Seeing some chat on another thread about radios, reminded me that years (and years) ago I used to have a little shortwave radio scanner thingy that picked up all sorts of things, like the police, tv audio, and lots of foreign sounding voices that also that went beep at regular intervals. Sounded like them counting or something.
It had a sideband(?) knob or button I think that seemed to make more things appear somehow, never really understood it.
I also seem to recall Voice of America, that kind of thing? It did airline frequencies too I think - am I right in thinking I heard transmissions from "Speedbird" and that was Concorde, or was that a dream? It was decades ago.
There seemed to be a hobby where you would spend both a fortune and for ever to be able to hear someone in Australia, bounced off the atmosphere, and if you were very lucky you could hear them say "I have a shortwave radio. Hello.". For a not insignificant extra heap of cash and a licence, you could say "Hello. So have I" back again, and then you'd send each other a postcard.
ANYWAY, I imagined there would these days be a website with a "virtual" shortwave radio on it, where you could set a frequency and have it play back. Couldn't find anything with swift search - is there such a thing?
I also imagine none of the stuff you could hear back then is still broadcasting in the clear like that?
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Ah! Nostalgia!! Numbers stations!!!!
Truly the stuff of spies, exiting and slightly scary to a kid as I listened to the ident music, and metalic robotic sounding number groups my all time fav is the scratchy off tune Lincolnshire Poacher
And yes, numbers stations still pop up, tho thankfully the Russian woodpecker is dead
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 14 Sep 19 at 15:12
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Ah, as ever, the key words for Google, once you know them, open up a whole slab of entertainment, so thank you for "numbers stations". I enjoyed the Wikipedia entry.
In return, here's
archive.org/details/ird059/tcp_d1_06_the_lincolnshire_poacher_mi5_irdial.mp3
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Wow, that sounds very much like the lady who did the speaking clock or from the early London underground warnings.
Looks like I'll have another wasted evening finding out about 'number stations'!
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>>that sounds very much like the lady who did the speaking clock
Before 1963 that was Ethel Jane Cain after 63 was Pat Simmons.
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At one stage the Daventry Transmitter site fell under my responsibility. The best thing about that was getting to mooch about and investigate anywhere I wanted.
At the time the Empire Building was still there, largely untouched other than a bit of a hole in the roof and used only as a store room. A strange place to wander around considering how important it had been and was not now. Which was actually pretty much the impact of wandering around the entire site. I especially remember the social club in the main building which had once been a busy, lively and important part of life and was now abandoned.
However round the back in a shelter was their own 'Amateur Radio' set up. With all the strictly kept logs going back over so many years. In the shelter were emergency quarters, food and water storage and the radio room. With it's thick steel/concrete reinforced doors it was quite the place.
That and their open SW transmissions would have been heard by you all those years ago.
www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BBC-Books/Daventry-Calling-the-World.pdf
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Thanks for the Daventry info. I shall peruse that at leisure.
I was going to say we recently went to Daventry museum and saw loads of old transmitter equipment, and loads of old computers about which I got suitably misty eyed. But then I remembered that when we got to Daventry museum it was closed, as Mr Google had misled me.
So the transmitters and so on were at a museum in Seaford, on the south coast, and it was very lovely. It was a bit like wandering around Dixons in a power cut.
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I don't know what's at Daventry now. I haven't been responsible for the site since about 2007.
It was an awesome place at that time though. As I said, the biggest privilege was being able to nose around it at will.
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>> I also seem to recall Voice of America, that kind of thing? It did airline
>> frequencies too I think - am I right in thinking I heard transmissions from "Speedbird"
>> and that was Concorde, or was that a dream? It was decades ago.
Speedbird goes back at least as far as BOAC asa radio call sign and remains in use by BA to this day for international flights. .
Speedbird One and Two were Concorde callsigns for JFK flights and IIIRC the other Conc flights also had low numbers.
The BA1/2 numbers are now allocated to the London City to JFK service using Airbus 318 aircraft.
Not as fast as Concorde but quite a bit more roomy!!
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They still say speedbird? How very quaint. And good to hear.
And I notice nobody has answered my question about a website with a virtual receiver, so perhaps there really isn't one.
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they exist, but they are sometimes very esoteric to use,
Search for "Web based SDR receivers"
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Genius, thanks. Found some stuff to play with.
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>> They still say speedbird?
Absolutely.
Aircraft headed for USA via North Atlantic tracks that start over Scotland will route over here visible from back of my house and audible on VHF 130.925 then 127.105 (Daventry sector Lo/Hi).
Various Speedbird B747/777/787 plus A380 bound for mid west and SFO/LAS noted on average mid morning.
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Imperial Airways logo was a stylised bird drawn to make it look fast. Nothing to do with Concorde, though Concorde did of course use the name.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Sat 14 Sep 19 at 23:13
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Wiki page on Speedbird logo here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedbird
BA202 Boston to LHR just passed over here call sign Speedbird 51B.
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Maybe they should change it to E f f i n gcarpbird because that's what BA is these days.
Last edited by: Kevin on Sat 14 Sep 19 at 23:57
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They used to see themselves as a quality airline and competed in that space. They then decided they should be competing with the likes of Ryan Air and Easyjet on short haul.
Inexplicably they lowered their long haul standards to do so.
Honestly I have crawled out of the most god-awful places on the planet and relaxed and calmed the minute I walked onto a British Airways flight, an oasis of sanity and quality.
No more, b***** awful crowd on the ground and in the air.
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Shortwave radio - Zero
