Radio Australia: Circa 1974

The Shepparton transmitter site of ABC/Radio Australia

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bob Purse, who shares the following recording and notes from his excellent website Inches Per Second:

For those of you who like it, here are two more entries in the series of Australian Shortwave [Note: Recording 1 was published on the SRAA last week], which I've been parceling out from time to time since not long after this blog began. I'm fairly certain the person who recorded these programs lived somewhere in North America, because all of the shows (up until this posting) were from episodes directed at that continent. But additionally, I wonder now if the person lived on the west coast of North America, because he or she made an effort (on the same tape as a show from 9/5/74), to capture Australia Shortwave during a program broadcast towards Asia and the South Pacific. The quality of the connection during that portion is, as you'll hear, quite poor, but it did come in, at a level and quality that I would guess it wouldn't have been received in the eastern half of the continent.

Radio Australia: September 5, 1974

Radio Australia’s Shepparton TRansmitting Station

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bob Purse, who shares the following recording and notes from his excellent website Inches Per Second:

For those of you who like it, here are two more entries in the series of Australian Shortwave [Note: Recording 2 will be published on the SRAA next week], which I've been parceling out from time to time since not long after this blog began. I'm fairly certain the person who recorded these programs lived somewhere in North America, because all of the shows (up until this posting) were from episodes directed at that continent. But additionally, I wonder now if the person lived on the west coast of North America, because he or she made an effort (on the same tape as a show from 9/5/74), to capture Australia Shortwave during a program broadcast towards Asia and the South Pacific. The quality of the connection during that portion is, as you'll hear, quite poor, but it did come in, at a level and quality that I would guess it wouldn't have been received in the eastern half of the continent.

Radio Australia: Circa Spring of 1968

The Shepparton transmitter site of ABC/Radio Australia

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bob Purse, curator of the excellent Inches Per Second audio archive and blog. Bob kindly shares the following recording originally made on reel to reel tape. All of Bob’s recordings are lost and found sound, so the only information he has for each recording are the notes included on tape labels and boxes. If you can identify the date or any other information about this recording, please comment.

Bob notes the following about this found piece:

[…]I found yet another Shortwave broadcast in my collection to pass along. In this case, it is again Australian Shortwave, from Spring of 1968. An I will acknowledge right off the bat that the recording quality is abysmal. It starts poorly and gets worse and worse as it goes along. This is actually why I hadn't shared it before. But I thought the time was right to offer it up, terrible quality and all.

Radio Australia: August 15, 1982

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

Radio Australia and 8DR Darwin (Coverage of Cyclone Tracy: December 25, 1974

A picture taken by the ESSA-8 satellite that shows Cyclone Tracy on December 25, 1974 (Source: Wikipedia via NASA)

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Paul Rawdon, who shares the following recording and notes:

Announcement explaining the reason for a reduced signal strength. Cyclone Tracy put the Darwin transmitter site off air. News bulletin plus other selected items that were broadcast relating to the evacuation of Darwin. Because the local 8DR MW transmitter was damaged a microwave link was set up between Darwin and Shepparton with the programme transmitted back to Darwin on shortwave.

Date of recording: 12/25/1974

Starting time: 2100 UTC

Frequency: 9.58 MHz

Your location: Lower Hutt, New Zealand, 26 December NZDT

Receiver and antenna: Trio 9R59DSM communications receiver with a random length long wire

Radio Australia (International Report): June 15, 1993

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

This is the way I remember Radio Australia.

Their signal used to boom into Eastern North America in the late evenings on 17715 and 17795 kHz with a reliable signal during the summer months. This program called International Report was one of my favorites.

Unfortunately I did not record the date and time when I made this recording. But judging from the content is must have been sometime in mid-June 1993. I was probably using my Sony ICF-2001. This program was likely aired around 1200 UTC as this was announced as the Southeast and North Asia Service on 21745, 6080, or 9710 kHz.

Radio Australia "DXers Calling" Final Program: October 30, 1977

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Manfred Reiff, who shares the following recording and notes:

I made this recording on (our) Sunday 30 October 1977 at 0841 to 0853 GMT (now: UTC) on 21570 kHz. It was one of my first recordings made with a newly bought GRUNDIG Satellit 600 Professional. I used both the built-in Telescope Antenna (144 centimeters in length) and a self-made outdoor antenna consisting of steel mast of 10 meters in height. On top of the mast my dad and I installed a copper pipe of nearly 5 meters in which we put a solid steel mast. In the gap my dad filled in liquid silicone to stabilize the system. We connected both metallic parts so it looked like a conductor. The antenna still exists although I moved to another location in 1987.

Please note that it is the original recording without editing it (reduce noise).

This recording was made on 30 October 1977, starting at 0841 GMT on 21,570 kHz:

Radio Australia: August 1987

The Radio Australia Shepparton Transmitting site

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bruce Atchison, for sharing the following recording and notes:

This recording of Radio Australia was made in August of 1987 and I used my Sony ICF-7600 receiver. I've forgotten the frequency and the time I recorded it.

