Interesting nostalgic story on Radio Afghanistan

 

AFGHANISTAN  

 I would like to remember one more broadcaster heard on the air - Radio Afghanistan. Broadcasting in Russian by the international service Radio Afghanistan began in January 1961. The station had low-quality transmitting equipment and was unlucky with the choice of frequencies. Therefore, there were often problems with receiving the station.

I remember the only period when audibility was unusually good for three years from 1974 to the end of 1976. The broadcast was carried out during the day at a frequency of 15195 kHz from 13.30 to 15.00 Moscow time for half an hour consecutively in Russian, German and English. True, the time for listening was inconvenient, but I sometimes adapted to listen at work in a special laboratory, where I first did my internship, and then worked for a short time before the army. There was some kind of service radio in the laboratory, which I used.

Over the years,the content of Russian Radio Afghanistan broadcasts has remained approximately the same. This was the case in 1974: news, Russian music, commentary, Afghan music, conversation (about Afghanistan), Afghan music.The broadcasts covered the changes taking place in Afghanistan since the recent overthrow of the monarchy in July 1973 and the activities of President Mohammed Daoud Khan,the cousin of the former king Mohammed Zahir Shah, whom he overthrew. These were the last years of relative stability,

after which, from April 1978, a period of revolutions and civil wars began in Afghanistan.

In the early 80s,and perhaps earlier, some periodicals sold in Soyuzpechat kiosks in other countries published schedules of foreign, including Russian-language broadcasting in these countries:

Radio Afghanistan - in the newspaper "Kabul new times"

Radio Damascus - in the newspaper "Syria times"

Radio Ulaanbaatar - in the newspaper "News of Mongolia"

BBC - in the magazine "England".

(Vladimir, Rybinsk, Yaroslavlskaya oblast-RUS) 

RUSdx #1287 via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews April 28)

Now called IEA - Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

(WWDXC Top News 1579/02 May 2024)

Nostalgic Story of the Indian Shortwave Transmitter

The Final Episode in the Story of Radio Broadcasting in Afghanistan

The Story of the Indian Shortwave Transmitter

In the long and interesting story of radio broadcasting in the land locked western Asian country of Afghanistan, we come now to the final episode: The Story of the Indian Shortwave Transmitter.

            Back in the much happier days, their first shortwave transmitter was activated at Yakatut, on the eastern edge of Kabul in Afghanistan.  The original complement of shortwave transmitters at this location were German made units, 1 @ 10 kW, and 2 @ 25 kW with combined output at 50 kW.  These were inaugurated progressively in the late 1950's for national and international coverage.

            In August 1966, an additional 100 kW Siemens transmitter was installed; and then 10 years later, 5 replacement transmitters were installed, 3 @ 50 kW & 2 @ 10 kW.  However, much of this equipment was destroyed at the time of the Russian invasion in 1979.

            Then in May 1993, at least one of the shortwave transmitters was rejuvenated, though during the following year that also was damaged in further fighting.  One year later, a composite transmitter was assembled with the usage of available parts and this was activated on September 23, 1995.  At this stage, the main broadcasting channel was 7200 kHz.  However, on October 8, 2001, this unit was destroyed in an American air raid.

            Almost immediately, a 100 kW Russian made R-118 unit was installed and this was activated in December in the 7 MHz band, though monitoring reports suggest that the power output was considerably less than the rated 100 kW.  At this stage, shortwave usage was very spasmodic.

            In an endeavor to obtain wide national coverage on shortwave, USAID installed satellite equipment in Kabul, and in this way, programming was conveyed from the Kabul studios to transmitter bases in Russia, Austria, Norway and the United Arab Emirates.  These offsite relays of Kabul programming began in May 2002, though they were terminated in June of the following year.

            At this stage, the Indian government granted a huge financial package for the restoration of Afghanistan, and this included a new shortwave station.  With this aid, the facility at Yakatut was rebuilt, and a 100 kW transmitter was installed, together with 7 antenna systems. 

            Initially, it was thought that the new transmitter would be an Indian made unit from BEL in Bangalore.  However, BBC Monitoring stated that this new transmitter provided by Indian Aid was a Thompson unit from France, and this fact was also confirmed by the well known international radio monitor, Jose Jacob VU2JOS in Hyderabad India.  

