Tape Recording Magazine

Extracts from my Radio Websites columns, Radio User, 2013

Ian Brothwell was going through some old magazines that came from the house of a relation and found a copy of 'Tape Recording Magazine' from April 1967. (the issue above dates from 1966).

The April 1967 cover shows a lady listening to a Van der Molen cassette recorder, which it looks a neat unit. The magazine says that the left speaker is actually removable from the unit - it is in a box inside the left side of the cabinet behind a dummy grille - for improved stereo separation.

The caption to the cover reads: "The attractive lady is none other than ballerina Amina Hanafy. Well known for her work with Covent Garden Opera, Sadler's Wells and Carla Rosa Opera, she listens with professional interest to the sound produced by one of the latest cassette machines, the Sonic 8. Designed and made in this country by Van der Molen, it is based on the Philips Compact Cassette mechanism and offers full stereo record and play-back facilities. The left-hand speaker can be stored within the cabinet when not in use, but is provided with a long extension cable to ensure adequate separation from the right-hand channel for stereo reproduction. Impressed by the smart, modern appearance of the equipment, Amina loves the simplicity of cassettes." The Sonic 8 cost 49 guineas.


So far, so good. I guessed that Amina was in her thirties and I wondered what she was doing today. I did a search and found this. www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/the-heir-hunters-the-remarkable-story-of-joyce-amina-hanafy Hmmm. I wasn't expecting that end to her story. Copies of Tape Recording magazine sometimes appear for sale on eBay, in fact there were half a dozen from the 1960s the week I wrote this, all starting at £2.99.

If you would like to buy copies of all Tape Recording magazine plus two other similar British journals from the same era, head to the Australian website http://www.bassboy.com.au/getreel/tapemags3.htm  where you can buy electronic versions of Amateur Tape Recording, The Tape Recorder (becoming Studio Sound in late 1970) and Tape Recording Magazine. 

At 190 Australian dollars that might seem expensive but it probably isn’t, although I am always unsure about copyright issues here. Having said that I did buy some DVDs a few years back containing about 25 years worth of the satirical US Mad magazine. Maybe it’s a grey area.

Tesla tales...

Tesla in 1890

Extracts from my Radio Websites columns, Radio User, 2013

Ian Brothwell has another batch of intriguing and eccentric websites, starting with news that crowd funding has raised enough money to buy a laboratory that was used by Nikola Tesla. http://theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_museum_saved 

This is on Long Island in the USA and there us a really great backstory (and more ) at http://www.teslasciencecenter.org/

 “The site became known as Wardenclyffe, after the former owner. Here, Tesla established what would become his only remaining laboratory building. Previously, after emigrating to the United States in 1884, Tesla had worked on all of his major projects at various laboratory sites. These included Pittsburgh, PA; New York City, NY; Orange, NJ; Colorado Springs, CO; and finally Wardenclyffe, NY. In April, 1901, the Wardenclyffe Post Office was established in the town; in 1906 the town became the Village of Shoreham.”

Ian adds that if readers haven't heard of Tesla (it's possible!) then these references should help. http://www.teslasociety.com/biography.htm , 
http://www.biography.com/people/nikola-tesla-9504443 and, of course, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla 

A Radio Roma mystery...

Extracts from my Radio Websites columns, Radio User, 2013

Phil Dodd writes with a little mystery that perhaps readers can help unravel and solve?

In an old engineering photo blog that he follows, there is a photo of some power supply equipment associated with a Radio Roma transmitter, in 1929. (reproduced above).Phil is wondering if the square units on the right of the equipment were water cooled, “as if you look at the base of the nearest square unit, a tap is clearly visible! If not water, it must have been oil?” He'd hoped to find a bit more information on Wikipedia about Radio Roma. It is mentioned, but as appearing at a later time. 

A further Wikipedia page suggests that Ente Italiano per le Audizioni Radiofoniche (EIAR) was in fact the user of the transmitter. Phil adds that there is further information available, but in Italian and if he really wants to know, he'll have to learn Italian. A simpler option is to use an online translator such as Google Chrome or others- I find them a great boon.

As is the way of the web, Phil found out other related information on his research journey and notes that medium wave in Italy is now being switched off, but they are getting good results from DRM+, according to http://portale.italradio.org on 10 May. “On that score, they're ahead of the UK!” The Portale Italradio is an interesting website in English covering news and current affairs about Italian radio and TV around the world.

Reception Reports and QSL cards

Radio Denmark vintage QSL, sunflowers and apples 

Extracts from my Broadcast Matters, long, medium & shortwave  column, in Radio User, September 2013

 

Tony Roper received a nice commemorative 60th anniversary QSL card from Deutsche Welle which took ten days from his sending a report to receiving a QSL in the post. He logged them on 22 June at 2100 on 11800kHz from the Kigali transmitter. Tony also tuned to Radio Cuba on the nicely rounded frequency of 6000kHz, at 0105 UTC. Ed Newman was presenting the broadcast (SINPO 33333). 

Programmes included This Day in History, then a commentary on the USA which Tony says “faded enough to not quite be able to hear it properly, it mainly appeared to be about the USA and probably not good stuff.” Next up was the sports desk programme, followed by five minutes of music and a round-up of news at 0135 UTC. Tony hopes to receive a QSL card for the Cuba broadcast.

