Interval signal

Interval signal

An interval signal, or tuning signal, is a characteristic sound or musical phrase used in international broadcasting and by some domestic broadcasters. Played before commencement or during breaks in transmission, or (most commonly) between programmes in different languages it serves several purposes:
* It assists a listener to tune his or her radio to the correct frequency for the station.
* It informs other stations that the frequency is in use.
* It serves as a station identifier even if the language used in the subsequent broadcast is not one the listener understands.

The practice began in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s and was carried over into shortwave broadcasts. The use of interval signals has declined with the advent of digital tuning systems, but has not vanished.

Broadcasting services and interval signals

* BBC World Service in English: Bow Bells
* BBC World Service in English (occasionally): Lillibullero
* BBC World Service, non-English, non-Europe: Three even notes tuned B-B-C
* BBC World Service, non-English, to Europe: four notes tuned B-B-B-E, spaced to spell out V in Morse code
* China Radio International: Chime version of "March of the Volunteers"
* Deutsche Welle Radio: Chimes from Beethoven's "Fidelio"
* Radio Serbia: national anthem "Bože pravde"
* Radio Australia: Chorus of "Waltzing Matilda" on chimes
* Radio Canada International: First four notes of "O Canada" played on a piano
* Radio France Internationale: Electronic-disco, culminating in the last 8 measures of "La Marseillaise"
* Radio Japan (NHK World): "Kazoe-uta" ("Counting song")
* Radio Habana Cuba: March of the 26th of July
* Radio Netherlands: Chime version of the Eighty Years' War song "Merck toch hoe sterck"
* Radio New Zealand International: the call of a New Zealand Bellbird, a distinctive sounding NZ bird species, repeated every 3 minutes
* Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI): "Rayuan Pulau Kelapa", composed by Ismail Marzuki.
* RTÉ Radio 1: "O'Donnell Abú" [http://www.rte.ie/laweb/smil/brc/brc30s_odabu_radio.smil]
* Radio Slovenia: The European Common Cuckoo, electronically generated
* Vatican Radio uses the chimes of the clock in St. Peter's Square, Rome, followed by the Papal fanfare
* Voice of America: "Yankee Doodle" played by a brass band
* Voice of Korea: Melody of the song of president Kim Il Sung
* Voice of Russia: Chime version of "Majestic" chorus from the "Great Gate of Kiev" portion of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition"
* Radio Moscow (former service of the Soviet Union): "Moscow Nights" or "Midnight in Moscow"


= Numbers stations interval signals =

Numbers stations are often named after their interval signals, such as The Lincolnshire Poacher or Magnetic Fields after "Magnetic Fields Part 1" by Jean Michel Jarre.

ources Used

cite book
last = Sennitt
first = Andrew G.
authorlink =
coauthors = David Bobbitt
title = World Radio and Television Handbook 2006
publisher = Billboard Books
date = December 2005
location =
pages = 608
url =
doi =
id = 0823077985

External links

* [http://www.intervalsignals.net Interval Signals Online]
* [http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~RP4N-KWMR/bcl/index.html Nobuyuki Kawamura's Interval Signal Library]
* [http://www.trsc.com/audio.html TRS Consultants' Audio Bytes]
* [http://www.intervalsignals.org IntervalSignal DataBase]
* Uwe Volk's Sound Library (availab


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Signal d'intervalle — En radiodiffusion internationale, un signal d intervalle (en anglais : interval signal) est un son caractéristique, sous la forme d un jingle ou d une musique à longueur variable, généralement émis avant le début d un programme, ou plus… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Signal timing — is the technique which traffic engineers use to determine who has the right of way at an intersection. Signal timing involves deciding how much green time the traffic lights shall provide at an intersection approach, how long the pedestrian WALK… …   Wikipedia

  • Signal (electrical engineering) — In the fields of communications, signal processing, and in electrical engineering more generally, a signal is any time varying or spatial varying quantity. In the physical world, any quantity measurable through time or over space can be taken as… …   Wikipedia

  • Interval cycle — In music, an interval cycle is a collection of pitch classes created from a sequence of the same interval class.[1] In other words a collection of pitches by starting with a certain note and going up by a certain interval until the original note… …   Wikipedia

  • Sampling (signal processing) — Signal sampling representation. The continuous signal is represented with a green color whereas the discrete samples are in blue. In signal processing, sampling is the reduction of a continuous signal to a discrete signal. A common example is the …   Wikipedia

  • Video signal generator — A video signal generator is a type of signal generator which outputs predetermined video and/or television waveforms, and other signals used to stimulate faults in, or aid in parametric measurements of, television and video systems. There are… …   Wikipedia

  • Railway semaphore signal — One of the earliest forms of fixed railway signal is the semaphore. These signals display their different indications to train drivers by changing the angle of inclination of a pivoted arm . Semaphore signals were patented in the early 1840s by… …   Wikipedia

  • Intercharacter interval — In telecommunications, the intercharacter interval is the time interval between the end of the stop signal of one character and the beginning of the start signal of the next character of an asynchronous transmission. Note: The intercharacter… …   Wikipedia

  • Continuous signal — A continuous signal or a continuous time signal is a varying quantity (a signal) whose domain, which is often time, is a continuum (e.g., a connected interval of the reals). That is, the function s domain is an uncountable set. The function… …   Wikipedia

  • Radar signal characteristics — A Radar System uses a Radio Frequency electromagnetic signal reflected from a target to determine information about that target. In any radar system, the signal transmitted and received will exhibit many of the characteristics described below.The …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”