mercoledì 30 agosto 2017

Radio Liberty back into Russia via Lithuania


** RUSSIA [non]. Not shortwave but MW, Radio Liberty in Russian via Bolshakovo, Russia heard at S9 at 0200 UT on 1386 kHz. Station ident in Russian by male followed by news. Mentions of USA, Putin, North Korea, etc., ident at 0214 followed by talk by male. Tecsun PL-660 (Jon Collins, Birmingham UK, Aug 25, WORLD OF RADIO 1893, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

1386 has been shared, not always cordially, by Russia/Kaliningrad and Lithuania. Per the following, the new Radio Liberty service must be via Lithuania instead (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** LITHUANIA. VILNIUS IS PREPARING TO INCLUDE A TRANSMITTER FOR BROADCAST TO RADIO LIBERTY AND RUSSIA AND BELARUS.

VILNIUS, August 25th. / TASS /. Lithuania received from the United States, mounted and next week will turn on the transmitter of long waves for broadcasting to the Russian Federation, Belarus and Ukraine programs "Radio Liberty." This was reported on Friday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Baltic republic.

The inclusion ceremony will be held on August 29 with the participation of Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius and Transport and Communications Minister Rokas Masiulis.

"The new Nautel NX-200 transmitter will replace the old equipment, which worked for about 40 years," the Foreign Ministry said. "The program will be broadcast in Russian with the help of a new transmitter mounted at Veshintai in Anikšciai district."

The arrived technician is three times more powerful than the previous device: its power is 200 kW, and the former - 75 kW.

The US-funded broadcasting of Radio Liberty, launched in 1953 from West Germany, is now being conducted from Prague. On the territory of the USSR, this instrument of Western propaganda, which occupied the extreme anti-Soviet positions, was drowned. In 1991, the radio station was allowed to operate directly in Russia, but in 2012 Radio Liberty stopped broadcasting to Russia, but continues on the Internet. Re-broadcasting of programs by Russian radio stations is not carried out.

More on TASS:

Maybe the correspondent was wrong and the Transmitter will work on MW?
(Anatoly Klepov, Moscow, RUS-DX #939, Postscriptum #1, Aug 27 via WORLD OF RADIO 1893, DXLD)

Radio Liberty was *forced* to stop broadcasting from inside Russia. Why start LW from Lith now? Surely refers to 1386 kHz, Sitkunai, which has been used by R Baltic Waves, and listed as 75/150 kW in WRTH. What is the full schedule?

BTW, I wonder what TASS stands for now? Used to be Telegraphic Agency of the Soviet Union (Glenn Hauser, ibid.)