Vintage AM Radio Airchecks from 1973

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:

Ever wonder what it would be like to time travel? Well, just sit back and relax in your favourite armchair, put on the headphones and enjoy the short six and a half minute trip back to 1973. Here is a collection of 23 AM broadcast band radio airchecks / ID's from 23 U.S. states as recorded at Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. Equipment used was a Realistic DX150A hooked up to a long wire antenna. Please bear in mind these recordings were made using an open mike placed in front of the speaker. For example, WTMJ Milwaukee makes an NBC colour TV announcement (blooper) and you will hear a voice in the background ask "how can that be"?

1. KKJO St. Joseph, MO 1550
2. WCFL Chicago, IL 1000
3. WWWE Cleveland, OH 1100
4. WOWO Fort Wayne, IN 1190
5. WHO Des Moines, IA 1040
6. WLAC Nashville, TN 1510
7. WWL New Orleans, LA 870
8. WBAP Ft. Worth-Dallas, TX 820
9. WSB Atlanta, GA 750
10. WBZ Boston, MA 1030
11. WHAS Louisville, KY 840
12. WWVA Wheeling, WVA 1170
13. WRVA Richmond, VA 1140
14. WCCO Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN 830
15. KAAY Little Rock, AR 1090
16. WTIC Hartford, CT 1080
17. WBAL Baltimore, MD 1090
18. WJAR Providence, RI 920
19. WVOK Birmingham, AL 690
20. KOMA Oklahoma City, OK 1520
21. WTMJ Milwaukee, WI 620
22. KSL Salt Lake City, UT 1160
23. KFAB Omaha, NE 1110

Radio Logos: December 20, 2017

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Antonio Ribeiro da Motta, who shares the following recording and notes:

Broadcaster: Radio Logos - Chazuta - Peru

Date of recording: December 20, 2017

Starting time: 1156

Frequency: 4810 kHz

Recption location: São Luiz do Paraitinga SP Brazil

Receiver and antenna: SDRplay RSPA1

Notes: Recording made in São Luiz do Paraitinga state of São Paulo Brazil. Starts at 1156 UTC. Recording made using an SDRplay model RSPA1 receiver coupled to a G5RV antenna. The program was broadcast in Spanish and Quechua languages.

HJGF Radio Bucaramanga: July 05, 1978

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Gert Irmler, who shares the following recording and notes:

Broadcaster: R Bucaramanga / CLM

Date of recording: July 05, 1978

Starting time: 02:59

Frequency: 4.845

Reception location: Schwäbisch Gmünd, BW - Germany

Receiver and antenna: Grundig Satellit 2000, 30m longwire

Notes: HJGF R Bucaramanga, Colombia

QRG: 4845 kHz

QTH: Schwaebisch Gmuend / Germany

Rec: 5th July 1978 - 02:59 UTC (GMT)

Rx, Ant: Grundig Satellit 2000, 30m longwire

Px: S, mx, ID w/QRGs

SINPO: 33333

Note: Station was founded in 1934. At 1:23 ID in MP3. Above related page from my old DX logbook, when I was 15 yrs old.

WWV: December 8, 1991

WWV Station sign at WWV in Fort Collins, Colorado

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Myke Dodge Weiskopf, who shares the following recording and notes:

BROADCASTER: WWV

DATE OF RECORDING: December 08, 1991

STARTING TIME: 0218

FREQUENCY: 5000 kHz

RECEPTION LOCATION: Rockford, Illinois, USA

RECEIVER AND ANTENNA: Unidentified boombox

NOTES:

NIST Radio Station WWV as it sounded on 8 December 1991 at 0218 UTC.

Due to the high cost of maintaining the aging drum-based voice announcement machines, NIST implemented a digital voice announcement system in 1991. The new male voice, belonging to Eric Smith, started at WWV on 13 August. The voice of WWVH belonged to Johanna Stahl. The voices were sorely lacking in high EQ at first, but were sharpened with an audio filter on 27 August. The modification did not help, and after months of equipment failures and complaints about the poor quality, NIST retired both voices on 11 August 1992.