            Work on the revived shortwave facility at Yakatut began in February 2005, but progress was considerably delayed.  Even when the work was completed there was a further delay, awaiting the connection to the city power grid.

            The new 100 kW shortwave service was officially inaugurated on July 30, 2011, and the first  published monitoring observation was from a listener in Russia who heard the station next day on 6100 kHz.  Two days after the official opening, the new station was noted by another well known international radio monitor, Victor Goonetilleke in Colombo Sri Lanka.

            Last year’s World Radio TV Handbook listed the scheduling for just one hour a day, beginning at 1530 UTC on 6102 kHz.   However, according to many international radio monitors in several different countries, the operating frequency was changed at the beginning of the year to 7200 kHz.

            But alas, the last known monitoring of Radio Afghanistan with its brand spanking new transmitter was in April last year, and apparently it is still off the air to this day.

            It always seemed to be difficult to obtain a QSL card from Radio Afghanistan, yet there are multitudes of these cards in personal QSL collections throughout the world, and many are offered for sale on eBay.  The earliest known QSL card was printed in black ink on grey card.  That was in 1958, quite soon after their first shortwave transmitter was inaugurated.

            The well known QSL card showing a map of Afghanistan in color, was first issued around the mid 1960s.  This card showed the large letters QSL, but no photo of the Bamiyan Buddhist statue, and at least 4 different printings are known.  However, the same card, with the Buddhist statue, came out about 10 years later.

            In addition, during the 1970s and again in the early 1980s, Radio Afghanistan issued many different QSL cards depicting attractive tourist sites in color.

(AWR Wavescan/NWS 204 via Adrian Peterson)

Afghanistan Returns to the Air on Shortwave-Off Site Relays

In our progressive series of topics on the radio broadcasting scene in the west Asian country of Afghanistan, we come to the era of attempted renovation and rebuilding, somewhere around 10 years ago.  Many aid organizations poured in with supplies and personnel in an attempt to resuscitate the damaged country and its wounded people.

            Equally foremost among these many endeavors was the attempt to rebuild the national broadcasting system throughout the country.  Facilities damaged and destroyed and almost non-existent were rebuilt, new equipment was brought in, the beginnings of a revived radio system was implemented, and numerous organizations began radio broadcasts into Afghanistan from many different external locations.

            In this edition of Wavescan, we investigate the story of the re-implementation of shortwave broadcasting in Kabul Afghanistan; and in particular, the offsite usage of shortwave relay stations in other countries.

            The English radioman who was stationed in Kabul around this era, the authoritative Martin Hadlow, informs us that USAID installed a bevy of electronic equipment in Kabul at this stage, so that Radio Afghanistan could be heard locally, and so that relays of this programming could be beamed into Afghanistan from high powered shortwave transmitters in other countries. 

            This foreign aid included studio production equipment, as well as satellite uplink facilities; and all of these significant radio endeavors were implemented around May of the year 2002.  At this stage, Radio Afghanistan was on the air locally with:-

                        3 mediumwave transmitters rated at 200 watts, 10 kW & 50 kW

                        2 local FM transmitters

                        and no shortwave transmitters.

            Offsite relays from Radio Afghanistan were carried by shortwave transmitters in four different countries during the years 2002 & 2003.  Initial test broadcasts with a satellite relay from Kabul were transmitted over shortwave stations in Austria & Russia around mid May 2002.

            These introductory test broadcasts began on May 13 and they ended three days later on May 15.  The New Zealand DX Times stated that test broadcasts via Austria were carried by the 500 kW transmitter located at Moosbrunn, out from Vienna, with its massive rotatable antenna system, on 17870 kHz from 1330 - 1430 UTC.

            This same test program relay was also on the air in parallel via a shortwave transmitter somewhere in Russia, though the New Zealand DX Times does not specify the actual location of this station nor the frequency in use at the time.  It is probable that these details will never be known.

            Preliminary test broadcasts were also carried out from a 500 kW transmitter located at Kvitsoy in Norway during this same time period towards the end of May.  These test broadcasts were radiated consecutively on 17525 kHz & 18920 kHz.

            However, when the regular relay of programming from Radio Afghanistan was on the air on a daily basis, neither of the stations in Austria nor Russia were taken into usage; instead these relays were noted on the air from Norway and the United Arab Emirates.

