Crisis in Syria - Monitoring Syrian Domestic Broadcast

As the crisis in Syria deepens and attacks by western military forces are imminent we turn our attention to monitoring domestic broadcast services from and to Syria.

Radio Damascus has been off of shortwave several years now but during a crisis you never know. Their old transmitters or frequency assignments may pop back up at anytime. Radio Damascus last transmitted on shortwave on 9330 kHz / 31 meter band and 12085 kHz / 25 meter band.

Radio Damascus is still on medium wave at 783 kHz for those in the region with AM monitor capability.

You can also monitor Radio Damascus daily broadcast podcast at  http://www.radio-damascus.net/.  The daily program is posted one day after the live transmission so you can always download on the above mentioned page the program of the former day.

If you have C/Ku-band satellite reception capability you can monitor Radio Damascus via this method.

Radio Damascus Satellite Feeds of Radio Damascus

Express AM22 at 53.0°E
Frequency: 12549 Mhz Polarization: Horizontal Symbol Rate: 8800
Directed to : Arab Homeland - North Africa - Europe

Arabsat 5C at 20.0°E
Frequency: 3934 Mhz Polarization: Left Symbol Rate: 27500
Directed to : Africa

Nilesat at 7.0°W
Frequency: 10922 Mhz Polarization: Vertical Symbol Rate: 27500
Directed to : Arab Homeland - North Africa - South Europe

Galaxy 19 at 97.0°W
Frequency: 12146 Mhz Polarization: Vertical Symbol Rate: 22000
Directed to : America - Canada

Hispasat 1C at 30.0°W
Frequency: 12132 Mhz Polarization: Horizontal Symbol Rate: 27500
Directed to : Europe

Asiasat 5 at 100.5°E
Frequency: 3820 Mhz Polarization: Vertical Symbol Rate: 27500
Directed to : Asia

Intelsat 19 at 166.0°E
Frequency: 12726 Mhz Polarization: Horizontal Symbol Rate: 28066
Directed to : Australia - New Zealand - Pacific - Asia

Finally here are other domestic and Internet feeds being streamed on the net from/tom Syria that we are aware of at post time.

FM RADIO
89.0 - Radio Fann Syria|rep - Aleppo [Halab] http://fann-fm.com/
89.0 - Radio Fann Syria - Damascus http://fann-fm.com/
89.6 - Radio Orient|r.[R-Paris] - Damascus http://www.radioorient.com/
90.0 - Sout Al-Sha'ab (Voice of the People) - Damascus http://www.rtv.gov.sy/
92.3 - Sham FM - Damascus http://www.shamfm.fm/
92.3 - Sham FM|rep - Aleppo [Halab] http://www.shamfm.fm/
94.0 - Shahba FM - Aleppo [Halab] http://www.shahbafm.com/
97.3 - Farah FM - Aleppo [Halab] http://www.farah.fm/
97.9 - Melody FM - Damascus http://www.melodysyria.com/
100.5 - Al Madina FM (The City FM) - Damascus http://www.almadinafm.com/
101.5 - Al Madina FM (The City FM)|rep - Aleppo [Halab] http://www.almadinafm.com/
101.8 - Sham FM|rep - Lattakia (Al Ladhiqiyah) http://www.shamfm.fm/
102.3 - Arabesque FM - Damascus http://www.arabesque.fm/
103.3 - Rotana Style FM - Aleppo [Halab] http://www.rotana.net/
103.8 - Radio Gecko - Camp Faouar (Golan) http://www.radio-gecko.com/
104.2 - Syria Al Ghad (Syria of Tomorrow) - Damascus Arabian music,talk http://www.syriaalghad.com/
105.0 - Rotana Syria|rep - ? Arabian music,talk http://www.rotana.net/
105.7 - Mix FM Syria - Damascus http://mixfmsyria.com/
106.1 - Radio Fann Syria|rep - Lattakia (Al Ladhiqiyah) http://fann-fm.com/
106.9 - Arabesque FM|rep - ? http://www.arabesque.fm/
(FM) - El-Bernameg Al-Aam - Damascus http://www.rtv.gov.sy/

Internet Streams via Receiva
https://www.reciva.com/stations/location/358

Radio Dengê Kobanê   Classical Syria    MP3 32kbps
Sham FM   News Oldies World Middle East Syria  MP3 40kbps
Version FM 94.4  Varied Syria     MP3 96kbps

Internet Streams via Tunein
http://tunein.com/radio/Syria-r101301/

Sham FM 92.3 Damascus
Al Madina FM 101.5 Al Hasakah
Damascus Online 99.8 Damascus
Radio Damascus Arabic (Irregular broadcast)
Rotana Style FM 105.0 Damascus
Version FM 94.4 Damsacus
Hawa Smart 103.2 Damascus
Ninar FM Arabic (Irregular broadcast)
Mix FM Syria Proud 2B Different (Irregular broadcast)
Syria Alghad Arabic (Irregular broadcast)
Melody FM Arabic 97.9 Damascus
Farah FM Arabic (Irregular broadcast)
If additional broadcast information becomes available, we will post updates on this blog
http://mt-shortwave.blogspot.com/ and on our twitter feed @QSLRptMT https://twitter.com/QSLRptMT.

Our sister site the MilcomMP will also have any utility related frequencies as they become available at http://mt-milcom.blogspot.com/. You can follow any updates on the @MilcomMP
 https://twitter.com/MilcomMP twitter feeds.

RFI taken off the air in Côte d’ Ivoire

Text of report by French news agency AFP

Abidjan, 1 February 2008: The Ivorian media regulatory body has suspended the broadcasting of Radio France Internationale programmes “across the whole of the country”, “until further notice”, because of the lack of a radio correspondent in the country.

“RFI programmes broadcast on FM and by satellite have been suspended as of midnight on 31 January,” says a statement issued by the Ivorian National Audiovisual Communications Council (CNCA), sent to AFP. The statement, signed by the CNCA chairman, Jerome Diegou Bailly, notes that on RFI’s part there is “a clear determination not to meet either its written pledges or to keep its word”.

“RFI put a request to the CNCA and gained approval for a correspondent to be put in place in Abidjan by 31 December, a pledge confirmed to Abidjan on 23 November by Ms Dominique Burg, the network director,” continues the statement, emphasizing that the radio had been given a “further extension until 31 January”.

On 18 April 2007, the CNCA had already threatened to suspend RFI programmes until mid-May if the radio failed to keep a correspondent in the country. On 12 May 2006, the CNCA gave permission for RFI programmes to resume broadcasting in Cote d’Ivoire after a gap of almost 10 months, notably for “unprofessional treatment of news”, due partly to the “lack of a correspondent” in the country. This authorization was given “after several meetings between the two parties, who decided to settle the dispute amicably”.

The radio had closed its regional office in Abidjan following the death of its correspondent, Jean Helene, shot in the head and killed by a police officer in Abidjan on 20 October 2003.

RFI FM broadcasts in Cote d’Ivoire have been suspended several times since the attempted coup d’etat of September 2002 by rebels of the New Forces against President Laurent Gbagbo.
(Source: AFP news agency, Paris, in French 1629 gmt 1 Feb 08 via BBC Monitoring/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)