A Saudi Arabian QSL from 1976 when 350–kW transmitters enabled the station to maintain a global reach. Although I heard the station at 2000 UTC, the card lists the time as 1600 to 2300, clearly the entire transmission period. (Author’s collection)

SAUDI ARABIA:
Broadcasting Troubles in the Kingdom
by Rob Wagner VK3BVW

This article first appeared in my World of Shortwave Listening column in the August 2024 issue of The Spectrum Monitor magazine. Further details on this excellent publication are available at www.thespectrummonitor.com

The Middle East has long been home to political volatility, and conflicts are regularly staged. The largest country in the region is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, covering an area of 2,150,000 sq km (830,000 sq mi). It boasts ancient cultures and civilizations and possesses a rich and colourful history. In the early 7th century, the world’s second-largest religion, Islam, grew out of the area we now know as Saudi Arabia.

Public radio broadcasting in Saudi Arabia began in 1948. Over the years, the government broadcaster has had a variety of names, including the Saudi Arabian Broadcasting Service (SABC - the 1950s), the Broadcasting Service of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (BSKSA - late 1960s), the Saudi Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), and more recently, the Saudi Broadcasting Authority (SBA). This broadcasting entity describes itself as “…a government body with a legal personality and financial independence under the Saudi Ministry of Information, which seeks to convey the message of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to all regions locally and globally in word and image, and to raise and develop the level of radio and television performance…”.

Back in the early ’50s, shortwave programming in Arabic could be heard from a 3 kW transmitter in Jeddah. Services were expanded in the mid-’60s, with English added to the schedule in 1969. 1973 saw old 50 kW transmitters at Riyadh replaced with 350 kW senders, enabling its signal to reach all parts of the globe. Around that time, I remember the station being heard here in southeastern Australia with robust reception. I have some QSL cards in my collection from that period for both the external and Arabic home services. In 2007, English programming of between 1.5 and 3 hours was re-introduced but disappeared from schedules during 2014.

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International Services Gone For Good?

But what’s happening today? The last publicly advertised external service schedule of Saudi Radio International (SRI) shows only Arabic, Indonesian, Pashto, Somali, Swahili, and Urdu.

0400-0655 Swahili 15285 to East Africa

0700-0855 Somali 13720 to North-East Africa

0900-1155 Urdu 15120 to South Asia

0900-1155 Indonesian 21670 to South-East Asia

1200-1455 Urdu 13775 to South Asia

1400-1555 Pashto 9695 to Afghanistan

1600-1755 Urdu 9885 to Central Asia

In reality, the above services services have disappeared and haven’t been heard on the bands for some time.

Regular Arabic broadcasts are also missing, notably the 17730 kHz General Service (a.k.a Radio Riyadh) that relayed the mediumwave channels of 1467 and 1521 kHz. In addition, the Holy Qur’an service on 13710 and 15380 kHz has been absent from the shortwave dials for ages. Both services targeted the Middle East and North Africa.

Along with my own observations, I confirmed these absences with my DXing friend, Tarek Zeidan SU1001SWL, who lives in Cairo, Egypt and is across much of the Middle East broadcasting scene. Tarek says that all the external broadcasts just stopped without any announcement or warning. He reports that the mediumwave outlets of Radio Riyadh are operating on either reduced power or off the air completely, and the Holy Qur’an is also operating on a limited number of mediumwave channels.

The striking city of Riyadh.
Image by Muflih Alhababi from Pixabay

SRI’s service to Indonesia was important as that country hosts some 13% of the world’s Muslims. Broadcasts in Indonesian on 21670 kHz were last heard here on February 9, although it is likely that the station was still on this frequency for some days or weeks afterwards. However, when it was in operation, it delivered an excellent signal to the target country and here into southeastern Australia. In fact, so reliable was it that the station could be used as a beacon to indicate openings on the 13-meter band.

The above schedules used eight 500 kW transmitters in Riyadh. Google Earth offers a remarkably clear satellite view of the Riyadh site with its transmitter buildings, feedlines and antenna arrays. Drop the following decimal coordinates into the search bar for a closer look:

24.82676005269601, 46.86637477215932.

International service broadcasts last operated from the Jeddah transmitter site some time ago.

The SBA website does not mention shortwave frequencies. AM, DAB, FM, satellite broadcasts, and streaming audio are all utilized. The broadcaster has a strong presence on YouTube, including informative and entertaining English programming. So, will the external and general Arabic shortwave services ever be restored? It’s not looking hopeful! This raises a second question: what will happen to the big 500 kW transmitters?

