A Renewed interest in DXing!

by Walt Salmaniw, Victoria, BC, Canada

As many of us have experienced, with fewer and fewer shortwave (SW) broadcasters available, and the explosion in RF noise polluters on the bands, it can at times become very frustrating to continue to enjoy our hobby of dxing the bands. Perhaps dxing while on vacation might just be the answer to rejuvenating one’s interest in the area. This is a report of my recent trip to Europe, including dxing in the United Kingdom, Poland and Ukraine.

DXing and relaxing in the Carpathians

Recently, I had to travel to Europe to meet up with my 19 year old son who was just completing a 6-month stint on a sailing vessel. He started his voyage in January in Singapore and completed it in Gdynia, Poland almost 6 months later. He had a wonderful experience (and this can be explored further through Class Afloat website). As is usual, I like to travel with a small portable receiver and explore the bands wherever I go. Not only does this allow me to keep current with world events, it also allows me to do a little dxing away from home.

It doesn’t take a lot of additional room to be able to dx with some success. In my case, I brought along a Kaito 1103 along with a set of collapsible headphones. The Kaito comes with a random wire external antenna, although in Europe, in many cases this was not needed. In addition I brought along an Edirol R-09 mp3 recorder (about the size of a pack of cards) and the latest WRTH.

Loggings from the United Kingdom

My journey took me from Vancouver, Canada to London. I had an overnight stay at a B&B in Stansted, England and began my monitoring there. The next day it was off to Gdansk Poland where I remained until the 28th. With son in tow, we proceeded to Ukraine where we traveled for the next couple of weeks returning to Canada on July 11th. Along the way we had all sorts of adventures and came across some interesting sites which I’ll describe below. First of all, though, I’ll begin with the first loggings from Stansted (country, frequency in kHz, time in UTC Universal time, station name, date, details):

ALBANIA 13720, 2002-, Radio Tirana Jun 22 Very good reception, although somewhat weak modulation in English with local Albanian news. Interesting that 7465 is also in English, although much weaker, but seemingly not in //. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

BANGLADESH 7185, 1745-, Voice of Islam Jun 22 A presumed logging, at only very weak level. During my entire stay, I never did hear them at anything but a poor level. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

BELARUS 7390, 2018-, Radio Belarus Jun 22 Another station I follow with interest. Before 20:00 they're in German, but switch to English between 20:00 and 22:00. 7390 is the best frequency at good to very good levels, whereas 250 kw 7105 was heard at good level, and 7440 only at poor to fair levels. Russian at 22:09 on 7390 at excellent level. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

BELARUS 11930, 0405-, Ist Channel of National Belarussian Radio Jun 23 A consistently, but infrequently reported summer frequency often well heard at this time in North America as well. Very good reception with ID at this time, and then into pop music. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

CYPRUS 5930, 2215-, Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation Jun 22 Very good reception in Greek with their weekend service to the UK. // 7210 is good with some cochannel interference, while listed 9760 was not heard. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

CZECH REPUBLIC 11600, 2102-, Radio Prague Jun 22 Excellent reception in Czech with news. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

EGYPT 9990, 2120-, Radio Cairo Jun 22 Initially heard with low modulation Arabic music. English ID at 2122 as, the 'World Service of Radio Cairo'. Good otherwise. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

FRANCE 13680, 0507-, RFI Jun 23 Excellent reception in French, so the listed English half-hour must be Monday to Friday only. // 15160 at good level. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

GERMANY 7265, 1745-, Polish Radio Jun 22 Armchair 5-5-5 signal with English program. // 7140 fair to good. This was the first station heard during a stop over at Stansted, UK on my way to Poland and Ukraine. I used my Kaito 1103 along with it's random wire antenna. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

GERMANY 9695, 1800-, Polish Radio Jun 22 I investigated the recently started Hebrew service. I don't recall seeing any postings on this service in the past. On this day and the next day, all that was heard was a program of continuous Polish music (the following day was identical), beginning with 'I did it my way' sung in Polish. No sign-off announcements when they left the air in mid-music at 18:28. Very good level. I wondered at the time whether this service perhaps didn't really get off the ground, but I did hear a normal broadcast later during my visit (will be reported later as I'm transcribing chronologically). (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

