VOA Hitting the Target in Korea

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Greenall, who writes:

Hi Thomas,

Judging by the 60 dB over S9 signal strength on a Kiwi SDR receiver in South Korea, I would say the Voice of America is getting into its target area very well.

They have a Korean language broadcast on 9310 kHz beginning at 1530 hours UTC using their Tinang transmitter in the Philippines. I made a couple of recordings, which are as follows:

April 29, 2026, leading up to 1600 hours UTC (programming in progress), presumed news about King Charles’ visit, “VOA” heard a few times around 3:04 and 3:10:

April 30, 2026, starting at 1527 UTC, open carrier with tone, carrier off after 40 seconds. carrier back on around the 1:44 mark with English ID and Yankee Doodle briefly, then off, Yankee Doodle resumes at the 2:03 mark, then programming in Korean:

Since my original post on March 9, I’ve noticed the Voice of America is no longer using 7500 kHz for its 2200 UTC broadcast in Mandarin Chinese. According to short-wave.info, they are now using 9625 and 11590 kHz from 2200 to 2230 UTC. Shortwave.live has them here as well, but in recent checks using remote SDRs, I have been coming up empty on 9625, and a bit of a mess on 11590. Other listed times and frequencies checked for the Mandarin service have not been heard either.

73

Dan Greenall. Ontario, Canada

Carlos’ Illustrated Radio Listening Report and Recording of the BBC Emergency Radio Service (April 30, 2026)

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following illustrated radio listening report of a recent BBC ERS broadcast.

Carlos notes:

BBC’s Emergency Radio Service:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Carlos’ Illustrated Radio Listening Report and Recording of BBC’s Emergency Radio Service (April 29, 2026)

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and noted political cartoonist, Carlos Latuff, who shares the following illustrated radio listening report of a recent BBC ERS broadcast.

Carlos notes:

BBC’s Emergency Radio Service:

Click here to view on YouTube.

Shortwave Memories — Go Go Radio Moscow

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by Karl D. Forth

Radio Moscow didn’t seem confrontational. We’re here, their attitude seemed to be, and we’re going to offer our opinion on things, which you may or may not like.

Looking at the World Radio-TV Handbook in the early 1970s, Radio Moscow was on dozens of frequencies from many different transmitters thousands of miles apart. The Far Eastern transmitters were 5,000 miles from Moscow.

In 1974, Radio Moscow offered programs in 64 languages, along with Russian by Radio, and a transcription service. U.S.S.R. was one of the largest broadcasters, with shortwave transmissions in many languages, from Bambara to Urdu.

“If you’d like first-hand information about the Soviet Union, its developed socialist society, the Soviet way of life and the Soviet view on major international issues tune in to Radio Moscow,” an ad for the broadcaster stated.

I thought that Radio Moscow offered a straightforward outlook, and they tried to make the programs truthful but were sometimes selective in what was covered. Their job was to promote progress that was being achieved in the Soviet Union, and to criticize the West.

(If you’re interested in the Soviet viewpoint from that time, an interesting book to read is Parting With Illusions, by Vladimir Pozner.)

One subject that got under Radio Moscow’s skin was NATO’s deployment of short-range cruise missiles in the early 1980s.

Later, there was Vasily’s Weekend, broadcast about 1990 and 1991, in the last days of the Soviet Union. The show, hosted by one Vasily Strelnikov, a Russian who had grown up mostly in America, was an informal English-language program of popular music and listener requests, a segment that must have stood in contrast to the station’s other programs.

Moscow’s exit from shortwave was sudden. It was renamed the Voice of Russia in 1993, after the breakup of the Soviet Union. The shortwave radio broadcasts were ended completely by Vladimir Putin in 2014.

Go Go Radio Moscow was an actual 45 single by Nikita the K, probably the only 45 record about a shortwave station. It was an American record and was not, as far as we know, ever played on Radio Moscow. (For the record, there is a rock band called Radio Moscow based in Iowa, not the Russian capital.)

Karl D. Forth has been interested in radio and DXing for more than 50 years. This story was included in the book Radio Nights and Distant Signals.

Please note: all Amazon links are affiliate links that support the SWLing Post at no cost to you.

DX Central SEDAP: A Sporadic Es Data Analysis Dashboard

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Loyd Van Horn, who shares the following announcement:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DX Central Unveils SEDAP: The World’s Most Advanced Sporadic Es Data Analysis Dashboard for the FM DX Community

MANDEVILLE, La. — April 29, 2026 — DX Central is proud to announce the official launch of version 2.0 of our popular Sporadic Es Data Analysis Project (SEDAP), a revolutionary, interactive intelligence dashboard designed to decode the mysteries of VHF propagation. Officially unlocking on Friday, May 1, 2026, at 7:45 PM CDT (0045 UTC May 2) at fmdxdata.com, SEDAP transforms nearly a decade of siloed radio loggings into a massive, cinematic data science suite, completely free of charge for the hobbyist and academic community.

