact that half a year ago I noticed that my valiant little digital radio was giving forth distorted sounds. It had been around a long time, so I guess it certainly had the right. I tried to find someone who could fix it, but the regular repairman had gone out of business and the people at the local ham club (no, I'm not a member) said that the little radio's time had come and gone. I knew I had to have another one, so I just last month ordered and received its replacement. It's the exact same model it is replacing, which is the cheapest model to cover the entire shortwave spectrum. Unfortunately, international broadcasting on shortwave is now only a shadow of its former self. Even that old stand-by HCJB closed down years ago to be replaced by a series of local AM stations.
Radio Canada International and Swiss Radio International are Internet-only. BBC and Deutsche Welle no longer broadcast to North America. Radio Moscow went out of existence twenty-three years ago. The Cold War is over everywhere except domestically. It's almost all over. I can't even find VOA on the radio any more, much less AFRTS.
A few stations remain. Radio Havana Cuba and China Radio International keep perking on. I can now pick up Radio Hanoi. I even got the Czech Republic the other night. Radio Australia, the station that became famous for going broke, is still around. I got the Voice of Turkey as well as Greece, though Greece is always in Greek.
Nowadays shortwave is primarily the home of religious stations and Alex Jones conspiracy types. The first shortwave station I picked up on my new radio was someone in a thick African (I think) accent claiming that the Jesuits run the CIA. But even so, without a shortwave receiving set available to me, my life is simply not complete. Especially since I can now pick up my beloved time signal and practically any time of the night or day, no matter where it migrates to!
Well . . . these are simply my nostalgic musings about the golden age of Cold War shortwave radio brought about by my having to get a new set. I hope maybe a few of you who had the same experience will consider sharing your experiences as well. -_-
I've heard CW not too awfully long ago, and the local ham shop sells bugs still. I've learned and forgotten Morse twice now. If I got back into radio I'd kind of have to stay with that, because my hearing is damaged to the point where voices are a challenge.
Radio Cairo was interesting, the first day of the war they had wiped out the IAF and were on the outskirts to Tel Aviv. The following days all they played was martial music.
Sounds like the Germans, as the end neared.
I was just a little kid at the time and hadn't even yet heard of shortwave. Listening to Cold War history as it happened on international broadcast stations is something I would have liked to have done.
I dabbled in it, I have a redcurrant interest in it, I’ve always enjoyed doing so. I was a kid during the time of the Six Day War as well. I have never heard anything huge come across shortwave, but even the ordinary can be fun.
During the 90s, I used to listen to some kind of fun, spooky conspiracy theory broadcasts. Good fun.
A lot of the old-timers in the ham clubs in our area still use it. Even though it isn’t required on the tests anymore, when you hang out with these guys you want to learn it.
My husband is studying for his Extra now; I bought him a key set for Christmas.
-JT
I used t live in Detroit. I had just as much fun listening to faraway stations. WBZ was one that I remember. Late night cross country drives are also fun to spin the AM dial.
Detroit had an AM rock and roll station, CKLW. Actually it was Windsor, Ontario that was an absolute blowtorch with a reach of 20 or so states. Many major careers including Elton John and Bob Seger were launched thanks to that station. They were also responsible for integrating white and black audiences to the same music. Motown would never have been as strong as it was if not for CKLW.
Yes; while international broadcasting by governments still exist, most shortwave now is either religious programming or really nutty stuff. I can remember picking up broadcasts from the neo-Nazi William Pierce (author of The Turner Diaries) some ten or twenty years ago (he's dead now, thank G-d).
As I said in the OP, the first thing I picked up on my new radio was some sort of preacher (with what I assumed was a thick African accent) claiming that the Jesuits run the CIA. And of course, Alex Jones is a shortwave radio. I don't know his personal opinions, but I've never heard any anti-Semitism in his broadcasts (granted I've never seen his site). He seems more like someone in the orbit of the Birch Society--which is quite bad enough.
Unlike in the old days when you had respectable stations like HCJB, WYFR, Adventist World Radio, etc., now there are stations that will allow practically anyone to use them, and some of the broadcasts are a tad unconventional. Many years ago I caught an (apparently) Black preacher who seemed to think his church was the only true one in the world. I recall him screaming many times "Ain't NO way right but this!!!"
Most people--especially these days--laugh at such people for their "ignorance." Ignorant they may (or may not) be, but one thing they had that we have lost was a wonderful sense of clarity. We today, beginning with the Lockean reaction to the religious wars of the seventeenth century, are so terrified of religious conflict that even the most "conservative" and "orthodox" people now proclaim that two diametrically opposed positions are both saying the same thing. There isn't even any danger of actual warfare, but that's how terrified we've become of any kind of religious conflict.
It is the simple people of the world, not the "intellectuals," who still have clarity on these matters.
I remembered after the fall of the Soviet Union, Radio Moscow was so desperate for money they lent out their transmitters to anyone.
I remembered one of the groups that broadcast over Radio Moscow, was none other than Aum Shinrikyo, the group that orchestrated the deadly Sarin attack on the Tokyo subway.
You will hear plenty of morse code on the lower end of the ham bands, especially during contest weekends. As for practical use, FEMA recently conducted an exercise simulating a disaster in the pacific northwest, which included ham participation. Part of that was the relay of message traffic to FEMA operations in Washington, DC. During the initial third of the exercise, the short wave radio conditions were poor which prevented the passing of automated digital traffic. Morse code operators picked up the slack relaying the traffic.
Remember the “Woodpecker” noise on the shortwave bands during the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s? The Soviet Union or U.S. were using some type of over-the-horizon radar that made a woodpecker like noise across multiple shortwave frequencies. It use to mess up shortwave reception or at least make it difficult to listen to programs as the woodpecker noise faded in and out along with the program.
Indeed. It was entertaining, if nothing else.
Used to hear numbers stations, and the Lincolnshire Poacher. There was all kinds of stuff out there. I’d lie in bed wondering what the numbers broadcasts were saying, who was saying it and to whom.
Had a Heathkit SW-717 receiver, picked up many stations like Radio Prague, BBC, Deutsche Welle, Radio Budapest, Radio Australia, HCJB (Quito, Ecuador) etc.
Oh my goodness . . . I had completely forgotten about them!
You'd come up on a frequency where you just heard someone counting . . . just counting. It had to be some sort of code!
Similarly, the NBC television network in the early 70s used to run these bizarre spots on Sat. morning kids' TV which was just a bunch of vowels being sounded out. I was sure that was top secret code as well!
Someone earlier in the thread posted pics of the radar that caused the "woodpecker" sounds and a link to the article on Wikipedia, which has a recording.
To me it sounded more like a helicopter than a woodpecker.
I have an RTL-SDR, fun to play with,
I also have a near mint Zenith 11 Band Transoceanic which I like to listen to from time to time,
I got a QSL Card from Radio Habana, I’m convinced that the CIA has been watching me ever since.
I posted about this earlier in the thread:
Check out the pictures.
I think that's because it was mixed with the WWV signal.
I heard it many times during the 80's, in an otherwise clear band. It was a much sharper impulse noise.
bflr
Bflr
To me it sounded more like a helicopter than a woodpecker.
I think that's because it was mixed with the WWV signal.
I wasn't referring to the sample at Wikipedia but to the sound itself. Even when I used to pick it up I thought it sounded like a helicopter.
And that was WWVH. The voice was female.
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