Tag Archives: North Korea

North Korea updates transmitters and jamming ability

The North Korean authorities are in the process of replacing their existing shortwave radio transmitters, Daily NK has learned. The measure appears designed to both allow better broadcasts targeting South Korea and stop outside shortwave broadcasts entering.

According to the Northeast Asian Broadcasting Institute (NABI), the authorities made their first move in March this year, replacing the shortwave transmission equipment at Kanggye Transmission Station in Jagang Province with modern equipment made by Beijing BBEF Electronics Group Co. Kanggye Transmission Station is one of three high output shortwave transmission facilities in North Korea, with the other two being at Pyongyang and in Gujang County, North Pyongan Province. […]

North Korea has two shortwave broadcasters; Chosun Central 1st Broadcast and Pyongyang Broadcast. The first is for the domestic and international audience while the latter serves the international audience only, leading to the assumption that North Korea is replacing its existing transmitters in order to improve its broadcasts targeting South Korea. With the sort of modern equipment arriving from BBEF, North Korean broadcasts will be receivable anywhere in South Korea, no matter where in the North they are broadcast from.

According to NABI, North Korea’s shortwave broadcasting capacity was previously very weak due to worn out and broken equipment. Signal strength was particularly weak, meaning that listeners tended to receive a different channel even when tuned directly to the intended broadcast frequency. According to one defector from Pyongyang who arrived in South Korea in June 2011, the signal strength of Chosun Central 1st Broadcast was so weak at times that it was even unlistenable in most regions of North Korea.

However, the quality has recently improved dramatically, as Park Sung Moon of NABI explained to Daily NK, saying, “Recent analysis of North Korea’s shortwave Chosun Central 1st Broadcast and Pyongyang Broadcast reveal that they are being broadcast clearly and consistently, without interference or signal shifting.”[…]

The other side of the coin is that improved shortwave transmission strength stops incoming signals from reaching listeners.

According to one defector who used to be a part of the Party Propaganda and Agitation Department, “They know that when the Chosun Central 1st Broadcast signal strength is weak, it regularly arrives with outside broadcasts mixed in. I think they want to stop this happening.”

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North Korea is testing digital shortwave broadcasting via DRM

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As Vatican Radio pulls out of DRM, North Korea moves in. What a strange and shifting international broadcasting landscape:

(Source: North Korea Tech)

North Korea appears to be testing digital radio broadcasting.

Hiroshi Inoue, a radio monitor in Japan, received on Wednesday the country’s international radio service, Voice of Korea, broadcasting on shortwave using DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale). DRM is a digital broadcasting technology developed for use on AM and shortwave services.

[…]The broadcasts are taking place on 3,560MHz, a frequency used by the Voice of Korea in the past for conventional analog shortwave broadcasts.

[…]North Korea’s testing of DRM comes at a time when the country appears to be upgrading its international radio broadcasting system.

In mid-June 2011 the country’s Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications signed a deal with Beijing-based BBEF Tech for several new radio and television transmitters. The Chinese company trained North Korean engineers in how to install them.

At least one of those transmitters now appears to be on the air. North Korea’s transmissions on 11,680kHz shortwave are now broadcast spot-on that frequency. In the past they drifted a little either side of the correct channel. (Thanks to DX Aktuell for the tip!)

DRMNAinfo comments:

Here are some cool videos of the English language June 7th broadcast and the June 8th broadcast in Korean. As you will hear, the high production values, overly aggressive compression and sibilant laden distortion present in VOK analogue broadcasts translate well to the digital medium of DRM. Now all we have to do is convince Kim Jong-un to aim the antennas our way for some NA reception opportunities!

Additional info here.

I would like to thank Kim Elliott for the news tip on North Korea.

Note that this will be a difficult broadcast to hear and decode in North America, but many regions within Asia will be within the broadcast footprint.

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North Korea: Jamming shortwave radio 18 hours a day

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(Source: Times Union)

[…]Martyn Williams, who writes the blog NorthKoreaTech.org, said that the government’s intense use of its scant resources and electricity to jam foreign news broadcasts reflected its concern about the impact of outside media.

North Korea targets between 10 and 15 frequencies used by international short-wave broadcasters, such as U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia and stations operated by South Korea’s government, for up to 18 hours a day, and on major occasions like the April centennial, it jams radio signals around the clock, Williams said.

The North appears to have recently installed more sophisticated transmitters acquired from a Chinese company, although jamming operations have been up and down this year, likely because of technical problems or power shortages, he said.

