Remembering Radio Interval Signals Remembering Radio Interval Signals

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Astrad F8-TR17-B202
 
 
 
 

 Listen to Radio Sounds Familiar here 


Long before the days of multichannel Television and the INTERNET we had multichannel radio.
Although AM or Medium Wave as it used to be referred to, had plenty of stations,
it was the short wave bands that offered the Pandora's box.
This is was what initiated my interest in Broadcasting.

If you’re not familiar with short wave, it's defined as broadcasts between the frequencies 3.2 to 21.850 MHz  (Medium Wave being transmission being  535 to 1700 kHz)
The Short Wave spectrum is sub divided into various meter bands, all having different propagation properties.
On certain bands you are able to listen to stations just several hundreds of miles away, and others you can expect to receive broadcasts from countries many thousands of miles away, the properties of these bands will alter after dark, normally resulting in an increased capture area.
The majority of these broadcaster are the external services of a country’s domestic service.
I would listen to the news in Moscow one minute, then tune to a music show on Radio RSA: The Voice of South Africa in Johannesburg then maybe see if i could receive  'ABC' Radio Australia in Melbourne.
In these days of satellite and Internet it's no big deal, but as a 13 year old boy growing up in the 1970s  I found it fascinating.
One of my earliest programme  memories was listening to "The Short Wave Merry Go Round" presented by the two Bobs on SBC (The Swiss broadcasting corporation)

You had to know where and when these stations were on the air, for this, the latest copy of the World Radio and TV handbook was extremely important.


world radio and tv handbook
Short Wave Broadcast Bands
 
 
  120 metres 
75 metres 
60 metres 
49 metres 
41 metres 

31 metres 
 25 metres 
21 metres 
19 metres 
16 metres 
13 metres 


 
     3200 - 3400 kHz     
     3950 - 4000 kHz     
     4750 - 5060 kHz     
     5850 - 6200 kHz     
     7100 - 7350 kHz     
     9400 - 9900 kHz     
    11600 - 12050 kHz     
    13570 - 13870 kHz     
    15100 - 15800 kHz     
     17480 - 17900 kHz     
     21450 - 21850 kHz



Propagation or the ionosphere had to be in your favour, you couldn’t always guarantee receiving your favourite station.

But if all was good you’d be ready to search for your station of choice.
In 1973, I received a birthday present of an ‘Astrad 17 Poratable Radio’ (or Astrad F8-TR17-B202 to be exact) which offered 5 shortwave bands. It was advertised in my reggualr copy of ‘Everyday Electronics’
 Manufactured at the Minsk Radio Works; Minsk Russia,: it was described as the state of the art receiver. Incorporating 17 transistors and 11 diodes. It was the height of technology .. believe me.
But with no digital display finding the exact position of the station on the dial could be a challenge.
So in between programming the broadcaster  would help the listener by transmitting  a repeating unique 'interval signal’.
Over time you’d become quite expert in identifying the station.
I had long time forgotten about these little ditties and recently came across some of these online  and it brought back memories.
So if you were a short wave DXer, as we used to be called, how many of these haunting little melodies do you remember ?

BBC World service qsl
BBC WORLD SERVICE

BBC World Service - V interv.mp3

BBC World Service - BBC inte.mp3

BBC World Service Lillibole.mp3

Rdaio Bucherest QSL Card
RADIO BUCHAREST

Radio Bucharest.mp3

 
 
Radio Praha QSL Card
RADIO PRAGUE

Radio Prague - African Service.mp3

 
 
Radio Neatherlnads QSL
RADIO NETHERLAND WORLD WIDE

Radio Netherlands.mp3

 
 
Rdaio RSA QSL Card
RADIO RSA (THE VOICE OF SOUTH AFRICA)

Radio RSA.mp3

 
 
Radio Sofia QSL card
RADIO SOFIA

Radio Sofia.mp3

 
 
Voice of Spain QSL Card
VOICE OF SPAIN

Voice of Spain.mp3

Deutsche QSL Card
DEUTSCHE WELLE

Deutsche Welle - German.mp3

Rdaio Norway QSL
RADIO NORWAY

Radio Norway.mp3

Rdaio Sweden qsl
RADIO SWEDEN

Radio Sweden.mp3

ORTF QSL CARD
ORTF (RADIO FRANCE)

ORTF.mp3

Vatican Radio QSL
VATICAN RADIO

Vatican Radio.mp3

Radio Tirana QSL
RADIO TIRANA

Radio Tirana.mp3

Radio Budapest QSL
RADIO BUDAPEST

MR - Radio Budapest.mp3

VOA Qsl card
VOICE OF AMERICA

VoA - English.mp3

sbc qsl card
SBC( SWISS BROADCASTING CORPORATION)

SBC.mp3

Radio Moscow QSL
RADIO MOSCOW

Radio Moscow - Japanese Servic.mp3

radio canada qsl
RADIO CANADA INTERNATIONAL

Radio Canada International.mp3

radio cairo qsl card
RADIO CARIO

Radio Cairo.mp3

radio kuwait qsl
RADIO KUWAIT

Radio Kuwait - English Service.mp3

My Astrad 17 today. Note the make shift tuning knob that had to be replaced.
astrad 17 radio
astrad 17 left
astrad 17 right side
 If you'd like to hear more of these strange sounds visit this great resource 'Interval Signals Online'

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