Radio Austria reduces Airtime on Shortwave

For a while, Radio Austria International’s (Radio Österreich International) shortwave service went on air three times a day – in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. By now, it seems, it has fallen behind pre-Ukraine-war airtime, with only one morning broadcast left, from 05:00 to 05:33 UTC.

Mon through Sat
Time UTC (start)	Time UTC (end)	Frequency
05:00	05:33	6155 kHz

I was a bit disappointed of the QSL card I got for my reception report in April 2022, It featured St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and must have been a beautiful card while they didn’t run out of it – what I got was a QSL letter with the photo printed on it. Wouldn’t have been too bad that way either, but how about a verification stamp? The way it was, I might have printed it out of my mailbox just as well.

But I shouldn’t be ungrateful – they still confirm reports at all. Many European broadcasters have stopped doing so.

And if you understand German, you’ll get an excellent morning news edition of twenty to twenty-five minutes, with (or so it seems to me) everything you need to know. Every morning, except Sundays, which is dead-air day.

EU: “Just protecting the freedom of expression”

All the news that’s fit to blog.

Fri, Febr 24, 2023	One year after the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war, China publishes a Confucius-says “position paper”. Originally, it had been advised as a “peace plan” by China’s supreme diplomat Wang Yi, but has since been de-ambitioned. Meantime, China’s foreign-ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) offers a clue as to why: FMPRC tweet, Febr 24, 2023
Thu, Febr 23, 2023	The central committee of Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP, 民進黨) approved a timetable that presidential nominations would be decided by April 12, and Legislative Yuan nominations in May. It appears to be widely accepted among the party’s legislators that, in the light of a poor showing in Taiwan’s “mid-term elections”, i. e. the country’s local elections in November 2022, more time is needed to prepare for the nation-wide presidential and legislative elections next year. Lai Ching-te, the incumbent Tsai administration’s current Vice President, has recently been elected chairman of the DPP, and Chen Jien-jen, Lai’s predecessor as Taiwan’s Vice President from 2016 to 2020, became head of the cabinet in January this year. Source: 央廣 / Radio Taiwan International
Wed, Febr 22, 2023	High-level foreign-policy and defense officials from Japan and China met at Japan’s foreign ministry in Tokyo on Wednesday. It was the first such meeting after an interruption of about four years. Chinese Deputy foreign minister Sun Weidong (孙卫东) was quoted as saying that there was “an important consensus” that neither country posed a threat for the other. However, Sun also said that there were Chinese concerns about Japan’s “strategic documents” issued in 2022, and Japan’s increasing cooperation with “outside forces” (域外力量), and about “negative tendencies” in Taiwan. Source: Radio Japan
Wed, Febr 22, 2023	Russian president Vladimir Putin met China’s chief diplomat Wang Yi in Moscow on Wednesday. The Kremlin published a detailed account of the meeting the same day. Source: Kremlin
Wed, Febr 15, 2023	Pyongyang was said to have gone under a Covid-related lockdown in late January, allegedly lasting from January 25 to 30. But was there a lockdown at all? Source: SinoNK
Tue, Febr 14, 2023	Chen Xuyuan (陈戌源) was – effectively, maybe not nominally yet – fired as chairman of the Chinese Football Association earliert his month, after having been confronted with the usual suspicions of “serious violations of discipline”, which appears to serve as a regular CPC codeword for corruption charges. Chen, a Shanghai native born in 1956, was also the football association’s deputy party secretary. Source: Ifeng
Mo, Febr 13, 2023	“Less then half the world is on the internet”, a BBC documentary broadcast told the audience on February 11, two days ahead of World Radio Day. Source: BBC
Tue, Febr 7, 2023	Critics of the EU’s censorship policy against Russia’s foreign-language service “RT” had a field day early this month, after the EU’s high-representative for for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, had told a “European Union External Action” (EEAS) conference that by imposing “restrictive measures on the Kremlin’s propaganda machinery and effectively ban them from operating within the European Union”, “we are not attacking the freedom of expression, we are just protecting the freedom of expression”. The EU’s “restrictive measures” aren’t limited to banning RT work from within the EU. Access to RT from EU countries is only possible via VPN. This includes the organization’s German and Chinese services. Main Source: EEAS

Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) Christmas Program on Shortwave, 2022 (01)

If Germany’s Northern German Radio (Norddeutscher Rundfunk, NDR) has it right in its December 2022 schedule, the traditional program of greetings from the shore to the Seven Seas (minus the Pacific, it seems) will be on air on Christmas Eve from 18:03 to 21:00 UTC. That would be in line with last year’s broadcasting time, which was also just three instead of the traditional four hours.

^{Hello World, this is Leer calling}
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»»»»» Beginning of Update, Nov 30, 2022

Times and frequencies

Target Areas	Schedule Nov 26 (now invalid)	Schedule Nov 30 (most recently)
Atlantic (North)	6145 kHz
Atlantic (South)	9830 kHz	13725 kHz
Atlantic (Northwest)	—	15770 kHz
Atlantic (Northeast)	—	6030 kHz
Atlantic / Indian Ocean	9590 kHz	11650 kHz
Indian Ocean	—	9740 kHz
Indian Ocean (West)	9740 kHz
Indian Ocean (East)	9675 kHz
Europe	6155 kHz	6080 kHz

This leaves us with some guesswork, but tradition and target areas seem to suggest that the Atlantics will be served from Nauen (Germany) or from Issoudun (France). and 6155 kHz look like Moosbrunn (Austria), especially as the Austrian Broadcasting Service (Österreichischer Rundfunk Service, ORS) seem to target all of Europe (360°) from there with their daily morning and midday broadcasts in German.

But to be honest, I’m really wildly guessing. Hopefully, NDR will follow up with some more details about transmitter sites, soon.

Still update, Nov 30, 2022

I’m not sure how the NDR schedule had arrived at the previous schedule (Nov 26) – those weren’t last year’s Christmas frequencies either. But moving up the spectrum makes sense, as maximum usable frequencies have been rising for a while, and are likely to do so until about 2025.

End of update Nov 30 «««««

In some ways, the program seems to be going back to normal as far as its  format is concerned. People are no longer confined to their computers and the internet – people meet again. Christmas messages from seafarers’ relatives ashore will be pre-recorded in Leer (East Frisia / Ostfriesland) on December 11, and in Hamburg on December 18, in settings as christmaslike as possible, 13 or six days ahead of the big day (or night) itself.

What will be missing this year (it appears) is the religious service – the only part of the traditional shortwave broadcasts that actually used to be live on the air. That would follow at 22:00 UTC, but only on VHF, digital, or streamed.

Thailand: “To compensate for the loss of Chinese Tourism Market”

The following is an excerpt from Radio Thailand’s business news last night (UTC). The program was in English.

^{Better known as FM88 Radio Thailand now, but still on shortwave}

Its info that high hopes are placed on Indian tourists, detailing that there have been 600,000 visitors from India since borders reopened in July (compared to ten million Chinese visitors during all of 2019) may or may not be indicative for the overall significance of India as a tourism market for Thailand, but I guess that if Chinese tourists remain absent for a long time, Chinese influence in Thailand could also suffer to some extent. “Zero-Covid” comes at costs, not only at home, but also abroad.

Words or word groups I didn’t understand have been replaced by brackets.

The tourism confidence survey index for the 4th quarter of this year is up 70 from 65 from the last quarter. There is an air of confidence according to the Tourism Council of Thailand that recently unveiled its latest quarterly industry confidence index. It [..] states that a strong recovery from the industry players has been signaled and that business is ready to reclaim its confidence. As one of the countries fastest-growing sector […]. The survey revealed that the industry’s confidence during the 3rd quarter 2022 was up 65, and was expected to rise to 70 for the 4th quarter, noting that the 4th quarter being the sector’s high season and its best time to recover. The Tourism Council of Thailand says it expects tourist numbers in 2022 to be around five million – about two million more than the expected target.

