Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Shortwave Blog "Bytes"

All times UTC

Aussie logs from the Northern Territory
2310 VL8A, Alice Springs NT, 1957-2014, 28 Dec, prgr. cf. VL8K. This and VL8T are a fraction of a second delayed relative to VL8K. SINPO 35433.

2325 VL8T, Tennant Creek NT, 1956-2023, 28 Dec, prgr. cf. VL8K. This and VL8A are a fraction of a second delayed relative to VL8K; 35433.

2485 VL8K, Katherine NT, 1955-2022, 28 Dec, English. ABC Overnight programs, news bulletin at 8PM to music. SINPO 45433 - never this good.
(Carlos Goncalves-POR, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Jan 1/Top News/BC-DX #893)

Austria still transmitting in English
The Austrian Natinal Radio Service is transmitting a four-minute news service in English on 7385. Heard at 0050 with daily news. (Frank Hillton, SC)

Belarus on 7135 kHz
7135 at 2346UTC, Radio Belarus Jan 1. Fair reception with Russian broadcast. Unable to hear anything on 7360 and 7390, though. At 2358 UTC there was a Christmas carol ... identical to the one I used to sing as a child in Ukrainian! 'Syn Bozhyi, Narodyvsia'...ie, The Son of the Lord is Born! Sign off announcements at 2359 to 0000 UT, and carrier off immediately after.(Walt Salmaniw-BC-CAN, DXplorer Jan 2/Top news/BC-DX #893)

BBC adjust frequency for Russian service
United Kingdom: Frequency change of BBC in Russian from Dec.22: 1700-2100 new freq 5790 RMP 500 kW / 047 deg, x5990(17-18 Daily&18-21 Sat/Sun) (R BULGARIA DX MIX News, Ivo Ivanov, via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Jan 5/DX Mix News #554)

Bhutan on 6035 kHz
6035 at 0025- UTC, Bhutan Broadcasting Service Jan 1. Very good reception of Buddhist chanting for several minutes and then much lower modulation talk. I was surprised to hear them as well as I did, although during the summer and early fall, they were very well heard in our local mornings.
6035 at 0001, Bhutan Broadcasting Service Jan 2. At tune in at 2350, there is a test continuous test tone. When checked at 0000 there's talk by a male with an interesting horn in the background that must be Bhutan. The chanting that's usually reported as starting at 0025 in fact came on at 000230! Unmistakeable! As my location approaches darkness (sunset is in another 36 minutes), the signal has improved to quite good. Most interesting for sure! Conditions not as good as last night, when Bhutan was coming in at superb levels. Much weaker tonight, but still perfectly readable.(Walt Salmaniw-BC-CAN, DXplorer Jan 2/Top News-BC DX #893

Clandestine, Ginbot 7 adjust frequency
Russia: Ginbot 7 Radio in Amharic to East Africa
1700-1730 new freq 7485 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg Tue/Thu/Sat, x 9880, re-x12120
1700-1730 new freq 9610 SAM 250 kW / 188 deg Tue/Thu/Sat, x11530, re-x15350
(R BULGARIA DX MIX News, Ivo Ivanov, via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Jan 5/DX Mix News #554)

Mongolia on 4895 kHz
4895 at 0047- UTC, Mongolian Radio 1st Program Jan 1. Very good to excellent reception with talk by a male in presumed Mongolian, and \\ to stronger 4830 kHz. Amazing reception for sure! 7260 kHz also. I rechecked at 0205 UT (daytime in Mongolia) and all the transmissions were gone or very weak.(Walt Salmaniw-BC-CAN, DXplorer Jan 2/Top News-BC DX #893)

4895 Mongolian Radio, Murun, 2306-2325, 26 Dec, Mongolian, newscast (pres) jingle to ID, Mongolian music. SINPO 35343. (Carlos Goncalves-POR, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Jan 1/Top News-BC DX #893)
Revised websites from Voice of Mongolia http://www.vom.mn/
Effective: 02 January 2009
English www.vom.mn/en/
Mongolian www.vom.mn/mn
Japanese www.vom.mn/jp
Russian www.vom.mn/ru

Radio Damascus still on the air
Contrary to some news and rumors on the DX news channels, Radio Damascus is still on air and the external services are functioning as normal. Especially these days, black days because because the horrendous conflict in Gaza, it is very interesting to listen to the news and commentaries of Radio Damascus to hear an angle on the conflict you will not hear on the BBC's and CNN's media moguls.

It is true that sometimes 9330 Khz is irregular on the air because of the bad condition of the shortwave transmitter but yesterday the transmitter was definitely on the air during the German and French program at 18 and 19 hours UTC respectively.
The signal was even quite strong but the audio modulation was unfortunately, as always, very weak so even with the strong signal it was difficult to listen.

