Coverage
The networks on this board
Coverage is deliberately narrow. Rather than list every signal on the band, this carries a chosen set of news, culture and minority-language broadcasters, each with a note on why it is here. Plenty of interesting things are therefore missing.
Public service
An independent or arms-length public broadcaster's international service.
Radio Romania International (opens in a new tab)Romania
One of the last European external services still broadcasting a full multilingual schedule on HF, with real news bulletins and cultural programming rather than a music loop. A useful window on how the Black Sea region is reported from inside it.
72 frequencies: 5910, 7220, 9490, 9500, 9510, 9520, 9550, 9570 … kHz · Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Macedo Romanian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Ukrainian
BBC World Service (opens in a new tab)United Kingdom
Still the reference point for what an international public broadcaster sounds like, and its remaining HF transmissions are aimed at exactly the audiences that have no internet alternative — the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, Afghanistan, Korea.
51 frequencies: 3955, 5970, 6135, 6150, 6195, 7305, 7355, 7445 … kHz · Amharic, Arabic, Burmese, Dari, English, French, Hausa, Kinyarwanda, Korean, Oromo, Persian, Pushto, Somali, Tigrinya
Radio France Internationale (opens in a new tab)France
The most substantial francophone news service on HF, and the primary one for West and Central Africa. Its Hausa, Mandinka, Fulfulde and Swahili services reach audiences that French- and English-language media do not.
20 frequencies: 9565, 9790, 11700, 11790, 13695, 13720, 13740, 15300 … kHz · French, Fulah, Hausa, Mandingo, Swahili (macrolanguage)
Radio Slovakia International (opens in a new tab)Slovakia
A small external service with a disproportionately good arts and history strand, and a Central European perspective that rarely reaches English-language listeners.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
RNZ Pacific (opens in a new tab)New Zealand
The Pacific's shared news service, and genuinely load-bearing infrastructure: island states rebroadcast it, and during cyclones it is the fallback when everything else fails. Also the best regular source on Pacific politics that is not filtered through Canberra or Washington.
23 frequencies: 5945, 5975, 5980, 6095, 6135, 6170, 7245, 7285 … kHz · English
NHK World Radio Japan (opens in a new tab)Japan
A public broadcaster's external service with unusually good coverage of East and Southeast Asia, and a long-running Japanese-lesson and culture strand that is a large part of why people learn the language by radio.
86 frequencies: 5920, 5935, 5955, 5965, 5980, 5985, 6035, 6040 … kHz · Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, Chinese, English, French, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Multiple languages, Persian, Russian, Thai, Urdu, Vietnamese
KBS World Radio (opens in a new tab)South Korea
South Korea's external service, including a Korean-language service aimed north of the DMZ. The cultural programming is strong and the North Korea coverage is closer to the subject than anything produced elsewhere.
56 frequencies: 3955, 5920, 5975, 6015, 6020, 6055, 6065, 6090 … kHz · Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese
Radio Exterior de España (opens in a new tab)Spain
Spain's external service, aimed largely at Equatorial Guinea, the Maghreb and the Americas. Strong arts and documentary programming, and one of the better Spanish-language cultural signals on the bands.
16 frequencies: 9690, 11530, 11670, 11940, 12030, 15110, 15350, 15360 … kHz · Spanish
Channel Africa (opens in a new tab)South Africa
The SABC's pan-African service, in English, French, Portuguese, Swahili and Chinyanja. Continental news reported from Johannesburg rather than London, Paris or Washington.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
State external
A government's external voice, editorially answerable to that state.
Voice of Greece (opens in a new tab)Greece
The Greek state broadcaster's external service, and the most-listened shortwave signal in Europe for music: long unbroken stretches of rebetiko, laika and demotic song with almost no announcer. Worth carrying for the culture alone, and 9420 kHz is one of the few European signals reliably audible in North America.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
Radio TiranaAlbania
Once the most ideologically strange signal on the band and now a modest cultural service, it is worth hearing as continuity: the same transmitter site, a completely different country.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
China Radio International (opens in a new tab)China
By transmitter hours the largest shortwave broadcaster on earth, in more languages than anyone else. Carried as a state external service, labelled as one: valuable for hearing how China presents itself to each region, not as an independent news source.
