When Something Goes Wrong On Shortwave...

[Mediafrog+]

Right now (0425 UTC on 6/24), the BBC relay in Madagascar is blasting 10-over-9 into Phoenix on 9915 kHz. It's only a two hour broadcast, with the first hour aimed at 315 degrees, which puts the US in its path, and the 2nd hour more toward South America at 265 degrees. Why? I have no idea. How many English speakers and/or British expatriates are in Argentina and Chile?

The 265 degree beam from Madagascar on 9915 at 0500 is for southern Africa, not South America.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

The Chinese government is not populated by stupid people. If they are broadcasting in shortwave, they are obviously doing it for a reason. It is probably viewed as one arm of their 'soft power', and 'soft power' isn't always readily measurable.

In much of Africa there are regions where there probably is little to no internet (Mali would be an example of that) and FM mainly reaches the big cities. In Chad, for example, the majority of the FMs are in the capital, and the rest of the FMs are religious.

In Africa there are many, highly populated cities, but there are also huge swaths of rural areas that are also populated. Perhaps those rural areas are the targets the Chinese see for their SW services. Of course, one would have to have an inside look at the operations of the Chinese government to truly understand their reasoning or motives behind their SW services.

Mostly true, about china.. some of their broadcasts on SW.... are to jam other stations.

And I'm not talking the firedrake music jamming RFA, etc.

I'm talking coincidentally being 5khz away or on the same frequency as someone you dont like, you have a much more powerful transmitter than them... and broadcast CNR/CRI.

 

[CTListener]

The 265 degree beam from Madagascar on 9915 at 0500 is for southern Africa, not South America.

Despite the pleading letters from those four guys in the Falklands?

 

[MichaelTheZ]

I think a lot of it is in the vast populations of some countries. Nigeria has 200 million people. So if only 1 in 10,000 people there listen to Radio China International, that's still 20,000 people, which might feel like a large audience to the broadcasters. In terms of influencing popular opinion, it will have a negligible effect compared to the vast effect of the internet, US culture, and so on. But governments aren't always rational about these things. Also, the framework for their international broadcasts is already in place, so it's not too hard to just continue what they have been doing and continue their shortwave broadcasts.

 

[boombox4]

Mostly true, about china.. some of their broadcasts on SW.... are to jam other stations.

And I'm not talking the firedrake music jamming RFA, etc.

I'm talking coincidentally being 5khz away or on the same frequency as someone you dont like, you have a much more powerful transmitter than them... and broadcast CNR/CRI.

Yeah, a lot of what I hear when the Asian Pipeline opens up is numerous copies of CNR1. In the early 2010's, they often played a program where there was a smooth talking dude speaking over a jazzy, easy breezy piano piece. It almost sounded like midnight music for lovers, or something similar... As it was, it was probably midnight in China at the time, because the Asian Pipeline usually opens up between 5-9 a.m. PT.

Listen closely, you often hear another Chinese program beneath, much weaker here in the PNW naturally. I.e., the station they were jamming.

 

[boombox4]

I think a lot of it is in the vast populations of some countries. Nigeria has 200 million people. So if only 1 in 10,000 people there listen to Radio China International, that's still 20,000 people, which might feel like a large audience to the broadcasters. In terms of influencing popular opinion, it will have a negligible effect compared to the vast effect of the internet, US culture, and so on. But governments aren't always rational about these things. Also, the framework for their international broadcasts is already in place, so it's not too hard to just continue what they have been doing and continue their shortwave broadcasts.

And also, some of these countries don't have great internet. In the Wiki article on media in Mali and Chad, a lot of it -- whatever there is -- is dial-up, and maybe 3% of the population have good internet access. I know that is changing in the African cities, but there are still areas that are wide open.

 

[crainbebo]

CNR1, CNR2, CNR6, even the CNR11 beamed at Tibet can be heard on 49m mornings. CRI in many languages as well. Also some clandestine South Koreans (which often get jammed), an occasional NHK relayer, and sometimes KBS World Radio in South Korea. Not to mention the DPRK Voice of Korea.

Mali and Chad's internet problems is likely why Elon Musk is working hard on StarLink.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Yeah, a lot of what I hear when the Asian Pipeline opens up is numerous copies of CNR1. In the early 2010's, they often played a program where there was a smooth talking dude speaking over a jazzy, easy breezy piano piece. It almost sounded like midnight music for lovers, or something similar... As it was, it was probably midnight in China at the time, because the Asian Pipeline usually opens up between 5-9 a.m. PT.

Listen closely, you often hear another Chinese program beneath, much weaker here in the PNW naturally. I.e., the station they were jamming.

Also, NO ONE has ever logged Sound of hope, aka SOH, theyre in taiwan or china and have a ton of SW low power signals out in Asia.. but china's jammy jam jammer masheen is active on there.. there have been claims that SOH has been logged in the US, but never any 150 percent definitive proof

 

[cyberdad]

A question that just popped into my head this afternoon.....

