Program #10
MFSK32 and Olivia 64-2000
image sent, group QSL card
Hello and welcome to DigiDX 10, a weekly review of the latest shortwave
and DX news broadcast in the MFSK32 mode. This broadcast includes
shortwave news and reception reports and an article on shortwave jamming
from Soviet occupied Latvia.
Also included after the feature is another attempt to broadcast a MIDI
audio file, this time in Olivia 64-2000 mode.
DigiDX weekly schedule:
Sunday 2130 - 15770kHz via WRMI (Okeechobee, FL, USA) Sunday 2330 -
11580kHz via WRMI (Okeechobee, FL, USA) Monday 2000 - 6070kHz via
Channel 292 (Rohrbach Wall, DE)
Any changes to this schedule or extra broadcasts will be listed on
http://www.digidx.uk If you enjoy DigiDX and find the service useful please consider donating
via our Patreon page. Any money donated will go towards paying for
airtime to keep DigiDX on the air to Europe and North America.
Every donation will help no matter how little
-https://www.patreon.com/digidx.
Thanks very much to listeners Mike Stapp, Mark Braunstein and Richard
Langley for contributing to the Patreon campaign.
Latest Shortwave News:
Radio Guinea reactivates shortwave transmissions Return of Radio Biafra
All India Radio considers future of shortwave broadcasts Mighty KBC on
6095kHz in May SDR Touch now supports the SDRplay
Radio Guinea reactivates shortwave transmissions
After several years off the air, Radio Guinea from Guinea (Conakry) in
West Africa has reactivated its shortwave broadcasts since the 16th
April.
The broadcast is in French on 9650kHz and is believed to come from the
Sonfonia site located in the capital Conakry. The signal has been
observed in Europe and North America between 2200 and 0800 however over
the last few days before this broadcast it appears to have been off the
air once again.
Return of Radio Biafra
According to the official website of Radio Biafra, the station calling
for an independent Biafra state in Southern Nigeria will return to
shortwave on 11700kHz from the 20th April. The broadcast is scheduled to
be on the air from 1800 to 2100 UTC. It is believed to be relayed from
the Kostinbrod site near Sofia in Bulgaria.
All India Radio considers future of shortwave broadcasts
New Delhi based newspaper The Sunday Guardian have reported that All
India Radio is considering shutting down its shortwave transmitters to
the cost of keeping the AIR on the air over shortwave. Instead there
would be a move to internet only radio broadcasting.
The newspaper reports that 95% of the External Services Division's
budget is spent on the shortwave infrastructure with the remaining 5%
spent on producing the programmes and paying staff wages.
However an AIR source has told the Sunday Guardian : The proposal
suggests the shutting down of short wave and the service being made
web-based and continues But of course there is the argument that
short wave can reach even the remotest corners of the world, which is
not the case with internet signals. The shutting down of short wave,
without a doubt, will affect the propaganda value of India among its
listeners abroad. This is why there are chances that the short wave
service might continue in neighboring countries like China, Nepal,
etc.
AIR broadcasts in 12 Indian languages and also Arabic, Balochi, Burmese,
Chinese, Dari, French, Indonesian, Persian, Pushtu, Russian, Sinhala,
Swahili, Thai, Tibetan and English (General Overseas Service).
Read the full article here -
http://goo.gl/x2Mfb2 Mighty KBC on 6095kHz in May
Mighty KBC will have another special broadcast on 6095kHz to Europe on
Sunday 15th of May between 0800-1000UTC. It has not yet been announced
what music programme and DJ will be on air.
SDR Touch now supports the SDRplay
Android SDR app SDR Touch has launched a new beta version which supports
the popular SDR Play SDR. The SDR Play supports between 100kHz to 2Ghz
and therefore combined with SDR Touch will allow shortwave to be
listened to on any Android phone or Tablet with Android 4 or above.
