Chrissy Brand offers recommendations for some reading material to make the most of your summer DXing. She picks out a few QSL cards to try for and shares news of and from some international broadcasters.

 

Although I tend to pick and choose certain times and frequencies for my broadcast listening and DX activities, I also enjoy randomly scanning through the bands. It might be an odd ten minutes in between socialising, or a sleepless hour in the middle of the night. These moments can result in some unexpected pleasures, be it music from afar, an entertaining talk or the chance to try and identify a less frequently heard language.

However, for a more ordered and ‘scientific’ approach to your time, a plethora of publications, apart from RadioUser, are available to guide you.

The ones I use the most vary in price, format and size but are all highly professional, not to mention entertaining too.

They include the annual World Radio and TV Handbook, the biannual BDXC-UK Broadcasts in English, Gayle van Horn's International Shortwave Broadcast Guide (an e-publication) and regular reading of and listening to Glenn Hauser's The World of Radio.

Another aid comes from experienced British DXer Alan Roe, who collates information on programme content, including Music Programmes on Shortwave (Fig. 1). It is available as a free download from several websites.

https://swling.com/blog/2018/06/alan-roes-updated-a18-season-guide-to-music-on-shortwave

 

Short Wave

I covered the schedules of the English services of KBS World (South Korea) and the Voice of Korea (North Korea) in a recent issue (RadioUser, June 2018: 42) but they are mentioned again in this month's logs.

Since April, I have been monitoring both sides of the border. There's been a sea-change recently, with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un wanting to make peace with his enemies in the south and the west. I assume that this has to do with his own power base and the country's economic and social struggles but any move towards peace is welcome.

KBS World has been covering the changes. I heard Dr Bruce Bennett of RAND Corporation speak on how the two Koreas and the USA could make a possible declaration to formally end the Korean War. Amid rising expectations for the summit, South and North Korea held high-level talks at the truce village of Panmunjeom. The Inter-Korean summit of April 27th was also marked with a KBS World QSL card (Fig. 2).

Alongside international news, KBS World offers a good range of music and cultural programmes, such as One Fine Day with Lena Park. Features I have been enthralled by so far this summer include Ahn Jae-woo talking about the 2018 Seoul Hanok Expo (a Hanok is a traditional Korean house) and Tony Medina talking a stroll in the delightful Seoul forest. KBS doesn't neglect sport, with coverage of South Korean baseball (I enjoyed hearing about the Doosan Bears team) and South Korea's preparations for the FIFA World Cup in Russia.

SLBC, the Sri Lankan Broadcasting Corporation, can be heard in Europe at times. In 2017, it celebrated its 50th anniversary (Fig. 3). SLBC has been logged this summer, broadcasting in Sinhalese at 1630 UTC on 11750kHz and in Tamil at 1700 UTC on 11835kHz. The station issues a beautiful QSL card of the Trincomalee transmitting station, which it first sent out in 2012 (Fig. 4).

http://slbc.lk

www.facebook.com/SriLankaBroadcastingCorporation

Radio Free Asia released a fifth QSL card in the series highlighting the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) relay sites that are used for RFA programming. This one features IBB Lampertheim in Germany and will be issued for correct reception reports made between May and August this year (Fig. 5). As always, you can contact RFA online, by e-mail or snail mail.

http://techweb.rfa.org

[email protected]

Reception Reports, Radio Free Asia, 2025 M. Street NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036, USA.

The BBC World Service made a couple of frequency changes in May to broadcasts from its Kranji transmitter in Singapore. English can be heard on 9410kHz from 1000 to 1200 UTC and on 5845kHz from 2200 to 2300 UTC.

The BBC World Service headquarters these days is, of course, in New Broadcasting House, next door to Broadcasting House in London (Fig. 6).

Another BBC move concerns the live music studios, which are relocating from Maida Vale to a new creative media centre being developed at the Olympic Park site in Stratford. It will include a state-of-the-art music recording and rehearsal space for all musical genres This move will take place in the BBC's centenary year from 2022 to 2023.

The Amanda Dawn Christie film Spectres of Shortwave (about the former Radio Canada International transmitter site at Sackville) was given another screening on June 13th, this time at the Cinémathèque Québécoise in Montréal. The soundtrack was simulcast by the Shortwave Service in Germany on 3895kHz at 2300 UTC.

WBCQ The Planet in Maine, USA, will gain a boost in September when a new 500kW transmitter becomes operational on 9330kHz. It will broadcast 24 hours a day in Arabic, English, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Spanish and Portuguese.