ICELAND 12115, 1755-, Rikisutvarpid Jun 22 Tone at 17:56 and then into a immediate talk in Icelandic at fair to good level, but with their terrible less than phone quality audio feed. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

IRAN 6205, 2018-, VOIRI Jun 22 Another station that was consistently well heard in Europe. English at very good level in English. // heard: 9925 (fair), 7205 (fair), 6255 (via Sitkunai, Lithuania--good). Listed 9800 not heard. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

LITHUANIA 11515, 0706-, VOIRI Jun 23 Excellent reception in Italian, via the Sitkunai transmitter. Another very strong station widely heard throughout my stay in Europe. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

NIGERIA 15120, 1749-, Voice of Nigeria Jun 22 Very good reception in English. When rechecked at 20:20, they were no longer on. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

NORWAY 12035, 1753-, SWR Africa Jun 22 Excellent reception with ID in English and giving their internet website at swrafrica.com. I never did hear the other // frequencies very well during my stay. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

PORTUGAL 5945, 0430-, Deutsche Welle Jun 23 Armchair copy with Ukrainian program, while Rampisham on 7345 was heard at fair level. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

ROMANIA 11735, 1750-, Radio Romania International Jun 22 Very good to excellent reception in English with only the slightest hint of a cochannel station. // 9535 only fair, however. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

ROMANIA 11810, 2030-, Radio Romania International Jun 22 Anemic, undermodulated audio at otherwise good level in English. // 9515 at fair level, 15465 at good level (and listed to North America!), while 11940 strongest by far, but suffers from cochannel interference. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

RUSSIA 9890, 2012-, Voice of Russia World Service Jun 22 Armchair copy in English with their Moscow Mailbag program. // 12070 equally strong. Seems to me that both the content and strength of transmitters, including the use of multiple frequencies, has returned to the bad old days of the cold war. VORWS is nothing like it was 5 years ago when they were often more difficult to hear, with only a handful of transmitters. Pre-Putin, they were also much more pro-Western. Today they seem to be constantly flexing their muscles, like they used to. VORWS consitently was very well and widely heard throughout my European travels. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

TANZANIA 11735, 2004-, Radio Zanzibar Jun 22 No sign of english (this was a Friday), with good reception in presumed Swahili and into Arabic sounding music from 20:08. I believe that I subsequently read that they may have returned to the 18:00 time frame for English news from Spice FM, but I didn't check this again. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

TURKEY 6195, 2205-, Voice of Turkey Jun 22 Excellent reception in English to North America, except for some transmitter hum. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

TURKEY 9785, 1833-, Voice of Turkey Jun 22 Very good reception with English news. This station was widely heard during my stay in Europe. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

UK 7235, 2040-, Radio Canada International Jun 22 RCI's the Link program with a very interesting article on the UN at very good level (from Skelton). // 5850 Horby, Sweden is good, but seemingly with some DRM hash, while 15325 direct from Sackville was the best heard at excellent levels. Incidently, 9800 direct from Sackville in DRM was very strong at 21:02, but I wasn't able to demodulate it (no receiver capability). (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

UKRAINE 7490, 1750-, Radio Ukraine International Jun 22 I spent a lot of time during my European journey monitoring RUI. At this time they were only poorly heard in Ukrainian. Generally, reception of RUI in Europe is spotty. Not on par with other European broadcasters. At times, though, reception could be excellent. I wish they'd either up their power (from 100 kw), or use multiple sites or frequencies. This latter approach is used by Belarus with much better results!. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

UKRAINE 9945, 0502-, RUI Jun 23 Fair to good reception with the Roots program in English (a Friday repeat, this being Saturday morning). (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

USA 6145, 0508-, WHRI Jun 23 Very good reception with Harvest Mailbag program in English. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

