Freesound Forums

Hello daring Freesounders

Has been quite a while without a new dare being posted...

We are going to continue along the lines of the unusual sound sources and sound creation techniques.
Today I submit for your attention that Shortwave Radio is an EXCELLENT source of interesting sounds.
If you read this and think "I don't have a radio receiver..." Don't worry because you will not need one. (read on!)

This is going to be a developing dare... as we get enough interest and participation I will post the next "level"...
So,...erm... stay tuned! (LOL)

First of all, the rules:
1 - Level One of this dare simpy asks users to record and upload sounds from AM / SW / MW / LW radio.
You notice I exclude FM radio because it is too commercial - read rule #2
2 - You need to be aware of possible copyright issues.
Do not upload music pieces, adverts or radio jingles.
Static, interfeerence, morse and data transmissions are all allowed.
Number stations, weather stations, closk synchronization stations, radio chatter are allowed.
At a stretch, single sentences from news reports should be allowed. Weather reports. Very distorted (incorrect tunning) would be allowed also.
3 - Do not process your sounds. If you want to post a processed sound (e.g. noise reduction) make sure you also post the original.
4 - Include the tag "dare-28" in your uploaded sounds. Post here to let everyone know when you upload sounds related to this dare (and be patient for moderation, eh eh ).

Right, so what do you do if you do not have a shortwave radio?
You use theirs:
http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/
(if you use it, do give credit and even post the link on your sound description)
I recommend you try it even if you do have a radio because the sound quality is likely to be better that what you can get, the range of frequencies and control over bandwidth gives lots of options (great to get some cool sounds). Also, if your browser supports it, there is a button that allows you to record what you hear directly from the website and download the file.

Here's one to start us off. You guys should find the description interesting.
sound 242704

Hi Alienxxx,

this is great. Here is a contribution of me recorded before on a friends long-wave radio.
http://freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/239618
I gave it the dare-28 tag.
I was listening to the Twente university radio in the Netherlands a few times the last months and it is great. I hope others will like it to.

Come on freesounders try it yourself and upload it here

regards

a great collection of number station recordings can be found at the internet archive:

https://archive.org/details/ird059

one of my earlier sounds with updated tags for the dare>

http://www.freesound.org/people/thatjeffcarter/sounds/137199/#description

Hi guys and thanks for going back and re-tagging some of your sounds

The Twente university web radio utility is awesome. Especially because you can use the wrong settings on purpose to get interesting sounds. On as normal radio you can only tune it incorrectly on purpose. But on this you can also set the bandwidht and the position of the carrier. - You do not have to stick to the standard settings and some really interesting sounds can be obtained.

In the meantime, I just happened to bump into a "weather station", one of many that issue weather reports for civilian aircraft.

Here is some information about these on wikipedia, includding lists of frequencies and transmission schedules.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VOLMET

For those who would like their own Twente University-style software radio, I’ve got one URL for you: http://www.rtl-sdr.com/

You can buy generic dongles for about GB£6.00 on eBay — the one I bought worked out of the box on my Ubuntu machine using GQRX, and I was soon listening to angry racists ranting about immigration on the Citizens’ Band...

CB is as low as you can tune it by itself, but if you add an inexpensive upconverter, the entire spectrum is your oyster.

I have uploaded the first 3 sounds.
http://www.freesound.org/people/AlienXXX/packs/14955/

Future sounds will be added to this pack also and I will post here to advise when adding more sounds.

Woopse, This pack does not contain any sounds.

AlienXXX wrote:
I have uploaded the first 3 sounds.
http://www.freesound.org/people/AlienXXX/packs/14955/

Future sounds will be added to this pack also and I will post here to advise when adding more sounds.

Thanks kb7clx

How strange.
Here are the individual sounds, which clearly show they are part of the pack "Radio"
http://www.freesound.org/people/AlienXXX/sounds/242970/
http://www.freesound.org/people/AlienXXX/sounds/242971/
http://www.freesound.org/people/AlienXXX/sounds/242972/

Maybe just a delay while the Freesound server compiles the sounds into the pack?
I will wait 24h or so, if still an issue after this time I will report as a bug.

Three more sounds uploaded to the same pack.
http://www.freesound.org/people/AlienXXX/packs/14955/

This dare finally persuaded me to hook up my RTL-SDR dongle to the roof and extend its range substantially...

When it’s moderated, you can see my first response here:

http://freesound.org/people/jamesabdulrahman/sounds/243066/

this is a funny one: https://freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/243072/

http://freesound.org/people/jamesabdulrahman/sounds/243069/

One for the ‘airheads’. Might sound good as part of some Eno-esque departure lounge music.

other morse amateur: https://freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/243351/

Here’s a non-vocal signal that’s to do with navigation and radar.

http://www.freesound.org/people/jamesabdulrahman/sounds/243345/

Copyright issues... Privacy issues... Headache!
Here's something safe on all sides: non-tuned static noise with occasional blips

http://www.freesound.org/people/copyc4t/sounds/243518/

Frequency: 11846.8kHz
Bandwidth: 13.62 - 14.08

Hi all, at long last I've gotten around to it. here are about 20 or so sounds I recorded on the Twente receiver last weekend, all but one are from the 20 and 40 meter Amateur bands at 14 and 7 mhz. Most feature wide band captures of multiple stations on different frequencies at once, transmitting in various digital and voice modes. Not the way one would commonly listen, but great for some crazy noises. A few straight voice recordings, some deliberately out of tune. There's also a brief dual-frequency synchronized stereo recording of Radio España.
I often recorded the same frequency in 3 different modes sequentially. Each has it's own characteristic reception of signals in other modes.
So here's the pack

Radio dare28

Enjoy. Maybe I'll get around to some more next week.

Hmm now the sounds are there in the pack. Curious.

AlienXXX wrote:
Thanks kb7clx

How strange.
Here are the individual sounds, which clearly show they are part of the pack "Radio"
http://www.freesound.org/people/AlienXXX/sounds/242970/
http://www.freesound.org/people/AlienXXX/sounds/242971/
http://www.freesound.org/people/AlienXXX/sounds/242972/

Maybe just a delay while the Freesound server compiles the sounds into the pack?
I will wait 24h or so, if still an issue after this time I will report as a bug.

Excellent. Not your grandpa's digital mode. As I commented, sounds like domino-ex8 or 16, which reminds me. Here are a bunch of recordings and descriptions of amateur radio digital modes.
wb8nut Digital Modes Information

klankbeeld wrote:
this is a funny one: https://freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/243072/