Evidently, a Christian group who broke away from the Seventh Day Adventist Church is behind the new transmitter venture. WBCQ has always carried interesting music and programmes and the increase in power and signal strength is a blessing to us all.

www.worldslastchance.com

Graham Smith wrote that there was a clash of stations until recently when Radio Romania International and Radio Martí were both using 7335kHz from 0000 to 0200 UTC. However, Radio Romania International is now on 7395kHz.

 

The Buzzer

Among his logs this month, Lionel Clyne thinks that he heard the infamous Russian Buzzer station UVB 76. He logged a station on 4650kHz at 2002 UTC with a SINPO of 34222. Was it The Buzzer or another number station?

Lionel’s reception quality was slightly improved by listening on USB but was lost completely at 2006 UTC. He heard it the next day again at 2002 UTC, broadcasting the oft-quoted five number sequence. Lionel wrote, "It is of interest that this is the first station I have logged with my Lowe 150 over twenty years, where I have not been able to peak my S-meter using my Lowe pre-selector. The selector 'band’ for this frequency on the Lowe 150 PR is 2.6 to 5.9MHz, Oddly enough, I was able to peak my meter on the band above at 5.9 to 13MHz. This is a strange finding because these bands are usually strictly band-specific with little or no overlap. I have not encountered this before. I would be most interested in other people's ideas on this, especially as this is such a mysterious station."

A day later, at 1915 UTC on 4650kHz USB, Lionel experienced the best reception so far. However, it was still somewhat variable, with a SINPO of 43333. Reception was greatly enhanced by his Datong FL3 on carrier wave, with the lower cut-off frequency set at 2 and the upper one at 1 (Datong Electronics Ltd. were formed in Leeds in 1974, specialising in the development of radio frequency technology for use by amateur radio enthusiasts).

Lionel commented that on that occasion, "Despite its nickname no buzzer was heard tonight nor, as far as I could detect, any synthesised five-group numbers being read out. Instead, there seemed to be conversational interaction in a language I could not identify. At 2021 UTC, the conversation was continuing. I am fairly confident that this is not amateur interference, due to the unique way I was able to peak the signal with my preselector that I mentioned earlier."

I wrote a blog post about The Buzzer on my DX International blog, back in January 2016. It was also being logged on 6998kHz USB at that time. I mentioned then how 4625kHz was first occupied by a repeating two-second burst in 1982. In 1990, the sound emanating changed to a strange buzzing sound, in short blasts. The Buzzer's source was a mystery for a long time, but number station experts concluded that the transmitter was located near Povarovo (Поварово) in Russia. Although not strictly a ‘number station’ (emitting a buzzing sound most of the time) it still falls into that category of strange and mysterious signals.

Occasionally, the buzzing would stop; subsequently, some codes would then be read out. One that was noted at 2100 UTC on December 24th, 1997, transmitted the following:

"Ya UVB-76, Ya UVB-76. 180 08 BROMAL 74 27 99 14. Boris, Roman, Olga, Mikhail, Anna, Larisa. 7 4 2 7 9 9 1 4."

Self-identifying as UVB76 (УВБ-76 in Cyrillic), in 2010 things got a little spookier. Buzzing was temporarily replaced by the sounds of phone calls being made. Perhaps this was the engineers dismantling equipment?

The station then relocated to near Saint Petersburg. It added another frequency to its repertoire, very close to 7000kHz (6998kHz to be precise). Who knows what its real purpose is?

The mystery continues.

https://dxinternational.blogspot.com/2016/01/still-buzzin-after-all-these-years.html

[see also RadioUser’s mini-series on Number Stations over the last three months – Ed.]

 

Medium and Long Wave

Graham noticed that Poland on 225kHz long wave is possibly on reduced power. It is now sometimes weaker than the Czech station on 270kHz.

There is a station called Muravidéki Magyar Rádió on 558kHz, broadcasting in Hungarian. The station is actually based in Slovenia. However, the programmes are in Hungarian. The station broadcasts through the night and the programme consists of Hungarian pop music.

www.rtvslo.si/mmr

Graham also mentioned a new Dutch station on 891kHz, called Euregio Radio. He wrote, "When I listen on that frequency, I can hear nothing. It must be a low-power station". It is run on a voluntary basis by radio enthusiasts and is also available online.

www.euregioradio.eu

Tony Stickells was on Fuerteventura in the Canary Isles for a fortnight in May and sent in his medium wave logs. The hotel room allocated to him was different to the usual room that he uses there. The RFI was terrible, to the extent that, to start with, he could only hear local stations. To overcome this, he purchased a Tecsun AN-200 medium wave loop for portable use, made a long wire aerial and went walkabout.