Historically, analyzing Sporadic E (Es) propagation on the FM band has been an isolated effort, with individual DXers tracking their own localized season-over-season metrics and comparing notes with other DXers. SEDAP shatters that limitation by aggregating more than 95,000 North American FM broadcast logs and presenting them with brand new interactive visualizations to give DXers a whole new understanding of this elusive and magical propagation method.

“For years, our understanding of Sporadic E has been largely limited to individual observations,” said Loyd Van Horn, founder of DX Central and creator of SEDAP. “By bringing all of this data together, we aren’t just looking at spreadsheets anymore. SEDAP allows us to physically watch ionospheric clouds spawn, compress, and track across the continent in real-time. We can finally see what a typical season looks like on a macroscopic level.”

Built on a Google Cloud BigQuery architecture, SEDAP boasts a sleek user interface featuring dynamic visualizations, including:

  • The Es-Cloud Tracker: The newest and perhaps most exciting addition to the SEDAP dashboard. The Es-Cloud Tracker is a cinematic, multi-day playback engine that maps the approximate geographic formation location of FM DX Sporadic Es ionization clouds over North America. Openings can be “played” on a timelapse, allowing DXers to watch a simulation of the Es clouds as they develop, morph and transit throughout the day or a range of days.
  • Path Line Analysis: In-depth analysis on the most common and productive paths to and from a DXer or station location. Visually “see” the paths that evolved over the span of a day or date range.
  • Frequency & MUF Forensics: An interactive “SDR Tuner” interface to interrogate large scale band yields, signal paths, and daily Maximum Usable Frequency (MUF) ceilings.
  • Station & RDS Intelligence: Deep-dive forensics into the WTFDA station database, featuring PI-Code adoption maps, format/slogan correlation matrices, and gamified “Unheard Target” lists for US States and Counties.
  • DXer Network Intelligence: Long-term seasonal performance audits and multiple normalized metrics to filter out observer bias as much as possible
  • “We have certainly seen a huge growth in the number of DXers both reporting receptions and the amount of receptions they are reporting thanks to improved technology and resources from SDRs to propagation monitoring through Rabbitears and the FM DX Webservers,” says Van Horn. “So while we are not here to say one season was better than another, we can give DXers insights into Sporadic Es season that can help them strategize antenna placement and bearing, timing of monitoring, potential paths based on different periods within the season and a whole lot more. This is about improving our understanding of what happens when the ionosphere sends those FM signals back down to Earth.”

SEDAP makes no claim of ownership over the raw data presented, acting strictly as an analytical engine. The platform owes its immense capabilities to the unprecedented collaboration and public data provided by FMList.org, and the Worldwide TV-FM DX Association (WTFDA).

To protect the integrity of the database and respect the bandwidth of its data partners, SEDAP is strictly governed by a non-commercial usage policy. Automated scraping and commercial monetization are prohibited, but users are highly encouraged to explore, share, and cite the dashboard’s findings.

The Sporadic Es Data Analysis Project will be accessible to the public beginning May 1, 2026. To access the dashboard, view the real-time launch countdown, or read the full data usage policy, visit fmdxdata.com.

About DX Central: Based in Mandeville, Louisiana, DX Central is a premier hub for the radio monitoring community, dedicated to advancing the hobby of DXing through live streams, online receivers, regular DX challenges and contests, educational content, and data-driven propagation analysis.

Media Contact:

Loyd Van Horn | Founder, DX Central

Email: [email protected]

Web: dxcentralonline.com

Youtube: youtube.com/@DXCentral

Twitter/X: twitter.com/DXCentral

Loyd Van Horn
W4LVH – Mandeville, LA
Member: IRCA/NRC Courtesy Program Committee (CPC)
Founder: DX Central – Because we’re all about radio
Web: dxcentralonline.com
Twitter: @DXCentral
YouTube: youtube.com/c/DXCentral

Alan Roe’s A-26 Season Guide to Music on Shortwave (version 2.0)

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Alan Roe, who shares his A-26 (version 2.0) season guide to music on shortwave. Alan provides this amazing resource as a free PDF download.

Click here to download Music on Shortwave A-26 v2.0 (PDF)

Alan has also created at-a-glance, single-page PDF programme grids for BBC World Service, CGTN Radio, Radio Romania International, Voice of Turkey, and Radio Taiwan International — all updated for the A-26 broadcast season. If you’d like to download these, visit Alan’s Box account here: http://tinyurl.com/shortwaveprograms

As always, thank you for sharing your excellent guide, Alan!

This dedicated page will always have the latest version of Alan’s guide available for download.

May 2026 Schedule Updates: From the Isle of Music & Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Bill Tilford, who shares the following update:

From the Isle of Music, Friday, May 8, 2026, 3955 kHz, 1600 UTC, repeats 2200 UTC
This month, we present some Cuban rock and pop from the 60s, 70s and 80s..

Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, Friday, May 15, 2016,: 3955 kHz at 1600 UTC, repeats 2200 UTC
This month, we present some Persian classical music.

In addition to direct radio reception, we do honor reception reports using remote SDRs as long as the whole program is described and which SDR is specified. All QSLs are e-QSLs only.