Well interesting to some, to others it'll be seen as pure anorak activities (yes I know who you are!).  There are some interesting broadcasts out there on HF that are amusing, strange, intriguing and downright confusing but they all hold your interest if you are into that kind of thing. I'll try to give you a rough idea of what is going on in the world of Clandestine and downright odd HF radio.

So what is Clandestine Radio? Clandestine radio can be anything strange or anything from inside a country that is oppressed, say like The Voice of Islamic Movement in Iraqi Kurdistan in the days of Saddam Hussain or Voice of the People in Zimbabwe. Basically, a radio broadcast that is against the ruling parties, usually a dictatorial government or military government but not always. For more actual details of Clandestine Radio, including schedules and recordings try www.clandestineradio.com or A*C*E at www.frn.net/ace/ or even www.dxing.com/clandest.htm but they are very US based but give excellent details. For a whole host of links to Clandestine Radio information, try this page from the British DX Club www.users.waitrose.com/~bdxc/links.html plenty of links to get you going.

Those in the UK may need to be careful, you can break the law in your radio listening, be warned! You may want to check out www.ofcom.org.uk/ where radio is now controlled from. They took over from the Radiocommunications Agency in 2003.

Below is a table with some recordings of strange broadcasts on them, just click on them and they should open in your mp3/wav player.

1. Supposedly a MOSSAD spy station. These 'spy stations' usually transmit numbers or letters which the spies decode with a 'one time pad' apparently.

2. Lincolnshire Poacher, named after the tune that is played between the code letters. Supposedly British Spy station running from Cyprus.

3. Shannon VOLMET, the Irish Aircraft weather reports. Just give the weather really, automatic machine.

4. RTTY - Radio Tele TYpe. Basically it is a transmission that you can read on a computer that prints text messages, used by radio amateurs, some weather services and press agencies.

5. Kuwaiti Radio. Just a station broadcasting from Kuwait.

6. Radio China International. As above really, except from China (Taiwan).

7. New Zealand International. Heard in London on the Grundig Satellit 700.

8. Japan Radio. Yes, radio from Japan.

9. Radio Korea International. South Korea, was running in Summer only.

10. CBBC1. Canada's Radio.

11. Search And Rescue. Not sure what this frequency was but it seems to be an active search.

12. This one is an oddity in that a counting station (spy) is on the same frequency (or very close to) the Lincolnshire Poacher.

13. GHFS is an American HF radio system where the UK (Architect) also gives some data. The Americans use it to send action codes to it's military, it can be looked up on the internet but this recording is odd because it has a loud bubble jammer and some whistling. Whistling is often used to check a transmitter before the full on transmission begins.