Once again my advice is to tune in on satellite :
Hot Bird at 13.0°E : 12380 Mhz
Nilesat at 7.0°W : 11823 Mhz
Badr / Arabsat at 26.0°E : 12054 Mhz

Or you can download the program on the internet at the following direct link :
http://www.rtv.gov.sy/index.php?m=541

According to my friends at Radio Damascus they are working on a real foreign language website which will be online (hopefully) soon.

The Radio Damascus staff does highly value when you write to them with your commentaries about the programs or reception reports

Their address is :
Radio Damascus
P.O. Box 4702
Damascus
Syrian Arab Republic

Radio Damascus Listeners Club :
http://www.radio-damascus-listeners-club.tk
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/radio_damascus

Kind greetings from Belgium!
Kris Janssen (Cumbre DX)

Radio Free Asia QSLs in eight minutes
A. J. Janitschek responded to my reception report of Radio Free Asia in Vietnamese on 5855 in 8 minutes—--although it was 11 PM in Washington and he was on vacation! AJ does such a great job with interesting and varied QSL cards which are changed every month or so. And the transmitter site is indicated on the card for an IBB transmitter (Kuwait, Saipan, Biblis, Tinian, Sri Lanka, and Lampertheim), while Asia or Other is checked for a broadcast from a non-IBB site. (Craighead-Kansas, USA)

Rhein Main Radio Club log
Via Ulbroka, Latvia, 9290, 1358-1440+,12/30/08, German/English. A couple of songs with German-language commentary including several mentions of RMRC and a mailing address,then at 1400 switched to an English program with ID, more music, and an interview with Robert Kipp in German with running translation. Fair atpeak, faded rapidly after 1430. (Schiefelbein-MO-USA/Cumbre DX)

Russian schedule updates
Saint-Petersburg
from 1 January 2009

Radiostation Orfey in Russian
1125 kHz 03.00-21.00

Voice of Russia. Arabic
5910 kHz 16.00-17.00
5935 kHz 17.00-18.00
7130 kHz 17.00-18.00
6060 kHz 18.00-19.00
(http://spb.rtrn.ru/news.asp?view=10525 )
(Viktor Rutkovsky, Ekaterinburg / "open_dx")
(Anatoly Klepov "Rus-DX" # 186-A)

Polish Radio external service revises DRM service
from Dec. 15:
1800-1900 on 6015 WER 040 kW / 300 deg to NoEu in English DRM,
ex 6015 WER 100 kW / 300 deg in AM
2030-2100 NF 3975 WER 040 kW / non-dir to WeEu in German DRM,
ex 5970 JUL 100 kW / non-dir
(Ivo Ivanov, Bulgaria)

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty looking forward to establishing service for Alaska
Russian economist Igor Panarin, for instance, has gotten a good deal of press attention (particularly in Russia, but abroad as well) for predicting that the financial crisis will lead to civil war in the United States and the partitioning of that country. He even suggested on Russia Today that Alaska will want to join the Russian Federation and that former Chukotka Oblast Governor and oligarch Roman Abramovich would make a good governor there. Watch out Sarah Palin, it appears that Vladimir Putin can see Alaska from his house too!" Robert Coalson, RFE/RL The Power Vertical, 3 January 2009. "Alex Jones, an Austin, Texas-based American talk radio show host and professional conspiracy theorist, has been a regular guest on Russia oday TV since the Georgia War in August 2008. ... Russia Today, an English language TV channel set up in 2005 as a Russian equivalent of the Qatar-based Arab television channel Al-Jazeera, often gives Mr. Jones a platform to expound

VOA drops Ukrainian Radio, Urdu shortwave
After a reprieve for VOA Ukrainian radio in August 2008, its radio transmissions ended on 31 December. The service continues with television and an internet presence. See also VOA Ukrainian announcement about closure of radio. On this page, files containing WED are audio of VOA Ukrainian's last day. These will soon be unavailable, as the archive of VOA Ukrainian 2008 radio broadcasts is no longer available. VOA Urdu shortwave frequencies were dropped on 31 December, though still listed in this VOA schedule.
VOA Urdu (Radio Aap ki Dunyaa) continues on medium wave (972 and 1539 kHz) and on television. -- "Effective 31st December 2008 VOA Urdu service has dropped all SW services to South Asia at 0100-0200 (9520 9820 kHz) and 1400-1500 (7440 9390 kHz) hrs. Only MW 972 and 1539 kHz are available at 1400-0200 hrs. There are many listeners in India and Bangladesh who are listening to this Urdu service on SW and many more especially after the closure of VOA Hindi service." (DXAsia, 31 December 2008/Kim Elliot)