Radio tuning is a project where I occasionally share recordings of tuning different AM (amplitude modulation) radio stations that can be picked up from all over the world after dark.
For tuning, I use an old Tesla 1130A “Cabalero” transistor radio, which probably also because it has never had any service doesn’t sound perfect, and the reception quality is directly tied to the “antenna” I use (just a long cable stretched across the floor through the entire apartment). But thanks to these imperfections, the final recording has exactly the vibe I like.
For recording, I use a cheap t.bone RB 100 ribbon mic, which makes the sound even more characterful thanks to naturally weaker highs. The finished tracks have minimal EQ, and editing mostly involves picking interesting parts from the evening and leveling their volume.
Shortwave and mediumwave stations I tune have a peculiar behavior – when the sun is over the area where they are broadcast from, the atmosphere absorbs their signal, because the sun intensely ionizes the D layer of the ionosphere. At night, the D layer disappears, and thanks to higher layers E and F, the atmosphere acts like a mirror, so the signal can reflect over long distances. A direct signal “over the ground” or beyond the horizon wouldn’t work anyway due to the Earth’s curvature – shoutout to flat-earthers :) As the night progresses, stations appear and fade depending on atmospheric conditions and broadcast frequency.
Night should be imagined as a “band of darkness” moving across the map from right to left – night simulation on a map Depending on who we “share the night” with at the moment – the first half of the night, we tune the eastern part, and in the second half, stations from the western part start to appear.
In the age of the internet and access to information literally from your pocket, this kind of broadcasting might seem like an outdated technology. But the truth is, this technology kicks in where modern tech ends. With current info channels, digital censorship exists – in countries where information / internet is controlled, this broadcasting becomes a super alternative, which hardly anyone thinks about jamming (like jammers used in the old days). In today’s context, shortwave transmitters are being restored due to war conflicts and censorship.
