Tag Archives: China Radio International

Shortwave Radio Recordings: Radio Australia

Like most Friday mornings, yesterday at 11:00 UTC, I tuned to 9,580 kHz to listen to Radio Australia news and ABC National’s technology program Download This Show.

While the signal out of Shepparton, Australia was as strong as ever, I heard adjacent interference from China Radio International.

Indeed, looking my WinRadio Excalibur‘s spectrum display (see image on right), you can see that CRI’s signal on 9,570 kHz was actually producing noise 15 kHz on either side of their AM carrier (for a total bandwidth of 30 kHz!). Radio Australia’s signal was much cleaner, sticking to their allotted 10 kHz bandwidth limit.

The recording of Radio Australia was still quite good, despite the interference, because I was able to run the Excalibur’s AM sync detector locked on the (less noisy) upper side band.

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

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Daniel shares recent QSLs

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Daniel (W3DI) writes:

I have been enjoying some shortwave broadcasts recently and received some nice QSL cards. Wanted to share the cards and some station information.

Deutsche Welle – copied broadcast on 15,275 KHz – Jan 20 , 2013 at 1930 UTC

China Radio International – copied broadcast on 9,580 & 6,020 KHz – Dec 29 & 31 , 2012 at 0130 UTC

VOA – Africa service –
They sent not only a QSL but a beautiful 2013 calendar.

Daniel addeded:

Shortwave listening was my first step to becoming an amateur [radio operator]. First receiver was a Lafayette HE – 10 with a Q mulitplier I built. Now using a WinRadio 313 – things have really changed.

Shortwave listening was also my first step to becoming a ham radio operator. The Lafayette HE-10 is a beautiful little 9 tube radio. I love the split dials on the front–much like the venerable Hallicrafters S-38.

The Lafayette HE – 10 (Photo: RigPix.com)

The Hallicrafters S-38 (Photo: The S-38 Guy)

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New book focuses on China’s Firedrake jamming

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I just received the following press release from Steve Handler (N9ABC), author of Firedrake – China’s Secret Shortwave Jamming Project Exposed!

Priced at $3.99, his new 45 page eBook is available at Amazon.com:

Firedrake – China’s Secret Shortwave Jamming Project Exposed! by Steven Handler is the new revised and updated version of this electronic publication. Published in late August, 2012, it is now available through Amazon.com for the Kindle. Other booksellers should, by Mid September, 2012, be offering versions for other electronic readers including the Nook, iPad, Sony Reader and other formats.

A little “Firedrake” History-The Chinese government jams or interferes with the HF broadcasts of certain shortwave stations that they apparently deem “dangerous” for their citizens to hear. My publication serves as a guide to the world of Chinese jamming and helps the reader learn about Firedrake and some of China’s other shortwave jamming stations.

Included are jamming frequencies heard during the current A-11 shortwave broadcasting season as well as times of reception. Also included are frequencies heard in use during the past two shortwave broadcasting seasons (A-11 and B-11). Readers will also find information about the direction finding results identifying transmitter sites which I obtained from ITU registered monitoring sites. There is also a virtual tour of a Chinese jamming facility.

Available for $3.99 from Amazon.com (stock number ASIN: B0093NNABQ ) you can find more information and view sample pages at Amazon.com.

Amazon.com also offers free Kindle Readers for both PCs and MAC. Information about the Free PC Kindle reader can be found on their web site. For information about Amazon.com’s Free Kindle reader for the Mac, click here.

The author does not sell copies of this publication directly. Rather copies are sold by retailers and bookstores.

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China Radio International increasing Turkish content

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(Source: Today’s Zaman)

“I’ve sometimes been challenged trying to find exactly the right word to translate from Turkish into Chinese,” recalled Wenjun Liu, a 37-year-old reporter working at the Turkish Broadcast Service of China Radio International (CRI) in Beijing.

“Thank God, we have Turkish native speakers working here to rush to our aid,” she added.

Like many Chinese nationals who were assigned to work at the Turkish service, Liu has assumed a Turkish name for herself — “Damla.” She works at the world news desk and was working on a story about Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s visit to Iran in late March. Like many of her colleagues, Damla is a graduate of Beijing Foreign Studies University, a foreign language and international studies university in China.

CRI has been broadcasting in Turkish since October 1957 using the shortwave frequency. It has a one-hour-long program every day, repeated four times during the day in different time slots. It uses Internet broadband to spread the word and has also used local FM stations in ?stanbul and Ankara to reach its audience since 2010. With unprecedented growing ties recently with Turkey, China is set to promote its culture in many areas, including broadcasting more Turkish content on the CRI.

Yongmin Xia, the director of the Turkish service, revealed to Sunday’s Zaman that the CRI has decided to boost its presence in Turkey. Going by the Turkish name Murat, Xia said the CRI has chosen ?stanbul, the largest city in Turkey, to launch a radio station. “We are going to start with five people and hope to reach 15 in this service in ?stanbul,” he said, adding that the stronger presence would help develop bilateral relations further.

“Our common values are more than the differences between the Turkish and Chinese peoples,” he emphasized, pointing to a strong adherence to traditional values in both cultures. “Turks and Chinese share similar traits such as hospitality and warmth in human relations,” he added.

There is no easy way to rate how popular the Turkish service at the CRI is since it airs in shortwave, but the managers at the CRI say they have some idea by looking at regular mail, e-mails and website impressions. “Our Turkish website has 600,000 clicks on a monthly basis,” Xia explained. Overall, the CRI received more than 3 million letters from overseas listeners in 2011.

Read the full article here.

Though CRI has an enormous broadcasting presence around the globe (and it keeps growing), I would certainly question the listenership numbers based on the methods they use to quantify them. If by 600,000 monthly website “clicks,” they mean “hits,” their numbers may be overly generous. Many of “hits” are associated with search engine and other bots that routinely crawl the web. A more telling number would be either web page views or unique visitors.

Frankly, the 3 million letters from overseas listeners is also hard to believe, though I do imagine they receive a hefty amount of correspondence.

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CRI’s growing Tamil audience

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(Source: The Hindu)

S. Pandiyarajan was fiddling around with his shortwave radio set one hot summer evening at Villupuram, Tamil Nadu, when he stumbled upon a strange station.

At first listen, it was a language he couldn’t identify. It sounded like Tamil, but spoken in an accent he could not recognise. He listened on, straining his ears. To his surprise, he discovered that the voices were coming from faraway China.

“I could hear two Chinese people speaking in perfect Tamil!” he said. “And this was Sentamizh [classical Tamil], which you never hear anywhere, anymore, even in Tamil Nadu.”

That evening, Mr. Pandiyarajan became the latest member of China Radio International’s fast-growing overseas fan base. The station, run by the Chinese government, has, for more than six decades, been tasked with carrying news from China — from politics to arts and culture — to boost the country’s image overseas.

[…]Remarkably, CRI’s Tamil station enjoys the widest reach of all its channels. Its popularity underscores the quiet success China’s “soft power” push is having in unlikely locations. The Tamil station, which broadcasts every day from a modest 12th floor office, has more than 25,000 registered listeners — besides thousands of others who tune in casually every day — in Tamil Nadu and the rest of India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Germany, the United States and Japan.

The Tamil station started broadcasting in 1963. Since then, it has continued to beam its shows uninterrupted, building up an almost cult following overseas, with its fans even organising themselves into a network of listeners’ clubs.

[…]This month, the station invited the heads of some of its listeners’ clubs in Tamil Nadu to visit its Beijing headquarters, part of an effort to engage more with listeners.

S. Selvam, head of the All-India Listeners’ Club, said the station’s popularity was driven by its novelty. “The first thing that strikes you is, why are these Chinese people learning Tamil, and speaking perfect Sentamizh?” he said. “You think, if they are making such an effort, we have to reach out to them.”

Mr. Pandiyarajan agreed. “This is something completely new,” he said. “We have Villupuram Tamil, Chennai Tamil, Puducherry Tamil. But I never thought I would discover that there would also be a Cheena [Chinese] Tamil.”

Read the full article at The Hindu. Also, read about CRI’s broadcasts in the local US radio market.

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CNN reports on new Voice of Russia studios in DC

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Many long-time shortwave listeners may find it ironic that the likes of Voice of Russia now broadcasts from a studio in downtown Washington DC. I just read this news article posted on CNN about VOR’s new presence:

Jordan Hostetter doesn’t know it, but he’s a target. He’s a young professional living in Washington, curious about international events and listens to the radio while driving to work — just the kind of person Voice of Russia radio is trying to reach.

Changing American hearts and minds about Russia has been Voice of Russia’s mission since it first went on the air in 1929, broadcasting from Moscow via short-wave radio. It still does use short wave but with the Internet, Facebook and Twitter, that seems like a blast from the past.

It goes on to mention how, long-time rival, Voice of America has gone totally digital. Not totally true, in fact, but VOA is putting a major effort into moving off of the shortwave bands. As we mentioned previously, in their shortwave sunset plans, the BBG plans to keep shortwave alive in parts of the world where free speech is suppressed and where shortwave is the only option. They will, most likely, rent broadcasting time from other providers and shut down VOA-run facilities.

What was notable in this CNN article was a tidbit about a VOA attempt to do what their Russian counterpart is doing:

VOA says it tried to get a license to […] broadcast on local Russian radio in Russian to Russians. But Elez Biberaj, VOA’s Eurasia division director, says it was prevented from affiliating with Russian radio and television stations “because of threats and because of the pressure that the government brings on license holders.”

So, I guess, VOA will take on this objective with a web presence?

No doubt, our international broadcasting field is changing. I believe we’ll see more broadcasters following VOR and CRI’s local vector. Perhaps, in fact, this is just what our AM band needs.

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China Radio International now on your local AM station

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As local AM broadcast (a.k.a. mediumwave) stations around the world struggle to find their local niche, a new global angle may be taking shape. Much like the proliferation of political talk shows in the late 80’s which began to give the AM spectrum its identity (at least here in the USA) could the AM broadcast band now be a local vector for international communities?

I found this article and story from NPR member station, WBUR in Boston. It features WILD-AM who has traditionally served the African American community in Boston. Their newest offering, however, is coming from thousands of miles away–from China:

1090 WILD-AM was the scrappy little engine that could. A small-budget radio station with big ideas with over 40 years on air, it earned a trusted place in the heart and soul of Boston’s inner city community. But now that’s all gone. The station serves a very different audience.

[…]As of June 1, China Radio International is the new sound of WILD. The station is targeting “new Americans.”

[…]One of the reasons WILD is no longer on the air is that the marketplace has changed — the competition is greater. What’s happened to WILD is not surprising to media observers like WBUR media analyst John Carroll.

“I think it’s a reflection of what’s happening in the radio market overall, a movement toward consolidation, a movement toward nationalization or internationalization, a movement away from local community presence on radio stations and more toward major conglomerates, which are much less expensive to operate,” Carroll said. “One of the issues is can anyone make the FCC care about this?”

Read and listen to this full story at WBUR’s website.

Also, consider reading commentary from Boston Radio Watch.

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