Adventures In Amplitude Modulation - Part 30

Here’s the second half of the scan of the 25 meter shortwave band following my post from last week. And to be honest, I’m including it for completion rather than for compelling content. It’s international broadcasting, and almost none of it is intended for North American listeners.

And speaking of last week, I mentioned that a site I've depended on for identifying shortwave broadcasts, hfradio, has disappeared. Well, I'm happy to say it's only temporary. If you try to pull up their site you get a (MS version of MySpace) page explaining that they took the server down for some maintenance and upgrades. Should be back up in a week or two. I'd personally like to thank the proprieter of the website, Tomas Hood, for all his fine work and service to the online radio geek community.

Almost all the radio reception in this series has been recorded at night, when radio waves get the best bounce out of the atmosphere. But the 25 meter band has more life during daylight than most, and reader Ralph offered his own recorded adventure of these same frequencies a few weeks ago (which you can read and listen to here).

More than most radio recordings offer here, this is more for geeks and completists. No great music and very little English language content. However, if you were to tune in the world one afternoon you might hear voices like these, and radio noise like this.

This scan was captured around the five o’clock hour EDT on my Degen 1103 portable. The first segment of this radio adventure (in the last post) has some swell music and an interesting roundup of the weekly news from Cuba. This is mostly just foriegn language garble. But no less REAL. Most of these signals are being transmitted from overseas. However, I heard them in the Catskill Mountains. And so will you, if you download this file...

Segment 2 - 25 meter band 10-01-2006 (download MP3)

11795 - Deutsche Welle (Germany)

English service for Africa. Not coming in well, and stepped on by an adjacent station.

11800 - Radio Habana Cuba

In Arabic, with a Cuban accent. Reception isn't too bad. Wonder what they're talking about?

11815 - Radio Exterior de Espana (Spain) & Radio France International?

Sounds right. Spain broadcasting (some sports type stuff) in Spanish to South America, as well as hint of what might be France speaking Portuguese to folks in Angola. Lots of buzzy off-frequency noise occurring as well. In short, a mess.

11820 - The Broadcasting Service of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Either the Koran, or a discussion of it. Quite clear with some shortwave hissy effects.

11830 - (A Mess)

While I hear a male talking about a “health department” in this dense garble, I’m not sure there’s any actual English broadcasting going on here. That guy dominates this rather interesting reception train wreck, with at least one or more stations warbling in. Best guess is that Iran (in Albanian) and Egypt (in Hausa, an African language) might be part of the festivities here.

11875 - Radio Exterior de Espana (Spain)

The news in Spanish.

11895 - WYFR - Family Radio

Harold Camping’s quirky Christian crap in French.

11915 - The Broadcasting Service of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

More Koran business. Some fading here and there.

11920 - (unknown Christian broadcast)

Can't figure out what this is. Mediocre reception. Some white American woman all worked up on god.

11930 - Radio Marti (jammed)

Oh, the NOISE.... American propaganda waves stopped in mid-bounce by old Fidel.

11945 - RDP Internacional Portugal?

Some guy with a deep voice talking to Africa.

11955 - Adventist World Radio

Soothing biblical piano. So mellow...

11980 - The Voice of Russia

Interval chimes, getting ready for another hour of international radio, with some squiggly broadcast riding on top.

11985 - WYFR - Family Radio

Again, the Camping cult working their magic on French speaking Africans.

12000 - HCJB - Voice of the Andes

Spanish language fluffy Christian pop from Ecuador.

12015 - Radio Exterior de Espana (Spain)

In Arabic I believe, with a HEAVY whine. Is this a heterodyne caused by another nearby station? Or an ear piercing jamming transmission designed to make your brain bleed?

12025 - HCJB - Voice of the Andes?

Difficult for me to verify, but it sounds right. If so, it’s Christian radio in Arabic aimed at North Africa. Those Jesus-casters never stop trying to convert the world.

12050 - Radio Cairo

News of the Middle East, in Arabic. Female newsreader. Good signal.

12075 - (unknown)

Extremely lousy read of this broadcast. Male voice. Might be American clandestine “Radio Free Asia” broadcasting in Korean.

12085 - Radio Damascus?

Maybe. It might even be music. For me, this is the worst level of reception that I’ll vainly attempt to pull a listenable signal out of. No luck here.

12095 - BBC World Service.

Something about India. It’s difficult listening, and the UK international broadcasters could give a rat’s ass if we North Americans hear it anyway. It’s coming from the South Atlantic, and intended for African ears.

12133.5 - US Armed Forces Radio (Key West, FL)

A mutated Smokey Robinson number. They’re broadcasting on upper side band and I didn’t bother messing around with tuning it in correctly.

Other posts in this series can be found here. All have (shortwave or AM) radio reception recordings you can download. I'm always interested in corrections, suggestions and feedback on these entries. Either in the comments section or via email.
 

Thanks a bunch for listening.

Comments

[Webster Hubble Telescope]

I appreciate that WFMU exists more and more each day. Professor, a question for you. Does this memo look fake?
"ABC memo reveals Air America advertiser blacklist"
I say fake.

[michael]

Prof, I've been following your series since about six installments ago. I'm a casual shortwave listener with no hard electronics background. Needless to say I don't pay much attention to sunspot activity and I'm not 100% sure what SINPO stands for. I think the fact you log something that is a "mess" with no discernible signal is great, and far more entertaining than the humorless snarking that is de rigeur in discussion groups devoted to this topic. Keep up the good work and look forward to your next installment.