USA 9355, 0522-, WYFR Jun 23 Must be mailbag morning, as WYFR also had their Mailbag program on at this time at good to excellent level, in English, but with occasional deep fades. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

USA 15825, 2047-, WWCR Jun 22 Very good reception with Glenn Hauser's World of Radio program. This was on a Friday. Excellent choice for Europe. (Salmaniw, Stantsed, UK)

As you can see, there was no shortage of great stations to monitor, and this was all in one evening after dinner (conveniently located across the road at a traditional English Pub) and during the early morning before the flight. Incidently, I had no difficulties with my portable receiver anywhere during my travels, so not to worry. I always carried it in my back pack and never in my stowed luggage.

Loggings from Poland

In Poland, conditions were a little more difficult being on the 6th floor of an apartment building. Nonetheless, I logged a number of interesting stations:

AUSTRALIA 13680, 0520-, CVC International Jun 27 An interesting clash on this frequency with two stations virtually at equal strength. First is CVC with the 'Scope' program from Australia in English, and also RFI in English (direct from France?) to Africa with mostly news about Zimbabwe. Both were heard at good level. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

BELARUS 7390, 2000-, Radio Station Belarus Jun 23 Very good reception with sign-on in English as, 'You are listening to Radio Station Belarus', and then into the news. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

BULGARIA 9900, 2100-, Radio Varda Jun 24 Jingle ID for Radio Varda, and a time check for 23:00 in Bulgarian, then into news. Good to very good reception. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

CANADA 7335, 0308-, CHU Jun 25 One of few time signal stations heard in Europe. I never did hear WWV or WWVH. CHU was heard weakly under cochannel Vatican Radio in Ukrainian which itself was heard at fair to good level. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

CHINA 13760, 1815-, CRI Jun 23 I was looking for Pyongyang, but instead heard CRI in English with an armchair 5-5-5 copy. CRI is heard everywhere in Europe, across all bands, and usually at very strong and local levels. I'd swear they were transmitting from across the street. One of few broadcasters dominating the spectrum. I never did hear Pyongyang during my 3 week European stay. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

FRANCE 15605, 1605-, Radio France International Jun 24 RFI in English, and on a Sunday. Good reception with Nigerian news. ID at 16:06. // 17605 good, and 15160 poor. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

HUNGARY 6025, 1900-, Radio Budapest Jun 23 Multilingual IDs for Radio Budapest, well over a cochannel, and then into English with, 'On shortwave, satellite, WRN, and NPR this is Radio Budapest Hungary signing-on'. Good level and // to equally good 3975. No mention of them d/c their foreign language broadcasts on 30 June. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

HUNGARY 6195, 0252-, Radio Budapest Jun 25 Good to very good in English with a DX program about Esperanto programs until 0258. Again, no mention of the 30th. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

ISRAEL 15760, 1558-, IBA Kol Israel Jun 24 IS, and then into Yiddish. One of very few broadcasters using this colourful language! Very Germanic sounding. Excellent armchair copy, and almost immediately into a medley of Yiddish songs. Very enjoyable, even if one can't follow the speech. // 9345 good, 11590 poor. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

ISRAEL 17600, 0330-, IBA Kol Israel Jun 24 Fair reception of English broadcast. // 11590 at very good level, and 9345 at good level. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

LATVIA 9290, 1955-, Latvia Today Jun 24 A presumed logging with English talk into Latvian folk music until 2001 when the transmitter cut without any announcements. Only poor/fair. I suspect I was too close to the transmitter in Gdynia/Gdansk to be able to hear them very well. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

LIBYA 17870, 1537-, Voice of Africa Jun 24 Good reception with program in English and ID ending the English news and into a long-winded commentary. Occ deep fades. Another Voice of Africa ID at 15:44, and into a reading from the Green Book. Did not hear any other // frequencies. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

LITHUANIA 6225, 1533-, Radio Racja Jun 24 Good reception shortly after their sign-on in Belarussian. A nice choral jingle for 'Radio Racja'. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

