China Radio International has introduced relays to Europe from the Pori transmitter in Finland on 963 kHz. The schedule is as follows (times UTC):
- Russian 0200-0400
- Estonian 0400-0500
- Lithuanian 0500-0600
- Russian 1600-1800
- Polish 1800-1900
- Czech 1900-2000
- German 2000-2200
(Source: Digita via Risto Kotalampi/HardCoreDX.com)
on Apr 18th, 2009 at 14:37
I’ll give it a listen in the UK… what’s the intended coverage area?
on Apr 18th, 2009 at 19:14
In the end of the day all medium wave channels in Europe will be filled with Chinese propaganda.
And noboday listens.
End of MW
(As SW ended for lack of listenable programmes and to much propaganda.)
on Apr 19th, 2009 at 20:16
Can someone confirm those Estonian/Lithuanian services please?
The thing is: CRI never broadcast in those languages before. No webpages for Estonian/Lithuanian seem to exist on CRI.cn. The station has good relay connections in Lithuania proper. Why wouldn’t it carry Lithuanian programs locally?
Note that CRI Ukrainian still functions as an online-only service.
Ruud, to be fair CRI came a long way from R.Peking of old days. Give it a try, CRI today isn’t exactly some kind of hard core propaganda. It’s unfortunate that YLE chose to stop using that 600 kW transmitter. Now the transmitter is up for hire…
on Apr 19th, 2009 at 20:28
Before you know it, they will be broadcasting in the USA on small and struggling AM stations. It’s all part of the long-term grand plan………
on Apr 19th, 2009 at 20:51
Jari Savolainen reported yesterday:
“The Estonian program mentions often Futuvision and radio86.com websites that are also mentioned in Finland during “Chinese Hour” program in Finnish on Classic Radio FM network.”
Futuvision is a company in Tampere (Finland) that apparently can be considered a CRI subsidiary. It also handles the CRI relays via Luxembourg on 1440 kHz since CRI has stopped its cooperation with WRN at yearend 2007. I assume that these programmes in Estonian and Lithuanian had been launched the same way than the Finnish broadcasts, i.e. as a “Radio 86″ service. Btw, CRI relays in Lithuania on mediumwave ceased on March 31. For Russian, Czech and Polish the new Pori relay is more or less a direct replacement.
Another detail: The 963 kHz program line-up is also carried on Eutelsat Hotbird 8, in the Media Broadcast mux on 11.604 GHz. This is presumably a feed to Pori, taken at the Usingen teleport from Intelsat 10 (the former Panamsat 10 on 68.5 deg. East, not to be confused with Intelsat 10-02) where CRI runs a mux with more than 30 audio channels. This C-band signal requires in Europe dish sizes of more than 3 metres and Pori is already beyond the border of the official footprint, so a direct downlink there is not feasible. Of course this Hotbird signal would be of interest for DTH reception as well.
on Apr 20th, 2009 at 07:00
I can’t receive it because asian sound radio east lancs transmitter is txing on 963kHz MW on the same frequency from an AM mast on Hameldon Hill Accrington Lancashire!
on Apr 20th, 2009 at 07:36
Thanks, Kai. I didn’t realize that CRI quit Lithuania relays. I wonder if the Chinese found out that the same people who sold that AM air time, also relay RFA to China…
WRN Russian still earns tons of money from relaying CRI in the former USSR. But recently WRN began Moscow relays of R.Taiwan Int. I wonder if that might lead to potential problems.
on Apr 20th, 2009 at 07:44
Acc. to this job posting, Lithuanian and Estonian programs are produced in Tampere, Finland: http://www.radio86.co.uk/about-radio86/open-vacancies
This is pretty amazing. How many of those semi-clandestine language services does CRI run?
on May 7th, 2009 at 04:11
In response to Kai, it does not appear that all language versions are carried on the Hotbird feed. For example when Estonian broadcast began on 963 khz, the Hotbird feed went silent after announcement that Estonian is next and the time signal.
on May 7th, 2009 at 12:39
Thank you for this observation! So the Hotbird channel is silent altogether in the 2200-0200 and 0400-1600 periods?
It seems that the 963 kHz program audio originates from Tampere, where the feed from Beijing (via Hotbird for the above discussed reasons) is combined with play-outs of the locally produced programmes in Estonian and Lithuanian. Or Digita gets these programmes by way of FTP and plays them out locally at Pori, after an audio source switch at 0400 sharp.
on May 8th, 2009 at 04:13
I have not checked the other times, because I generally have my dish at Astra 19.2E instead. Because the MW doesn’t propagate well from Pori to Southern Estonia(where I live) at daytime(frequent fadeouts), I wanted to try if I could listen over satellite instead. But yes, today again - silence since 400Z on Hotbird. I noticed that the preceding Russian language programme used CRI branding… so it may indeed been remotely fed whilst Radio 86 is locally produced.
on May 12th, 2009 at 08:25
The Estonian transmission is audible in Tallinn. It is a mixture of various touristic and other information, language lessons, Chinese pop music. The texts are completely translated from other sources, either from English or Finnish. They also use citations from Reuters. CRI was never mentioned. The transmission is called “Hiina tund” (Chinese hour), the name of the station was pronounced as “FutuVision Radio86.com”. The Lithuanian transmission used the same station name and followed without any break. Both programmes are produced in Tampere.
on May 12th, 2009 at 10:09
Unfortunately, no signal in Lithuania. Some days something is audible, but so weak that I can’t identify even language. Bad propagation at this time of the year.
on May 13th, 2009 at 05:17
The website for Estonian programms is http://ee.radio86.com, for Lithuanian programms http://lt.radio86.com, but unfortunately the podcast and feed links are not working.
on May 13th, 2009 at 14:03
Toomas, CRI’s official website has the same issues.
on Sep 12th, 2009 at 02:55
The China Radio International was captured in Brazil, in Fortaleza at 06:00 UTC. It was a transmission in Chinese language, Mandarin likely. The transmission was presented a lesson in English.
on Oct 27th, 2009 at 22:15
Well there good things and bad things. The good thing is that the Pori transmitting site is alive again. As a radio engineer I appreciate that.
The bad thing is that finnish authorities did not see the value of transmitting finnish related programs abroad. Finnish citizens abroad no longer can follow news and happenings from the home land, and for others - there is no voice of Finland any more to be heard.