News and reports for November 2023
Edited by Tony Rogers
This is an on-going compilation of SW and MW news and reports to support the various DX Guides.
News and reports from previous months (with additional content) are archived in editions of the DX Guides Newsletter.
23 November 2023
All times mentioned are UTC
Shortwave
ADVENTIST WORLD RADIO Giuseppe Cirillo, Adventist World Radio, Frequency Engineer & Monitoring Department, advised on 1 November 2023 that "Due to a serious transmitter problem at the Sri Lanka station, we were forced to shift some transmissions to different transmitter sites". The latest AWR schedule for B23 can be found under USA (AWR HQ is in Silver Spring, Maryland) in North America on Shortwave.
FRANCE Radio For Peace International (RFPI) programmes in Ukrainian and Russian over WRMI Okeechobee FL are heard at: 0600-0615 on Wednesday in Russian on 7730 and 15770 kHz; 1145-1200 on Monday/Tuesday in Russian and on Wednesday in Ukrainian on 7730 and 15770 kHz; 1330-1345 on Saturday in Russian on 7730 and 15770 kHz; 2030-2100 on Thursday in Russian on 7730 kHz. (monitored by Alex Miatlikov, Ukraine)
GERMANY Deutsche Welle is currently being heard again in English on shortwave. Thanks to re-broadcasts of WRN's stream for North America by WRMI in Okeechobee, Florida, DW is heard at: 0200-0230 Tuesday-Saturday on 5800 kHz to North America, 1100-1145 Monday-Wednesday on 7730 and 15770 kHz to North America and Europe, and 1600-1700 Monday/Tuesday on 15770 kHz to Europe. (thanks to Rihards Millers for helping identify these new additions to the WRMI schedule)
Deutsche Welle's Arabic broadcasts for listeners in Sudan
have continued for the first part of the B23 season, but are due to be
discontinued at the end of December 2023 (that is when the HFCC
registrations are due to expire, but Rihards Millers confirms that DW also mention this in their B23 schedule). They are currently heard Monday-Friday at
1230-1300 on 15390 & 17570 kHz and 1830-1900 on 15275 & 17800 kHz, all
via Issoudun, France.
INDIA The Akashvani External Service has started including a 15 minute English programme called "Spotlight" within the broadcasts of many of its various languages services. (Jose Jacob)
After introducing the English segment "Spotlight" in various language services of the Akashvani External Service, now a similar Hindi segment is also heard! On Sunday 19 November 2023, the Hindi programme "New India Samachar" (translated as New India News) was heard at 1345-1400 UTC on 11560 kHz in their Pashtu service. "New India Samachar" is normally broadcast by some stations of Akashvani at 1500-1515 UTC / 8.30-8.45 pm IST in the Home Service. Must watch out for this in other External Services also. (Jose Jacob)
IRAN See below under "Mediumwave" for a report concerning Voice of Palestine, Voice of the Islamic Palestinian Revolution.
IRELAND RTÉ has a programme in English from the WRN North America stream currently being re-broadcast by WRMI in Okeechobee, Florida, at 2030-2100 on Monday's on 15770 kHz to Europe.
ISRAEL The re-broadcast of Kan in English from the WRN North America stream by WRMI in Okeechobee, Florida, has been discontinued. It had been at 0900-0930
Monday-Saturday on 9455 kHz but since at least Tuesday 7 November, Supreme Master TV has been heard starting at 0900 instead. (Rihards Millers, Latvia; also confirmed by Tony Rogers, thanks to Rihards' observation)
POLAND Radio Poland had a programme in English from the WRN North America stream re-broadcast by WRMI for a while during November 2023 at 2300-0000 Monday-Friday on 7570 kHz to North America. However, this has since been replaced within the WRMI schedule by RAE Argentina al Mundo in Portuguese, so no more Radio Poland on shortwave for now. (thanks to Rihards Millers)
QATAR With reference to recent transmissions on shortwave from Qatari-based Al Jazeera Arabic, Tarek Zeidan in Cairo explained in a post to the World of Radio iog on 19 November 2023: "The first time we caught Aljazeera TV audio carrier on SW was on 15 November around 1130 UTC on 15675 kHz with a transmission that lasted till 1400. Later on that day there was another transmission on 9965 kHz around 1800 UTC but it was weaker that the previous transmission on 15675 kHz. The following day, 16th, there was only one transmission on 15385 kHz from 1600-1800 UTC and that's the only transmission we get from Aljazeera TV on SW for the last few days ... but in the meantime they've announced that they started transmitting to Gaza strip on 93.9 MHz on FM Band. No mention whatsoever about their SW transmission though I sent them 2 emails to get the schedule and time of transmissions but in vain". (Tarek Zeidan, WOR iog); Al Jazeera Arabic (Al Jazeera meaning "The Peninsula") is a Qatari state-owned Arabic-language news television network. It is based in Doha and operated by the Al Jazeera Media Network. It is the largest news network in the Middle East and North Africa region.
