by Dan Greenall
This region consists of the western part of Asia from Turkey to Iran including the Arabian Peninsula and Egypt. Decades ago, most of the countries had a shortwave broadcasting service that made intriguing DX targets for listeners like me. Some were relatively easy to hear, while others provided more of a challenge as they did not offer broadcasts to North America (where I live) or programming was not in English. Here are a few recordings that I made over the years and have uploaded to the internet archive.
Click on titles to access Internet Archive pages with additional information.
TURKEY 1970
EGYPT 1971
ISRAEL 1971
LEBANON 1971
SYRIA 1971
JORDAN 1973
IRAQ 1971
IRAN 1971
SAUDI ARABIA 1971
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (DUBAI) 1983
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (ABU DHABI) 1990
QATAR 1999
As 2025 draws to a close, only a few countries from the Middle East seem to be consistently logged by the shortwave listener.
The high powered transmitters in Turkey and programming in a variety of languages provide worldwide listeners a great opportunity to tune into this part of the world. A musical interlude accompanied by frequent identifications precedes their transmission. This recording was made on July 31, 2025 at 0254 UTC leading up to 0300 sign on in English on 7275 kHz. Reception was made using a remote SDR in the UK:
The Al Dhabbiyah tramitter site in the United Arab Emirates is used by a number of international broadcasters including FEBA Radio, IBRA Media and the BBC. This recording of FEBA made on June 24, 2025 captures their sign off just prior to 0230 UTC on 9540 kHz on a KiwiSDR in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia:
IBRA Radio Ibrahim is noted using the same interval signal on June 19, 2025 around 1700 UTC also on 9540 kHz. A remote SDR in Kenya was used to make this recording.
Another relay transmitter is located at Al Seela in Oman and is largely used by the BBC for broadcasts into Asia. This recording, made November 20 at 2328 UTC on 11645 kHz, shows them being received by the KiwiSDR at Haida Gwaii, British Columbia off of Canada’s west coast. The effects of an over-the-pole signal path is evident here:
Other stations may emerge on occasion. For example, early in 2025, a station called Republic of Yemen Radio was being heard on 11935 kHz reportedly broadcasting in Arabic from a transmitter in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Reception was quite good in February using a remote SDR in Addis Ababa, however, in later months the transmitter seemed to develop a bad hum or buzz. You can listen to recordings made in February and then in April by following this link to the Internet Archive.
I would encourage all listeners to report reception of new stations broadcasting from this region to the SWLing Post so others might have the opportunity to try and tune in for themselves.
A good comment from captureeffect regarding exploring the Middle East broadcasters on mediumwave, too. European DXers are well-placed to benefit from some of those higher-powered ME stations now that Europeans are vacating the usual frequencies.
Here at the bottom of southeastern Australia, my early mediumwave days included QSLs from the following stations:
BBC Eastern Relay – Masirah Island, Oman 701 kHz on April 15, 1972 – 16,460 km (10,228 ml)
Zahedan, Iran 777 kHz on April 22, 1973 – 11,532 km (7,166 ml)
Qazvin, Iran 841 kHz on November 8, 1973 – 12,800 km (7954 ml)
Saudi Arabian Broadcasting Service – Riyadh 587 kHz on August 12, 1973 – 12,367 km (7,684 ml)
People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen Broadcasting Service – Sana’a 755 kHz on August 15, 1973 – 12,015 km (7,466 ml)
Batra, Egypt 621 kHz on August 29, 1984 – 14055 km (8,734 ml)
Sharjah Broadcasting Corp 1575 kHz on February 15, 1973 – 11,709 km (7,276 ml)
Radio Kuwait (Dom Svce) 540 kHz on August 27, 1984 – 12,570 km (7,811 ml)
Qadima, Israel Broadcasting Authority 737 kHz on April 22, 1973 – 13,831 km (8,594 ml)
Ras-as-Zawr, Saudi Arabian Broadcasting Service 1440 kHz on August 28, 1984 – 12,387 km (7,697 ml)
Qatar Broadcasting Service 674 kHz on August 15, 1973 – 12,027 km (7,474 ml)
TRT – Antalya, Turkey 891 kHz on August 16, 1984 – 14, 378 km (8,934 ml)
But those were the days when many Aussie regional and country broadcasters went off-air at midnight, leaving less-crowded channels. By carefully nulling out the Asians with our box loops, the ME and European stations could be heard over such great distances.
Great times – great memories!
Dan, you must have listen to Israel that broadcast to NA in few languages back then, they even had a DX program
Yeah, the DX program was aired on Sundays. It was hosted by somebody called Ben Dalfen, if I remember correctly. He was quite a character as he was not afraid of confronting listeners who sent in letters with critical comments on Israel’s role in the Middle East. I can still recall him lecturing some poor listener how somebody’s freedom fighter may well be another one’s terrorist. Or his ideas of the early Walkman stereos – using them made him feel wired up like the bionic man.
Those of us in Europe are treated more and more (with local European MW closures) to the sound of Middle East stations on MW, which adds some interest to night time DXing at this time of year. Saudi Arabia and Iran are common, but it’s also relatively common to hear the likes of Kuwait and some UAE commercial stations mostly aimed at migrant communities.