Radio Al-Azm

In 2017, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Information, the Saudi Broadcasting Authority suddenly launched a new service called Radio Al-Azm (approximate English translation: Determination Radio). Using 11745 kHz on shortwave, 549 and 747 kHz mediumwave, and several FM outlets, the 0900 to 0700 UTC programming is aimed at southern Saudi Arabia, including military personnel serving in the provinces of Jizan and Najran and northern Yemen. This service is well-heard globally and features news, commentaries, educational content and music. Whether this service radiates from the Riyadh or Jeddah sites is still being determined.

Republic of Yemen - Radio Sana’a

In neighbouring Yemen, a complex and tragic war has been raging for years. In November 2015, a station on 11860 kHz, identifying itself as the Republic of Yemen Radio—Radio Sana’a, initially claimed to operate from the port city of Aden in Yemen, on the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula. However, it is unlikely that transmitting resources currently exist to make this location a reality. Instead, we believe that Saudi Arabia, being sympathizers of Yemen’s pro-Hadi forces, is hosting these broadcasts via its transmitter site at either Riyadh or Jeddah. Tarek Zeidan believes the transmissions are coming from Jeddah.

In August 2023, I noted in this blog that there was a horrible buzzing noise on the frequency covering the audio content. I included a YouTube video of the reception here in southeastern Australia and from the Kiwi SDR in Qatar. Was this deliberate jamming or a sick transmitter? Suspiciously, the buzzing could be seen in harmonics spaced 120 Hz apart, centred on or near 11860 kHz and spread across approximately two or three kHz on either side of that frequency.

In recent times, we have seen the station settle on 11935 kHz. Some lists say this is a 24-hour operation. That is not currently the case. My recent observations during May and June show a definite break in transmission between 1930 and 0400, although sign-on and sign-off times vary considerably. Both the station and the mysterious noise disappeared during those off-air times.

Some believed Iran was potentially jamming this station, using its extensive shortwave transmitting resources. Despite Saudi Arabia restoring diplomatic relations with Iran more than a year ago, tensions remain over regional conflicts, especially in Yemen and Lebanon. But if it was jamming, the buzzing noise wasn’t always present and was intermittent during some transmissions.

But now, I believe we have the answer. On June 4, I caught the Radio Sana’a sign-on at 04:00:30 UTC with a strong signal and the obnoxious buzzing. The interference started at EXACTLY the same time as the station’s carrier. The chances of jamming commencing at precisely the same time as the transmission would be extremely low. This seems to indicate to me that this is, indeed, an intermittent transmitter fault.

A screenshot of the Qatar Kiwi remote SDR on June 29 showing the sign-on of the Radio Sana'a transmitter at 03:57:30 UTC. Multiple 120 Hz harmonics extend out more than 3 kHz on both sides of 11935 kHz, covering the station's audio (VK3BVW photo).

On June 6, the buzzing disappeared! It wasn’t being heard or seen on waterfalls. During much of June, the transmissions were mostly clear and strong, although, at times, the audio levels were well down. After ten months of on-and-off buzzing interference, we thought the Saudis might have finally fixed the problem.

That was until June 24 when British DXer Tony Rogers alerted me to the return of the same noise after three weeks of clean reception. With ageing transmitters, their engineers may have trouble sourcing replacement parts or don’t know how to fix the problem.

Industry friends say it is becoming increasingly difficult to find experienced RF engineers to oversee the operation of AM, FM and SW broadcast station transmitters. The older generations of RF engineers are either retiring or pushing up daises, and there is a significant lack of younger engineers coming through the ranks who have the skills to install and maintain broadcast transmitters.

This appears to be a worldwide problem. Indeed, many shortwave signals exhibit poor audio, off-frequency behaviours, noisy carriers, etc. I don’t remember this being such a problem “in the old days”.

UPDATE September 5, 2024: After a few weeks of relatively clean audio and pleasant listening, today I hear it signing on at 0357 UTC on approximately 11935.60 kHz with what sounds like a clicking or chirping noise in AM mode. Switching to LSB, we find very little audio information. In USB, we hear a broken or choppy signal with fast frequency shifts, which are the "clicking" noises we hear in AM. Very strange and still indicates that the transmitter is faulty.

Rob Wagner VK3BVW