With the latest industry survey, there is a resurgence of confidence that the sector could return to pre-Covid levels by as early as next year, further announcing that the country’s tourism numbers returned to its 40 million mark previously experienced pre-Covid-19. During pre-pandemic era, Thailand’s peak capacity was 39.9 million tourists recorded in 2019. This was the landmark year, when the sector contributed 20% of the country’s GDP.

China was the single largest tourist segment for Thailand with more than 10 million visitors in 2019, which has continued to impose restrictions, unfortunately, on outbound tourists […] thus leaving Thailand to look for new markets. To compensate for the loss of Chinese tourism market, Thailand has managed to attract Indian tourists, where the pandemic has prompted more tourists now to visit the country. India’s tourists have become the second-largest group after Malaysia, with more than 600,000 visitors recorded since the reopening its borders in July.

The Tourism Council of Thailand reported that in its survey revealed that the country’s tourism industry service and [..] businesses have begun recovering, in terms of bottomline. Recent industry reported that hotel [revenues?] has started returning by as much as 40% of pre-Covid level, while 87% of the business were back in full operation. […] [Shortage of workforce also mentioned.]

Despite the positive outlook for the industry and the rebound of the sector, [possibility of] slowdown due to the rising interest rates and […] recession which could dampen travel demand. […]

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Related

Long Yongtu & the Smiling Curve, May 17, 2012
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Air Defense Competition, Particular Honors and Promotions

^{“Hold on to revolution, advance production, advance work, advance war preparation”}
The following is my translation from an article first published by the “China Defense Paper” (中国国防报), a paper run by a “People’s Liberation Army” publishing house which also publishes the “People’s Liberation Army Daily”. It was published online by China’s ministry of defense website on September 9, 2022.
Development of civil air defense reportedly started in 1950, when the CPC Central Committee issued a circular for an organizing committee that would then establish a “Central People’s Air Defense Committee” (中共中央发出通知，成立中央人民防空委员会筹委会). “Baike Baidu”, an online encyclopedia:

The masses are both the object and the force of Civil Air Defense. In addition to Civil Air Defense staff, the important goals of partners like government agencies, enterprises and public institutions as well as from all sides of society are also included, as are all aspects of societal life. Civil Air Defense are manifold, including evacuations, camouflage, dealing with the aftermath of air raids, etc..
人民群众既是人民防空对象，又是人民防空力量。人民防空对象除了人员以外，还包括政府机构、企业事业单位等重要目标，以及社会生活的各个方面。人民防空行动形式多样，包括疏散防护、隐蔽防护、消除空袭后果等。

There have been earlier days of mass mobilization, then against a suspicious power very near there – the USSR, in the 1960s.
The concept of mass mobilisation was confirmed in the 1990s, with an air defense law

adopted at the 202nd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People’s Congress on October 29, 1996, promulgated by Order No. 78 of the President of the People’s Republic of China on October 29, 1996, and effective as of January 1, 1997.

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According to the 1996 air-defense law,

[a]s authorized by the State Council and the Central Military Commission, the major military commands shall exercise leadership in the work of civil air defense in the areas under their command.

The article you are going to read describes three particular fields of competition: satellite communication, mobile-devices communication and shortwave communication.
As far as these fields of science are concerned, the 1996 law stipulates that

The tasks to be performed by mass organizations for air defense in time of　war include dealing with emergencies, doing rush repairs, providing medical aid, preventing and extinguishing fire, engaging in epidemic prevention, disinfection and sterilization, eliminating contamination, ensuring signal communications, rescuing people, doing emergency transportation of goods and materials and maintaining public order, and in time of peace they shall assist the departments for fighting against floods and earthquakes in dealing with emergencies and doing disaster relief.

That said, the army wants specialized people within its ranks, not somewhere else. And as Chinese people can be drafted (without being asked), a guideline published (or publicised) by the “PLA” in August suggests that drafts during the later months of this year would be based on skills which are particularly relevant for war prepration.

