Nils Schiffhauer – DK8OK

Non-official radio stations always attracted shortwave listeners who call them “clandestines”, follwing a mixture of mis-understanding and romanticism. The range of this class of stations is remarkably wide. Nowadays, the majority of them is renting time from major transmission centres like Nauen/Germany, Issoudun/France or Toshkent/Uzbekistan.

As all media, they are put into service to influence people and to sell something by propaganda. The difference between an official broadcaster, like Voice of America, and a “clandestine” like North Korea Reform Radio is not palpable – both are financed by the U.S. Congress.

With most broadcasters transmitting on a scale between facts (“white” – nearly only the BBC) and sheer disinformation (“black”), clandestines are placed on the darker third of this range. The separation between “clandestine” and “official” is rather artificial. There simply is no difference between e.g. the official World Harvest Radio and the clandestine Voice of Wilderness, both religious brodcasters, funded by Cornerstone Ministries International/USA – to take just two religious stations.

Today’s activity of clandestines is concentrated on Africa and Asia with especially taking countries like North Korea, China, Eritrea and Sudan into focus.

Some clandestines are jammed, mostly by official broadcasters of the target countries with more or less their usual broadcast; rarely by transmitters just carrying noise.

All known clandestines are official in the sense that the government of the transmitting country knows about their activity and, tacitly at least, is endorsing it. More often than not, clandestines are simply the grey/black arm of their governmental propaganda, like the South Korean “Echo of Hope”, presumably maintained by a (however, non-existing) “General Union of Overseas Compatriots” which in fact turned out to be the South Korean National Intelligence Service NIS.

If you want to look behind the veil, just “follow the money”. In most cases you will land at the U.S. Congress (see illustration below) or some other governmental entities of a third country. Yes, also take care of NGOs, as some (not all) of these “Non-governmental Organizations” are funded by – nothing more but governments of a third country; a system much reminding to money laundering or the game “three shells and a pea”.

The overwhelming number of clandestines orignates from “the West”. You can play bullshit bingo with their names or the names of their funding organizations containing: “freedom”, “democracy” and “independence” at the least. That they are running under false flags, gives the right impression of how some kind of journalism works in “the West”.

The authoritative World Radio TV Handbook has an own section of “Clandestine and other target broadcasts”. Please find below some examples out of their 2020’s edition (pp. 509) plus some examples following my a bit wider definition of a clandestine station: each station, which intentionally disguises their source. So you will find Azadradio, but not “Voice of America/VoA Deewa Radio”, although both are financed by the U.S. government.

All stations had been received between December 2019 and April 2020 in Northern Germany. Their reception quality, of course, is very different; for some of them you should put your headphones over.

The following 27 audio clips, appearing in their target countries’ order (or, the country to/against which people/government their transmissions are targeted), were made from wide-band HF recordings with Winradio’s Über-SDR Excalibur Sigma, connected to MD300DX antenna, an active dipole, hung vertical, with 2 x 5m legs; software: SDRC V3.

P.S.: I know, you must not scroll. But please allow me for an expcetion in this case.

AFGHANISTAN
Azadradio with their headquarters in Kabul is a branch of RFE/RL, a mouthpiece of the U.S. government. Transmitting towards Afghanistan in Pashtu and Dari.

AZERBAIJAN
Voice of Free Talyshistan is transmitted by the Modus Vivendi Center, based in Yerevan/Armenia. Chairman of this non-governmental organization is Armenian lawyer, historian and diplomat Ara Papian. In an interview with TERT [an Armenian media] he supports Armenia’s president that “[land-locked] Armenia must divide [oil-rich] Azerbaijan [at Caspian Sea] as a political unit, cooperating with stateless nations”. One of this “stateless nation” are the Taliysh people, representing 1,4% of the people of Azerbaijan. Hence, Voice of Free Talyshtan is an instrument to separate a future and Armenia-friendly “Talyshistan” from Azerbaijan.

CHAD
Radio Ndarason Internationale is based in N’djamena, the Chad’s capital. It is aimed to the people in the Northern Nigeria and Chad region and is directed against the islamic Boko Haram network. The programme is produced by Johannesburg-based Okapi Consulting, a “media consulting agency”, maintaining no less than five radio stations. Radio Ndarason is aired by BBC transmitters from Wofferton/UK and Ascension.

CHINA [1] [among others]
Radio Free Asia was founded by the US Congress and is financed by the USA as part of their foreign policy. Part of its task is to encourage separating movements – e.g. in China with transmissions in Tibetian and Uyghur; the common pattern of this kind of stations, see also the Azerbaijan entry above.

