DX ARCHIVE
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TIME LINE OF ADDITIONS:

 

FEBRUARY 2010:

It has been almost exactly two years since I did any work to the archive side of this web site. I have been exceptionally busy and distracted by the MW dx this last two seasons, leaving limited time for any other projects. Of course if time is spent on other things, the inspiration is not there to copy manky old tapes over to mp3. And if the inspiration is not there, it is better to postpone till the inspiration returns. Otherwise the end results will be somewhat less than the maximum standard possible. (In other words, mind not on the job = pigs ear of the job)

I have been chasing through by boxes of old tapes again, looking for some clips of Radio Jackie, and I became engrossed in the amount of old NOVA tapes I have. So I thought that whatever the quality, I must start to archive them.

I have seen some terrible buggering around with aerials etc during this latest phase of archiving. I had such an annoying habit of messing around with tuners, aerials, atu etc while the recordings were being made.

NB: I am not spending endless hours archiving this material and uploading free for all, for some muppet to be found on e-bay flogging these recordings. Anyone seen at that will have a dummy purchase made, very negative feedback left and be immediately reported to ebay.

NOVEMBER 2008:

The CDs which were available through Tony Hudson's MEDIUMWAVERADIO web site have been discontinued. The mediumwaveradio web site has been discontinued. I did once have a CD page available for dial up users who couldn't download the archives. Details were available here..

AUGUST 2008:

Some of the links to the Irish stations stopped working briefly, as the folder layout was changed at the server. Hopefully the links should all be working again.

MAY 2008:

Added over 1 gig new unique recordings of NOVA NIGHT NETWORK, and NOVA MW recordings, and Atlantic 252 material.

NB: All recordings now have a direct link, rather than a link to the Rapidshare files.

MARCH 2008:

Added 700MB of Radio Caroline from SW from 1988
Added 700MB of KISS FM Monaghan, Eire from 1988
Added direct download of six and a half hours of RADIO NOVA's Night Network
Added 700MB/ 23 new files of Radio Nova Dublin from 1984
Added 700MB/ 18 files of Sunshine Radio from 1981/3

These Dublin stations were recorded from MW in Scotland.

These recordings were originally going to be released on CD via Tony Hudson's mediumwaveradio web site. They are still available on CD for anyone with dial up connections, who simply can not download these large mp3 files. So many folks though are sharing their files nowadays, via for example the Dutch download club, or the excellent archives of AZ Anorak. It was decided therefore to make these files freely available for your listening pleasure.

As a tribute to NOVA boss Chris Cary who died in late February 2008, a full approx 700m worth of new unreleased NOVA recordings have been uploaded. They are direct downloads, and not via RAPIDSHARE.

Recordings are listed as the original file names, hence lower case, and are in date order. (dates are in the 080312 type format, meaning 12th March 2008)

FEBRUARY 2008:

Added some other Irish material from years gone by. This is only the start to a hopefully much larger archive.

NB: These files are stored in RAPIDSHARE, and require "WINRAR" to open and rejoin many of the files. By default RAPIDSHARE limit the files to 100meg. Some are around 300meg each for the long files. UNRAR file 1, and any others will combine automatically to form the original mp3 file. All files required. I know RAPIDSHARE is a pain for free users, but the files are available to anyone, even if time limitations mean coming back the following day to retrieve part 2 or part 3.

DOWNLOAD NOTES:

Welcome to the download pages for those with broadband and fast connections.

If you don't have high speed download capabilities, click here for details of 4 CDs of archive recordings of Sunshine Radio, Radio Nova, Kiss FM (Monaghan), and Radio Caroline.

I have to stress that many of these downloads are 20 odd years old, some older, and recorded from MW/ AM radio, on analogue equipment. The resulting audio quality is somewhat less than perfect on many of the recordings. I have attempted to preserve as closely as possible, the sound of the original recording. However, with tape age/ wear and tear, the MP3 recordings can reveal the limitations of the source tapes.

I am lost for words at my own inexperience in those early days of collecting and making recordings from the radio.

Firstly when digging through my old manky cassettes, I am amazed how often yours truly is heard "fiddling" either with the aerials, or tuning a little bit one way or the other. There is no setting up "just right" before hand, then pressing record. No. That would have been too smart. Some of the "tuning to the sidebands" does give a superb indication of how strong the station was at that time. Mucking about changing aerials in the middle of a recording is dashed unfortunate.

Secondly, it is not difficult to hear by ear which radio gives superior quality for a recording. Despite this, I seem to have insisted on often using an old wooden Philips valve radio, which at the time I thought sounded wonderful. But by this stage I had a Grundig Satellit 3400, whose audio quality is very good for making recordings!! The old valve set did not even a proper line out of course, like most 1950's models. Just sometimes there would even be morse coming through on the station you were tuned to. Does anyone else remember this problem with inselective sets?? Where it was coming from?? I still have no idea, neither the source location or freq of the real transmission.

I also have an abundance of recordings made from a much worse and tinny sounding communications receiver. It is not difficult to differentiate between crap quality radios and good quality radios. But for whatever inexperienced reasoning, this is just the way it is. Unfortunately we can’t turn the clock back and re record the programmes. A tinny recording is better by far, than no recording at all.

NB: These recordings are for sharing and enjoyment but are subject to copyright, and are not for resale.
Any muppet found selling any of this material on e-bay will be given very negative feedback and e-bay informed of theft.
Commercial use is strictly forbidden.