Shortwave Memories — Go Go Radio Moscow

by Karl D. Forth

Radio Moscow didn’t seem confrontational. We’re here, their attitude seemed to be, and we’re going to offer our opinion on things, which you may or may not like.

Looking at the World Radio-TV Handbook in the early 1970s, Radio Moscow was on dozens of frequencies from many different transmitters thousands of miles apart. The Far Eastern transmitters were 5,000 miles from Moscow.

In 1974, Radio Moscow offered programs in 64 languages, along with Russian by Radio, and a transcription service. U.S.S.R. was one of the largest broadcasters, with shortwave transmissions in many languages, from Bambara to Urdu.

“If you’d like first-hand information about the Soviet Union, its developed socialist society, the Soviet way of life and the Soviet view on major international issues tune in to Radio Moscow,” an ad for the broadcaster stated.

I thought that Radio Moscow offered a straightforward outlook, and they tried to make the programs truthful but were sometimes selective in what was covered. Their job was to promote progress that was being achieved in the Soviet Union, and to criticize the West.

(If you’re interested in the Soviet viewpoint from that time, an interesting book to read is Parting With Illusions, by Vladimir Pozner.)

One subject that got under Radio Moscow’s skin was NATO’s deployment of short-range cruise missiles in the early 1980s.

Later, there was Vasily’s Weekend, broadcast about 1990 and 1991, in the last days of the Soviet Union. The show, hosted by one Vasily Strelnikov, a Russian who had grown up mostly in America, was an informal English-language program of popular music and listener requests, a segment that must have stood in contrast to the station’s other programs.

Moscow’s exit from shortwave was sudden. It was renamed the Voice of Russia in 1993, after the breakup of the Soviet Union. The shortwave radio broadcasts were ended completely by Vladimir Putin in 2014.

Go Go Radio Moscow was an actual 45 single by Nikita the K, probably the only 45 record about a shortwave station. It was an American record and was not, as far as we know, ever played on Radio Moscow. (For the record, there is a rock band called Radio Moscow based in Iowa, not the Russian capital.)

Karl D. Forth has been interested in radio and DXing for more than 50 years. This story was included in the book Radio Nights and Distant Signals.

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DX Central SEDAP: A Sporadic Es Data Analysis Dashboard

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Loyd Van Horn, who shares the following announcement:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DX Central Unveils SEDAP: The World’s Most Advanced Sporadic Es Data Analysis Dashboard for the FM DX Community

MANDEVILLE, La. — April 29, 2026 — DX Central is proud to announce the official launch of version 2.0 of our popular Sporadic Es Data Analysis Project (SEDAP), a revolutionary, interactive intelligence dashboard designed to decode the mysteries of VHF propagation. Officially unlocking on Friday, May 1, 2026, at 7:45 PM CDT (0045 UTC May 2) at fmdxdata.com, SEDAP transforms nearly a decade of siloed radio loggings into a massive, cinematic data science suite, completely free of charge for the hobbyist and academic community.

Historically, analyzing Sporadic E (Es) propagation on the FM band has been an isolated effort, with individual DXers tracking their own localized season-over-season metrics and comparing notes with other DXers. SEDAP shatters that limitation by aggregating more than 95,000 North American FM broadcast logs and presenting them with brand new interactive visualizations to give DXers a whole new understanding of this elusive and magical propagation method.

“For years, our understanding of Sporadic E has been largely limited to individual observations,” said Loyd Van Horn, founder of DX Central and creator of SEDAP. “By bringing all of this data together, we aren’t just looking at spreadsheets anymore. SEDAP allows us to physically watch ionospheric clouds spawn, compress, and track across the continent in real-time. We can finally see what a typical season looks like on a macroscopic level.”

Built on a Google Cloud BigQuery architecture, SEDAP boasts a sleek user interface featuring dynamic visualizations, including:

The Es-Cloud Tracker: The newest and perhaps most exciting addition to the SEDAP dashboard. The Es-Cloud Tracker is a cinematic, multi-day playback engine that maps the approximate geographic formation location of FM DX Sporadic Es ionization clouds over North America. Openings can be “played” on a timelapse, allowing DXers to watch a simulation of the Es clouds as they develop, morph and transit throughout the day or a range of days.
Path Line Analysis: In-depth analysis on the most common and productive paths to and from a DXer or station location. Visually “see” the paths that evolved over the span of a day or date range.
Frequency & MUF Forensics: An interactive “SDR Tuner” interface to interrogate large scale band yields, signal paths, and daily Maximum Usable Frequency (MUF) ceilings.
Station & RDS Intelligence: Deep-dive forensics into the WTFDA station database, featuring PI-Code adoption maps, format/slogan correlation matrices, and gamified “Unheard Target” lists for US States and Counties.
DXer Network Intelligence: Long-term seasonal performance audits and multiple normalized metrics to filter out observer bias as much as possible
“We have certainly seen a huge growth in the number of DXers both reporting receptions and the amount of receptions they are reporting thanks to improved technology and resources from SDRs to propagation monitoring through Rabbitears and the FM DX Webservers,” says Van Horn. “So while we are not here to say one season was better than another, we can give DXers insights into Sporadic Es season that can help them strategize antenna placement and bearing, timing of monitoring, potential paths based on different periods within the season and a whole lot more. This is about improving our understanding of what happens when the ionosphere sends those FM signals back down to Earth.”

SEDAP makes no claim of ownership over the raw data presented, acting strictly as an analytical engine. The platform owes its immense capabilities to the unprecedented collaboration and public data provided by FMList.org, and the Worldwide TV-FM DX Association (WTFDA).

To protect the integrity of the database and respect the bandwidth of its data partners, SEDAP is strictly governed by a non-commercial usage policy. Automated scraping and commercial monetization are prohibited, but users are highly encouraged to explore, share, and cite the dashboard’s findings.

The Sporadic Es Data Analysis Project will be accessible to the public beginning May 1, 2026. To access the dashboard, view the real-time launch countdown, or read the full data usage policy, visit fmdxdata.com.

About DX Central: Based in Mandeville, Louisiana, DX Central is a premier hub for the radio monitoring community, dedicated to advancing the hobby of DXing through live streams, online receivers, regular DX challenges and contests, educational content, and data-driven propagation analysis.

Media Contact:

Loyd Van Horn | Founder, DX Central

Email: [email protected]

Web: dxcentralonline.com

Youtube: youtube.com/@DXCentral

Twitter/X: twitter.com/DXCentral

Loyd Van Horn
W4LVH – Mandeville, LA
Member: IRCA/NRC Courtesy Program Committee (CPC)
Founder: DX Central – Because we’re all about radio
Web: dxcentralonline.com
Twitter: @DXCentral
YouTube: youtube.com/c/DXCentral

Alan Roe’s A-26 Season Guide to Music on Shortwave (version 2.0)

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Alan Roe, who shares his A-26 (version 2.0) season guide to music on shortwave. Alan provides this amazing resource as a free PDF download.

Click here to download Music on Shortwave A-26 v2.0 (PDF)

Alan has also created at-a-glance, single-page PDF programme grids for BBC World Service, CGTN Radio, Radio Romania International, Voice of Turkey, and Radio Taiwan International — all updated for the A-26 broadcast season. If you’d like to download these, visit Alan’s Box account here: http://tinyurl.com/shortwaveprograms

As always, thank you for sharing your excellent guide, Alan!

This dedicated page will always have the latest version of Alan’s guide available for download.

May 2026 Schedule Updates: From the Isle of Music & Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Tilford, who shares the following update:

From the Isle of Music, Friday, May 8, 2026, 3955 kHz, 1600 UTC, repeats 2200 UTC
This month, we present some Cuban rock and pop from the 60s, 70s and 80s..

Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, Friday, May 15, 2016,: 3955 kHz at 1600 UTC, repeats 2200 UTC
This month, we present some Persian classical music.

In addition to direct radio reception, we do honor reception reports using remote SDRs as long as the whole program is described and which SDR is specified. All QSLs are e-QSLs only.

Bruce Is Pleased with the BAJEI SDR Portable Receiver

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Bruce (VE3EAR), who writes:

Hello Thomas, about a month ago, I bought a portable SDR receiver after reading a few positive reviews about it online. It’s a BAJEI, which I purchased from Amazon [SWLing Post affiliate link] and shipped from China. It arrived on my doorstep just ten days after placing the order. It cost me CND $114, which included shipping and taxes.

There is a bit of a learning curve to its operation, but I soon figured it out and the “one knob” control became very easy to use! It covers a range from 100 kHz. up to 149 mHz. continuous in AM, CW, FM, and SSB modes. For a radio measuring just 6 x 3 x 1 inches, it packs a lot of features for its size. The colour display is 4.5 inches diagonal.

