TEL AVIV PTT RADIO
1972 Recording

A Voice Mirror (VM) is simply a looped recorded message. These were commonly used by government agencies in many countries as part of their shortwave Postal, Telegraph and Telephone (PTT) services. The repeated messages were played for tuning and circuit adjustment at times when there was no exchange of radio traffic.

This recording from the Tel Aviv PTT service in Israel is a classic example of a VM. If memory serves me correctly, the receiver I used here was probably the Lafayette HA230, an eight-valve receiver, into dipole antennas. Here is the video recording:

This point-to-point station wasn't interested in receiving reception reports. They regarded such activity as "unauthorised interception"! Instead, the station directed DXers to the Kol Israel international shortwave service (Video: sample letter received by a listener).