![]() Swiss radio international shortwave free#The western bloc’s advocates were led by the BBC World Service, and included Voice of America, Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, Radio Canada International and a host of influential European broadcasters. A QSL card sent to SW listeners confirming their reception of “The Two Bobs” on Swiss Radio International. So people somewhere are still listening for interval signals.OTTAWA - During the height of the Cold War (1947–1991), the shortwave radio bands were alive with international state-run broadcasters transmitting their respective views in multiple languages to listeners around the globe. Many people in those parts of the planet still rely heavily on shortwave broadcasting for news and entertainment. ![]() Swiss radio international shortwave tv#Stations have refocused their attention from the so-called “Developed World” (with internet and TV access), to the “Developing” World (maybe it’s just the first time around, right?), and especially on places still out of reach of internet access. Shortwave radio has, to some extent, fizzled out because of the internet. As I am increasingly involved in translating, I realize that giving voice to Significant Others is what that endeavor is all about. I decided to name this blog “ Interval Signals” because, if I have anything to say at all, it will be in the in-between spaces as we listen (and read) the many important voices from elsewhere. Grab your coffee and sit down by the receiver to listen… It was a little bit like hearing the introductory jingle of “All Things Considered” or “RadioLab” on NPR from the next room. This was what you would try to hear before the top of the hour, when the program would begin. When trying to find a particular program, it was useful to listen for each station’s unique musical “jingle”, called an “ I nterval Signal“. Stations sometimes changed the times at which they broadcast, or their frequency, either due to interference or simply because the solar conditions impacted the way radio waves propagated. They exposed me to viewpoints that intrigued me, caused me to doubt my own way of thinking and eventually radically changed the way I saw the world. Shortwave radio was the first time I started listening to Distant Voices: those voices became significant in my life. I even remember thinking what a waste of time it was being in school when I could be back home listening to the radio! As chance would have it, I started studying French in high school, and it wasn’t long before I started realizing I could actually understand some of what they were saying in the French language broadcasting from Radio Canada, Radio France and Swiss Radio International. Back in the 80s, Radio Moscow did their best to communicate with the American public, broadcasting their version of the news for hours on end, and of course the Voice of America had their own particular slant, one with which I was of course more familiar. Shortwave radio stations broadcast in a variety of languages in order to reach the broadest possible audience. In the end, it was a door opening out onto new worlds. Here’s a sample Interval Signal from Radio Australia, circa 1980s.īut only at first. Among these were Radio Finland, Radio New Caledonia, Radio Tashkent, and even Radio Tahiti (one of my favorites). Well, I was hooked, and I wound up spending countless hours over the next several years listening to the BBC, Radio Moscow, Radio Canada International and, as I acquired a more sophisticated “superheterodyne” receiver and wired an eighty-foot-long antenna out my window, I started to get into “DX-ing”, the hobby of trying to tune in to the weakest stations. What could this be? I don’t remember exactly which station it was I first heard, but perhaps I heard the words comes through the speaker, “ This… is London” (that’s the actual I.S. My family’s kitchen radio was just an ordinary am/fm transistor radio from Montgomery Ward until one day when I happened to fiddle with it only to discover that it had a shortwave tuner on it. ![]() One of the biggest discoveries in my life was shortwave radio. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |