Tag Archives: KTWR

Radio Waves: Tropical KTWR, DRM at BES, and 88 Years of Radio Poland

Radio Waves:  Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio

Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors Alan and David Iurescia for the following tips:


This Shortwave Station’s Transmitter Site Sits Pretty in the Tropics (Radio World)

KTWR’s home is on Guam, which makes for some interesting broadcasting

If you’re an avid Radio World reader, you know that we love to highlight unique radio facilities, whether they be local or abroad. If you happen to love that sort of content, you’re in luck!

Broadcasting since 1954, Trans World Radio, or TWR, is a Christian radio distributor that collaborates with U.S.-based radio stations to spread the gospel via local FMs, mediumwave or high-powered AMs and shortwave transmitters.

According to its website, TWR’s programming is broadcast in 200-plus languages on air, online and on the ground in 190 countries. It is celebrating its 70th anniversary this month.

With such an extensive résumé, TWR was bound to have at least a few unique transmitter sites. One such site that we’ll share with you here can be found “Where America’s Day Begins,” floating just above the equator in the western Pacific Ocean.

In Micronesia, TWR’s shortwave member station on Guam, KTWR, serves listeners across most of Asia, spanning Siberia to India to Indonesia. [Continue reading…]

Video: DRM at BES (DRM Consortium)

The recently concluded BES Expo 2024 has occasioned the presentation of several new DRM achievements under one single (stall) roof.

For those who could not join the DRM Consortium members in India, here is a tour of the best under the guidance of Alexander Zink, vice-chairman of the DRM Consortium:

Radio Poland marks 88 years on air (Polskie Radio)

Radio Poland is celebrating its 88th anniversary on the air.

The station, launched on March 1, 1936, is part of Poland’s public radio network.

It broadcasts programmes on developments at home and abroad, Polish foreign policy, the economy, business and foreign investment.

Radio Poland, also known as Polish Radio’s External Service (Polskie Radio dla Zagranicy), aims to provide objective and impartial information about Poland and the country’s stance on international affairs.

It reports on developments in Polish society, its daily life as well as scientific and cultural achievements.

The thenews.pl website, part of Radio Poland, is a leading English-language resource for Polish news.

Updated regularly all day, every day, the website covers domestic and foreign affairs, economy and business, culture, sports and human interest stories.

Polish Radio launched shortwave broadcasts in English and Polish in 1936. They were discontinued with the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

After the end of the war in 1945, the shortwave channel Warszawa III resumed external broadcasts.

In 1990, Polish Radio started broadcasting in Ukrainian, Belarusian, Lithuanian, Czech and Slovak.

Then in 1994 the External Service began daily broadcasts in several languages via the World Radio Network.

In 2007, Polish Radio’s External Service launched its news website, now available at www.polskieradio.pl.

Today, Radio Poland broadcasts in Polish and five foreign languages: English, German, Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. [Continue reading…]


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Changes to KTWR’s DRM broadcast schedule effective 3rd July, 2022

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mangosman, who shares the following tip from Mike Sabin at KTWR via Alokesh Gupta’s blog:

Due to requests for later broadcasts, improved propagation, and the addition of a program, KTWR is changing its DRM broadcast schedule effective 3rd July, 2022.

KTWR Digital Broadcasts
DRM broadcasts (Effective 3rd July 2022):

Day Time(UTC) Frequency Coverage Area Language
—————————————————
Saturday 1100-1127 12000 kHz China English
Saturday 1128-1230 9910 kHz Japan Japanese, English
Mon-Fri 1215-1245 9910 kHz China Mandarin
Sunday 1500-1545 15205 kHz India English
Sunday 1600-1630 15390 kHz India South Indian languages

(Mike Sabin, KTWR)

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DXer’s Diary on KTWR

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Arun Kumar Narasimhan, who writes:

Dear Friends and fellow Dxers,

I am Arun Kumar Narasimhan, the Producer and Presenter of DXERS DIARY programme in KTWR. An update about the programme, the 5-minute programme is broadcast every Sunday from 10.26 hrs UTC in 15200 khz DRM Mode. I provide QSL cards to all those who send me their reception reports. The reception reports, band scans and listeners logs can be emailed to [email protected]. This programme has been on air from January 6, 2021.

Many thanks for the announcement, Arun!

Click here to learn more about DXer’s Diary.

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New DRM Transmission and DXer Programme from KTWR Guam

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ed, who writes:

SWLing Post readers might be interested in learning that KTWR in Guam
has announced new DRM transmission details including a new DXer’s
Program named “Love Asia By Radio” which is scheduled to first air on
October 25, 2020 on their 1026-1057UTC English DRM broadcast to India
on 13800kHz. I just posted a question on their blog asking if the
program audio will be made available online to potential listeners
who can’t receive the broadcast, but haven’t heard back from them
yet. If I do, I’ll share that info.

KTWR New DRM Transmission Details and DXer Programme

Effective from Sunday 25th October, KTWR, Guam will continue its DRM
broadcasts to India, China and Japan. It will include a brand new
programme produced specially for Dxers. Click here for more details.
http://ktwrdrm.blogspot.com/2020/10/new-dx-program.html

Love Asia By Radio

Guam Shortwave Transmitter Station – KTWR

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

New DX Program

People have asked us to air a DX program for many years. KTWR had
done this a few decades ago, but we had no one to produce a new
program. Now, one of our listeners, Arun Kumar Narasimham has begun
production of the “Dxers Diary”. The first airing will be on 25
October 2020 in our 1026-1057UTC English DRM broadcast to India on
13800kHz. We are glad that Arun has stepped in to fill this
longstanding gap in our programming. We hope you enjoy it and
continue to enjoy the DX hobby.

Thank you for the tip, Ed, and we’ll look forward to any updates you might have.

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DRM30 on a Smartphone: KTWR Shows Us The Way

Image via the KTWR Blog

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Van Hoy, who writes:

[Regarding the reception of DRM via smart phone,] I happened to find this KTWR Guam post about decoding DRM30 with a smart phone, app, and an RTL-SDR:

Convert Smart Phone to DRM 30 HF receiver!

We are pleased to report successful use of an SDR Dongle used to directly receive and Decode DRM 30 over HF today.

The SDR Dongle is an RTLSDR v3 type connected to an android smartphone using an OTG cable (phone or tablet must be OTG capable).

The Software used:
1. Android driver (free)
2. DRM+SDR Android App ($4.99)

The Frequency of the HF broadcast is directly assigned within the DRM+ SDR app with two settings
1. Frequency in Hertz
2. RF Gain (0-512)

Demonstration video showing Clean DRM decode of AAC Audio and Journaline data along with live metadata.  (our signal was very strong, so only a short wire used for Antenna, DX’rs will need an appropriate Antenna)

Now anyone with a smartphone and a $20 SDR can receive DRM 30 HF broadcasts…

Click here to read this post on the KTWR blog.

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