We've been mentioning domestic shortwave services that were bulit to augment parent AM station coverage. E.g. CFRX, and David's station in Ecuador.

So then, what's the deal with something like the R. Rebelde outlet on 5025 in Cuba? Haven't the Cubans installed enough R. Rebelde transmitters on 710 and 1180 alone to effectively cover every inch of real estate on the island?

 

[kenglish]

I really wonder what CRI wants to do with North America.
For years, they were running lots of AM's, with mostly English programming. Just a few hours a week in Chinese.
They seemed to be a showcase for China travel, business and their take on international news and affairs.
Then, one day, they went Chinese 24/7.
Not sure how many listeners they expected to gain in most US cities. Salt Lake is multi-cultural, and there are missionaries who speak Chinese (of some dialect). But, they lost a lot of their audience.
Later, they unloaded most of the starions, and many are silent.

 

[CADXER]

So then, what's the deal with something like the R. Rebelde outlet on 5025 in Cuba? Haven't the Cubans installed enough R. Rebelde transmitters on 710 and 1180 alone to effectively cover every inch of real estate on the island?

Radio Rebelde on 5025 and Radio Progreso on 4765 are probably targeted for reception outside of Cuba. Venezuela comes to mind which probably has quite a few Cuban nationals present.

 

[davideduardo]

Radio Rebelde on 5025 and Radio Progreso on 4765 are probably targeted for reception outside of Cuba. Venezuela comes to mind which probably has quite a few Cuban nationals present.

Venezuela may have a few hundred Cuban national present, but there are very few since Venezuela stopped giving Cuba low-cost petroleum.

And shortwave radios in Venzuela are certainly a thing of the past. Even more than half of the AM stations are gone now.

 

[davideduardo]

A question that just popped into my head this afternoon.....

We've been mentioning domestic shortwave services that were bulit to augment parent AM station coverage. E.g. CFRX, and David's station in Ecuador.

So then, what's the deal with something like the R. Rebelde outlet on 5025 in Cuba? Haven't the Cubans installed enough R. Rebelde transmitters on 710 and 1180 alone to effectively cover every inch of real estate on the island?

The radio division of the Cuban government is very bureaucratic in the old Politburo tradition they learned from the Russians in the 60's and 70's. I suspect inertia keeps the SW operations going.

 

[boombox4]

Also, NO ONE has ever logged Sound of hope, aka SOH, theyre in taiwan or china and have a ton of SW low power signals out in Asia.. but china's jammy jam jammer masheen is active on there.. there have been claims that SOH has been logged in the US, but never any 150 percent definitive proof

I've sometimes heard the Chinese language programming under the CNR / Firedrake jammers, but not clear enough to ID anything -- if I understood Chinese, which I can't. I can ID the language, and that's as far as it gets.

 

[boombox4]

I really wonder what CRI wants to do with North America.
For years, they were running lots of AM's, with mostly English programming. Just a few hours a week in Chinese.
They seemed to be a showcase for China travel, business and their take on international news and affairs.
Then, one day, they went Chinese 24/7.
Not sure how many listeners they expected to gain in most US cities. Salt Lake is multi-cultural, and there are missionaries who speak Chinese (of some dialect). But, they lost a lot of their audience.
Later, they unloaded most of the starions, and many are silent.

It's hard to say. China doesn't seem to have an equivalent of RT TV (Russia Today, Russia's TV news channel). It China has one, I haven't heard of it.

 

[tomservo]

It's hard to say. China doesn't seem to have an equivalent of RT TV (Russia Today, Russia's TV news channel). It China has one, I haven't heard of it.

I'd say the closest analog to RT that they have is CCTV-4. It's their nominal news channel, although it really is more of an international catch-all à la NHK Japan or Airirang in South Korea. Lots of news, but also documentaries and other "rah rah look at us" type programming. The English version for the Americas is freely available, apparently, and carried in the clear on DirecTV.

 

[bigic]

It's hard to say. China doesn't seem to have an equivalent of RT TV (Russia Today, Russia's TV news channel). It China has one, I haven't heard of it.

China does have channels targeted at the global audiences in various languages under the "CGTN" (China Global Television Network) brand. But they're less successful than RT.

 

[crainbebo]

CCTV-4 is in Chinese; CGTN is the English service that used to be CCTV-9 in the United States and elsewhere.
There also used to be CCTV E&F on satellite here, but they split into individual CGTN networks for Spanish and French.

 

[tomservo]

CCTV-4 is in Chinese; CGTN is the English service that used to be CCTV-9 in the United States and elsewhere.
There also used to be CCTV E&F on satellite here, but they split into individual CGTN networks for Spanish and French.

Oh, that's right, d'oh. I thought that the name had changed but when I went to Wikipedia the CCTV entry came up and I figured I was hallucinating. That's what I get for trusting, ha ha.

 

[boombox4]

They mustn't have a terrific viewership because I've heard of RT, even had it come up in Google searches on various news subjects, yet never come across a Chinese site. I've come across Al Jazeera numerous times during news subject searches, never anything coming out of China.