LITHUANIA 6255, 2243-, The Mighty KBC Jun 23 ID in English, with mostly non-stop techno music. ID was as follows: 'We are the Mighty KBC, broadcasting from Lithuania. Write us at KBC@planet.nl'. There were several other addresses given. Good to very good reception. I did not check for the 500 kw MW //. 6255 is 100 kw, of course. Ended transmission at 22:59. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

POLAND 6105, 1950-, Radio Racja Jun 23 ID in Belarussian at good to very good levels. The transmitter doesn't sound at all like the old Radio Polonia transmitters, so is it certain that this transmission is direct from Poland? Interesting jingle, 'Lay, lay, lay, Moya krajina Belarus'. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

PRIDNISTROVYE 5965, 1600-, Radio of the PMR Jun 27 Good reception in English with sign-on ID as the 'Radio of the PMR'. At 16:20, they announced the wrong frequency as 6235 (a B06 frequency, I think), and then continued on in English. Socalled break-a-way repulblic from Moldova, but not recognized by anyone except Russia, of course. Divide and conquer, I suppose. This was my final logging from Gdynia, Poland. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

ROMANIA 9645, 0310-, Radio Romania International Jun 24 RRI in English at very good level. This transmission is for the west coast of North America, but heard much better in northern Europe!. // 6150 also to WCNA at very good level. The transmission to India at the same time on 11895 and 15250 was not heard. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

ROMANIA 11895, 0300-, Radio Romania International Jun 25 This time, at excellent level with English to India. Also // to 9645 at very good level and 6150 at good to very good level. Both of these are to WCNA. 15220 to India at fair level as well. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

RUSSIA 11810, 1800-, SWR Africa Jun 23 Ist logging from Gdynia, Poland. Fair to good reception with lots of adjacent splatter from 11805. Armavir, I believe is the site. //12035 from Norway is at good level in Poland. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

SAUDI ARABIA 17660, 1547-, BSKSA Jun 24 French at fair levels, with many references to Allah, but off in mid-sentence at 1557. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

SYRIA 12085, 2020-, Radio Damascus Jun 23 A presumed logging, with the news in English just finishing, and then into an Arabic musical piece. Slight transmitter hum, but otherwise a good level. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

TURKEY 5975, 0307-, Voice of Turkey Jun 24 Very good reception in English, with // 7270 herd weakly under a cochannel Arabic station. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

UK 12095, 0645-, BBC World Service Jun 27 An ancient BBC frequency, so glad to see that they still occupy it. I wonder when their first usage of this channel was....I bet 60 years ago or more! Still going strong with good reception, but then marred by a Slavic numbers station cochannel. Kind of dumb, I think!. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

UKRAINE 9945, 0520-, Radio Ukraine International Jun 24 Very good reception with the Saturday mailbag feature in English, to 0531. The DX program was just finishing at the beginning of my observation. (Salmaniw, Gdynia, Poland)

Loggings from Western Ukraine

After my son’s graduation, we flew to Lviv, Ukraine via Warsaw. In Ukraine, we traveled very extensively throughout the country by car, train, and bus. In western Ukraine, we began at the birthplace of my mother near Brody. Here were my logs from there:

ABKHAZIA 9494.8, 0416-, Abkhaz Radio Jun 29 Easy-listening music with a somewhat distorted signal. EZL music. Presumably Abkhazian. Female announcer took a phone call at 04:26 with, 'Allo'. Probable ID at 04:32 as Apsua Radio. 'Abkhazia' heard with a reverb effect at 04:54. By 05:00 pretty much impossible to hear due to adjacent channel on 9490. (Salmaniw, Brody Ukraine)

BELARUS 7105, 1950-, Radio Station Belarus Jun 28 Excellent reception in Polish, then into English at 20:00. // 7390 almost as strong, while 7440, although equally strong, but much lower in modulation and with some hum. This was my first logging from Ukraine. In this case, near Brody a small city to the east of Ukraine's western capital of Lviv.
After this batch, we left for the Carpathian mountains which I'll report next. (Salmaniw, Brody Ukraine)