The article.
Main Link: “I particularly care about this honor” (我特别看重这份荣誉)

From August 30 to August 31, the 2022 Henan Provincial Civil Air Defense System Skills Competiton was carried out in the city of Hebi. In contrast to the past, success during the competiton was linked to the contestants’ professional advancement. For example, workers and handymen, no matter if junior, intermediate or senior workers, can all be promoted to a higher position right away, with payment and status being adjusted accordingly.
8月30日至31日，2022年河南省人防系统职业技能竞赛在鹤壁市举行。与以往不同，这次竞赛成绩与参赛选手个人职业等级晋升挂钩。比如，对于工勤技能岗位人员而言，无论是初级工、中级工还是高级工，只要进入竞赛前3名，均可直接晋升为技师，工资待遇也会相应调整。
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This change has been made because the Civil Air Defense System Skills Competiton has been integrated into the 2022 Henan Provincial vocational technical skills competiton plan. “The Civil Air Defense communication skills competition is technologically demanding, strict in its standard requirements, and should enjoy preferential regional industrial and technical competition policies.“ Someone in charge at the provincial Human Resources and Social Security Department’s professional capacity-building office explained that “according to the ‘Henan Province Professional Skills Competition (trial) Administrative Method’, three new items have been added this time, concerning: Civil Air Defense satellite communication, Civil Air Defense shortwave communication, and Civil Air Defense mobile device operators. With certain results, participants qualify for professional promotion.
变化，源于这次人防技能竞赛被纳入2022年河南省职业技能竞赛计划。“人防通信技能竞赛，技术含量高、标准要求严，理应享受地方职业技能竞赛优惠政策。”该省人社厅1职业能力建设处相关负责人介绍，依据《河南省职业技能竞赛管理办法（试行）》，此次新增了人防卫星、短波、移动通信机务员3个项目；参赛人员取得一定成绩，即获得职业等级晋升资格。
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“Integrating war preparation competitions, practicing perfect mastery and ability.” In accordance with this line of thought, Henan Province Civil Air Defense Office first mobilized those to sign up who were up to the condition, and then instructed Municipal Civil Air Defense Offices to hold preliminary competitions to select the best from those already best so as to ensure a high starting point for the provincial finals.
“结合备战竞赛，练强过硬本领。”按照这一思路，河南省人防办首先动员符合条件的人员踊跃报名参加，然后指导各地市人防办举办预赛、优中选优，确保省决赛的高起点。
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To ensure impartiality and fairness, the National University of Defense and Technology’s School of Communication and Information, counterpart units from Shandong, Guangxi, Sichuan and other provinces, Hebi City Fire and Rescue Brigade and other third parties were invited to send referees.
Extra efforts were made in the design of the test settings. For example, shortwave transmitter-receivers had to work with groundwaves instead of skywaves, because propagation of the latter is variably influenced [by the ionosphere]. This is how variations in assignment conditions for the participants were avoided.
为保证竞赛公平公正，他们不仅邀请国防科技大学信息通信学院，山东、广西、四川等兄弟单位，鹤壁市消防救援支队作为第三方，派出专家和技术人员担任裁判，而且还在赛题设置上下了一番功夫。比如，短波电台要借助地波而不是天波进行通联，天波受天气影响较大，这样可避免前后上场的选手作业条件出现较大差异。
