Ham Radio Songs

Following a discussion about Amateur Radio songs on the ZL Hams list, Gary Bold ZL1AN provided information on some early Ham radio related songs.

Below is Gary's contribution which he has kindly re-edited from his original posting.

You're probably aware that 'CQ Serenade' has been around for a long time, and is quite well known. It was played by Jim, ZL2BHF, at an NZART Conference some time back.

It was composed sometime between 1965 and 1970 by Maurice Durieux, VE2QS. Durieux was an orchestra conductor employed by Radio Canada who had emmigrated from France. It is said that F9KT assisted. It was first recorded with French lyrics by Raymond Girerd.

An English language version was later written by VE2QS and by Georges Brewer, then VE2BR, of Montreal. This version was later again recorded by Joyce Hahn. Both versions were available on 45 RPM long playing records under the "QSO Records" label.

Today, those discs are collectors items and all but impossible to find.

Despite comments on the web to the contrary, there are many other Ham radio songs. A CD was recorded by the "Ham band" some time ago - see the site
http://www.lastres.com/ajhuddle/hamband.html

The song titles are:
1. Introduction
2. On the monday evening greyline
3. Always on the air
4. I'm not climbing up the tower any more
5. The radio widow
6. The Contest
7. Now it's night
8. It's great to qso in morse again
9. The trip to Dayton
10. Rotuma Bound
11. Out into the wide blue yonder
12. Seventy threes
13. We're the ham band

I have a copy of this CD somewhere.

Also despite comments to the contrary, "CQ Serenade" was not the first Ham-related song. The first was "Love her by Radio", recorded in 1923, and it apparently became very popular. This is mentioned in some American Music anthologies. It started
"Love her by radio,
You will find its Radi-O!
If you want to reach your heart's desire,
You won't have to send her word by wire!"

I've never heard it, and the music is probably lost, but it existed.

There are many others with references to Ham radio, or Morse. Steely Dan recorded "King of the World" in 1973. The dark lyrics are about the end of the world. A ham operator calls. Will anyone else on the planet answer?
"Hello one and all
Was it you I used to know
Can't you hear me call
On this old ham radio?
All I got to say
I'm alive and feeling fine
Should you come my way
You can share my poison wine."

There's also a hard-to-obtain recording by the "Combined Morsecodians massed Ensemble" (I think) of a classical piece played by a massed group of Morse operators. I have a tape of this somewhere. My memory is that it appeared on a recording by Peter Sellars.

The CFO club have a theme song which loads when their home page is opened:
http://home.aurora.edu/~bdillon/cfo/cfo.html

This is is "In the mood" accompanied by chicken clucks. The page has links to other Ham-related music. And there's a link to photo of me and my good friend Jess, W8MCP on it!

Finally, if you have patience, Googling on phrases like "Ham radio song" will expose a host of other references. It seems that a great number of songs have been recorded containing Morse code either in an obvious manner, or hidden in the accompaniment. The best known is the theme music from the "Inspector Morse" TV series.

73, Gary ZL1AN

CQ Serenade
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/february2008/
cq_serenade.htm

Morse Code Melody by The Alberts (short clip only)
http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/mediaplayer.asp
?ean=724353263126&disc=2&track=19

ZL Hams Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zlhams/