Category Archives: Broadcasters

RTÉ Radio to broadcast GAA finals via shortwave radio

(Photo: RTE Radio)

RTÉ Radio has announced that it will broadcast the GAA All Ireland Hurling Final on Sunday 8 September and the All Ireland Football Final on Sunday 22 September via multiple sources including shortwave radio (frequencies and times below).

RTÉ Radio explains:

“In Africa, where many Irish people live and work, often in relative isolation with poor communications, RTÉ is providing special transmissions on shortwave radio.

[…]These services are part of RTÉ’s continued commitment to Irish people overseas and, over the years, has proven especially popular with those in geographically or technically isolated areas.”

Of course, RTÉ will broadcast both finals via the Internet, local radio and television.

On shortwave, RTÉ will broadcast on multiple frequencies–attempting to target most regions of Africa–so there’s a very good chance you could hear one.

Shortwave frequencies for Africa–September 8 and 22, 2013

Both Finals throw in at 3:30 pm Irish Time (14:30 UTC)

Southern Africa – 7405 kHz (2pm to 6pm)
East Africa – 17725 kHz (2pm to 5pm)
East Africa -11620 kHz (5pm to 6pm)
West Africa – 7505 kHz (2pm to 6pm)

VOA Radiogram 31 August/1 September 2013 includes Vietnamese and Russian

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(Source: VOA Radiogram)

This weekend’s VOA Radiogram will include sample text in Vietnamese and Russian. Vietnamese has all sorts of diacritics, and Russian uses a Cyrillic alphabet, so this will be a real workout for your decoding software. Your character set should be UTF-8. In Fldigi, this adjustment is via Configure > Colors & Fonts.

The program will also attempt to improve the performance of RSID (Reed-Solomon Identification), the brief signal at the beginning of a digital mode transmission that automatically switches decoding software to the correct mode and audio frequency. I produced the program using Fldigi 3.21.74AB. You will need Fldigi 3.21.73 or newer for the MFSK64 and MFSK128 RSIDs to work correctly. If you have a previous version of Fldigi, or another decoding software, I have provided time for the mode to be changed manually.

Here is the lineup for VOA Radiogram, 31 August/September 1 2013:

2:55 MFSK16: Program preview

3:10 MFSK32: Vietnamese and Russian text samples

2:58 MFSK32: Discussion of RSIDs

1:50 MFSK64/Flmsg: VOA News re dung beetles*

:56 MFSK32: Image of dung beetle

3:07 MFSK128/Flmsg/Base64: VOA blue logo*

2:16 MFSK64: VOA News re China hack attack

2:38 MFSK32: VOA Khmer radio photo contest

2:31 MFSK32: Image of submitted radio photo

1:10 MFSK16: Closing announcements

:15 Surprise mode of the week

*To make Flmsg work with Fldigi, in Fldigi: Configure > Misc > NBEMS, under Reception of flmsg files, check both boxes, and under that indicate where your Flmsg.exe file is located.

VOA Radiogram transmission schedule

(all days and times UTC)

Sat 1600-1630 17860 kHz

Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz

Sun 1300-1330 6095 kHz

Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz

All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina.

Please send reception reports to radiogram (at) voanews.com

Voice of Russia poll

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Troy wites:

…I received [an email] from the Voice of Russia. It parallels what you have reported on your blog, however in her reply Elena Osipova also sent me an attachment in the form of a “poll” or survey. It seems she may be collecting data re: listenership habits. I would encourage others disappointed in the VOR closure reports to email Ms. Osipova and complete the survey as well.

If you wish to participate, click here to download the poll, then send your answers to [email protected].

Thank you, Troy, for forwarding this!

No news is no news: a response from the Voice of Russia

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The Kremilin (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

I wrote the Voice of Russia following the suggestion that their broadcasting on shortwave radio may soon end. A response has now arrived from the Letters Department of the VOR’s World Service. And the current word? Very similar to that of my previous post, though VOR confesses that the topic is presently being talked about:

This is to…inform you that the information about the presumable cancellation by the Voice of Russia of shortwave broadcasts as of January 2014 does not come from VOR’s official sources, therefore at this point we can neither confirm nor deny it since the issue is currently under discussion.

In other words, stay tuned…

Not exactly a positive note–no news is no news–but I am impressed that they are taking the time to respond to each inquiry so quickly.

The view from the Voice of America

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Click to enlarge

Today, I visited the Voice of America in Washington, DC and had lunch with my good friend and fellow shortwave radio enthusiast, Dr. Kim Andrew Elliott, creator of the VOA Radiogram. Besides giving me an update on the success of the VOA Radiogram broadcasts, Kim took me to the roof of the VOA building on Independence Avenue, so that I could check out the antenna farm of the VOA Ham Radio Club (K3VOA). I took several photos on my DSLR camera and will post them here upon my return.

While up there, I couldn’t help but note this incredible view of the Capitol Building; I snapped this quick shot–which can’t do it justice–with my iPhone.

Voice Of Russia’s response to reported shortwave closure

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Voice of Russia Antenna site in Wachenbrunn, Germany (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Dominik, for sharing email responses he received from the Voice of Russia regarding news of their closure.

Below are two quotes from two different responses:

“Unfortunately, so far we have no official information as regards the cancellation of shortwave broadcasting. However, we cannot rule out such a scenario for the future, since currently the VOR is speedily introducing modern day technologies of radio and internet broadcasting.”

“Thank you very much for your letter and for your concern about the presumable cancellation of shortwave broadcasting by the Voice of Russia. As I said earlier, so far we have received no official information in this regard, however, we keep receiving letters from concerned listeners. Thank you very much for your support.”

Looks like they’re neither confirming nor denying the news we posted earlier.

Arturo Sandoval listened to VOA “every single day”

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The Voice of America provided Cuban jazz trumpeter, pianist and composer, Arturo Sandoval with a source of inspiration through Jazz. In a recent interview with NPR, Sandoval stated:

“We used to listen every day, every single day, [to] Voice of America. [It] was a shortwave radio program, and they play everything in jazz music. That was the only way we have to hear that kind of music and to be connected with the music we love. I was in the obligatory military service for three years when the sergeant [caught] me listen[ing] to the Voice of America, and then they put me in jail because I was listening to the voice of enemies.”

Click here to listen to the full interview on NPR.