Next in the log on Friday 22nd October 2021 was the Voice of America (VOA) broadcasting in the English language on 15565 kHz in the 19m band.
The Voice of America is the largest and the oldest US-funded international broadcaster.
VOA was established in 1942, with the VOA charter signed into law in 1976 by President Gerald Ford. Prior to the Second World War, all USA shortwave stations were privately controlled. Some of these included the National Broadcasting Network, the Columbia Broadcasting System, the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation and General Electric.
In about 1940, the Office of Coordination of Information forwarded releases to each station for shortwave broadcast to Latin America to counter Nazi Germany propaganda.
Prior to the Second World War, the US Office of the Coordinator of Information in Washington had commenced providing war news and commentary to the various commercial American shortwave radio stations for use on a voluntary basis through its Foreign Information Service headed by playwright Robert E. Sheerwood. He served as President Roosevelt’s speech-writer and information adviser.
Direct programming commenced a week after the entry of the US into World War II in December 1941, with the first broadcast from the San Francisco office of the FIS via General Electric’s KGEI transmitting to the Philippines in English
Following this, there was a broadcast to Germany which was called Stimmen aus Amerika (“Voices from America”) and was transmitted on February 1, 1942, from 270 Madison Avenue, New York City. It was Sherwood who actually coined the term “The Voice of America” to describe the shortwave network.
By the end of the war, VOA had 39 transmitters and provided service in 40 languages.
Above:- Robert E. Sherwood. Image c/o Wikipedia
VOA headquarters is located in Washington D.C.
Above:- VOA HQ. Image c/o Wikipedia
The VOA program consisted of music. The overall reception was good.
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Below is a short video of my reception of the Voice of America.
My first station logged on Friday the 22nd day of October 2021 was China Radio International broadcasting in the English language on 13590 kHz. The broadcast audience was South East Asia.
The overall reception of CRI was excellent. There was some interference on the same frequency, likely to be SOH Xi Wang Zhi Sheng in CHINA in the Chinese language.
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Below is a video of my reception of CRI on 13590 kHz as heard on my Yaesu FTdx101MP and dipole.
My final station logged on Thursday 21st October 2021 was WEWN on 5970 kHz broadcasting in the Spanish language.
I tuned in at 1235 UTC.
WEWN is the shortwave radio outlet of the Eternal World Television Network (EWTN), a large Roman Catholic international broadcaster which is based in Irondale in Alabma in the USA. The station was launched by Mother Angelica on the 28th day of December 1992. WEWN broadcasts from the city of Vandiver, Alabama, in the vicinity of the Birmingham metro area. There are four transmitters capable of 500 kilowatts each, but are run no higher than 250 kW.
The overall reception of WEWEN was fair. There was a significant amount of interference from China National Radio on 5975 kHz
On Thursday 21st October 2021 I did some more broadcast short wave listening. The first station in my log was WRMI, Radio Miami International, broadcasting on 7570 kHz.
I tuned in at 1159 UTC.
I had previously tuned in to WRMI on 11th October on 5010 kHz, so this was a new frequency for me for WRMI.
To read about WRMI’s technical facilities, please have a look at their webpage at……
My last station logged on Wednesday 20th October 2021 was the Korean Central Broadcasting Station on 3250 kHz, broadcasting from Pyongyang in NORTH KOREA. They were broadcasting in the Korean language.
Above:- Map showing the location of North Korea. Map c/o Google maps
More information on the Korean Central Broadcasting Station can be found on their website at…..
First in the log on Wednesday night (20th October 2021) was Echo of Hope on 6355 kHz in the 49m shortwave band. This station is in South Korea with a target audience in North Korea.
Above:- Map showing South & North Korea. Map c/o Google maps
I had previously tuned into Echo of Hope on 17th October 2021 on 4890 kHz. This was a new frequency for me logging the station.
On this occasion, the station was playing a selection of Pop music including The Carpenters, ABBA, and Madonna.
The overall reception was fair. Of particular note was the interference which is allegedly from North Korea. There was also Morse Code on the frequency from time to time. The signal strength was fair and the fading was slight.
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Below is a short video of my reception of the station.
My final logged station for Tuesday 19th October 2021 was the BBC World Service on 11945 kHz in the 25m band.
The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world’s largest of any kind.
The BBC World Service commenced broadcasting on shortwave on the 19th day of December 1932 as the BBC Empire Service. It was aimed principally at English speakers across the British Empire. In his first Christmas message in 1932, King George V characterised the service as intended for “men and women, so cut off by the snow, the desert, or the sea, that only voices out of the air can reach them”
Above:- King George V. Image c/o Wikipedia
The BBC World Service is located in Broadcasting House in London.
Above:- Broadcasting House in London. Image c/o Wikipedia
After Myanmar Radio on 5915 kHz was blocked out by China Radio Internationa I tuned a little further up the band and I found Myanmar Radio on 5985 kHz. They were broadcasting in my Burmese language
This was a much better frequency.
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Below is a short video of my reception of Myanmar Radio.
First in the log for me on Tuesday 19th October 2021 was Myanmar Radio on 5915 kHz on the 40m band shortwave.
Myanmar officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and formerly known as Burma is a country in South-East Asia.
Above:- World globe showing the location of Myanmar in South-East Asia. Image c/o Wikipedia.
Myanmar Radio was formerly known as the Burma Broadcasting Service (BBS)), and is the national radio service of Myanmar.
I was receiving Myanmar Radio overall fair. The signal strength was fair with moderate interference from a Chinese language station on.5925 kHz, believed to be CNR. Fading of the signal was slight. However, there were significant static crashes from local storms/lightning activity on the east coast of Australia.
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However at 1130 UTC everything changed dramatically. China Radio International (CRI) on 5910 in the Filipino language commenced, and that was the end of the reception of Myanmar Radio. CRI totally wiped it out. CRI was extremely strong.
Below is a short video of my reception of Myanmar Radio.
