When I was a kid, the Eastern Bloc countries all had interval signals
that, somehow, were as frightening as the spectres of the things that
I imagined going on behind the Iron Curtain. Radio Tirana in
particular had a desperate sounding minor key IS that made me feel
terribly sorry for the persecuted people in that horridly backward and
iron-fisted nation.

But there was one IS that really creeped me out on any given cold
Massachusetts winter's night sometime in the 1970's. I would sit in
the dark all snug and warm in front of my Hammarlund HQ-100 or my
Astronaut-8, the only light in the room emanating from the radio
before me, and scanning around 31 meters this minor key theme would
pop up 2 minutes before 10 PM...

The station never IDed in English, so I never found out what it was
(until today! :-D), but the Interval Signal and the language my naive
ears heard made me imagine it was some Soviet satellite where people
lived lives of utter despair and destitution under the cruel eyes of a
secretive Stalinist government, always wondering whether they would
see their loved ones again when they got home work in the dim, smoggy
factory. The terrors were almost unimaginable...it sent fear through
my soul.

Imagine my surprise when I found out what it really was today!

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~RP4N-KWM...nd2/index.html

OR:

http://tinyurl.com/ycncdgg

Once here, open up Israel - R. Israel - 1978 using Realplayer. It
still sends shivers down my spine.

While you're at it, check R. Tirana 1974 too :-)

Bruce