The Radio Story: Quarantined on a Lonely Island - Socotra, The Island of Strange Trees

Yemen's Socotra Island

So many people around our world have been under various forms of lockdown due to the ravages of the China Virus in their communities.  But what would you do, if you were suddenly and unexpectedly quarantined on a lonely island somewhere?

Yes, it is true: There are indeed some lonely islands out there in the wide open spaces of our huge oceans where the unwanted Virus has not encroached into their communities.   And yes, there are several island locations where visitors and tourists have been inadvertently caught by the enactment of local laws and regulations and they are therefore under lockdown for a period of time.  In our program today, we present the story of two or three locations where this has happened.

The very popular 29 year old TV and travel hostess from Poland, Eva Zu Beck, was suddenly and unexpectedly caught in a virus lockdown situation on the island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Yemen.  She travelled to Socotra for an unpublicized marathon run, expecting to stay no more than two weeks.

Socotra is an isolated, windswept mountainous island, 80 miles by 30 miles, which is largely inaccessible from anywhere.  The local coastal people are mainly fisher families, and the inland people are generally semi-nomadic animal herders.

The citizens of Socotra trace their ancestry back to early settlers from Europe and Arabia, and they speak their own form of a pre-Arabic language.  The Nestorian version of early Christianity was introduced into Socotra in the year 535, though these days they worship according to Moslem rites.  Over the years this island has been occupied by Portugal, England, Germany and Arabia.

One third of the plant life on Socotra is not found anywhere else on Earth; there are more unique forms of life on this island than what the famous English naturalist Charles Darwin discovered in his historic visit to the Galapagos Islands.  Among the strange types of trees growing on Socotra is the strange umbrella-shaped Dragon’s Blood Tree, the Elephants Leg Tree, and the so-called Floating Tree.

Travel specialist Eva Zu Beck arrived in Soctra on a specially chartered flight from Cairo Egypt with forty other marathon runners on March 11 (2020).  They spent their time in preparation, and yes, they did run their planned marathon race.

Just before their scheduled time to leave the island, the local government announced the closure of all travel into Socotra as a precaution against the Virus, and they asked all tourists to leave as soon as possible.  Eva, together with four others, decided to remain on the island; it was safer to remain there than to return to Virus ridden Europe. 

On a daily basis she sent out her vlogs for dissemination by youtube, radio and TV.  She showed her local adventures; mountaineering, boating, camping, hunting for seafood, and her brief hospitalization to due to a hiking fall.  Finally, after an unintended two month stay, Eva Zu Beck was evacuated on a cargo ship, back to the delight of her one million avid followers.

The first application of wireless communication in the environs of Socotra occurred more than a hundred years ago, in the year 1915.  The French cargo/passenger liner Euphrate, callsign FNE, was wrecked off the east coast of Socrota, and as a result of emergency wireless signals, two nearby ships responded. 

Interestingly, in the same year 1915, an English ship with the same name, Socotra, was wrecked off the French Coast at Boulogne.  A disaster message from the Marconi wireless equipment aboard the ship, callsign MSJ, also brought others to the rescue.

It is known that there is a shortwave transmitter in the island capital of Socotra (Hadibu) for communication with the homeland Yemen; and it is known also that there is a radio broadcasting station in Hadibu which provides entertainment programming and information.  The island governor sometimes makes a broadcast on important occasions.  However, nothing more is known about their radio broadcasting scene, and a search of the city via Google Earth shows no radio towers anywhere.  It is probable that their local radio broadcasting station is an FM operation. 
(AWR-Wavescan/NWS 592)
(photo-ME Monitor)

Additional information on Al-Azm Radio from Saudi Arabia

This week I have been monitoring the new Saudi Arabian station, Al-Azm Radio on 11745 kHz, as part of the Saudi Arabia Corporation. Broadcast are in support of the Saudi troops in southern regions, near the Yemeni border. The published schedule in Arabic is: 0700-2000 UTC. Video of reception: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YmYta8jN5A&t=17s
Special thanks to contributor, Hans Johnson, for supplying a graphic from their Twitter page and a translation of their on-air announcement.
Gayle Van Horn W4GVH

This is a partial translation of the frequency and target announcement.  I'm really rusty, forgive any mistakes I have made, I am sure someone will let us know :)