268 frequencies: 5955, 5965, 5975, 5985, 5990, 5995, 6020, 6040 … kHz · Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Burmese, Cantonese, Central Khmer, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, English, Esperanto, Filipino, French, German, Hakka Chinese, Hausa, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Malay (individual language), Min Nan Chinese, Mongolian, Nepali, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Pushto, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Spanish, Standart Chinese, Swahili (macrolanguage), Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese
Voice of KoreaNorth Korea
The DPRK's external service. Included because it is a primary source available to anyone with a receiver and almost no other way, and because the orchestral and choral music it broadcasts exists nowhere else. Labelled a state external service, which here means what it says.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
Voice of VietnamVietnam
A state external service with a substantial traditional-music output — ca trù, quan họ, đàn bầu — that is hard to hear broadcast anywhere else.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
Radio Thailand World ServiceThailand
One of the few Southeast Asian external services still on HF, and a useful regional counterpoint to the Chinese and Indian signals that dominate the same bands.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
Voice of Turkey (opens in a new tab)Turkey
TRT's external service broadcasts in more than 25 languages across the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Middle East, and its Turkish classical and folk music programming is exceptional. A good listen and a good illustration of where Turkey believes its audience is.
39 frequencies: 5960, 6040, 6165, 7210, 7260, 7275, 7360, 9460 … kHz · Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bulgarian, Chinese, English, French, Georgian, German, Hausa, Italian, Kazakh, Malay (individual language), Persian, Russian, Southern Pashto, Northern Pashto, Spanish, Swahili (macrolanguage), Tatar, Turkish, Turkmen, Uighur, Urdu, Uzbek
IRIB — Voice of the Islamic Republic of IranIran
A large multilingual external service that few listeners outside its target regions ever hear. Carried as a primary source on how Iran addresses South Asia, the Gulf and the Caucasus, with the state framing stated plainly.
46 frequencies: 5990, 6000, 7255, 7280, 7305, 7310, 7325, 7330 … kHz · Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Dari, English, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Kurdish, Middle Armenian, Pushto, Swahili (macrolanguage), Tajik, Turkish
Radio KuwaitKuwait
One of the last Gulf broadcasters on HF, with an Arabic music and Qur'an recitation schedule and an English service. Also a widely-used relay site, so the transmitter turns up carrying other broadcasters.
15 frequencies: 5960, 6050, 7250, 9730, 9750, 11630, 11970, 13650 … kHz · Arabic, English, Filipino, Persian, Urdu
Voice of NigeriaNigeria
West Africa's own external service, in English, Hausa, Fulfulde, Igbo, Yoruba, Arabic and French. Almost all HF broadcasting into West Africa comes from outside it; this does not.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
USAGM — VOA, Radio Free Asia, RFE/RL, Radio Martí (opens in a new tab)United States
The United States Agency for Global Media files every one of its services under a single broadcaster code, so the official registry cannot tell a Voice of America transmission from a Radio Free Asia, RFE/RL or Radio Martí one. They are listed together here rather than guessed apart: labelling a Tibetan-language Radio Free Asia broadcast as Voice of America would be a confident lie. Between them they cover Africa in Hausa, Somali, Amharic and Tigrinya; Tibet, Xinjiang and Myanmar in languages their governments restrict; Iran in Persian; and Cuba in Spanish — much of it jammed, which is why the shortwave transmitter is still the delivery mechanism rather than a legacy habit.
80 frequencies: 4930, 5860, 5875, 5885, 6030, 6090, 7335, 7365 … kHz · Central Pashto, Dari, English, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Persian, Spanish, Tibetan
Radio Habana Cuba (opens in a new tab)Cuba
Cuba's external service, in Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Creole, Quechua, Guaraní and Arabic. The music programming is the draw and the political framing is explicit; carried as a state external service and labelled as one.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
Religious
A religious broadcaster.
Vatican Radio (opens in a new tab)Vatican City
Broadcasts in dozens of languages to places with no other reliable source of outside audio, particularly across Africa and South Asia. Included as a religious broadcaster, clearly labelled: the news content is real but the editorial frame is the Holy See's.
22 frequencies: 7250, 7305, 7410, 9580, 9705, 9710, 11815, 11870 … kHz · Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Belarusian, Chinese, English, French, Hindi, Italian, Latin, Malayalam, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili (macrolanguage), Tamil, Tigrinya, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
Broadcasting in
Broadcasting into a country against that government's wishes, and usually jammed.
Radio Free Asia (opens in a new tab)United States
Broadcasts into Tibet, Xinjiang, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea in languages their governments restrict, and is jammed for it — so the shortwave signal is not a legacy artefact but the delivery mechanism. US-funded, and marked as broadcasting against the receiving government's wishes.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
Radio MartíUnited States
US-funded Spanish-language broadcasting into Cuba, jammed by the Cuban government, and audible on the same bands as Radio Habana Cuba pointing the other way. The pair together are the clearest demonstration on the dial of what shortwave was built to do.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
Radio Dabanga (opens in a new tab)Sudan
Independent Sudanese news in Sudanese Arabic, produced in exile and broadcast in on HF because that is what reaches Darfur when the internet is cut. One of the clearest current cases for why this band still matters.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
Radio Ergo (opens in a new tab)Somalia
Humanitarian-information radio in Somali — where water is, where clinics are, where the fighting is — broadcast on shortwave to reach pastoralist communities with no other coverage.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
Voice of Tibet (opens in a new tab)Norway
Tibetan-language news broadcast from relay sites in Central Asia and jammed continuously by China, which is itself audible. Operated from Norway by a Tibetan-exile organization.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
Radio Farda (opens in a new tab)United States
Persian-language news broadcast into Iran, jammed there, and a primary reason HF transmitters in Central Asia and the Gulf are still pointed that way.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (opens in a new tab)United States
Its remaining HF output goes into Afghanistan, Iran, Central Asia and the Russian-speaking world in languages where independent domestic media has been closed down. US-funded, and marked accordingly.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
Domestic
A domestic service that happens to be audible far outside its own country.
All India Radio (opens in a new tab)India
The largest surviving shortwave operation in the democratic world, carrying both an external service and domestic regional channels in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and more. The music programming — Hindustani and Carnatic classical, film song, regional folk — is the single richest cultural offering on HF.
14 frequencies: 4760, 6000, 9620, 9695, 9740, 9795, 9870, 11710 … kHz · Arabic, Baluchi, Burmese, Chinese, Dari, French, Indonesian, Multiple languages, Nepali, Persian, Pushto, Sinhala, Swahili (macrolanguage), Tibetan
Bangladesh BetarBangladesh
Broadcasts Bengali news and music on HF, including an external service in English. Bengali-language shortwave is otherwise almost entirely gone from the bands.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
Radio EthiopiaEthiopia
Amharic, Oromo, Tigrinya and Somali-language broadcasting from the Horn, a region where HF is still the medium that reaches furthest and where competing signals from several countries overlap on the same frequencies.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
Rádio Nacional da AmazôniaBrazil
A domestic service that exists because shortwave is the only thing that covers the Amazon basin: news, regional music, and messages read out for river communities with no other contact. One of the few remaining broadcasters using HF for its original purpose.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
Radio ProgresoCuba
A Cuban domestic network audible well beyond the island, carrying drama and music programming rather than external-service output — closer to what Cubans actually listen to.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
WWV / WWVH — NIST time signal (opens in a new tab)United States
Not news or culture, but the reference the rest of the band is set against: continuous UTC time and frequency standard on 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz, plus propagation and space-weather bulletins that tell you what the rest of this schedule will actually sound like today.
No transmissions in the current schedule snapshot.
Hobby & brokered
Stations that sell or share airtime, so the programming changes hour to hour.
Channel 292 (opens in a new tab)Germany
A German transmitter that sells airtime by the hour to anyone, which makes it the closest thing shortwave has to public-access radio: hobby broadcasters, music shows, and small European stations that could never afford a transmitter of their own. The programming changes constantly, which is the point.
3 frequencies: 3955, 6070, 9670 kHz · German
WRMI Radio Miami International (opens in a new tab)United States
A private Florida station that brokers airtime to almost anyone, which makes its schedule the strangest and most varied on the band: exile broadcasters aimed at Cuba, religious programmes, radio art, the long-running shortwave-listener shows, and relays of services that have lost their own transmitters.
17 frequencies: 5010, 5050, 5800, 5850, 5950, 7570, 7730, 7780 … kHz · Amharic, English, English, Portuguese, English, Slovak, French, English, Spanish, English, Spanish, French, English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Multiple languages, Russian, English, Slovak, Spanish