Tony commented, "The loop was great with its tuning facility and direction capability. In the end, I had quite a good haul. Nowhere near as good as when I was there last September but it was enjoyable sitting by the sea. Among the 200 frequencies I logged were stations from South America, China and India. At times, All India Radio North on 1116kHz was stronger than SER Spain on the same frequency. I managed this with small adjustments to the azimuth of the loop to get the best signal. You certainly need patience though, because, with a mere 5° difference, there was not a sniff of the Indian station."

 

Finally

I am rounding things off this month with a fantastic offering from Bob Houlston, who wrote, "A while back, I enquired how do radio stations choose their music playlist? But today it's gone one stage further. While supermarket shopping, the usual wallpaper ‘muzak’ was interrupted by, 'In a white room with black curtains near the station...'. Yes, it was none other than a recording of Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton performing the track White Room as the group Cream. It got me thinking. If the internet can be considered a source of entertainment radio, then why not Morrisons superstore? SINPO 42345, frequency 20Hz to 20kHz, Wednesday and wait for it … it was AM! It's free, it's a form of radio in that it radiates and it's broadcast throughout the store. The till receipt and money-off voucher is the QSL card. You can even sit in the cafe and enjoy a cappuccino while listening. Try doing that on Caroline and see where it gets you. Could this be the future of real broadcast music radio entertainment? Or am I just too plain silly?"

It's certainly something to think about while you queue up for beer and barbeque food in your local store this summer.

 

Log Contributors

CB = Chrissy Brand, St. Leonards-On-Sea, East Sussex. Tecsun PL310ET, Grundig Satellit 800.

GS = Graham Smith, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Sony ICF-SW600 and a telescopic antenna.

LC = Lionel Clyne, Faversham, Kent. Lowe HF-150, random wire or homemade loop.

OR - Owen Rutherford, London. Lowe HF-150 and a Wellbrook loop.

TS = Tony Stickells, Fuerteventura, Canary Isles. Tecsun PL-880 with an external antenna and Tecsun AN-200 loop.

 

Short Wave Logs

 

UTC	kHz	Station	Language	SINPO	Initials
0000	7315	Voice of Vietnam	English	24233	OR
0100	7395	Radio Romania International	Romanian	55555	GS
0500	5025	Radio Rebelde, Cuba	Spanish	34443	OR
0530	17760	Radio Romania International	English	55444	CB
0530	6000	Radio Havana Cuba	English	44444	CB
1115	6005	Radio Slovakia International via Shortwave Service	English	22222	OR
1145	15360	Mashaal Radio, Udon Thani, Thailand	Pashto	42333	LC
1230	15430	TRT Voice of Turkey	English	55555	CB, OR
1330	9435	Voice of Korea, Pyongyang // 11710, 13760, 15245	English	44444	CB
1345	15825	World Wide Christian Radio	English	52333	LC
1450	12150	Trans World Radio, Kishinev-Grigoriopol	Vasavi	44444	LC
1500	9515	KBS World, Seoul	English	44444	CB
1535	11530	Voice of Welt Radyo Denge Kurdistan	Kurdish	33333	LC
1630	15565	Vatican Radio	English	44444	CB
1730	11810	Radio Romania International	English	43333	CB, OR
1730	15520	Radio Exterior de España	Spanish	33333	CB
1800	9650	Radio Guinee	French	44333	OR
1800	11735	Zanzibar Broadcasting Corporation	English	34333	OR
1830	13760	Voice of Korea, Pyongyang // 15245	English	34333	CB
1850	6070	Channel 292, Rohrbach, Germany	English	44444	LC, OR
1855	13580	Bangladesh Betar	English	35444	LC
1930	6190	BBC World Service, Meyerton	English	24322	OR
1930	9390	Radio Thailand	English	35444	CB
2000	12095	BBC World Service, Ascension Island	English	34333	CB
2015	13585	KBS World	Arabic	35534	GS
2030	7550	All India Radio	English	44444	CB, OR
2030	9420	Voice of Greece	Greek	33333	CB, LC
2130	15245	Voice of Korea, Pyongyang //13760	English	34333	CB
2130	9730	Voice of Vietnam	English	44444	CB, OR
2130	5840	World Music Radio, Denmark	English	33333	CB
2200	11810	KBS World, Seoul	English	44444	CB
2200	9830	TRT Voice of Turkey	English	55555	CB, OR
2330	6195	BBC World Service, Kranji	English	24223	CB

 

Long Medium and Wave Logs

Logs by Tony Stickells, compiled while on Fuerteventura.

