Monitoring Syria on shortwave

Special thanks to JR, for sending in this logging from his latest monitoring of Radio Damascus. Contributions are always welcome from our blog readers.
Gayle Van Horn

Syria

Re your post "Monitoring Radio Damascus on Shortwave", I listened to the initial ten or fifteen minutes of the station's German and English broadcasts on 9330 kHz last night GMT (August 1, 18:05 and 21:10 GMT respectively). Both broadcasts seem to begin somewhat earlier - closer to the full hour - than scheduled. The German broadcast was affected by complete signal failings many times (appeared to be power failures, but that's just my personal guess), and spoken lines were otherwise only occasionally intelligible. English came in with a stronger signal - constantly O=3, except when the signal disappeared completely, too. But that happened less frequently than with the German broadcast three hours earlier.

Hope this may be of use.
Best regards

JR

log edited for clarity

Radio Damascus, Adra, 9330.00 at 2150-2235 UTC, (July 28). English with Arab string music in background. News summary, but the modulation was so poor, that only a few words could be caught.

Hymn at 2200 to station ID and schedule in Spanish. Additional station identification as, ”Radio Dimasque de la Republica de Syria,” mentions about Syria and Palestine.

Transmitter fade out for three minutes and returned as mention of ”boletin de información.” Obviously the same old transmitter with a very strong signal (S 9+30 dB), but severe transmitter hum and poor modulation. SINPO 53242.
(Anker Petersen, Denmark/playdx)

HOT SPOT DXING-Syria Spinning Out of Control ?

Transmissions of the foreign language services for Radio Damascus on 9330 kHz, will be inactive until July 28, 2012, and will resume on the 29th. Satellite services will remain active.

Syria, Radio Damascus - A12 Summer Schedule

Effective to: 27 October 2012

All times UTC - Target areas: as (Asia) eu (Europe) va (various)

English
2100-2200 9330va

French
1900-2000 9330va

German
1800-1900 9330eu

Russian
1700-1800 9330eu

Spanish
2200-2300 9330eu

Turkish
1600-1700 9330as
(WRTH May 2012)

Website: www.radio-damascus.net/

HOT SPOT DXING - Syria

As violence and instability continue in Syria, the following schedule for Radio Damascus is listed in the HFCC database. Please report any corrections or observations at the above email address.

Radio Damascus

All times UTC

Target areas: af (Africa) va (various areas) me (Middle East) pa (Pacific)





Arabic
0500-1600 9330af 12085af 13610af

English
2000-2200 9330va 12085va

French/German/English
1800-2100 9330va 12085va 13610pa

Russian
1700-1800 9330eu 12085eu 13610eu

Spanish
2200-0000 9330eu 12085va 13610va

Turkish
1600-1700 9330me 12085me
(HFCC.org)

Radio Damascus on Asiasat 2

I received a letter and reception report for Radio Damascus from Mr. Aaron Tiu who is a listener in the Philippines.

The interesting thing is that he writes in his letter that he listens to Radio Damascus on the Asiasat 2 satellite. I was not aware that Radio Damascus is besides Hotbird, Arabsat and Nilesat also on Asiasat 2.

I asked my friends at Radio Damascus to check this out with the technical department. If this is true, it's great news as this gives an extra outlet to reach more listeners for Radio Damascus in the Asia region too. I am quite sure that not many persons are aware of this possibility to tune in to Radio Damascus.

I will also put the parameters to tune in to Radio Damascus on the Asiasat 2 satellite very soon on the unofficial Radio Damascus website at : http://www.radio-damascus.net/ .

Satellite: Asiasat 2 satellite at 100.5 E
Frequency: 3820
Polarization: Vertical
Symbol Rate: 27500
Provider Name: Arabsat/ ASBU Bouquet/ Mux

Channel Name: Radio Sout Al-Sha'ab (Voice of the People) A-pid: 1512

Radio Damascus uses the Sout Al-Sha'ab (Voice of the People) channel from 1600-2400 UTC.
Kris Janssen (Belgium)
Radio Damascus Listeners Club

http://www.radio-damascus.net/
http://www.syriaonline.sy/radio.php
http://radiodamascusenglish.podomatic.com/ (as a podcast)

http://www.radio-damascus-listeners-club.tk/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/radio_damascus
(Kris Janssen, Belgium/Cumbre DX)

Looking to add to your country count ?

Radio Damascus is the external service from the Syrian Radio. They are transmitting their programs daily to the rest of the world on short-wave and satellite. It is an excellent source of information to learn about the culture, politics, history, literature and music of Syria and the region. Their daily transmission start always with the news, followed by press reviews and commentaries.

In recent days, a Radio Damascus Listerner's Club has been organized at www.yahoo.com/. You'll find links to; More Info on Syria, Program Schedule of Radio Damascus, Syrian Radio live audio streaming and more.

If this is one county you've yet to log, you may find what your looking for at www.radio-damascus-listeners-club.tk/

Radio Damascus is currently broadcasting in English on 9330 kHz, targted to Europe from 2005-2210 UTC. Former additonal frequency 12085 kHz has been dropped during this time.

(Source: Gayle Van Horn-Frequency Manager/Monitoring Times SW Guide)