HUNGARY 6025, 2100-, Radio Budapest Jun 29 I'm not sure if anyone else noticed this, but the multilingual IDs during the IS included languages that were used in the past by Radio Budapest, for example Ukrainian. I hadn't noticed this on previous days. Announced a program from the archives, but first news in English. Very good reception,
but a cochannel English religious station could just be heard. Nothing heard on my listed // of 9525. (Salmaniw, Brody Ukraine)

HUNGARY 6195, 0230-, Radio Budapest Jun 30 Presumably the last broadcast in foreign languages by Radio Budapest was obliterated here in Ukraine by the BBCWS in English cochannel. I could make out 'Thank You' at 02:57 and then off the air. (Salmaniw, Brody Ukraine)

RUSSIA 15110, 0410-, Tatarstan Wave Jun 29 Good reception with sign-on in Tatar and Russian. Checked again at 08:15 and at that time, 11925 is heard at excellent level with news in Russian and an ID. (Salmaniw, Brody Ukraine)

IRAQ 6335, 0412-, Voice of Iraqi Kurdistan Jun 29 Fair level, with a station playing middle east style music. Checking my WRTH shows that this should be Voice of Iraqi Kurdistan. (Salmaniw, Brody Ukraine)

Loggings from the Carpathian Mountains

The next day, we headed into the Carpathian mountains by car. Always on the lookout for things of interest, I first noticed the Lviv/Krasne transmitter site of Radio Ukraine International. It is quite visible from the M12 highway to the south of the site. I clicked a couple of pictures from the road. It’s quite a ways away. The Bolshoye Zorya antenna is visible here (the long array of shorter towers, see picture above).

This photo on the right shows the site better, with the large curtain arrays:

Further along the highway, in this case the E50, south of Lviv I caught an interesting array off in the near distance at a spot named Liubyane. We asked around and were told that this was a military site, but was no longer in service. I immediately wondered about the old Soviet Woodpecker sites of the 70s and 80s, but a quick Google search didn’t reveal anything about this site. It has a very impressive array as shown below:

There were also satellite dishes to the left of the antennas in the photo. The coordinates on Google Earth (very high resolution) can be found at the following: 49deg 35’ 40.58”N And 23deg 58’ 06.42”E. Further below you can see an image taken from space.

This is very impressive from space with the excellent resolution. There’s a square walled compound with satellite dishes in the center, and the array to the north very easily seen, all in a treed area….how private! Now, what exactly was it used for? Ideas anyone? As we entered the Carpathian mountains, I sat down for a quick scan of the bands. The joys of dxing!!

Here’s more loggings from the mountains:

ABKHAZIA 9495, 0359-, Apsua Radio Jul 01 Brief IS, then ID'd as Apsua Radio with muddy but strong audio. The frequency is normally 9494.75 but I was not able to record the frequency any more accurately on the Kaito 1103. (Salmaniw, Transcarpathia, Ukraine)

ALBANIA 7425, 0245-, Radio Tirana Jul 01 Excellent reception of the English North American service. // 6115 also very good. (Salmaniw, Transcarpathia, Ukraine)

BOTSWANA 4930, 0329-, VOA Jul 01 Earth and Sky program in English, followed by issues in the news. Good level. (Salmaniw, Transcarpathia, Ukraine)

GERMANY 9695, 1820-, Polish Radio Jul 02 My earlier observation was incorrect. Here there was a full program in Hebrew from Poland, via Germany. The station calls itself, 'Kol Polin' and is frequently mentioned. Very good signal except for a small amount of splatter from 9690. ID'd at 18:28. (Salmaniw, Transcarpathia, Ukraine)

HUNGARY 6025, 1859-, Radio Budapest Jun 30 There was talk that the 29th might be the final broadcast, but today (a Saturday), Radio Budapest carried the program 'Insight Central Europe'. Again no mention of a last broadcast. Excellent level as was // 3975. (Salmaniw, Transcarpathia, Ukraine)