The antenna connection is a top mounted SMA female, while the two controls (on-off switch & knob) are on the right hand end, along with a USB-C jack for charging the internal Li-on battery, and a USB-A jack for powering an external 5 volt device. A 1/8 in/3.5 mm stereo jack for headphones is on the left hand end.

A small oval speaker to the left of the display sounds good for its size. The black case is ruggedly built from aluminum. A collapsable whip antenna and charging cord are included with the radio. I use a pig-tail SMA male to BNC female adaptor to connect external antennas, reducing any strain on the antenna jack.

I am very happy with the set and give it a thumbs-up for anyone who is looking for a portable SDR. When I’m using it in my radio shack, I connect it to a broad-band “Super Loop” antenna, which pulls in the AM broadcast and Shortwave stations very nicely. I’m intending to take it for a listening test at an electrically quiet location in my SUV, using an 8 foot whip antenna.

73, Bruce, VE3EAR

Kim Andrew Elliott: Why Congress Should Fund VOA

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Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station in North Carolina

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Dennis Dura who shares this post from Kim Andrew Elliott regarding the importance of continued congressional funding for the Voice of America (VOA). He argues that U.S. international broadcasting is still a vital form of soft power—delivering credible news where press freedom is limited—and warns that cutting funding would weaken a key source of trusted global journalism when it’s needed most.

Click here to read the full article.

DX Central: 2026 Summer of DX Challenge

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Loyd Van Horn, who shares the following announcement:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DX Central Announces the 2026 Summer of DX Challenge: The Biggest, Most Advanced Logging Event Yet

MANDEVILLE, LA — DX Central is thrilled to announce the return of the hobby’s most exciting seasonal event: The 2026 Summer of DX Challenge! Running from May 2 through August 31, 2026 at summerofdx.com, this year’s challenge pushes the boundaries of radio monitoring with brand-new bands, entirely new challenges, and a revolutionary, custom-built data terminal that makes logging easier than ever before.

For the first time in the event’s history, NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) joins Medium Wave (AM) and FM Broadcast Band II (FM) as an official challenge category, opening up an entirely new layer of tropospheric and meteor scatter chasing for scanner enthusiasts.

To handle the massive influx of summer logging, DX Central has completely eliminated registration requirements and launched a brand-new, custom-coded interactive dashboard.

New Features for 2026 Include:

Frictionless Logging & Bulk Import: Say goodbye to typing out callsigns and cities! The new terminal features a click-to-log Database Search utilizing WTFDA and Mesa Mike databases. Prefer to upload your logs rather than enter manually? The new Bulk Import tool allows you to upload CSVs directly from FMList, MWList, and WLogger, automatically mapping your data and updating your score in real-time.
The Multiplier Scoring Engine: Borrowing from traditional Ham Radio contests, DXers now earn massive score multipliers for every unique US State, Canadian Province, and International Country they log per band.
The John Cereghin Century Club: The legendary Grid Square challenge expands! DXers who log 100 unique US Maidenhead Grids on MW, FM, (20 on NWR) will earn our prestigious Century Club certificate, with endorsements for every 50 additional grids (10 for NWR).
County Hunters & Rovers: Chase US Counties across all three bands, and take your gear on the road! The new “Rover” category allows mobile DXers to activate rare grids and counties for special recognition.
Bi-Weekly Bounty Hunts: Tune in to our DX-themed Internet radio station, DX Radio (thisisprobablydxradio.com), for encrypted ‘targeted intercepts’ hidden through secret broadcast codewords revealed at the top of each hour. Enter the codeword into the DX Central terminal to unlock clandestine, time-sensitive DXing missions!

The 2026 Summer of DX active logging window opens on Saturday, May 2, 2026 at 0100 UTC and closes on Monday, August 31, 2026 at 2359 UTC. All receptions must be solely from this time period to qualify. To ensure everyone has plenty of time to review their SDR recordings, the DX Central terminal will remain open to accept logs and bulk uploads until September 30, 2026.

Whether you are a seasoned FM Sporadic E chaser, a dedicated MW night-owl, or firing up a weather radio for the first time, the 2026 Summer of DX has a challenge for you.

Get your receivers ready, prepare your antennas, and prepare to log! For more information, to view the live leaderboards, and to access the logging terminal, visit summerofdx.com

Loyd Van Horn
W4LVH – Mandeville, LA
Member: IRCA/NRC Courtesy Program Committee (CPC)
Founder: DX Central – Because we’re all about radio
Web: dxcentralonline.com
Twitter: @DXCentral
YouTube: youtube.com/c/DXCentral