An excerpted version of this recording is found on "At the Tone: A Little History of NIST Radio Stations WWV & WWVH." This unedited version is being shared by special arrangement for the Shortwave Archive.

Time signal station VNG Lyndhurst (Victoria, Australia): December 13, 1971

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:

Broadcaster: Time signal station VNG Lyndhurst Victoria Australia

Date of recording: December 13, 1971

Frequency: 4.500 MHz

Recption location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada

Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna

Mode: AM

Notes: Recorded on December 13, 1971, here is the announcement given by station VNG in Lyndhurst, Victoria, Australia transmitting with 10 kw on 4.5 MHz shortwave. This station was active from 1964 to 1987. Receiving location was Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. Amazingly, the recording was made on a cheap Demonstration Musicassette that had tape placed over the ends so it could be reused. It still plays today and was used to produce this digital version. The announcement is given twice and goes: "This is an Australian Post Office standard frequency and time signal transmission from VNG, Lyndhurst, Victoria on 4.5, 7.5, or 12 Megahertz." This was given during the 15th, 30th, 45th and 60th minute of each hour according to their QSL card.

Radio Canada International (SWL Digest): February 13, 1983

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dennis DeMarco, who shares the following recording and notes:

[NOTE: Dennis, please check your SPAM folder, we have been trying to contact you. Thank you!]

Broadcaster: Radio Canada International

Date of recording: February 13, 1983

Starting time: Unknown

Frequency: 11.850 MHz

Reception location: Philadelphia, PA

Receiver and antenna: Realistic DX-120

Notes: Here's "The Shortwave Listeners Digest" from RCI as heard on 2-13-1983 with host Ian McFarland. This audio begins with an RCI newscast and is complete. Radio was Realistic DX-120 with a wire just thrown out of a window.

RTÉ Longwave End of Broadcasting: April 14, 2023

Live off-air recording of some of the last day of programming from the Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) Radio 1 longwave station on 14 April 2023 beginning at 11:55 UTC on the frequency of 252 kHz. The signal originated from a transmitter located at Clarkestown/Summerhill, County Meath, in the Republic of Ireland, reported to operate with a power of 150 kW during the day (and 60 kW during the night). The transmitter was capable of operating at 300 kW. The station used a 248-metre high single-mast antenna.

RTÉ Radio 1 is a general-interest, news, talk, and music station. It now uses FM, satellite, streaming, and cable services.

The recording starts with the final minutes of the "Louise Duffy Show," followed by the "RTÉ News at One" (which featured reports on U.S. Pres. Joe Biden's visit to Ireland) and then the first 13 minutes or so of "Liveline," an interview and phone-in chat show. The recording ends with an announcement of the shutdown of the longwave service.

Reception of the 252 kHz signal was reasonably good but it suffered from slight co-channel interference from a station in Algeria and local noise at the reception site.

RTÉ Radio 1 programming on 252 kHz ended at 23:03 UTC on 14 April 2023 and was replaced with a repeated announcement of the cessation of broadcasting on longwave and information about other ways to hear RTÉ Radio 1. It begins with the RTÉ Radio 1 interval signal "O’Donnell Abú." Examples of the announcement are included in the second three-and-a-half-minute recording which starts at about 12:34 UTC on 15 April 2023. In this recording, most of the interference has been removed by an audio filtering technique. The closedown announcements ended on 18 April 2023 at 09:59 UTC and the transmitter then fell silent.

The broadcasts were received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in synchronous AM mode with 5.08 kHz RF filtering.