ROMANIA 5975, 1858-, Radio Romania International Jul 02 Very good reception with RRI's IS. A big change from the 1700 broadcast which is not well heard. Into Ukrainian for half an hour. // 7210 (50 kw vs 5975 which is 250 kw), also at good level, but with weaker modulation. Had been cochannel VORWS, but has apparently signed off by the TOH. That was the final western Ukrainian logging. (Salmaniw, Transcarpathia, Ukraine)

ROMANIA 7165, 1700-, Radio Romania International Jul 02 Ukrainian program at good level, except for a cochannel station. (Salmaniw, Transcarpathia, Ukraine)

SERBIA 7240, 1831-, International Radio of Serbia Jun 30 In English with an ID at 1835 as, 'You are listening to the International Radio of Serbia'. The transmitter suddenly cut out at 1836. Cochannel WYFR in English, but still good at times. I heard this station a number of times in central and eastern Ukraine with even better results. The announced // of 6100 was never heard. (Salmaniw, Transcarpathia, Ukraine)

UKRAINE 657, 1930-, Radio Ukraine International Jun 30 There are barely any MW transmitters left in Ukraine. During the day, the band is practically empty. Chernivtsi, in the Carpathian mountains in the west of the country still has a 25 kw transmitter used for both RUI programming to Romania and for local programming. At 19:30, the local
program switched to RUI's IS, Ukrainian ID, and then into the Romanian 30 min. program. Fair to good. (Salmaniw, Transcarpathia, Ukraine)

UKRAINE 7440, 0307-, Radio Ukraine International Jul 01 RUI in English with Ukrainian Diary at good level. // to 7530 at fair level. In the past, the secondary frequency to Europe/Russia continued with programming in Ukrainian, so this is a change. (Salmaniw, Transcarpathia, Ukraine)

Vlad Titarev

USA 5070, 0235-, WWCR Jul 01 Very good reception with Glenn Hauser's World of Radio (an older edition). Another excellent time in Europe to hear Glenn. (Salmaniw, Transcarpathia, Ukraine)

USA 7415, 0313-, WBCQ Jul 01 Excellent reception, with comedy show called 'Shore to Shore HF'. (Salmaniw, Transcarpathia, Ukraine)

VATICAN 4005, 0328-, Vatican Radio Jul 01 Polish programming at this time. In the past this frequency carried a multilingual program, so I'm no sure whether this continues or not. (Salmaniw, Transcarpathia, Ukraine)

VATICAN 6185, 0300-, Vatican Radio Jul 01 Low key religious program in Ukrainian at excellent levels. // 7335 at good to very good level, cochannel to CHU also well heard. (Salmaniw, Transcarpathia, Ukraine)

Loggings from Kremenchuk, Ukraine

After a few days in the mountains, we headed eastward towards family in the south east regions of Ukraine, but not before visiting Vlad Titarev, DXer extraordinaire, and all around wonderful guy, and very good friend. He sure facilitated things for us while in Ukraine. Thanks Vlad!

DXing in Vlad's shack

While at Vlad’s, he allowed me the pleasure of dxing from his very well equipped dx shack. I was able to use his AOR 7030, although he also has the WinRadio 313e and some very high end Soviet era receivers.

Here are my loggings from Kremenchuk:

ABKHAZIA 9495.58, 0510-, Radio Apsua Jul 04 Abkhazia is normally spot-on 9494.75 and indeed they were there before 05:00, but when I rechecked, they had moved up to this frequency. The usual somewhat distorted signal was heard in Russian. Local announcements for Sochi heard at 06:07, and weather at 06:09. Always a fascinating station to monitor with their old 5kw jamming transmitter. They sure could use cleaner modulation, though! (Salmaniw, Kremenchuk, Ukraine)

BAHRAIN 9745, 0510-, Radio Bahrain Jul 04 I've finally heard this station! No doubt it was them, but unfortunately they seem to never ID. I never did hear 6010, but 9745U came in at good level. Initially at fair level, but steadilly improving. Nonstop Arabic music. No IDs noted and no announcement/time pips/IS at 06:00. Occasionally marred by a bubble/gurgling sound which is intermittent...? OTH radar, or digital data transmission of some sort? Wish they'd ID! (Salmaniw,
Kremenchuk, Ukraine)