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Zhang Guoyin, a high-level worker from Zhengzhou City Civil Air Defense Office, achieved the second position at the Civil Air Defense mobile device operators which means that, according to the rewards policy, he can be promoted to the position of a technician^*) right away. “The things demanded in this competiton are pretty much what I’m practising and using regularly anyway, so I could do this quite safely.” Zhang Guoyin told this reporter that to get promoted had by no means been as easy in the past. In 2016, he passed his high-level worker exam, but the acceptance quota was limited, and he was only promoted in 2019.
郑州市人防办高级工张国印，在移动通信机务员赛项中获得第二名，按照奖励政策，他可以直接晋升为技师。“这次竞赛的内容，基本都是平时常训常练常用的，考起来得心应手。”张国印告诉记者，以前晋级可没这么顺利。他在2016年通过了高级工考试，但受名额数量所限，直到2019年才得以晋升。
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Tan E, winner of the gold medal at the shortwave communication operators’ competition, is a technician at the Provincial Civil Air Defense command information support center. As far as technicians are concerned, the first three of them [in the competition], won’t be benefitted in terms of payment, but are exempted from two theoretical senior-technician exams. They also earn themselves a title as “Henan Province technology experts”. “I used to be with the signal corps, and I particularly care about this honor.” Holding his certificate in his hands, Tan E couldn’t hide his joy.
在短波通信机务员赛项中夺得金牌的谭峨，是省人防指挥信息保障中心的一名技师。对于技师而言，前3名的成绩虽然不与工资待遇挂钩，但可在高级技师考试中免考2门理论，并可获得“河南省技术能手”称号。“我曾是一名通信兵，特别看重这份荣誉。”谭峨手捧荣誉证书，难掩心中的喜悦。
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There were also active engineers taking part. Gao Bing, associate engineer from the Nanyang Civil Air Defense Office, Liu Wei, intermediate engineer from Hebi Civil Air Defense Office, won gold medals in satellite and mobile device operations respectively. These are excellent successes, laying the foundations for their next professional evaluations. Zhu Anwei, second-class floorwalker at the Provincial Civil Air Defense Office, believes that competiton among staff from specialised technological posts doesn’t only help the participants’ maturity and progress, but also provides everyone with role models, goals to achieve, and is beneficial for the promotion of building skilled and talented echelons.
竞赛场上还活跃着工程师人员的身影。南阳市人防办助理工程师高冰、鹤壁市人防办中级工程师刘伟，分别获得卫星、移动通信机务员竞赛项目金牌。优异的成绩，给他们下一步的职称评定奠定了基础。省人防办二级巡视员朱安伟认为，安排专业技术岗位人员上阵比武，不仅对他们个人成长进步有帮助，而且能让大家学有榜样、赶有目标，有利于推动技能人才梯队建设。
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Those who have earned themselves gold and silver medals have been awarded, and the others don’t consider their participation wasted time either. According to releveant regulations, those who finished 4th to 10th can be promoted. “A moment on stage takes several years of practice off-stage.” According to what leaders at the Civil Air Defense Office say, having gone through several months of ample war preparation not only brought the participants’ professional skills to new levels, but also built a good atmosphere within the provincial civil air defense system that leans on personal technical skills and on real accomplishment and improvement.
摘金夺银者有奖，其他参赛人员也不虚此行。每项赛事中获得第4至10名者，也可按相关规定晋升职业技能等级。“台上一分钟，台下数年功。”该省人防办相关领导介绍，经过几个月的充分备战，这次竞赛不仅让参赛选手业务技能上了一个大台阶，而且在全省人防系统中营造了凭技能立身、靠实绩进步的良好氛围。