Read the full article, the bulk of which deals with social media and mobile phones, on the Times Union website. Obviously, North Korea feels that shortwave radio is a threat to those in power. They should be afraid–shortwave radio signals easily cross their fortified borders. This article will be filed under why shortwave radio.

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North Korea relying on shortwave radio listeners to verify upcoming satellite launch/orbit

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NBC News space analyst, James Oberg, will be attending the launch of North Korea’s latest controversial satellite launch in person. As he points out, though, it will be shortwave radio listeners who first verify the success of the launch:

(Photo: VOA)

(Source: MSNBC)

The history of the first two North Korean satellite missions is also a heavy burden for the current campaign for “transparency.” That’s because, despite Pyongyang’s persistent insistence that both satellites were successfully placed in orbit, no sign of them has been detected by anyone in the Western world. No glint of reflected sunlight, no beep-beep of radio calls, no “bogey” blip of radar return. Nothing.

I do not expect any official revision of those old claims. What’s past is past. But the current promises of a renovation in public disclosure policy could be a sign that positive changes are ahead.

Probably the most critical move to establish credibility, aside from our visits, is to allow other outside observers to detect and subsequently announce their own of the satellite to be launched this week. And that could happen, with or without the North Koreans’ consent.

Far more authoritative than anything we report will be the post-launch detection of the satellite’s radio beacon by amateur radio operators in the outside world. Short-wave listeners are ideally placed to pick up such signals — first in Australia, and then along the west coast of South America, and finally up the east coast of North America. Only then will North Korea have its first chance to catch a fleeting signal, unless it managed an extremely long-range radio reception immediately after launch.

Read the full article at MSNBC.

Know the frequency? Please comment and I will update this page.

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Radio Korea struggles to stay on air

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A problem worth noting: Radio Korea has been having difficulty keeping their shortwave broadcasts on the air. As North Korea Tech points out, their domestic broadcasting arm is still operating:

(Source: North Korea Tech via shrtwvr)

Voice of Korea, the DPRK’s international shortwave radio broadcaster, is still having technical problems that result in entire broadcasts failing to make it on-air.

The problems began just over a month ago when some Voice of Korea broadcasts failed to appear at their scheduled times.

Now, a month later, the broadcaster is still failing to match its schedule. Today, on March 27, some of the scheduled transmissions were heard but others were missing.

[…]The problems have also hit the DPRK’s radio jamming operations, which attempt to block Korean-language foreign radio reception by broadcasting strong noise on the same frequency.

The most severe jamming is usually targeted at “Echo of Hope” and “Voice of the People,” two stations that are believed to be broadcast by the South Korean government.

[…]It’s [also] worth noting that the DPRK’s shortwave transmitters carrying the domestic service, largely for listeners in the country, have not been hit by such problems.

The problems could be technical in nature, perhaps related to faulty equipment, or due to an electricity shortage.

Curious, that these problems are occuring not so very long after the death of Kim Jong-il. Could it point to other problems with infrastructure under Kim Jong-un’s authority? These may be difficult times for those people living under North Korea’s repressive regime–= especially in light of recent food aid suspension.

Read the full article–and listen to radio clips of the interruptions–at North Korea Tech’s website.

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Open Radio for North Korea hopes to contribute to gradual change in North Korea

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North Korea

Without a doubt, North Korea is one part of the world that is information starved. Open Radio for North Korea uses the shortwaves to get their messages across the border:

(Source: Deutsche Welle)

The North Korean regime suppresses all forms of free information within the country. “Open Radio for North Korea” broadcasts international news via shortwave and FM from neighboring South Korea for the North. World in Progress talked to the radio station’s founder, Tae Keung Ha, about the role of outside broadcasters for the people of North Korea.

Tae Keung Ha: I find the human rights situation and the media control in North Korea, I think, the most severe, the most serious in the world. Radio is very special for the North Korean people to get outside news, because in North Korea they don’t have any Internet connections. Social network services, Facebook, Twitter are impossible inside of North Korea.

Also, all the calls in North Korea are monitored, strictly wired by the North Korean regime. And their TV system is different from the South Korean system – they cannot watch South Korean TV.
Domestic phonecalls in North Korea are controlled by the government

Internal information is strictly blocked by the regime, so a person in the northern part of North Korea doesn’t know what’s happening in the southern part of North Korea. The North Korean media only broadcast their own propaganda, so we have underground correspondents inside North Korea, 10 to 20, it varies. They offer us news about what’s happening inside North Korea.

Read full transcript/interview at DW-Welle.de

This isn’t the first time we’ve mentioned stations targeting North Korea, click here to read our previous–yet still totally relevant–article. Also, check out this 2009 article from the LA Times.

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