The Hurricane Watch Net: September 27, 2022

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Bryce Belcher, who shares the following recording and notes:

Broadcaster: The Hurricane Watch Net

Date of recording: September 27, 2022

Starting time: 14:38 UTC

Frequency: 14.325 mhZ

Reception location: Washington DC

Receiver and antenna: The NA5B webSDR from Washington DC

Mode: Single Side Band

Notes: My recording of the hurricane watch net daytime on one, 4.325 MHz. This was recorded one day before hurricane Ian destroyed the west coast of Florida. This was recorded using the NA5B WebSDR in Washington, DC.

Adventist World Radio's Wavescan: May 21, 2023

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Việt Anh Phạm, who shares the following recording and notes:

Date of recording: May 21, 2023

Starting time: 1530 UTC

Frequency: 15.67 MHz

Reception location: Northern Vietnam.

Receiver and antenna: TECSUN PL-380 with long wire

Notes: An audio recording of Wavescan- the international DX program from World Adventist Radio on May, 21st, 2023. It is produced by WRMI in FL, USA. This recording was made by connecting the mic in port of my Android phone to my radio (Tecsun PL-380) tuned to 15670 kHz with a 5-meter-long wire as an antenna. The signal was transmitted from KSDA- Guam with a power of 100 kW. My radio has a band-width changing function so I used it to optimize audio quality, which resulted in the audio being muffled a little bit at the beginning. QTH: Northern Vietnam

Note that the frequency announcement at the beginning did not match with the actual frequency I tuned to.

WWVH: Circa 1971

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:

Time signal station WWVH in Kekaha, Kauai, Hawaii was occasionally heard over WWV in Fort Collins, Colorado from my receiving post in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada in the 1970's, particularly on 10 MHz or 15 MHz. Here is a recording of their voice announcement from 1971, when they were still using the term Greenwich Mean Time as opposed to Coordinated Universal Time. The familiar "Aloha" is heard at the conclusion of the announcement.

Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada

Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna

WWV: Circa early 1971

Photo by Agê Barros

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:

Prior to July 1, 1971, time and standard frequency station WWV in Fort Collins, Colorado was giving ID's in Morse code as well as voice every five minutes. They were best heard here in southern Ontario, Canada on 10 and 15 MHz.

Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada

Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna

WWV (Skylab - Apollo Telescope Mount announcement) : circa early 1973

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:

Early in 1973, WWV made this announcement that they would make regular broadcasts of planned ATM (Apollo Telescope Mount) schedules by the new Skylab space station.

Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada

Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna

Radio Delta: July 8, 2023

Radio Delta broadcasting in English and Dutch on the shortwave frequency of 6060 kHz. Recording made in Europe July 8, 2023 at 1836 UTC using portable SONY ICF SW07 receiver operating on bateries. Receiver has been utilised outdoors to evade noise from building interference. As antenna only 1 meter telescopic internal antenna was used. Please note that in the recordings two short parts have been removed because of strong noise which covered these parts of station's signal (the noise has been generated by a bulb from a street lamp).

WMLK Radio: July 5, 2023

Radio WMLK broadcasting in English on the shortwave frequency of 15150 kHz. Recording made in Europe July 5, 2023 at 0416 UTC using portable SONY ICF SW7600G receiver operating on bateries. As antenna only 2 meters of wire was used put on a tree outdoors.

Experimental Station KC2XIO: Circa 1971

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:

KC2XIO was an experimental radio station operated by the National Bureau of Standards in Boulder, Colorado between July 1970 and May 1971. This was to gather information in preparation of the format change for WWV and WWVH which happened in July 1971. Here are two recordings of their voice announcement (one male and one female) as heard in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada on a Hallicrafters S-52 receiver that was hooked up to an outdoor longwire antenna. The frequency used for these test transmissions was 13560 kHz shortwave.

Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada

Receiver and antenna: Hallicrafters S-52 using a longwire antenna

Radio Peace and Progress (Portuguese): December 30, 1983

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Antonio Ribeiro da Motta, who shares the following recording and notes:

Broadcaster: Radio Peace & Progress

Date of recording: December 30, 1983

Starting time: 0100 UTC

Frequency: 11795 kHz

Reception location: São José dos Campos SP Brazil

Receiver and antenna: Philco Transglobe B481 Longwire 22 mt

Notes: Portuguese transmission of Radio Peace and Progress

BBC World Service Annual Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast: June 21, 2023

A live, off-air, half-hour recording of the BBC World Service special Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast on 21 June 2023 beginning at 21:30 UTC. The broadcast, hosted by Cerys Matthews, featured messages and music for the 37 members of the staff of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) overwintering in Antarctica at the Rothera (Antarctic Peninsula) and King Edward Point and Bird Island (South Georgia) research stations. In addition to personal messages from family and friends, there were interviews with Professor Dame Jane Francis, Director of BAS and Nadia Frontier, a marine biologist from BAS and former winterer. The transmitter came on the air with a test tone (1108 Hz plus harmonics) about a minute before the program started. As sometimes happens, the first few words of the introduction were missed.

The recording is of the transmission first on a frequency of 12005 kHz but after a few minutes it was switched to 13810 kHz due to interference (QRM) on the former frequency. Both frequencies were from the BBC's Woofferton, England, transmitting station. The sender of the 12005 kHz frequency had a registered power of 300 kW with antenna beam 182 degrees, while that for 13810 kHz was registered as 250 kW with an antenna beam of 180 degrees. The transmission was received on a Tecsun PL-880 receiver with a Tecsun AN-03L 7-metre wire antenna outdoors in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada, in AM mode with 2.3 kHz RF filtering. Reception on 13810 kHz was quite good with little noise or fading and very good signal strength. The additional parallel frequency of 7255 kHz from Dhabbaya, United Arab Emirates, was not heard.

KGEI (San Francisco): April 1, 1978

Image source: http://www.theradiohistorian.org/

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Antonio Ribeiro da Motta, who shares the following recording and notes:

Broadcaster: KGEI San Francisco CA USA

Date of recording: April 01, 1978

Starting time: 2030 UTC

Frequency: 9615 kHz

Recotion location: São José dos Campos SP Brazil

Receiver and antenna: Philco Transglobe B481 Longwire 22 mt

Notes: Recording of the program Departiendo con La Juventud presented by Mario Barahona (in memorian). There are 2 programs that were merged: days 01 and 02/04/1978.

Voice of the People (Aleppo, Syria): October 14, 1978

painting from François-Marie Rosset from 1790

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Gert Irmler, who shares the following recording and notes:

Broadcaster: 'Voice of the People' Aleppo / SYR

Date of recording: 10/14/1978

Starting time: 18:29

Frequency: 1.313 MHz

Reception location: Schwäbisch Gmünd, BW - Germany

Receiver and antenna: Grundig Satellit 2000 w/loop antenna

Notes: VoP Aleppo, Syria
QRG: 1313 kHz
QTH: Schwaebisch Gmuend / Germany
Rec: 14th Oct. 1978 - 18:29 UTC (GMT)
Rx, Ant: Grundig Satellit 2000 w/loop antenna
Px: A, nx, ID, local mx
SINPO: 23332
From the times before its destruction, when Aleppo was one of the prettiest cities in the Middle East.

Radio Togo (Sign-on & Sign-off): Circa 1973

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Greenall, who shares the following recording and notes:

Broadcaster: Radio Togo, Lome circa 1973

Frequency: 5.047 MHz

Reception location: Ancaster, Ontario, Canada

Receiver and antenna: Realistic DX-150A with a long wire antenna

Notes: In the early 1970's, Radio Togo from Lome was often the strongest African signal on the 60 metre shortwave band. They could be heard here best in southern Ontario, Canada around 0530 UTC sign on, or around sign off at 2300 hours UTC, on their longtime frequency of 5047 kHz. Programming was mostly in French and identification could be given differently, such as Radiodiffusion du Togo or Radiodiffusion-Television Togolaise. Here are two recordings circa 1973, one at sign on with interval signal and anthem, the other at sign off.