Radio Free Asia announces 26th Anniversary QSL

Radio Free Asia (RFA) announces its latest QSL card commemorating 26 years of impactful work in some of the world's most restricted media environments, such as China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Burma. Since its founding, RFA has filled a crucial gap for the tens of millions of people living in these and other places in Asia and the world, who would otherwise have little or no access to accurate, timely domestic news and information in their languages. This is RFA's 80th QSL design and will be used to confirm all valid RFA reception reports from September – December 2022.

                                                           RFA's 26th ANNIVERSARY QSL

Created by Congress in 1994 and incorporated in 1996, RFA broadcasts in Burmese, Cantonese, Khmer, Korean to North Korea, Lao, Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese, Tibetan (including Uke, Amdo, and Kham dialects), and Uyghur. RFA strives for accuracy, balance, and fairness in our editorial content. As a 'surrogate' broadcaster, RFA provides news and commentary specific to each of our target countries, acting as the free press these countries lack. RFA broadcasts only in local languages and dialects, and most of our broadcasts comprise news of specific local interest.  More information about RFA, including our current broadcast frequency schedule, is always available at www.rfa.org.

RFA encourages listeners to submit reception reports.  Reception reports are valuable to RFA as they help us evaluate the signal strength and quality of our transmissions.  RFA confirms all accurate reception reports by mailing a QSL card to the listener.  RFA welcomes all reception report submissions not only from DX'ers, but also from our general listening audience.

Reception reports are accepted by email at qsl@rfa.org and by mail to:

Reception Reports

Radio Free Asia

2025 M. Street NW, Suite 300

Washington DC 20036

United States of America

Pacific-Asian Log (PAL Guide) August 2022 Update

Bruce Portzer's Pacific-Asian Log (PAL) Guide has been updated to the August 2022 edition and is available for download from Radio Heritage Foundation website, here's the download link :

https://www.radioheritage.com

Next Radio Andorra Broadcast September 3rd

The next program from the Archives of Radio Andorra will be on this saturday, september 3rd. It's a 2-hour nostalgia program from summer 1979 which was hosted by the french singer and actress Mirelle Hartuch :     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mireille_Hartuch

The music selection is very eclectic and won't be found on any radio station nowadays.

The show will be aired as usual via Moosbrunn :

Towards Europe : 17-19 UTC on 6180 kHz with a LogPer Antenna on 270°

Towards NAm : 22-24 UTC on 13730 kHz via a HRS4/4/1

There are also programs in preparation for October to December, first saturday per month each, hosted by Sheila (who had a big hit with "Spacer" together with B. Devotion), Serge Gainsbourg and Hervé Vilard.

(Christian Milling via WOR)

New MW station from UAE

A new MW station 'Radio Keralam' from Ras Al Khaimah, UAE in Malayalam language is testing on 1476 kHz since 17th August 2022. They are using former Radio Asia 200 kW MW transmitter. Regular transmission expected to be start by 8th Sept, 2022, Onam day.

Radio Andorra in August and September 2022

The next 2 programs "from the archives of Radio Andorra" are ready to be broadcasted. In August und September on the first saturday per month it's time to roll again some 43 year old cassettes.

The program on August, 6th the French chansonnier Ricet Barrier will do the programming for one hour. It is a program from the "Carte Blanche"-series which was recorded in summer 1979, where stars at that time were invited to select their music on a sunday afternoon program. Barrier was born in August 1932, died in 2011, so it would be his 90th birthday this year. Unfortunately the second hour of his program got lost, only the first cassette survived. Times and frequencies:

August, 6th 2022

1700-1800 UTC 6180 kHz LPH 270° towards Europe

2200-2300 UTC 13730 kHz HRS 295° towards North America

On September, 3rd the French singer and actor Mirelle Hartuch is in charge. She was born in September 1906 and was at the time the program was recorded already 73 years old. So we will hear music from the 1930s and 1940s as well as contemporary songs from the 70s. This program survived completly and will be broadcasted:

September, 3rd 2022

1700-1900 UTC 6180 kHz LPH 270° towards Europe

2200-2400 UTC 13730 kHz HRS 295° towards Northamerica

All transmission, as usual are broadcasted via Moosbrunn, Austria rated at 100kW carrier power.

As you can see on the attached photo from 2008, the storage condition of the tapes was not ideal. The transmitter building of Radio Andorra in Encamp was left empty after 1981, the roof got leaky, water went into the building. In 2009 the inheritance disputes between Spain and Andorra could be settled and the remaining apparatus and some tapes could be safed.

Since last year I'm trying to restore some of the old cassettes and bring them back to HiFi quality for the enjoyment of radiofans. The whole thing is a matter of the heart, no commercial activity. The national archive suppots this ideally, but the whole financial part is done privately by myself. If anyone likes to contribute, here is my GoFundMe-campaign: https://gofund.me/cc66ad4a

All raised funds go straight to the reconstruction of the programs (buying neccessary records, softwarelicenses for the DSP Tools, maintenence of the cassette players) as well as the transmission feed on shortwave.

