Nothing compares to the carefree pathway of youth. Not a worry. Not a concern. The future is endlessly bright. And at the radio dials in 1977, this idealism could not be closer to the truth. Our solid-state and tube type radios glowed in the waning light of sunset and revealed an endless expanse of fully utilized radio spectrum. The voices were often hard to separate and determining a radio frequency often came down to guesswork or crafty use of band spread dials, crystal calibrators and interpolation charts. But that was our youth and the approaching salad days of International Broadcasting. I had been finding my voice in clubs like CIDX, SPEEDX and the IRCA - learning the ropes of journalistic hobby contributions. Half the fun of the radio hobby was the sharing with the sisters and brothers of the hobby. And here we were. And here I was - at 17. That sounds like a song by Janis Ian and I guess it was. At 17 my ears were full and my heart was well stocked with hope for the future.

Here is part two of my 1977 “Greatest Hits” Interval Signal Series - recorded in Victoria B.C. Canada on my DX150B table-top communications receiver.

It was another time and place. The 1970’s. Radio was alive and well with no sense whatsoever than the decade to follow would not be exactly the same - well, it was in part… but change would come. Even in the late 1970’s, many old stations had a folksy feel to them - Radio Luxembourg was no exception. Based on whatever they were playing you had no idea what was coming next. In this little recording, we have RTL on 6090 playing a mixed bag of what sounds like light German big band music - or folkie pop - or what have you. Station ID at the end…. drifting into a snippet from our old friend CFRB in Toronto on 6070 Khz. All received on a DX150B and an Inverted-L antenna located on the West Coast of Canada.

Station: Radio New Zealand Pacific

Place of reception: Europe

Language: English

Frequency: 7390 kHz shortwave

Date: November 11, 2021

Time: 13.03 UTC

Transmitter location: Rangitaiki, New Zealand

Transmitter power 100 kW

Receiver: SONY ICF SW1 portable

Location of receiver: outdoor (far away from buildings to limit the man-made noise interference)

Antenna: internal telescopic 0,5 meter long

Recording device: SONY portable cassette tape recorder

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following short recording and translation, along with his artwork above:

Dimtsi Weyane, 17750 kHz, broadcasting in Tigrinya language to Tigray region in Ethiopia, from Issoudun, France.

Region is facing a civil war since November 2020.

Signal received at Catacumba Park, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 21, 2021, 16h57 (UTC).

This recording was translated my Saba Tsen'at Mah'deromt via Twitter:

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

873 kHz KCBS Sinuiju, North Korea at 1633UTC on Thursday, Oct 21, 2021 with instrumental North Korean music. Signal held out pretty decently for over 6 minutes. 250KW 3500 miles.

Receiver location: McGrath, Alaska

Receiver and antenna: C.Crane CC Skywave and Gary DeBock 5" FSL antenna