ROMANIA Radio Romania International's DRM transmission in Spanish to South America at 2200-2300 has changed frequency from 17530 to 9490 kHz. (Atsuhiko Takezawa, Japan)
TWR ASIA The broadcasts from KTWR Guam at 1415-1445 Monday-Thursday in Uighur and 1445-1500 daily in Kazakh will change from 9900 to 9910 kHz from 4 December 2023. (TWR Asia via Atsuhiko Takezawa)
USAGM The Radio Sawa relay in Arabic for listeners in Sudan continues to be registered with HFCC for B23, although it is incorrectly listed as a broadcast in "Cmn", the language abbreviation for Mandarin Chinese, rather than Arabic. It is at 1600-1700 daily on 15445 kHz via Kuwait (250 kW) to CIRAF zones 47-48. (TR)
Likewise, the weekday Voice of America broadcast in Rohingya at 0100-0130 on 9415-Udon Thani, 9745-Udon Thani and 15715-Tinang is again also incorrectly registered as "Cmn" with the HFCC database for B23. (TR)
VOA's "Flashpoint Ukraine" has now morphed into "Flashpoint Global Crises". The change took place earlier in November. The first daily airing for the programme is at 2200 UTC Mondays through Fridays. Audio for the show still sounds tinny and off-mike... (Mike Cooper, WOR iog)
WRMI - RADIO MIAMI INTERNATIONAL has updated its programme spreadsheet for B23. As a result, information has also been updated in the schedule maintained here on DX Guides for WRMI - B23.
On 5 November 2023, most of North America and parts of the Caribbean changed from Daylight Time to Standard Time. As a result, WRMI programming on 5050, 5950, 9395 and 9955 kHz remained on the same local US Eastern Time, which means that most programmes are one hour later according to UTC. The programming on all other frequencies remains at the same UTC time year-round. (https://www.facebook.com/wrmiradio/)
WORLD RADIO NETWORK (WRN) WRN now features within the schedule of Radio Miami International, with programmes from such international broadcasters as Deutsche Welle, NHK World Japan, Radio Prague International, Radio Slovakia International and RTÉ Ireland being heard at various times in English. The latest details can be found under the WRN entries for United Kingdom in Europe on Shortwave and USA in North America on Shortwave, as well as at the end of the guide for WRMI - B23. (thanks to Rihards Millers for keeping a close watch on the WRN segments on WRMI for B23)
PUBLICATIONS New editions of European Private Shortwave Stations (edited by Stig Hartvig-Nielsen) and Music on Shortwave (edited by Alan Roe) have been produced for the B23 season. Links can be found on the DX Library page. Thanks to Stig and Alan for maintaining these two excellent guides.
Mediumwave
EGYPT Rihards Millers has been monitoring Voice of the Arabs on 621 kHz since late October 2023 and says that the best time to hear them is between approximately 0800-1100, although they may be absent on some days. Rihards confirms that there is no fixed start or end time; they start up at around 0730 to 0800 and have been observed to go off around 1100, but sometimes as late as 1230. There may also be brief pauses in between the start and end times.
IRAN After two weeks of trying to track down Voice of Palestine, Voice of the Islamic Palestinian Revolution on Iran's state broadcaster IRIB/VIRI, I heard it on 20 November 2023 at 1830-1930 UT on 1224 kHz with clear reception via a Qatar-based webSDR, with 765 kHz in parallel offering very poor reception (co-channel Saudi Koran Programme). A quick sweep of the 49 and 41-metre bands didn't turn up any shortwave frequencies. It was in Arabic of course, and VIRI's website (radio.irib.ir) also streamed it in their Arabic Service. Various sources list a 0320-0420 UT broadcast, but I couldn't trace that on 1224 kHz or the SW frequencies cited, nor on the Arabic Service web stream. (David Kernick, Interval Signals Online, WOR iog)
LITHUANIA Radio Lenta on 1557 kHz signs on just as in the last few weeks, at 1455 and signs off at 2105. (Rihards Millers)
UKRAINE Radio Ukraine International's current schedule on 1386 kHz (via RBWI in Lithuania) is 2100-0330 in Ukrainian, except at 2200-2208 daily in Belarusian, 2300-2308 daily in Polish, 0108-0124 Wed/Thu/Sat/Sun in English and 0300-0308 daily in Slovak (sometimes Bulgarian instead). (thanks to Alex Miatlikov); Alex also confirms that "Ukraine: Security Issue" in English at 0100-0108 has been discontinued.
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