First Nine Hours of Radio Australia on 12.065 MHz on Last Day of Shortwave Broadcasting: January 30, 2017

The front of a Radio Australia QSL card received for a report on reception in Toronto of a transmission on 11840 kHz at 19:30 UTC on 23 December 1964.

Live, off-air, nine-hour recording of some of the final shortwave transmissions of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC's) external service, Radio Australia, on 30 January 2017. This recording of the signal on 12065 kHz begins at 08:59 UTC and has been split into one-hour segments. The signal originated from a 100 kW transmitter at Shepparton, in northern Victoria, with an antenna beam azimuth of 355°. 

Sign-on of the transmitter occurred at about 08:59 UTC. Following an announcement about ABC Radio National programs, the first half-hour of programming is in Tok Pisin or New Guinea Pidgin and this was the last Radio Australia program in this language to be transmitted on shortwave. Various other Radio Australia and Radio National programs follow. There is an item on the termination of Radio Australia shortwave broadcasts in the news bulletin at 16:00 UTC.

The 12065 kHz frequency was used until 20:58 UTC, when the transmitter was switched to another frequency. 

Radio Australia ceased all shortwave transmissions shortly after 01:00 UTC or noon, Australian Eastern Daylight Time, on 31 January 2017.
 
The broadcast was received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in AM mode with 5.08 kHz total bandwidth RF filtering. Reception varied from poor to fair during the nine hours recorded.
 

Radio Australia: September 28, 2016 (violent storm report)

Image: Bureau of Meteorology

This morning, I made a short recording of Radio Australia as they reported on the power outages that affected an entire territory in the wake of the worst storms southern Australia has seen in decades.

This recording begins around 12:59 UTC on September 28, 2016 and runs only for a few minutes. This was recorded from 9,580 kHz in western North Carolina:

Radio Australia (Brexit in headlines): June 24, 2016

This morning, I was very curious about the results of the Brexit vote, so I turned to one of the only stations that is strong enough to punch through the noise here at our vacation condo: Radio Australia.

The following recording starts a few minutes prior to the top of the hour ABC news headlines at 12:00 UTC on 9580 kHz on June 24, 2016 (the morning after the Brexit vote and the resignation announcement of Prime Minister David Cameron. 

The recording is rather poor as propagation was dismal and the level of RFI significant.  Still, this is such an important event, I wanted it in the shortwave archive. Receiver used was the Sony ICF-SW55 in Beaupré, Québec, Canada:

Radio Australia: October 7, 2013

Radio Australia recorded in London, UK on October 7, 2013 at 2029 UTC on the frequency of 11695 kHz using a Eton Satellit 750 radio with a Wellbrook ALA1530S+ antenna (positioned indoors) and a variable attenuator purchased in Maplin. The transmitter is located in Shepparton, Australia and has a power rating of 100 kW. This was Radio Australia's dedicated South East Asia service that could be heard very clearly in Europe on most evenings. It has been discontinued as of 2015.

Radio Australia: March 13, 2015 - Cyclone Pam coverage

The following is a four hour recording of Radio Australia made on March 13, 2015, beginning at 1150 UTC on 9,580 kHz. You will note that much attention was given to coverage of Cyclone Pam which was a category 5 storm bearing down on Vanuatu at the time.

This recording was made in North Carolina, USA with the SDRplay RSP using the HDSDR application--the antenna was a large horizontal delta loop.

Radio Australia: October 2, 2014

"Australia Day" by Phil Whitehouse from London, United Kingdom, aka Phillie Casablanca on Flickr - Australia Day. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons 

For your listening pleasure: three hours of Radio Australia's English language service.

This recording was made on October 2, 2014 starting at 10:57 UTC on 9,580 kHz. The news, of course, that tops the day are the peaceful protests currently taking place in Hong Kong (a.k.a. the "Umbrella Revolution").

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Please subscribe to our podcast to receive future recordings automatically. 

Radio Australia: August 27, 2014

[Source: SWLing Post]

I’m in Keystone, Colorado at about 9,300′ (2,835 M) above sea level; mornings are crisp and chilly (38F/3C), but that doesn’t stop me from putting on a jacket, heading to the balcony and listening to Radio Australia on 9,580 kHz. Despite flaky solar conditions (flaky, frankly, is an understatement) I managed to snag RA Wednesday morning (August 27, 2014 at 13:58 UTC) on my Sony ICF-SW7600GR. There was a little fading, and a little local noise, but overall signal quality was quite good.

This recording starts a couple of minutes before the top of the hour; you’ll hear the TOTH news brief and then triple j–a brilliant show dedicated to new Australian music.