I found another thing on their Twitter
1 - Is Riyadh
2 - Is Al Khamra in Jeddah. (see above photo)

"Dear listeners in Najran and Jazan (two towns/provinces in southwest Saudi Arabia), our (one word missed) soldiers on the southern border and our (one word missed) in dear Yemen.  You are listening to Determination from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  Listeners in the Jazan (area, I think) you can listen to us on AM on a frequency of 549 kHz and on FM on a frequency of 107 MHz.  Listeners in Faifa? (town in SW Saudi) province (literal, district) can hear us on a frequency of 99 Mhz FM . .  . .  Listeners anywhere can hear us on shortwave on a frequency of 11.745 MHz . . . . Determination, the Voice of Truth."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmQCSUgMKXE&feature=youtu.be&a=

(Hans Johnson)

Monitoring Yemen on shortwave

(log edited for clarity)

Republic of Yemen Radio heard daily around 1350 UTC to close down at 1502 UTC, on 6135 kHz. Not on parallel // 9780 or 6005 kHz. News at 1400 and political comments in Arabic. Observed 15-24 August but not noted at 0600-0800 UT on 6135 kHz.
(Rumen Pankov-BUL, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Aug 29)
(WWDXC/Top Nx 1130)

Republic of Yemen Radio

Arabic to the Middle East

All times UTC

0500-0600 6135
0600-0700 6135
0700-0800 6135
0800-0900 6135
1000-1100 6135
1100-1200 6134
1200-1300 6135 9780
1300-1400 6135 9780
1400-1500 6135 9780
1500-1600 9780
(WRTH)
Website: www.adenradio.net 

Al-Qaeda militants seize control of Yemen radio station

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Sunday that al Qaeda militants have seized control of a weapons factory, Presidential Palace and a state radio station in Yemen’ southern province of Abyan. The president, facing massive street protests across the country demanding an end to his 33-year rule, made the remarks in a meeting that aired by the state television. A government official in Jaar district in Abyan, who works at the radio station seized by the al Qaeda militants, told Xinhua that militants took over the Presidential Palace and the radio station after they besieged them for two days. A provincial security official told Xinhua that the security authorities are preparing for a massive attack against the al Qaeda militants to force them out of the state facilities. (Source: China Radio International/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)

Broadcasting in the Land of the Queen of Sheba, Part 2

The Lightning & No Wire Company!
In our program last week, we presented the information about the radio scene in Aden, Yemen, with its early mediumwave stations; and the usage of the C&W, Cable & Wireless, communication
station ZNR for the occasional broadcast of shortwave radio programming. We also mentioned that Yemen was the home of the legendary Queen of Sheba, who as a new young queen, visited the fabled King Solomon in Palestine. Her home was the now archaeological city of Marib, in the desert areas of Yemen. We pick up the story again today with this information regarding shortwave broadcasting in the southern Yemen, known at the time as Aden.
An official government radio station was inaugurated at Al-Hiswa in Aden on August 7, 1954. Initially this was a double facility with a shortwave transmitter rated at 3½ kW, and a 300 watt mediumwave transmitter.
Three years later a 7½ kW shortwave unit was installed, followed by a 10 kW unit eight years later again. During the year 1973, two shortwave transmitters at 100 kW were installed. In September 2005, this station was badly damaged in an air raid, leaving just one mediumwave unit active on the air.
After the two Yemens were combined, the Al-Hiswah shortwave facility near Aden remained in active use until 1995, when it went silent for a period of about eight years. However, it was re-activated again in 2003 and it is still on the air to this day with two transmitters, one at 50 kW and the other at 100 kW.
On the mediumwave scene, two regional stations were inaugurated in southern Yemen, at Al-Mukalla in 1967 & Sayun in 1973. These days though, there are just two major locations on the air mediumwave in southern Yemen, Aden, and these are:-
Al Hiswah 100 kW 792 kHz
100 1188
Al Mukalla 50 785