Currently listening to shortwave using SDR Touch is possible using an
RTL-SDR and upconverter and hopefully the support for the SDRPlay will
improve the experience of SW listening using the app. Sign up to beta
test the app here -
https://goo.gl/nD6BYL Upcoming relays and special broadcasts:
Radio Northern Ireland will broadcast live on Channel 292 and WRMI every
week in April at the following times / frequencies:
Monday 9955kHz : 0130-0200 via WRMI Saturday 15770kHz: 2100-2130 via
WRMI Monday 6070kHz : 1700-1800 via Channel 292
VOA Radiogram will be on air this weekend on the following frequencies,
for more information on the modes to be used visit
http://voaradiogram.net/ Sat 0930-1000 5745 kHz Sat 1600-1630 17580 kHz Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
Gilles Ltourneau who runs the excellent OfficialSWLchannel channel on
Youtube has another radio related Hangout this week - To watch the
hangouts or any of his videos go to
https://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialSWLchannel Shortwave radio jamming in Soviet Latvia by LatvianHistory.com Radio is
one of the most effective ways of communication. The information that
travels around the airwaves can reach even the most remote places. In
late 20 century twenties it was discovered that by transmitting in High
Frequency band (1,6 Mhz-30 Mhz) or so-called shortwave the signal can
reach every radio receiver in faraway countries. In so the shortwave
radio became effective way for government propaganda. And regimes that
disliked that their citizens can listen to foreign broadcasts searched
for ways how stop this.
During the first Soviet occupation in 1941, the Soviets started the
registration of the radio owners. They wanted to know how many and what
kind of people could listen to foreign broadcasts, and impose license
fees for radio using and in case of need take them away from the owner.
During the Nazi Germany occupation a list of suppressed radio stations
was made.
In 1945 the Soviet occupation returned. Everywhere in Latvia people
gathered at their radio receivers and waited for the news of coming
American and British liberation, however soon the frequencies of the
foreign stations became filled with load roaring noise. The era of the
Soviet radio jamming had begun.
On 1946 USSR Communications ministry issued an order to register the
radio receiver in whole country. On the streets of the cities and main
squares loudspeakers were placed to transmit the propaganda from radio
stations from Riga and Moscow. It was nearly impossible to purchase the
radio receiver after the war, so the radio transmission points were
placed in the apartments. It had strategic goal because now the
government could inform the people about its decisions and orders.
As the Cold War became more intense the Western countries begun to
transmit broadcasts to Soviet Union in various languages including
Latvian. The main broadcasters were the Voice of America, BBC Word
Service, Deutche Welle and Radio Free Europe. Radio Free Europe was
actually a creation of the US Central Intelligence Agency. CIA secretly
financed the RFE for many years until it was discovered by the leftist
journalists in 1967 and since 1972 the RFE is financed by the US
Congress. USSR also had its own shortwave propaganda station Radio
Moscow. However, in Western countries listening to the Soviet propaganda
was not considered as a serious crime. In Soviet Union listening to
Western stations could cause a real jail sentence.
For instance in 1951 Elfida Jansone was put on LSSR High Court for
listening to the Voice of America. For this crime she was sentenced for
eight years in labor camp. In 1948 the Latvian Communist party Riga city
committee bureau issued a decree For urgent actions for jamming of
the anti-soviet broadcasts. The decree ordered every institution that
had a shortwave transmitter to jam the foreign radio stations. Jamming
was done by Latvian Energy, Sea Fleet and Soviet Army. Army constructed
10 transmitters that jammed the foreign voices 24 hours in day. However,
the power of these transmitters was too weak to completely silence the
foreign broadcasts. Because of this in all three occupied Baltic States
a special jamming stations were built. On May 5 1951 the chairman of the
LSSR Council of Ministers Vilis Lcis wrote a note to Vyacheslav
Molotov that in accordance to USSR Council of Ministers decree on 4
December 1950, a high voltage radio center was to be built in Riga;
however the Ministry of Communications had planned to build it only in
1953. The head of the LSSR asked the Soviet Ministry of Communications
to start building this object already in 1951 and finish it in 1952.
However, the slow Soviet bureaucracy only in 1953 ordered to build
jamming systems in the Baltic States. A jammer was built in Liepaja,
Daugavpils and Riga.
All of these special objects were under control of the Latvia republican
radio center. American made shortwave transmitter SCR-399 that was
delivered by the US in war-time was now used to jam the US broadcasts.