            This new regular relay of programming from Radio Afghanistan commenced on June 1, 2002 and it was carried by the shortwave station at Kvitsoy in Norway on 18940 kHz, and by the shortwave station at Dhabbaya in the United Arab Emirates on 15420 kHz.  A few weeks later, the frequency for the Dhabbaya broadcasts was modified to 15485 kHz.  Both transmitters, in Norway & in the UAE, are rated at 500 kW.

            During the following year 2003, the World Radio TV Handbook listed the same two shortwave channels for these shortwave relays on behalf of Radio Afghanistan.  However, one of the European DX magazines noted at this stage that the morning service was on the air from the United Arab Emirates; and the afternoon service, which was on the air from Norway, was somewhat irregular.  

            It would appear that these offsite relays on behalf of Radio Afghanistan were on the air for a period of a little over a year.  The available evidence would suggest that they were terminated at the end of June 2003.

            When we take up the story of radio in Afghanistan again, we will draw attention to the large number of shortwave stations and organizations that were on the air with programming beamed into Afghanistan from numerous overseas countries.

(AWR Wavescan/NWS 197 via Adrian Peterson)

Radio Afghanistan Returns to Shortwave

Radio Afghanistan Returns to the Air on Shortwave - 1: Early Mediumwave

Recent reports from international radio monitors living in Asia, Europe, North America and the South Pacific indicate that Radio Afghanistan has returned to the air on shortwave. This is an
interesting new development, and so today we take a look once again at the radio scene in this western Asian country of Afghanistan. Since we last wrote about the radio scene in Afghanistan, lots of information about which we were previously unaware has become available, and so here in Part 1, we take a look at the very early mediumwave scene in that part of the world.
The encyclopedia tells us that Afghanistan, the “Land of the Afghan” as the name means, is a landlocked country of great mountains, scorching deserts, fertile valleys and rolling plains in western Asia. It is an ancient country 1,000 miles long and 500 miles wide, bordered by six other countries, with a total population around 30 million made up of 20 ethnic groups and tribes.
Old Afghanistan was an important trading point on the ancient Silk Road leading from China to the Middle East & Europe. During that era, the city of Balkh in northern Afghanistan was the capital of the territory, Bactria and the city was so large that a traveler from China stated that its habitations extended for 20 miles. The massive, impressive ruins of Balkh show a huge, grand almost circular mud wall many miles in length. This city was destroyed a thousand years ago in an orgy of death and destruction perpetrated by 100,000 horsemen under the leadership of Genghis Khan from Mongolia.
Among the places of tourist interest in times past were the huge Buddhist statues carved into the mountain side at Bamiyan, the timeless ruins of once inhabited cities, and museum displays of relics from old societies. The 1½ mile long Salang Tunnel running between the capital city Kabul and the northern border is so high and the air so rarified at more than 12,000 ft altitude, that motor car engines do not run properly.
Many of the semi-precious jewels that embroider the Taj Mahal at Agra in India were mined in the eastern mountains of Afghanistan. The Buzkashi games in Kabul are a form of polo played on horse back using the head of a calf, instead of a sports ball.
Religion has always played an important part in the life cycle of the Afghan people, and many and varied have been the forms of their religions. Historians tell us that Zoroaster, the founder of the Persian religion, Zoroastrianism, was actually born in Balkh in Afghanistan, and he was killed there at the end of an illustrious life during a nomadic invasion. Zoroaster was approximately contemporary with the Biblical prophet Daniel who served in neighboring Persia during the 600s BC. Subsequently, Buddhism flourished in Bactria, and Islam entered almost a thousand years later.
Although neither Afghanistan nor Bactria are mentioned by name in the Bible, yet that territory played a significant part in ancient Biblical events. Bactria was one of the 127 provinces listed in the ancient Persian Empire, Alexander the Great from Greece marched through the territory and married a beautiful princess from a nearby country, and the doubting disciple Thomas traversed from Palestine through Bactria on his way to South India.
It was back in the year 1925 that the first tentative plans were laid for the introduction of radio broadcasting in Afghanistan. Two mediumwave transmitters from Telefunken in Germany were imported with the intent of establishing one in Kabul and the other in Kandahar. These transmitters lay unused for three years, due to the lack of technical expertise in the country, and also to the fact that there were very few receivers in Afghanistan anyway.
In 1928, one transmitter was installed in the King’s Palace in Kabul, and spasmodic program broadcasting began on the standard mediumwave channel 360 m, 833 kHz. Initially, 30 crystal set receivers were distributed around the capital city area, and soon afterwards, another 1,000 were distributed in the surrounding country areas. However, due to a local uprising during the following year, this new radio station together with the primitive studio were destroyed. The other transmitter was never installed at Kandahar due to local disturbances down there.
However, two years later, a new king made arrangements for the purchase of a 100 kW Telefunken-Siemens mediumwave transmitter from Germany. This unit actually rated at 25 kW, was installed in cages on the 2nd floor of a new transmitter building on the eastern edge of Kabul at Yakatut, on the north side of the highway running towards the famed Khyber Pass. In the latter part of its life, it was on the air on 660 kHz for 5 hours each Thursday evening only, with a power output of just 15 kW.
An additional 20 kW mediumwave transmitter was ordered from Telefunken in Germany during the year 1938. This equipment was transported via British India, arriving in Kabul by camel caravan in December 1939, four months after the outbreak of World War 2.
This new unit was installed on the ground floor of the same transmitter building at Yukatut. Initially, three different low end mediumwave channels were tried, and eventually it was considered that 675 kHz gave the best reception. The new Radio Kabul was officially inaugurated from their new downtown studios by the king at 7:30 am on August 28, 1940, their national day.
On this occasion, 500 crystal set receivers were sold to listeners in Kabul, with subsequent distribution in country areas. In addition, community receivers with loud speakers were installed
in local bazaars and in country villages.
In 1964, a new set of studios and offices in a new two storey building were inaugurated at Ansari Watt, on the short highway running out to the airport, and the downtown studio building was turned into a training center for Radio Afghanistan. A 3rd mediumwave transmitter, a 25 kW unit from BBC Switzerland, was installed on the ground floor in the transmitter building at Yakatut, replacing the 30 year old German unit.
During the Russian invasion, beginning in 1979, it appears that each of the units in the radio broadcasting system in Afghanistan was either damaged or destroyed.
However, comes the month of March in the year 1994, and it appears that all three radio buildings, the original downtown studios, the new studio building at Ansari Watt, and the transmitter building at Yakatut, were destroyed in fighting during the early part of the Russian invasion.
When we take up the Afghanistan story again, we will present the information regarding early shortwave broadcasting in that troubled country.
(NWS 134 via Adrian Peterson)

