Rum, Roti, and Radio
It's 0455 UTC—2055 at home in California—circa 1983. Deutsche Welle's English-language broadcast to the West Coast of North America begins at the top of the hour, but the interval signal has already begun. The drum-style frequency readout on my Radio Shack DX-100 is neither accurate nor precise; searching the band for the interval signal before the broadcast begins is the best way to ensure that I don't miss anything. The signal sounds pretty good on 9545 kHz. I check 6145 kHz to find the signal is not quite as good and quickly re-tune the 31-meter frequency. No matter what happens to the band over the next fifty minutes, I'm committed. Years later the keypunch tuning on my Sony ICF-2010 would give me considerably more flexibility in finding my favorite broadcaster and switching frequencies to find the best signal, but we ain't there yet. The next few minutes are spent listening to the first couple bars of Beethoven's Fidelio overture again and again. Fifteen s...