The power of these transmitters was not high only 400 watts however
it operated in the 1,5- 1,8 Mhz frequency range that used by the most
foreign stations. The object in Liepaja has 12 transmitters and one
Russian Extra type Medium Wave transmitter (Medium Wave is
526-1600 kHz). In the Riga object at the Dome Square basement had 18
SCR-399 transmitters but at other Riga site 15 Soviet KV-5 transmitters
with power of 5 kilowatts were placed. The transmitters were modified
with GMD generator that was the most secret part in the objects. This
device made various tone sound signal that was nicknamed saw by
the listeners. It was impossible to filter this noise because its
frequency was the same as the broadcasting foreign station. It even made
interference in frequencies free from broadcasts. It was a hard time for
people living near the jamming stations because the strong signal made
inference for allowed radio and TV broadcasts. Before the start of every
broadcast one or even two transmitters were allocated to the broadcast
frequency and after the command was given the jammer were turned on.
Sometimes the in the time of broadcast the stations slightly changed the
frequency, leaving the jammer in behind, forcing to retune it. The radio
propagation issues also sometimes did not allow silencing the broadcasts
completely.
The Medium Wave broadcasts were completely jammed by stations from
Lithuania and Estonia. Sometimes the foreign broadcasters appeared at
previously unannounced frequencies and the jammer power was not so high
so the ordinary Soviet citizen could listen to them.
Despite the warnings and repressions, people listened to foreign
broadcasters. Some were tired of the Soviet propaganda, some were just
curious. Some understood that they lived behind the Iron Curtain and had
enough of censorship and lies. The Latvian radio receiver producers VEF
and Radiotehnika were forced to make receivers without the frequency
ranges where the foreign broadcasters appeared. The listeners of these
stations were reported by the work colleges, neighbors even relatives.
While nobody was thrown in the prison since the death of Stalin, being
caught of listening to hateful anti-soviet propaganda could mean
job loss and further sanctions.
Not every foreign broadcaster was considered anti-soviet, as there were
many broadcasters from Soviet-friendly countries. The main condemned
broadcasts came from Western Europe and US.
The Soviet spy agency KGB tracked the radio listening. It had many radio
control points over all country. In 1982 the KGB was even ordered to
track the Ultra High Frequency ranges at 30 km zones around the cities.
The main ones who were tracked in this range were radio amateurs. In
Soviet times every radio amateur was under the KGB watch. The Soviet
Military intelligence service GRU installed a mobile tracking and
surveillance base in Riga that could listen and record the telephone
conversations. After the fall of the Soviet Union the GRU offered to
sell these devices to Latvian government.
The shortwave radio jamming in Soviet Union ended when the new Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev ordered to stop the useless spending of
money. Shortwave radio jamming is still practiced by many countries
like China, North Korea, Iran and Vietnam. As long there will be a need
for political information the shortwave radios and its jammers will not
disappear.
Selected Sources: Upmalis, Ilgonis, Tiglass, riks, Stankvis,
riks. (2011) Latvija padomju militristu var : 1939-1999.Rga:
Latvijas okupcijas izptes biedrba.
Thank you for all the reception reports sent to reports@digidx.uk. Many
of you have correctly identified the tune include as a MIDI file as
Yankee Doodle which is used by VOA to start and finish their broadcasts
in English and other languages.
Listening on 6070kHz on Monday at 2000 Michele Costantino in Italy and
Merkouris in Greece heard DigiDX with interference from another station
which I believe to be VOA in French from Pinheira on the island of Sao
Tome. It would be nice to hear in future reception reports if anyone
else from Southern Europe also hears this interference and how this
affects the reception of DigiDX.
Reception on 11580khz at 2330 was heard in Goa, India by Jawahar
Almeida(VU2JAB), he only managed to decode a small section of the
broadcast but mentions that he tunes into VOA Radiogram weekly and it
comes in fairly well on 17580 khz at 1600 Saturdays.
Now DigiDX finishes the e-QSL card in MFSK32 and then changes to Olivia
64-2000 for a MIDI file of another famous shortwave interval signal.
This text is a Base64 encoded MIDI file which can be converted to to MP3
by going to
http://midi.digidx.uk (and select the Submit option) or go
to
http://www.motobit.com/util/base64-decoder-encoder.asp choosing to
decode the data and export to file, the file can then be renamed a .MID
file opened in Winamp or a similar software.
Sending Pic:532x304;
tntt
Before RSID: <<2016-04-24T21:54Z MFSK-32 @ 100000+1504>>
j#/L#.
.
.
--START--
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--END--
Thank you for listening to DigiDX, please send reception reports to reports@digidx.uk. This is DigiDX sign
Topic: DigiDX (via WRMI) 15770 am 2130 UTC 4/24/2016 (Read 845 times)
