Voice Of Korea Shortwave (Yup, THAT Korea!)

[SomeRadioGuy]

The station in Pyongyang didn't always sound so bad, but in the last year or so, it's taken a big slide... at times even worse than Cuba, Iran and almost as bad as R. Cairo..... and we know how bad they all are.

Some services/transmitters sound ok, but some dont, ever. Almost all of them have background audio/bleed over regardless of good or bad audio quality. You could be listening to english and you'll hear french or spanish in the background.

Several of their transmitters sound just downright over... distorted, over modulated.

Here are three audio clips from Mid May recorded at my west central Alaska QTH. The particular frequency, date and time recorded will show in google when you play the file.

VOK 11635khz 1824UTC Sun May 19, 2024.mp3

drive.google.com

VOK 11910khz 1817UTC Sun May 19, 2024.mp3

drive.google.com

VOK 9875khz 1820UTC Sun May 19, 2024.mp3

drive.google.com

 

[boombox4]

A couple months ago I could hear what sounded like ~60 Hz automation signalling, that obviously wasn't filtered before it went to the transmitter...

Sometimes North Korea gets out well. I've recently heard good, clear transmissions from NK to the EU, and I'm in WA state.

 

[Mediafrog+]

A lot of the issues with the VOK broadcasts are caused by noise and distortion in the audio feed to the transmitters, as those often disappear when going from one language service to another.

Best reception for VOK in English here in Houston is the 1300 UT transmission on 9435 and 11710 kHz. No audio problems noted on recent checks, though signal strength can vary day to day depending on overall propagation conditions.

 

[davideduardo]

I wonder if the Supreme Leader and his cohorts realize that nearly nobody in the rest of the world has short wave radios any more?

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

I wonder if the Supreme Leader and his cohorts realize that nearly nobody in the rest of the world has short wave radios any more?

you could say the same for Cuba.. their stuff has sounded bad for ages... same with Iran and Cairo

 

[boombox4]

I wonder if the Supreme Leader and his cohorts realize that nearly nobody in the rest of the world has short wave radios any more?

It's possible, but it's still looks like an attempt, at least, of some projection of 'soft power'. For example, China broadcasts to the EU in French, German, Croatian, Spanish, etc. CRI broadcasts to much of the world. They even have transmitters in Mali for their broadcasts to Africa. Presumably there are some listening, but probably not many. I would guess that more listen to CRI's SW broadcasts (or FM radio local broadcasts, if there are indeed any) than listen by using their website.

In the case of North Korea, I would guess that there are more listening to the SW broadcasts than logging into their media websites. Their website doesn't seem to have a way to listen to the actual programs broadcast over the SW to other parts of the world.

Here's their website.:

Voice of Korea

DPR Korean Web site is powerful for SEO

vok.rep.kp

Same probably with Radio Havana Cuba. They have a website. I wonder how many hits it actually gets? Probably less than the number of people who tune into the SW band. They have an app you can apparently load on your phone or computer. How many have downloaded it? Any more than listen to RHC on SW? It would be interesting to know, but I doubt there is any raw data on the ratio of app / website listeners to SW listeners. The RHC website says it gets 10K hits a day. Do they even have 10K listeners in the whole world on SW?

Here's their link.:

Home | Radio Havana Cuba | International Broadcaster

Short Wave Station that broadcasts in Spanish, English, Français, Português, Kreyol, Esperanto and العربية; news about the events of Cuba and the world.

www.radiohc.cu

Of course, these are government, foreign policy related PR ventures, so ROI isn't necessarily as important as it is with commercial radio. There are many reasons a government provides services to other countries that appear needless or done in vain.

Here's one of CRI's several web pages, you can listen to the English programming by clicking the 'Listen Live' in the upper right corner. It would be interesting to know just how many listeners there are to the programming, online vs. SW.

Live Radio, Shows & Podcasts | CGTN Radio

Catch the latest radio news with CGTN Radio and listen to our trending podcasts wherever you are!

chinaplus.cri.cn

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

RHC's digital media efforts have gotten good in the last few years... facebook stuff, good quality videos on facebook'

CRI doesnt own the mali transmitter site, its operated by the government there.

CRI used to own a site in Albania not sure why they dont anymore.,

CRI even broadcasts in esperanto once a day for an hour.

I'd wager NK has more web visitors then SW listeners.

RHC? Debatable.. hard to tell

 

[Mediafrog+]

CRI doesnt own the mali transmitter site, its operated by the government there.

However the current facility was built by the Chinese using (presumably) BBEF transmitters. Chinese engineers reportedly refurbished the site a couple of years ago, which is why SWLs have been hearing it again.

CRI used to own a site in Albania not sure why they dont anymore.,

The transmitter site at Cerrik ceased operations around 2019. Supposedly the Albanian government wanted it gone as part of an effort to reduce Chinese influence in the country, part of a bigger plan for better European integration. The transmitters were starting to have some problems as well, though they were only ~15 years old.

The Radio Tirana SW transmitter site, rebuilt with Chinese transmitters in the early 00s also was shut down around 2018 as the last of the transmitters developed modulation issues that made the broadcasts unintelligible.

Cuba also uses a bunch of Chinese transmitters from the early 00s on SW, which now sound horrible. Makes me wonder if the BBEF units simply aren’t very durable.

 

[Patrick 29582]

15180 North Korea comes in well mornings on the US East Coast. It's the modulation distortion plus the hum (the only part of 11710 that makes it through.) that says you're on frequency lol.

Still we should be grateful for these holdovers.. there's not much else left in SWBC.

 

[boombox4]

Cuba also uses a bunch of Chinese transmitters from the early 00s on SW, which now sound horrible. Makes me wonder if the BBEF units simply aren’t very durable.

I wonder what make of transmitters CRI and CNR-1 et. al. use, because they are powerful transmitters and have very clean audio, too.

 

[Mediafrog+]

I wonder what make of transmitters CRI and CNR-1 et. al. use, because they are powerful transmitters and have very clean audio, too.

BBEF seems to be the dominant transmitter manufacturer in China as far as shortwave goes. There are other companies in the transmitter business there, but those appear to concentrate on AM/FM/TV and utility operations, not SW.

Very few options for high powered shortwave transmitters these days: Continental Electronics, Ampegon, and BBEF are about all that is left. I understand that RIZ (Croatia) went bankrupt a few years ago. Everyone else is out of business or no longer offers SW.

BBEF English website for SW products: 北广科技

 

[davideduardo]

BBEF English website for SW products: 北广科技

I love the headline: Consolidate the first position of domestic industry; Build international welt-known enterprise".

Really catchy slogan, almost as good as the stuff the Russian Politburo used to create!

 

[tvnut]

I love the headline: Consolidate the first position of domestic industry; Build international welt-known enterprise".

Really catchy slogan, almost as good as the stuff the Russian Politburo used to create!

Well, Russia already took "Kill Moose and Squirrel," so the Chinese were stuck for something catchy.