All transmission being already broadcasted are also avaiable online:

https://www.aquiradioandorra.com/archives_sonores_emissions_integrales.html

(Christian Milling via WOR List)

DRM Digital Radio – at the Forefront of FM Broadcasting

A live event was organised by Indian and international hosts in New Delhi on 21st July 2022. Among the participants were the Association of Radio Operators for India (AROI), five leading private broadcasters in India, representatives of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA), Micromax – the Cellphone manufacturer, NXP,  Technomedia Solutions Private Ltd and Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd (BECIL) – the broadcast system integrators, Inntot Technologies Pvt Ltd – the Indian DRM receiver manufacturer, OptM Media Solutions Pvt Ltd – the broadcast solution provider, and the DRM Consortium.

The participants were reminded that the global, open, and all-band DRM standard, offers full broadcaster independence allowing broadcasters the freedom to broadcast any content without any fees.There is also no revenue cut, as all technical details are openly standardised. And no technology license is needed to implement products and solutions of DRM.

DRM is most efficient in terms of spectrum usage as one DRM block requires about 100 kHz (half the bandwidth of analogue FM) for 4 services (up to 3 audio and 1 multimedia). DRM FM allows for simulcasting DRM FM and FM analogue from the same transmitter without the need of replacing an existing FM transmitter. Each block can represent one single broadcaster who has full control of the spectrum and content. The participants explored together the three ways of possible DRM FM introduction in India: broadcast of up to 18 audio services in DRM digital from a single FM transmitter, broadcast up to 12 audio services in DRM digital along with a service in analogue and broadcast of up to 15 audio services in DRM digital in the white space between the two analogue FM transmitters.

Broadcast of multimedia content along with the digital audio services was demonstrated, including DRM's Journaline advanced text application with support for all Indian scripts through Unicode. DRM standalone receivers as well as car radios already available in the Indian market for the reception in the DRM in the MW band, have been proven to be software-upgradable (without any hardware changes) to receive DRM in FM band, too. DRM's efficient digital transmission results in huge savings in transmission power and thus distribution costs. Only about one-tenth power of DRM transmitter is sufficient in digital to deliver same coverage as existing analogue transmissions.

India is the world's largest digital radio deployment by All India Radio (AIR) with 39 transmitters (35 MW and 4 SW). AIR is also providing some exclusive radio broadcast content (24-hour News), multilingual Journaline information and has tested DRM for Emergency Warning Functionality (EWF) signals. DRM digital signals in India today can reach over 900 million people when all the installed transmitters work in full digital operation. Over 5 million cars on the Indian roads or 30% of new cars (from Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Mahindra, Toyota, MG Hector and Mercedes Benz) have already DRM radio reception facility – at no extra cost to buyers. The Starwaves DRM SoftRadio app is now available in various Android app stores to upgrade existing phones for DRM reception, and that Gospell, Starwaves, Inntot and many other DRM desktop receiver manufacturers are coming up with various standalone DRM receivers.

During the New Delhi event participants enjoyed a live transmission on many standalone receivers, a car radio, Android mobile phones and tablets.

Reception of DRM FM in a car parked outside the venue was also demonstrated. The participants took a keen interest in the presentations,  demonstrations, and the discussions. They got a very good opportunity to debate not only how the DRM system can maintain the established

FM environment but also how it defines and advances the future of FM broadcasting by creating whole new revenue sources besides audio-ads while enabling targeted broadcasting with an overall audience increase, as well as cutting distribution costs significantly.

Involving commercial broadcasters in practical demonstrations of sharing same infrastructure and introducing DRM at reduced spectrum and energy use, while giving receiver manufacturers a chance to develop new solutions, will be the next step in digitising the FM broadcast and firmly establishing it as a core medium of India in the 21st century. 

About DRM

Digital Radio Mondiale™ (DRM) is the universal, openly standardised digital radio system for all broadcasting frequencies and coverage needs.

DRM on short, medium and long wave up to 30 MHz provides for the efficient coverage in large areas with at least FM quality, while significantly reducing power consumption. DRM in the FM & VHF bands above 30 MHz enables flexible local and regional broadcaster-controlled services, with up to 3 stereo audio programmes plus multimedia compon

ents in half the bandwidth of a single analogue FM signal. 

Advanced radio functionality thanks to DRM comprises: More services based on the highly efficient audio codec MPEG xHE-AAC and free-to-air Journaline multi-lingual text information, detailed  service signalling, service linking (including to analogue AM/FM services) and DRM EWF – Emergency Warning Functionality. Enhanced DRM features include native Unicode support, station logos via SPI, Slideshow images and traffic and travel information. 

(Press Release)