DSWCI Short Wave News – November 2009 22

DX NEWS FROM KAMCHATKA by DSWCI member 3393 Maarten van Delft,

the Netherlands Last August my girlfriend and I toured the Kamchatka peninsula in the Russian Far East, travelling with Beluga, a Dutch travel company specialized in trips to Arctic and Antarctic regions. The journey involved a 9-hour non-stop flight from Moscow to Petropavlovsk, the longest domestic flight in the world. Several helicopter flights were made locally as there are very few roads in Kamchatka due to the rough terrain; it is after all the most volcanic region in the world with a total 150 volcanoes of which 30 are active. We also travelled in special huge 6-wheel all-terrain vehicles. The driver can adjust the pressure of all tyres from his driving position according to the condition of the terrain. In addition to sightseeing, which also included watching lots of salmon-catching bears, I did some listening and visited the state radio & TV station in Petropavlovsk to collect some information. (All mentioned times are UTC, please add 1 hour for summer time).

The building of GTRK at Sovetskaya Street 62 in

Petropavlosvk. The large Yelizovo transmitting station (LW, MW and SW) is located right next to Yelizovo Airport, 32 km North-West of Petropavlovsk. All FM and TV broadcasts originate from Mishennaya Hill overlooking Petropavlovsk. The FM stations I noted are 103.5 R Mayak, 104.5 R Tri, 105.5 R SV and 106.0 Yevropa Plyus. R Mayak is parallel to 576 MW, but on FM it is interrupted for local programmes during the last 10 minutes of each hour between 2100-0600. R Rossii’s Far East programme is also broadcast from Yelizovo on 180 LW and 5920 SW. I found reception somewhat disappointing and they - as well as Yunost (1008) and Mayak (576) - may be running at reduced power. On 5920 I also noticed slight distortion and a hum; on comparison, 5940 Arman came in much better with a solid and well-modulated signal. R Rossii is interrupted for regional programmes Monday-Friday only at 1910-1930, 2010-2100, 2300-2330, 0110-0130, 0510-0530 and 0810-0900. At 2040-2055 and 0710-0725 there are segments in vernaculars,

alternately in Koryak and Itelmen. The programme “Kamchatka Fishing” (Kamchatka Rybatskaya) is no longer listed in the WRTH but is still on the air on Fridays only at 2010-2040 on all of R Rossi’s frequencies: 180 LW, 5920 and 69.72 OIRT FM. Sorry to say that I did not succeed in getting it confirmed that they shift 5920 to 6075 kHz in winter.

Maarten van Delft in the studio of Radio Rossi in

Petropavlovsk. On the left is Mr. Aleksey Kostylev and of the right Katya our guide

I noted that R Rossii and R Mayak are commercial and I was somewhat surprised to hear that R Yunost now identifies as “YuFM”. I checked the low-power MW outlets listed for Kamchatka many times, but no joy. They may be off or I was beyond their reach, staying mostly in Southern Kamchatka. Other stations noted from the Far East and Siberia were: Arman 5940, & 7320, Yakutsk 7140, 7200 & 7345 and Krasnoyarsk on 6085.

Maarten van Delft

Thank you very much Maarten for this interesting article from a part of the World that we seldom hear about.