A closer look at radio in Mongolia

 MONGOLIA

It's the birthday of the Voice of Mongolia. Radio in Mongolia began in May 1964. But it was in September 1964 that its international service began as Radio Oulan-Bator with a half-hour transmission in Mongolian and Chinese languages.

In the following years, Mongolia's international broadcasting has grown, including programs in English, French and Russian.

At that time, Mongolia was little known to the world and the foreign languages programs of the radio had immediately attracted the attention of international listeners.

The station was heavily listened to in Japan, so much so that on January 1, 1989, the broadcast in Japanese began.

It was only on January 1, 1997, that Radio Oulan-Bator became famous as The Voice of Mongolia.

Over the years, their choice of languages has been revised and French has been removed, due to the lack of reactivity from listeners. 

Voice of Mongolia no longer broadcasted only in Mongolian, English, Russian, Chinese and Japanese. “The Voice of Mongolia” has diversified its content to include not only government news and announcements, but also cultural, educational, musical programs and interviews.

Voice of Mongolia is the only overseas broadcasting service in Mongolia. Voice of Mongolia programs are transmitted by Khonkhor transmission station, about 25 km east of Oulan-Bator, the capital of Mongolia.

The station used former Soviet 100 kW transmitters dating back to the station's creation.

The transmitter center was refurbished in 2003, by NEC with the help of the Japanese Government. The transmitter in service would be a 500 kw transmitter consisting of 2 units of 250 kW.

The transmitter in service uses only one of the two units and has a power of 250 kw. It broadcasts, according to the hours, on 12015 kHz from 13 h. at 3 pm. and on 12085 Khz from 9 am. at 11 o'clock. Antennas are curtain antennas directed towards 116 and 178°. A 50 kW, non-directional transmitter broadcasts the national program 2 on 7260 kHz.

The broadcasts in English had been taken over by the Kall-Krefel transmitter in Germany, on 6005 Khz with a power of 1 kw, the experiment seems to have definitely stopped.

It remains to be seen in the future as the country plans to develop shortwaves in digital by 2025 for the national service.

We don't know if this measure will affect the Voice of Mongolia. Concrete decisions were to be taken in the coming weeks by the Minister.

(Radio Magazine)