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

Radio Australia: circa 1969

Radio Australia's Shepparton transmission site (Photo: ABC)

Many thanks to David Firth, who is kindly sharing shortwave radio recordings he made on reel-to-reel recording equipment in the late 1960s. Firth is uncovering and digitizing these off air recordings as time allows and, thanks to his generosity, we will be posting these recordings on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

The following is a recording of Radio Australia, which Firth recorded in 1969.

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

Radio Australia rings in the millennium: December 31, 1999

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Yesterday–New Year's Eve, 2014–I spent some time listening to a few broadcasters as the new year passed through their time zones. While I missed hearing Radio New Zealand International (the first to welcome the New Year on the air), I did manage to catch Radio Australia, and the New Year was celebrated with no fanfare; one program merely ran into the next, and there was a brief mention of 2014's arrival in the headline news.

Oh, but it wasn't that way when we moved into the year 2000...

Rewind 14 years

Back in December of 1999, before setting off to visit family for the New Year, I had a sudden notion: I decided it would be fun–and a bit novel–to record radio broadcasters as each moved into the new millennium. As we were packing the car to travel, I changed my mind about using my Grundig Yacht Boy 400 to accomplish this fairly ambitious, round-the-world listening/recording endeavor; instead, I grabbed my ham radio transceiver, an Icom IC-735, and packed it, along with a hefty 12-volt power supply. While my IC-735 lacked AM filters (at the time) it had much better sensitivity than the YB400, especially when hooked up to a decent antenna. I also had the foresight to take along a few odds and ends, including a mechanical antenna tuner and a spool of long wire.

To record the broadcast, I used my trusty Aiwa AM F70 MiniDisk recorder–remember those? Upon arrival at our extended family's home, they kindly permitted me to erect a long wire antenna in a sloping configuration in their yard. It did a fine job netting the airwaves. The MiniDisk recorder recorded brilliantly, allowing me to monitor levels and even edit afterward.

As a result, I spent New Year's Eve 2000 recording station after station as the earth turned.  It was great fun, and meanwhile had very little impact on our family celebrations as I simply left the recorder running for long periods of time.

While I have yet to dissect the many hours of recordings, if memory serves, I think I managed to record Radio New Zealand International, Voice of Russia, Radio France International, NHK, Voice of America, and Radio Canada International as each rang in 2000. The IC-735 performed quite well, save a lack of bandwidth filters, as I only really had two–very wide, and very narrow.

So, for your New Year's Day listening pleasure:  I hope you'll enjoy, as much as I did,  listening to Radio Australia ring in the new millennium yet again. In the news items, you'll hear that Russian President Boris Yeltson has handed the reigns over to Vladimir Putin, and remarks about the (lack of) problems resulting from the infamous Y2K threat.

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

Radio Australia: November 10, 2013

Sydney Opera House (Source: Wikimedia Commons) 

Many thanks to SWAA contributor, Frank, for this recording of Radio Australia's English language service.

Recorded in Europe on November 10, 2013, on 12,085 kHz, starting at 13:00 UTC. 

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

Radio Australia: Saturday Night Country

As on many Saturdays, this morning, I sipped my coffee while listening to ABC’s Saturday Night Country from Radio Australia’s Shepparton shortwave transmission site on 9.58 MHz…some 9,800 miles from my home.

In this program, Catherin Britt continues to fill in for Felicity Urquhart (who is on maternity leave).

I captured a two hour broadcast which you can download by clicking here or simply listening via the embedded player below. 

Saturday Night Country Host, Catherine Britt (Photo: ABC)

Radio Australia: Download This Show

[Note: I originally posted this article, along with the recording, on The SWLing Post]

While I'm passionate about shortwave radio--a technology that has, of course, been around for many decades--I also love to hear about emerging digital technologies, especially those that make our world a better place.

These days, I listen to several shows about technology, many of which are only available as a live stream or podcast (like TWIT, for example).

There are two shows, however, that I like to listen to on shortwave radio when my schedule allows.

One such show is the BBC World Service technology show, Click (formerly Digital Planet). I've listened to Click for years, and have even been interviewed on the show by its marvelous host Gareth Mitchell (click here to listen). I especially love the show's focus on technologies that have a positive impact in developing countries (hence my interview, about my non-profit, ETOW). Mitchell, I'm delighted to add, is quite the fan of shortwave radio as well, and is not afraid of reporting on technologies that are not exclusively tied to smart phones and the like.

Another show I've been listening to for a few months is Download This Show on Radio Australia. It's a fun and informative technology program and always has a great panel discussion on technology news. What I really love about this show is its take on Australian technology in particular, and how this compares with technology in the rest of the world.

Since Download This Show is broadcast via Radio Australia's Shepparton transmitting site, the signal is quite strong here in North America and easily received on portable shortwave radios.

Click here to download over two hours of Radio Australia, including Download this Show, or listen via the embedded player below. This broadcast was recorded on August 2, 2013, on 9,580 kHz, starting around 13:00 UTC.

You'll find Download This Show in the second hour of the recording, following the news headlines at 1:05.