Category Archives: Schedules and Frequencies

International Radio for Disaster Relief includes special QSL: June 5 – 6, 2014

HFCC-InternationalRadioForDidsasterRelief

The High Frequency Co-ordination Conference’s (HFCC) test of the International Radio for Disaster Reduction (IRDR) broadcasts are on track for June 5-6, 2014.

Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Mehmet Burk, who has posted the updated schedule on his website, Relief Analysis.

Mehmet also shares this message from HFCC Board member, Oldrich Cip, who mentions a special QSL card that will be issued for IRDR reception reports:

“The Trial of International Radio for Disaster Relief on June 5th and 6th during the Jakarta ABU Media Summit is approaching quickly. The last updated version of the Trial programme is available in a presentation here:
http://hfcc.org/doc/HFCC_RAD_2014-004-IRDR_Jakarta_Presentation.pdf

Let me ask all organisations taking part in the Trial to check on the Trial programme schedule and ask for any changes or additions of the technical details that might be still needed. More details about the IRDR and about the Trial and its background are here:
http://hfcc.org/humanitarian/irdrtrial.phtml

The interest in the Trial created among participants indicates that it is real to set up a world-wide system of a voluntary, disaster relief shortwave radio with tools and services that are already in place. Publicity is needed to raise awareness in the world community about it – since the on-going cuts of shortwave installations might make this increasingly difficult.

Please kindly spread the word about it and encourage people to listen to the Trial programmes. Reception reports will be confirmed by special QSL cards.”

Again, check out Mehmet Burk’s IRDR updates on Relief Analysis.

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Thailand Coup: BBC World Service increases shortwave broadcasts

BBC World Service increases broadcasts to Thailand

26 May 2014. As authorities in Thailand take key national and international channels off air in the country, BBC World Service has increased its shortwave English-language radio broadcasts to Thailand, to continue the delivery of its independent news and analysis to audiences there.

From 01:00 GMT on Monday 26 May, BBC World Service expanded its availability via shortwave to Thailand by adding [ten] hours of broadcasts to its daily shortwave schedule (all times GMT):

01:00-03:00 on 11,600 kHz
03:00-05:00 on 7,370 kHz
05:00-11:00 on 11,700 kHz

Acting Director, BBC World Service Group, Liliane Landor says: “In times of national crisis, there is an acute need for accurate, trusted and impartial news. This is why, with our international TV news channel off the air in Thailand, we have increased BBC World Service radio broadcasts in the country.”

The above transmissions add to BBC World Service’s six hours of shortwave broadcasts at peak times for Thailand.

Ends//

For more information about the military coup in Thailand, and how it affects international broadcasting, please follow our tag: Thailand Coup

[Update 27 May 2014: Number of broadcast hours corrected. HT to Dan Ferguson and Richard Cuff]

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Alex updates shortwave frequency charts for summer season

Latest version of DXtreme Reception Log now available for download

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I just received the following note from SWLing Post sponsor, Bob Raymond (NE1I), at DXtreme software:

“I am pleased to announce that the latest version of our logging software for radio and TV monitoring enthusiasts is now available: DXtreme Reception Log — Advanced Edition, Version 9.0.”

For details, check out the DXtreme Reception Log — Advanced Edition, Version 9.0. full press release (PDF).

And many thanks to DXtreme for supporting the SWLing Post!

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Sean crunches the language numbers

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Sean Gilbert, International Editor at WRTH, writes:

I have completed my season-on-season analysis of the top 18 languages used by SW broadcasters. I chose 18 because it is the number we use in our bargraph file (odd number I know, but 18 just fits nicely and it is difficult to find many more colours that are sufficiently different from one another to be easily distinguishable in print).

SeanGilbert-Analysis

If you study the image [click to enlarge], you can see the how the output of various popular languages is declining with each passing season. There are a few surprises, like the 15% increase in German output this season over B13 (but the bigger picture is that it has reduced by nearly one half since B10 -when I first started this analysis). English output has been cut by over 1/3, Spanish, Russian, Farsi, Indonesian, Portuguese and German have all reduced by about 50% from B10.

A couple of languages, however, stand out as being fairly static – Chinese and Tibetan. Chinese (that is mainly Mandarin and Cantonese dialects) has reduced by a mere 5.7% since B10, and Tibetan output by less than 1%.

There can be no doubt that International Shortwave Broadcasting is in its ‘twilight years’ now, but there is still a goodly amount of different programming to listen to, from a large number of stations.

To emphasise that point, for the A14 season, we have the full schedules of 196 international and clan/target broadcasters in our A14 schedules pdf file (which can be downloaded for free from the WRTH website).[…]

I may, at some point in the future, delve in to my archives and see if I have any usable data that will allow me to go further back with this study.

Many thanks to Sean Gilbert and the WRTH for making this analysis available!

You can pick up your copy of WRTH at Universal Radio or Amazon.com.

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WRTH 2014 Summer (A) season available for download

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(Source: Sean Gilbert, WRTH)

The WRTH Editorial team is pleased to announce that the A14 International broadcast season schedules are now available for free download from the WRTH website, navigate to: http://www.wrth.com and follow the links.

The file is in PDF format and will require the free Adobe Acrobat reader (http://www.adobe.com).

Included in the 76 page, 3MB, file are the full summer ‘A’ Season broadcast schedules for International and Clandestine & Other Target broadcasters and DRM, Selected language broadcasts. Also a by frequency listing of the above schedules and a table of sites and site codes used.

We hope you find this a useful accompaniment to the printed WRTH edition.

Please feel free to pass this information on and/or repost on social media as you wish.

73, and good listening!
Sean D. Gilbert, International Editor –

WRTH (World Radio TV Handbook)
On behalf of the WRTH Editorial team.

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PCJ International test broadcast: May 18, 2014

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Keith Perron notes that PCJ International will be doing their first test broadcast from the shortwave radio site they have built in Taiwan. Keith notes: “To cut down the bureaucratic process of registering the frequency with the NCC, RTI [Radio Taiwan International] will be letting us use one of their frequencies for the test.”

Here are the details: