Radio in a Catastrophic State
Despite repeated promises every year that the facilities will be renewed, funding has yet to materialize.
The international service of Radio Mongolia has suffered a complete shutdown of its shortwave transmitter following a major breakdown. The situation is no better on the domestic network.
A live television debate program has just examined the state of radio broadcasting. For an hour, those responsible for the transmitters presented the condition of the facilities, their inability to obtain spare parts, and above all, power tubes. Some transmitters are now broadcasting more noise than sound. All the listeners present in the studio expressed their indignation and called for the preservation of the longwave service, which no other system can replace given the vast size of the country.
The program was organized just as negotiations were beginning regarding future assistance from Japan’s KDDI Fund for Information and Communications.

SHORTWAVE BROADCASTS
The international service began in 1964 and was transmitted using former Soviet transmitters from the Khonkhor transmitting station, located about 25 km east of Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.
In 2003, the transmitting center was re-equipped by NEC with funding from the Japanese government. A 500 kW transmitter, consisting of two 250 kW units, was intended for the Voice of Mongolia, while a 50 kW transmitter was allocated to the second program of Mongolian Radio on 7260 kHz.
Due to the aging of the equipment, only one of the two 250 kW units was kept in service, while the other was used as a source of spare parts. The shortwave transmitters have now reached the end of their service lives.
Nevertheless, let us hope to hear the Voice of Mongolia on 12015 and 12085 kHz, depending on the time of day.

LONGWAVE BROADCASTS
The situation is no better here. Assistance has been requested from several countries, but without results.
The transmitter at Ulgii (Ölgii), 209 kHz (48°57’25”N, 89°58’13”E), dates from 1965 and now operates at only 30 kW.
Those at Altai, 227 kHz (46°19’11”N, 96°15’07”E), and Dalanzadgad, 209 kHz (43°31’55”N, 104°24’42”E), date from 1978 and operate at only 75 kW.
The Khonkhor transmitter serving Ulaanbaatar, 164 kHz (47°48’01”N, 107°11’04”E), dates from 1984. It is the only one that, when everything is working properly, operates at 500 kW.
Only the Choibalsan transmitter on 209 kHz (48°00’21”N, 114°26’08”E) is relatively recent. It is a TRAM 150 installed in 2012, currently operating at the reduced power of 75 kW.

FM NETWORK
In recent years, Mongolia has installed FM transmitters as part of the Emergency Warning Broadcast System, funded by Japan’s KDDI Fund.
Unfortunately, FM coverage can never replace the coverage provided by longwave across such a vast country.

Atsuhiko Takezawa to Short-Wave Fan facebook group (2026-09-14)

Radio Rumbos 670, Caracas, 100/50 kW is back!

Ruud Poeze (2026-09-15)

Update regarding my 1530 mystery UNID (https://mediumwave.info/2026/09/06/unid-53/):

I heard ‘something’ again on 1530 last night:
2026-09-13 23:01:56 … 23:03:56  Music1 incl. ID 1
2026-09-13 23:03:23 … 23:03:34  ID 1
2026-09-13 23:04:47 … 23:05:19  Music 2
2026-09-13 23:06:14 … 23:06:51  Music 3
2026-09-13 23:10:28 … 23:12:07  ID2 + Music
2026-09-13 23:13:03 … 23:14:58  Music 4
2026-09-13 23:20:08 … 23:21:15  Music 5
2026-09-13 23:22:07 … 23:22:45  ID 3 (vf) + “The Best Rock Radio, broadcasting…?” (vm)

The quality is extremely low, the signal (or at least the modulation) too weak for the noise level here.
I listened to all barely audible portions mentioned above, and only the ‘ID 1’ is somewhat intelligible.
But I could not get more out of it than the female voice ID “Radio – – – -, listen to us on Mediumwave – Music and Much More”.
I have attached the short audio clip with the original.

Maybe you have an idea what this might mean.

Tobias (2026-09-14)

UPDATE Unid 1530 kHz
To me it sounds a bit like “Radio Rollercoaster“, but the second word really sounds more like “concert”, if I had to transcribe it: doesn’t make any sense!

I found nothing on the web in this respect and with a link to mediumwave or even 1530.
The attached longer clip is even weaker, the female ann. barely audible at sec. 6, followed by a brief instrumental interlude after sec. 12 and a male “rock radio” announcement, the rest is not really intelligible, but probably “broadcasting on mediumwave” and then other sounds before fading into noise. Either the QSB is deep or they have modulation / transmitter issues, with only such few portions with some audio found in an almost 90 minutes recording.
But I have to say it’s possible that their carrier is not the only one we see as the lower brighter signal in my formerly sent spectrogram. So potentially, since there was audible carrier beating at times, their signal and another one (Funchal?) are both quite well tuned and hard to visually distinguish.
And in fact, looking at the high-resolution spectrogram (just made, attached!), it looks as if their carrier is only ON from 2300z (minute 44 of the recording) and stops again about 23 minutes later! And the traces of modulation, just measured it, actually belong to the lower temporary carrier. Thus it could just be some brief technical tests (maybe with transmitter issues) or a pirate who wants to make believe it’s a regular station but only dares being active for a few minutes each time…

Tobias (2026-09-15)

Confirming yesterday’s post by Francisco Sánchez https://mediumwave.info/2026/09/12/italy-133/

I logged Radio Briscola 1449 kHz (0.5 kW) with political talk in Italian from after 1930z thru about 2025z (broadcast still continued beyond) with a fair signal and some QSB. Briscola is an Italian card game, but may also mean something else here.
An audio snippet with a rather peculiar (partly giggling) sequence of IDs is attached, heard after 2007z between two talk programs.
So far, MWlist noted QRT by 1700z.

Yesterday evening 2026-09-12) around 1900z, also Radio Centrale Milano was heard mixing with Spanish talk, tent. SER Córdoba (listed at only 1 kW) on 1575 kHz.

A new one to me was Radio Garda Valpolocella (0.6 kW) on 1431 kHz with dance music and full IDs, QRT by 2205 UTC. 2 typical clips attached.

73s Tobias, Bavaria (2026-09-13)

I could hear some station in italian vía 1449 kHz with some politic debate. Maybe it can be Radio Briscola, though MW List says it finished about 17.00 UTC. Good Signal with strong fading at 12/09/26. 
I could hear It when I spend some days in Montpellier ( France ).

Francisco Sánchez (2026-09-12)

Just received a confirmation from Tony, Pop Shop Radio Canada, that there will be a special 6th anniversary broadcast tonight at 2200 UTC on MW 1467, and Sat. morning on 25 m SW, see below!

2200z Roumoules 1467 kHz will be running 1000 kW, and
0300z Woofferton 11925 kHz with 250 kW.

Tony’s shows always offer a wide variety of carefully hand-selected songs, along with some background info and jingles, his fictional character ‘Poppie’, plus a full playlist with an image in DigiMode MFSK64 during the last 5 minutes of the show. Tony’s broadcasts last one hour.

This anniversary special may differ, though.
Website: http://www.popshopradio.ca
It is a friendly non-commercial hobby radio project!
Please tune in and report your reception to him, if you are interested. An eQSL is usually sent to listeners writing in.

Thank you and good listening!

73s Tobias (2026-09-11)