____________

Note

^*) A reformed eight-level remuneration scale has reportedly been in place earlier this year. It includes the ranks of 学徒工 (apprentice), 初级工 (junior worker), 中级工 (intermediate worker), 高级工 (senior worker), 技师 (technician), 高级技师 (senior technician), 特级技师 (top senior technician), 首席技师 (chief technician) – see Industrial Bank of China and the CPC Central Committee’s “Qiushi” (bimonthly English-language edition) for sources
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Radio Pravda dlya Rossii (“Truth for Russia”) on Vacation

According to its Twitter account, Radio Truth for Russia / Радио Правда для России (Radio Pravda dlja Rossii) is currently taking a summer break. Not sure if this affects their shortwave transmissions.

Please check their Twitter feed for updates.

Information about times and frequencies of their broadcasts on shortwave – in addition to their youtube channel – vary, but 9670 kHz, 6070 kHz and 13600 kHz are often mentioned.

For a number of reasons (safety, appropriate use of donations, etc.), I wouldn’t expect QSL cards from this broadcaster.

Émissions Ondes Courtes de Tamsui, Taiwan, en Français

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^{Le retour du service français de Radio Taiwan International aux ondes courtes, printemps 2020 QSL}

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Radio Taiwan International’s direct programs from Tamsui

Émissions directes de Radio Taiwan Internationale de Tamsui

Shortwave is gaining ground: Radio Taiwan International’s French service will broadcast from its shortwave transmission site in Tamsui this month – every weekend (Fridays through Sundays) from 17:00 to 18:00 UTC on 11995 kHz and from 19:00 to 20:00 UTC on 9545 kHz. August 05 – 07 August 12 – 14 August 19 – 21 August 26 – 28.

Pour la première fois, il y aura des émissions françaises de Tamsui, Taiwan, pour les regions européennes et nord-africaines. Selon Radio Taiwan Internationale, Le programme de cette activité radiophonique en français sera diffusé en Ondes Courtes tous les vendredis, samedis et dimanches du mois d’août. Fréquence 11995 kHz, 17h00-18h00, temps universel (19 h à Paris), Fréquence 9545 kHz, 19h00-20h00, temps universel (21 h à Paris), tous les week-ends.

^{Bonjour le Monde – les émissions réguliers de Radio Taiwan Internationale – source: RTI}

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Tests were carried out in July in a range of 308 to 325° reportedly, which suggests that both northern Africa and Europe should be good places to listen to the transmissions from Tamsui, northwestern Taiwan.

Des émissions testes ont été effectués en juillet, dans un azimut de 308 à 325°.

RTI’s French service usually broadcasts for Europe on 6005 kHz, from 19:00 to 19:30 UTC, via Kostinbrod relay, Bulgaria. Listeners who don’t usually listen to the station’s internet programs (one hour of programming per day) will have a great opportunity to get to listen to programs they wouldn’t usually hear on shortwave.

Normalement, il y a une émission par jour de Kostinbrod, la Bulgarie, chaque jour de 19:00 à 19:30 temps universel (21 – 21:30 h à Paris) sur 6005 kHz, pour l’Europe et l’Afrique du nord. En outre, il y a une transmission pour l’Afrique ouest tous les dimanches, en 13835 kHz (apparemment à partir d’Issoudun, Centre-Val de Loire, en France). Si vous n’écoutez, d’habitude, les programmes français en ligne (il y en a une demie-heure sur les ondes courtes, mais des 30 minutes additionnels en ligne), les émissions de Tamsui vous donneront une belle occasion d’écouter des programmes rares sur les ondes courtes en août, car il y en aura 60 minutes par émission de Tamsui.

Radio Taiwan International (RTI) 2022 Shortwave Transmissions to Europe, from Tamsui, in French and in German

Taiwan Blue Magpie, aka “long-tailed mountain lady”, featured
on RTI German Service’s 2021 special QSL card

Test transmissions led to the choice of 11,955 11995 kHz for broadcasts at 17:00 UTC, and 9545 kHz for broadcasts on 19:00 UTC. All broadcasts in German are one-hour transmissions, and they provide listeners with an idea of the content they don’t usually get to hear on shortwave, as regular broadcasts via Kostinbrod relay, Bulgaria, are only 30 minutes long.
The other half of the program can usually only be found online.
The special summer transmissions at 17 and 19 hours from Tamsui can be heard on 17 and 19 h UTC on every Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the rest of July.

In August, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, there will be direct transmissions from Tamsui in French, also one-hour programs, at 17:00 on 11,995 kHz and at 19:00 UTC on 9545 kHz.

Reception reports are reliably confirmed with special QSL cards for Tamsui transmissions, and the German and the French services issue QSL cards different from each other – so reporting on both language programs makes a lot of sense for collectors.