As we mentioned in a post last month, Radio Canada International’s program “The Link” is now being broadcast via Shortwave Service in Germany.
If you’ve been listening to The Link via shortwave, SWLing Post contributor, Richard Langley, encourages you to send RCI a short listener report.
You can either send a brief e-mail to Mark Montgomery via [email protected] or use the contact form at http://www.rcinet.ca/en/contact/.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Langley, who writes:
Here is the response from Christian Milling, the director of Radio 700 and Shortwaveservice. Note that he is stressing the difference between Radio 700 (as a program and separate broadcasting station) and Shortwaveservice (as the provider of technical services for the shortwave transmitters at the Kall-Krekkel). The transmitters are actually maintained by Burkhard Baumgartner, DF5XV, under the name “Classic Broadcast”.
All three operations are closely linked so it’s understandable that there is confusion about who does what. Furthermore, in the WRTH, we have “Radio 700 Kurzwellendienst” (Radio 700 Shortwave Service). No reply directly from RCI yet.
Dear Richard Langley,
thank you very much for your e-Mail. Indeed we (not Radio700 but Shortwaveservice.com as technical provider) has set up an official cooperation with Radio Canada International which allows us to transmit the english, french and spanish programming. So this will be a long-term relay on a legal basis. As we prepare a spanish language outlet, the spanish broadcast of RCI will follow later on on SW.
The propagation conditions are a bit lousy at the moment, resulting in a bigger skipzone since a few days on 7310 kHz. Normally we boom into on that frequency also in Twente (which is approx. 200km away from our tranmitter [sic] site). We got some reception reports from the UK, which one from Manchester I’d like to quote: “Good clear signal, just some slight fading from solar disturbance that was taking place. How wonderful to hear Radio Canada International back on shortwave again, I really hope they continue broadcasting from Kall, I couldn’t believe it when I saw they would be broadcasting here this week.”
As the brodcasts [sic] are intended for the reception in europe and most speak either french or english and our weekend-schedule is very crowded, we only managed to find a slot for both languages at a time. But we will think about a re-run of the shows on a different day.
Thanks for tuning in!
If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Best regards,
Christian Milling
Thanks so much for the update, Richard!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Langley, who shares the following message:
Only a barely-detectable carrier [of Radio Canada International] on 7310 kHz from Radio 700 Kurzwellendienst (or Radio 700 Shortwave Service using the web-interfaced University of Twente SDR receiver at 15:00 UTC. However, the online streaming of Radio 700’s 7310 kHz transmission came through clearly 😉 and, indeed, an RCI program is being transmitted. In fact, it’s this week’s “The LINK Online”!
So, finally, RCI is back on shortwave. Too bad the signal for the English program isn’t stronger. I was waiting for the scheduled start of the French RCI program at 14:30 UTC on 6005 kHz but when I tuned in via Twente at 14:15 UTC it was already in progress with a good signal! So, obviously it starts at an earlier time. Perhaps 14:00 UTC? What’s the point of having the English and French programs on at the same time? Some of us might want to listen to both.
[…]The French-language RCI program was the weekly program “Tam-Tam Canada” (with the familiar tam-tam drum signature music) and it was today’s edition that was broadcast. Good reception via Twente. It ended at about 14:52 UTC with then a switch briefly to Radio 700 programming. I have queries out to both Radio 700 and RCI about these programs and will report back if I get further information.
[…]I wonder if there’s an active collaboration of RCI in this effort?
Please let us know what you discover, Richard! Though I imagine this broadcast of The Link and Tam-Tam Canada may be a limited broadcast run, it would be incredibly cool to hear RCI on shortwave once again.
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Knut, who recently informed me that the German language services of Radio Slovakia International, Radio Prague, Radio Ukraine International and the Polish Radio External Service are being relayed on shortwave radio, via Radio 700 in Euskirchen, Germany.
All broadcasts are on 3985 kHz and are transmitted daily (with 1 kW), beginning at 19:30 UTC.
At one thousands watts, on 3,985 kHz, this will be challenging DX outside of Europe. Still, I love the fact that independent broadcasters (like Radio 700, WRMI, WBCQ, etc.) make shortwave broadcasting affordable for many of these international broadcasters.
Knut originally learned about these relays through the German radio blog, DX Aktuell.
Check out Radio 700’s full broadcast schedule by clicking here.