BELARUS 6010, 0437-, Belarussian Radio domestic services Jul 04 I did a bandscan of the Belarussian radio transmitters and found the situation much as it had been last summer. This is what's heard: 6010 BR1 Brest 5kw (fair to good), 6070 BR1 Brest 5kw (poor to fair with lots of splatter), 6080 BR1 Minsk 150 kw (good to very good), 6115 BR1 Minsk 75 kw (good), 7110 BR1 Hrodna 5 kw (good to excellent),
11930 BR1 Minsk ?75 kw (poor with het). BR1 presented the weather at 04:40, and then ads (Reklama), followed by multiple IDs for 'Radio Facts' or 'Fax'....I'm not sure which. BR2 is solely represented by 7265 Hrodna 5 kw at good level. (Salmaniw, Kremenchuk, Ukraine)

ETHIOPIA 5970, 0357-, Voice of Tigray Revolution Jul 04 A presumed logging with and IS and ID in local language at fair level. I'll have to check the IS against what's on the web. This is my first logging from Vlad Titarev's dx location in Kremenchuk, Ukraine. This city is located on the Dnipro (Dnieper) River several hundred km south of the capital Kyiv (Kiev). I was able to use his AOR 7030 and Toshiba laptop. Thanks for the hospitality, Vlad! (Salmaniw, Kremenchuk, Ukraine)

ITALY 9710, 0415-, RAI Jul 04 One of my tasks while travelling in Europe was to monitor as many broadcasts in Ukrainian as possible. RAI has to have the driest presenters of any station. The same monotoned male announcer drones on, and thankfully the program is very short.... news only, and then Italian music....all in just 20 minutes or so. 9710 at excellent level, // 11830 good with a het, and listed 6135 not heard. News from 0405 to 0417, and then Italian music until the end of the program at 07:25. (Salmaniw, Kremenchuk, Ukraine)

NEW ZEALAND 15720, 0420-, RNZI Jul 04 I had DRM listed in my notes for RNZI, but they were in AM at good level with a National Radio sports program. Always nice to hear them from so far away! (Salmaniw, Kremenchuk, Ukraine)

Loggings from Southeastern Ukraine

Finally, we were off to the Donbas region of Ukraine in the extreme south east where we truly enjoyed the hospitality of my father’s family. Conditions were, as usual, marvelous in the village with very little RF noise. Here are the results from that region:

ABKHAZIA 9495, 0458-, Apsua Radio Jul 06 Luhansk region in Ukraine is much closer to Abkhazia than the other areas I monitored. Reception was good, with a jingle ID for 'Apsua Radio'. Suffered from 9490 splatter from 05:00. Russian ads at 05:02, but seemingly off at 05:04. (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

ALBANIA 13750, 1315-, Radio Tirana Jul 07 Excellent reception in English to North America. Can't hear them at this time on the WCNA, though. (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

CHINA 15190, 0959-, CRI Jul 07 Looking for Equatorial Guinea and no luck. Instead, CRI is very strong here in English. (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

INDIA 17510, 1051-, AIR Jul 07 Very good reception in English with ID for the GOS of AIR. (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

KAZAKHSTAN 9355, 1530-, Golos Pravoslavya Jul 06 Very good reception of this program, known in English as the Voice of Orthodoxy. The speech portions (all in Russian) had somewhat narrow modulation, although the music was normal. (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

LATVIA 9290, 0830-, Latvia Today Jul 07 Good reception in English with Latvia's economic performance. On recheck at 09:50, there was non-stop music followed by a Radio Joystick ID in German, with a postal mail address in Germany, and finally 'Charlie Quinn' saying bye-bye. (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

LIBYA 17870, 1457-, Voice of Africa Jul 07 Fair to good reception with an ID in English. They also announced 21695 which was not heard. This was my final logging for this European trip. Overall, I had a lot of fun, and heard a number of stations impossible to hear in North America. Also, I was surprised by the continued strength of shortwave in Europe, compared to what's available on this side of the pond. There's life in the old girl yet! (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