Radio Afghanistan logging

Afghanistan
6100 1527-1607 Radio Afghanistan, Kabul, July 31. Local male's singing, then English with news at 1530, Afghan traditional song. Male announcer's talk about Ramadan, and one western pop song (tentaive ID at 1555'58 as "The International service of National Radio of Afghanistan"), 1600'24 music and Urdu service - poor at the beginning, then fair and almost good after 1600 with local noise, KRE in the background and CRI on 6095 till 1557

73!
Mikhail Timofeyev
Saint-Petersburg
Russia
Drake R8A and 30 m long wire
(HCDX)

Radio Afghanistan inaugarates foreign service

Minister of Information and Culture Dr Sayed Makhdoom Raheen inaugurated the foreign service of Radio Afghanistan yesterday (July 30). This service will initially air programmes in English and Urdu daily from 8:00 to 9:00 pm [1530-1630 UTC].

Dr Raheen said that the service has been revived through the efforts of the director general and employees, and in the first place it will air English and Urdu programmes, followed by Arabic and Russian programmes and subsequently French and German programmes.

According to Dr Raheen, revival of this service will assist in recognition of Afghanistan to its outside friends and will inform them about the country’s events. Abdul Ghani Mudaqaq head of the publications department of Radio Afghanistan said that the service will cover Asia, Africa and Europe.
(Source: Bahktar News Agency)

Thanks to Mikhail Timofeyev in St Petersburg, Russia who reports English at 1530 UTC on 6100 kHz, followed by Urdu at 1600, so the schedule is confirmed as 1530-1600 English and 1600-1630 Urdu. See his logging in the comments section.
(R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)