 

kHz	UTC	Station	Transmitter site	Country	SINPO
153	1237	Chaîne 1	Kénadsa	Algeria	33333
153	0110	Antena Satelor	Brasov	Romania	53552
162	1237	France Inter	Allouis	France	35555
171	1238	Médi 1	Nador	Morocco	55555
183	1955	Europe 1	Feldberg	Germany	45344
225	0111	Polskie Radio	Kabat	Poland	44242
234	1957	RTL	Beidweiler	Luxembourg	35444
252	1240	Chaîne 3	Tipaza	Algeria	45555
252	0112	RTÉ Radio 1	Clarkestown	Republic of Ireland	42551
540	2309	Radio Kuwait	Kabd	Kuwait	53543
549	0114	Radio Slovenia	Beli križ	Slovenia	52442
567	2000	FRCN Radio Nigeria	Alaho	Nigeria	32333
576	0116	Chaîne 1	Kénadsa	Algeria	52552
594	0118	SBC Radio Riyadh	Duba	Saudi Arabia	44444
595	1247	SNRT Al Idaâ Al-Watania	Oujda	Morocco	33223
600	0118	Radio Gaucha	Porto Alegre	Brazil	44233
621	0102	ERTU Sawt-al-Arab	Batrah	Egypt	52552
640	0602	CBC Radio 1	St. John's, NL	Canada	32222
640	0103	Guadeloupe Premiere	Pointe-à-Pitre	Guadeloupe	42243
670	0106	Radio Rumbos	Caracas	Venezuela	34334
675	0107	QMC Radio Qatar	Al-Arish	Qatar	32333
680	0109	Radio Continente Cumaná	Cumaná	Venezuela	44444
693	0111	Radio Adrar	Reggane	Algeria	42233
711	1300	SNRT Al Idaâ Al Amazighia	Laâyoune	Morocco	55555
729	2015	Kano State BC	Kano	Nigeria	41442
738	0113	Radio Illizi	In Amensas	Algeria	42333
740	0120	Rádio Sociedade da Bahia	Salvador	Brazil	43243
747	2018	GRTS Radio	Basse Santa Su	Gambia	51552
765	0123	SRTC Al-Banrameg	Khartoum	Sudan	43433
783	2021	Radio Mauritanie	Nouakchott	Mauritania	44354
810	0125	BBC Radio Scotland	Westerglen	Scotland	43444
828	2025	FRCN Radio Nigeria	Enugu	Nigeria	44444
860	0125	CBN Rio de Janeiro	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	44433
917	2033	Radio Gotel Yola	Jabura	Nigeria	42233
945	2330	Rádio Nacional de São Tomé e Principe	Pinheira	Sao Tome	34223
945	2038	Radio Kebbi	Bernin Kebbi	Nigeria	33323
972	2040	Katsina Radio	Dutsinma	Nigeria	42432
990	0140	Radio Sawa	Cape Greco	Cyprus	43443
999	0140	SBC Al-Qur’an Al-Karim	Duba	Saudi Arabia	42433
1010	0144	Rádio CBN	Fortaleza	Brazil	43233
1026	0145	IRIB Radio Iran	Azarshahr	Iran	43333
1030	0148	Rádio Capital	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	44433
1035	0150	JRTV Radio Jordan	Amman	Jordan	42432
1040	0151	Rádio Capital	Sao Paulo	Brazil	43433
1062	0155	AIR Northeast	Pasighat	India	43333
1098	0105	Bayrak Radyosu	Yeni	Cyprus	43322
1100	0106	Rádio Globo	Sao Paulo	Brazil	43333
1116	0107	AIR North	Srinagar	India	42443
1134	2346	IRIB Radio Tabriz	Kalibar	Iran	42232
1170	0111	Radio Capodistria	Beli križ	Slovenia	43333
1200	0118	Ceará Rádio Clube	Fotaleza	Brazil	34343
1210	0120	VOAR	St. John's, NL	Canada	34343
1269	0142	Radio Asia	Ras al-Khaimah	UAE	43433
1278	0144	IRIB Radio Kermanshah	Kermanshah	Iran	43433
1332	0146	IRIB Radio Tehran	Tehran	Iran	43323
1370	0149	WQLL	Pikesville	USA	32343
1413	2120	Vesti FM	Grigoriopol	Moldova	43333
1440	2121	Adamawa BC	Yola	Nigeria	44454
1449	2122	BSKSA Radio Riyadh	Jeddah	Saudi Arabia	44434
1530	1356	PEF-Posto Emissor do Funchal	Funchal	Madeira	35555
1530	2129	VOA	Pinheira	Sao Tome	42443
1610	0211	Caribbean Beacon	The Valley	Anguilla	45233

 

 

This article was featured in the August 2018 issue of Radio User