LIBYA 17870, 1533-, Voice of Africa Jul 06 Engish news at fair to good level. (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

NIGERIA 15120, 2030-, Voice of Nigeria Jul 05 One of the stronger African stations heard in English, and one of very few in that language! Good reception with English news and then into a '60 minutes' program. (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

POLAND 9695, 1759-, Polish Radio Jul 05 Checked once more about the Hebrew service. Very good reception with ID in Polish/English, then music bridge and ID as 'Kol Polin' and into Hebrew news. (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

RUSSIA 171, 1512-, Radio Chechnya Svobodnaya Jul 06 Bandscanned the LW band during the afternoon in Luhansk, and again only 3 stations heard with 171 by far the strongest with big band music. Also heard was Ukrainian Radio on 207 (poor to fair) and 261 Radio Rossii from Taldom north of Moscow at fair level. (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

RUSSIA 21660, 1545-, BBC World Service Jul 06 I was surprised to hear anything on 21 MHz, but the BBC was coming in very well with business news. Checking the WRTH website seems to indicate this is from Armavir. I could hear a faint co-channel IS from Vatican Radio. (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

SAUDI ARABIA 15250, 1200-, BSKSA Jul 07 ID in English as Radio Jeddah, and into English news at good level. (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

SAUDI ARABIA 17660, 1535-, BSKSA Jul 06 Fair to good in French with some deep fades over a weaker cochannel. IDs as Radio Riyadh (at 15:40), followed by the NA, another ID and then a reading from the Koran. Sign-off announcement at 17:53 mentions English in a few minutes, but they cut the transmitter at 15:57 before this happened. (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

SOUTH AFRICA 4880, 1827-, SWR Radio Africa Jul 06 In the rural location in south-east Ukraine I was able to hear SWR Africa direct from South Africa at fair level. // heard were 11810 (good level with some splatter from 11805), and 12035 (very good). (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

TAIWAN 9485, 1314-, Shiokaze Jul 07 English at fair level (much weaker than on the WCNA, but still a treat!) with bios of disappeared Japanese citizens. This was on a Saturday. (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

TIBET 4905, 1755-, Xizang-Tibet Jul 05 A presumed logging of Lhasa. Bizarre programming for early July: Jingle Bells, followed by Auld Lang Sye. Reception was good. Go figure! This was my first logging from a rural location in the Donbas (south-east corner of Ukraine). Although extremely quiet still, there seems to be a slight increase in RF noise. (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

UKRAINE 1359, 1500-, Radio Tsentr Jul 06 The MW band is pretty much dead in Ukraine during the day. I did a bandscan in Luhansk during the afternoon and heard a single Ukrainian station, that being Donetsk (Dokuchaievsk) with 50 kw and relaying Radio Tsentr (as opposed to what's listed in the WRTH). Otherwise, the following Russian MW stations were also heard: 549 Radio Mayak (Novocherkassk), 567 Radio Rossii (Volgograd), 810 Radio Mayak (Volgograd), 945 Radio Rossii (Rostov-na-Donu), 1089 Commonwealth Program aka Sodruzhestvo (Tbilisskaya). Besides these, I had forgotten about aeronautical beacons in the MW band. I heard: 617 with dah-dah-dit, 721 with dah-dah-dit-dit-dit, and 1155 with dit-dah-dit dit then dit-dit-dit. I recall rarely hearing these on the west coast of North America during dxpeditions. During the night, of course, the MW remains alive with stations all over Europe and Asia well heard. (Salmaniw, Luhansk Ukraine)

As you can see, one can have a lot of fun taking along a simple portable and some basic resources. I now have some 30 hours of audio to listen to and edit. I’ll plan on posting some of the most interesting. Check DXer.ca, my local Canadian site created and managed by my good friend Colin Newell for some of those clips. I do hope that this little vignette encourages you into taking along that old portable on your next vacation! Enjoy!

Published on July 19, 2007