Has anyone received a QSL card from Danish station DR Kalundborg? asks Keith Rann in Essex. He sent a reception report having heard their 243kHz long wave broadcast in May, which was an annual special rebroadcast of the May 1945 BBC Danish Service liberty message. Keith is still awaiting his QSL.

Howard Barnett asks for contact details of Radio Sonder Grense (which is Afrikaans for Radio Without Borders). This has been logged recently in English at 1800 UTC on 3320kHz by Andrew Kirby and they also use 7285 and 9650 kHz (plus FM locally in South Africa where they have an estimated listenership of 1,852,000 at May 2013). The station, run by the South African Broadcasting Corporation, started with an English service in 1936, to be followed a year later with the Afrikaans service. 

The station’s postal address as in the 2013 World Radio and TV Handbook is Radio Sonder Grense, PO Box 91312, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa or you can contact them via the online form at their website. www.rsg.co.za Sentech are responsible for signal distribution and I have seen QSL letters from them with the following address: Sentech, PO Box 234, Meyerton 1960, South Africa.

Denis Ironman has selected some nostalgic QSL cards again for us- he sent me one of Radio Netherlands’ The Happy Station Show, from way back in 1969 when Eddie Startz was the host. Denis also sent a photocopy of a 1969 Radio Netherlands’ calendar which celebrated 40 years since the start of the station’s forerunner, PCJ. Denis recalls listening lured by the slogan ”Keep in touch with the Dutch every Sunday via Hilversum, Holland and Bonaire, Netherland Antilles.” 

Denis felt the show was a great loss to shortwave and has fond memories of Eddie Startz tapping his tea cup with his spoon. The Happy Station does live on today of course through PCJ Media. It is run by Keith Perron with former Happy Station host Tom Meyer’s blessing. Tom often featured songs he had recorded while he on the Happy Station and these are online at www.pcjmedia.com/tmeijer

Radio Dechovka

Extracts from my Broadcast Matters, long, medium & shortwave  column, in Radio User, August 2013

Howard Barnett has asked for the address of a station he has been trying to tune into and hopefully wishes to send a reception reports to. 

This is Radio Dechovka on 1233kHz medium wave from the Czech Republic. Radio Dechovka translates as Radio Brass or Radio Brass Band and the postal address is Radio Brass, U prutník 232, 250 72 Předboj, Czech Republic.  Emails can be sent to studio@radiodechovka.cz 

Interestingly their main broadcast studio is in a train station in Prague Kojetice. Radio Brass has a medium wave license for nationwide trials. It advertises itself as  the first brass-band radio you can listen around the clock.  It plays the best of Czech and Moravian brass bands and sometimes non-Czech bands as well. 

A typical summer evening's programming consists of Camp fire; Cultural Service - where Jiri Sykora provides an overview of cultural tips; a programme of the best brass band music of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia; and Pub fun which plays "bawdy songs".

Radio now and then

Photo CB

Extracts from my Radio Websites column, Radio User, August 2013

Have you seen the American Forces and Television Service’s Archive website? Thomas Whetson runs this a blog which features archive audio and historical material. It includes an interview with Elvis Presley in 1960 and a 1973 Air force recruiting clip. All rather bizarre to my mind but the 285,000 visitors to the blog can't all be wrong! http://afrtsarchive.blogspot.co.uk/ 

Onto another Thomas, Thomas Witherspoon at the SWLing Post, who continues to keep us all informed with daily digestible chunks of fascinating shortwave and international radio news at http://swling.com/blog/ He is also now behind the shortwave radio archive at http://shortwavearchive.com/ The Shortwave Radio Audio Archive (SRAA) is a collection of shortwave radio recordings that you can download or listen to as a podcast. The collection grows every day and includes both historic recordings and current recordings from the shortwave radio spectrum. The goal of this site is for shortwave radio enthusiast to have a place to store, archive and share their radio recordings with the world. So visit the site, enjoy the cornucopia of wonderment and think about adding your own recordings to it.

An entertaining radio show I have started listening to is The Seckerson Tapes and The Arts Desk Radio Show at the Arts Desk website. Regular podcasts of a range of intelligent arts and culture programmes. Let me know what you think when you have been to www.theartsdesk.com/radio-show

Café del Mar collective & DX Adventures

Photo: CB

Extracts from my Radio Websites column, Radio User, August 2013

The sunny sounds of the wonderful Café del Mar collective are never far from my mind at this time of year- I cannot believe they have been going since 1980. 

You are only a click away from the sounds of a Mediterranean blissed out summer at the Mixcloud channel of young Slovakian Adam Kvasnica 
www.mixcloud.com/adamkvasnica3 and www.mixcloud.com/adamkvasnica3/café-del-mar/ 

The official Café del Mar site is at www.cafedelmarmusic.com/ and is about be relaunched.


A new blog up and running this summer has the promising title of DX Adventures. It’s the work of Roland and will contain stories about DXing over the past fifty-plus years. It starts with how he got hooked on the hobby and will build up to the current time. The posts will not necessarily be in a historical order but share the good times and things he has learned. 

Comments are welcome and will be moderated daily. 
It is at http://dxadventures.blogspot.co.uk/