NEW RADIOS, NEW STATIONS, NEW SOLAR CYCLE

Part 2

(This post is an edited version of an article I wrote for "The World of Shortwave Listening" column of The Spectrum Monitor magazine - December 2021 issue. Further details on this excellent publication are available at www.thespectrummonitor.com)

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New Stations

Over the last two decades, we have become acclimatized to watching many international and small domestic broadcasters disappear from the shortwave dials, never to return. The exodus began in the 1990s and reached an accelerated pace by the early 2000s.

Today, the shortwave broadcast bands are just a shadow of their former crowded activity. So, it is always heartening to hear of a new station on the bands. No, these are not like the old international broadcasters with large programming departments offering multiple languages, supported by high-powered transmitting sites. Those days have gone. Now, we see small independent organizations leasing time on existing transmitter relay sites through a range of brokered businesses. Let’s have a quick look at just some of the new stations that appeared this year. (Note: Times and frequencies are prone to unannounced changes)

Not much is known about Afghanistan International TV. It sprung up suddenly around the middle of August after the withdrawal of US forces from Kabul. But the station has been noted running 24-hours daily using 7600 kHz at 0300-1300 UTC via the Gavar, Armenia and 1300-0300 UTC via the Tashkent, Uzbekistan relay stations. Languages are Pashto and Dari.

Reports of the new Raadiyoonii Dirree Shaggar (RDS) began surfacing in June. RDS’s parent organization is Oromia Public Media, designed to inform and educate communities of the Oromia region of central Ethiopia, many of whom do not have ready access to online or other types of media. For the B21 transmission season, RDS is broadcasting daily in the Afaan Oromo language on 15330 kHz at 1600-1630 UTC via the Issoudun site in France.

A new station that began broadcasting in late August is Radio NUG (National Unity Government). This opposition broadcaster to the Myanmar military government has been widely heard globally with its 30-minute transmissions. Since the beginning of January, it has been using 17790 kHz at 0200 and 11940 kHz at 1400 UTC (both via the relay at Pao-Chung, Taiwan). The language is Burmese, but you can clearly hear the Radio NUG identification in English at the beginning and end of each broadcast.

Back in May, another new broadcaster appeared without fanfare. Prompted by the ongoing civil war in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, Dimtse Weyane International (a.k.a. DW International, and not to be confused with Deutsche Welle!) began leasing time from the transmitter site at Issoudun for broadcasts beamed to East Africa. The signal is subject to jamming by the Ethiopian government using a combination of white noise and a variety of digital noises. However, while the jamming may be effective in the target zone, DW International can easily be heard in other parts of the world. Look out for their daily broadcasts in the Tigrinya language on 9750 kHz at 0400-0500 UTC and 15160 kHz at 1500-1600 UTC.

UPDATE: Another new shortwave broadcaster - Mizzima Radio started on January 1. DETAILS HERE!

New Solar Cycle

As recent sunspot numbers and the F10.7cm radio flux have indicated, we have now left the long minimum of Solar Cycle 24 and begun climbing the Cycle 25 mountain! At last! In the past, we often saw a new cycle start with a bang, rapidly increasing solar activity to its peak and then engaging in a much slower decline on the back-end of the curve.

The second half of this year has seen early increases in geomagnetic activity and disturbances on the surface of the Sun. The Maximum Usable Frequency (MUF) has been rising above 15 MHz during the daytime on some occasions, although these occurrences have been somewhat sporadic. Solar flux numbers have hit well above 130 in December.

For the last four years, the 13, 15 and 19-meter bands have been quiet to the point, on occasions, of being virtually dead. But as solar activity increases over the next two years, the shortwave listener can look forward to much-improved reception conditions on the higher frequencies above 15 MHz.

At the same time, lower frequencies will tend to increase in atmospheric noise. But while 6 and 7 MHz may become increasingly noisy, the prospect of reliable reception over longer distances with much less noise further up the shortwave spectrum becomes tantalizing! This leaves the international broadcasters with the decision of when to take their operations up onto higher frequencies. We can expect that, over time, greater use will be made of the 15 and 19-meter bands, along with the possibility that the 13-meter band may also see some increased usage.