We now go a little north, from Aden Yemen to Sana’a Yemen, and we go back to the beginning of radio broadcasting in that segment of the now united country. The first radio station at Sana’a was established in January 1946, though it is not known whether this was a mediumwave or shortwave facility.
Due to similar circumstances elsewhere in the region, we would guess that this new radio station was a comparatively low powered shortwave unit, operating probably on what we would call a tropical shortwave channel. A couple of years later, this station in Sana’a was closed, though some seven years later again, it was re-opened.
During the 1960s, two regional mediumwave stations were opened in North Yemen and these low power units were co-sited with already existing communication stations. In 1963, one of these regional mediumwave stations was co-sited with communication station 4WA at Taiz; and in 1969, the other was co-sited with communication station 4WD at Al-Hodeida.
The main shortwave station at Sana’a was inaugurated in 1950 with a 25 kW General Electric transmitter from the United States. However, at this stage, the C&W station at Sana’a was also in use for the occasional relay of radio programming, on both mediumwave & shortwave. The company name for C&W is Cable & Wireless. This is a difficult name to translate into Arabic, and when the name is translated back into English, it would read, “The Lightning & No Cable Company”.
During the year 1973, two 50 kW Siemens shortwave transmitters were installed at Sana’a and soon afterwards, these were noted on air by international radio monitors in Australia & New Zealand. Channels in use at this stage were 6050 kHz & 9585 kHz. A 300 kW Thomson shortwave transmitter was installed in 1988.
These days north Yemen, as part of the united country of Yemen, is noted on only one shortwave channel, 9780 kHz with 50 kW. On mediumwave, eight different channels are listed at four different locations.
QSLs over the years from the two Yemens have been very difficult to obtain. From southern Yemen, Aden, we note the following QSLs:-

1962 BFBS Mediumwave
1974 Steamer Point 50 kW 755 Pink antenna card
1981 Communication station 3 kW 5208 kHz Jose Jacob, India

And from northern Yemen, Sana’a, we note these QSLs:-
1987 Sanaa’a shortwave 50 kW 9780 kHz Letter
1998 Sana’a & Mocha Mediumwave Letter
2001 Sana’a 4953 & 9780 kHz Colored card

(AWR Wavescan/NSW 108 via Adrian Peterson)

Yemen seizes Arab broadcasters' equipment

Two pan-Arab news channels said today that the Yemeni authorities had seized broadcasting equipment from their Sanaa bureaux by force because of their coverage of the growing unrest in Yemen’s south. A government official told state media that Qatar-based Al Jazeera television and the Saudi-owned channel Al Arabiya did not have proper authorisation for the equipment seized, and that it would be returned to them eventually.

Al Jazeera said Yemeni security forces had stormed its office in Sanaa on Thursday evening after being warned over its coverage of a southern secessionist movement on which the government recently launched a major crackdown. An official had telephoned Al Jazeera’s office earlier in the day, saying measures would be taken if the channel covered a meeting of southern opposition leaders, Murad Hashim, the head of Al Jazeera’s Sanaa bureau said on the channel’s website.

Al Arabiya also reported that some of its broadcasting equipment had been confiscated by police yesterday. Its bureau chief was questioned for two hours but then released, Nasser al-Sarami, head of media at Al Arabiya told Reuters. “They are concerned about the way we cover what is going on in the south. They didn’t give us a reason, but we believe this is the link,” Mr Sarami said.
(Source: Reuters/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)

Yemen prepares new law for private broadcasters

The Ministry of Information in Yemen is preparing a law allowing the broadcast of private television channels and radio stations, said the Minister of Information, Hassan al-Lawzi. “We are currently working with the Ministries of Legal Affairs and Communications and Information Technology to issue two laws related to communications audiovisual information,” he stated. Al-Lawzi made this announcement at the opening ceremony of the third festival of radio and television, organized by the Faculty of the Information at Sana’a University.

“The media has become a huge force for national development and we cannot stand in front of its contributions. The Ministry of Information and Media Organizations is contemplating how to make our media assume its responsibilities in aiding real development and freedom of opinion and thinking,” he added.

Al-Lawzi stated that the political leadership’s instructions were clear about recognizing the role of media space in Yemen, pointing to the opening of a bouquet of Yemen Television. He emphasized the opening of a religious-oriented channel in the coming stage on the bouquet of Yemen, which will fill the vacuum and play a key role in media work. “The most important step is to expand participation in media freedoms, and the University of Sana’a plays a major role in producing media professionals who can forge dynamic institutions that enrich our community,” he added.
(Source: Yemen Observer/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)