China [2]

Sound of Hope with headquarters in San Francisco/USA, is the broadcasting arm of Falun Gong. This organization covers a wide spectrum of religious, economical and political fields. It is controversly debated over in the West as in the East. In China, it is forbidden. SoH uses a couple of more or less low-power and frequency-agile transmitters from said locations in Taiwan; also Thailand is rumored. By errors in switching the audio onto a transmitter, I heard also the sound of Radio Free Asia’s Mandarin channel on some of their 100+ frequencies. China performs cat-and-mouse games to place one of their much more powerful transmitters on some of SoH’s active and ever-changing channels. Sound of Hope usually transmits some ±100Hz off nominal channels and also often outside the brodcasting bands to evade jamming. Funding is done by Falun Gong plus, presumably, also by the U.S. government via their USAGM.

CHINA [3]
Voice of Tibet is producing from Dharamsala/India and promotes Tenzin Gyatso (Dalai Lama), living in exile in just this city. He himself considers the radiostation, as it “… allows us Tibetans to comment on events of Tibetan interest from our own perspective”. Voice of Tibet is funded by a Norwegian charitable foundation (Stiftelsen Tibetprojekt). It is mostly transmitting ±1 kHz off an designated channel.

CUBA [1]
Radio República is produced by Florida-based Directorio Democrático Cubano and transmitted via Issoudun/France.

CUBA [2]

Radio Televisión Martí is produced by the Miami-based Office of Cuba Broadcasting, a branch of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, USAGM. This, in turn, is part of the U.S. federal entity “Broadcasting Board of Governors” – the usual matryoshka concept of a puppet in a puppet in a puppet, all firmly hanging on the strings of their government. They mention “democracy”, “independant”? Bingo!

ERITREA
Radio Erena is produced by Eritrean journalists in Paris and is supported by by Reporters without Borders.

Voice of Oromo Liberation is maintained by the Oromo Liberation Front, with the programme presumably produced in Berlin/Germany.

IRAN

Radio Farda with their headquarters in Prague/Czech Republic is a branch of RFE/RL, a mouthpiece of the U.S. government. Transmitting towards Iran in Farsi.

KOREA [North] [1]
Furusato no Kaze/Ilbon-ui Baram is officially brodcasted by the Japanese Government “to Japanese people who have abducted by North Korea and are still trapped in North Korea”. They are the same stations with Furusato no Kaze (Wind from the Homeland) is broadcasting in Japanese, whereas Ilbon-ui Baram (Wind from Japan) transmits in Korean. Both IDs are presented by each an audio clip.

Korea [North] [2]
Voice of Wilderness is produced in Seoul/Korea by the religious organisation Voice of Wilderness Ministries, based in “Tamil Nadu/South India”. As far as I understood their sermon, they believe in “a second coming of Jesus” – excactly the problem, that mankind and especially the targeted people in North Korea are interested in most. They seem to be affiliated to Cornerstone Ministries/USA and Korean Reconciliation Initiatice and Network, wanting to “restore the church” in North Korea.

Korea [North] [3]

National Unity Radio is produced by Unification Media Group, based in Seoul. Telling the public they are a non-governmental organization (NGO), this group in fact in funded by U.S. Congress.

Korea [North] [4]
Shiokaze is maintained by the Investigation Commission on Missing Japanese Probably Related to North Korea/COMJAN – a self-explaining name. On their website is also a banner of an otherwise silent “Strategic Intelligence Institute”.

Korea [North] [5]
Echo of Hope claims to be produced by the otherwise non-existing “General Union of Oversea’s Compatriots” which is an echo of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service NIS, in turn being an echo of the South Korean Government.

Korea [North] [6]
North Korea Reform Radio maintained by the so-called NGO North Korea Development Institute which in financed by the U.S. foundation “National Endwonment for Democracy”, funded by grants from the U.S. Congress.

Korea [North] [7]
Voice of the People, operated by the South Korean National Intelligence Service by another yet unknown organization, dubbed “Korean Workers Union”.

NIGERIA
Dandal Kura Radio International, funded by USAID, an organization under the US Department of State. It is aimed to the people in the Northern Nigeria and Chad region and is directed against the islamic Boko Haram network.

PAKISTAN
Mashaalradio with their headquarters in Prague/Czech Republic is a branch of RFE/RL, a mouthpiece of the U.S. government. Transmitting towards Pakistan in Urdu.

RUSSIA [among others]
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, now only a shadow of itself, was in nearly all aspects a role model of this kind of propaganda radio. Founded in 1949/1953 by an organization fully funded by the CIA (until 1972), it played a major role in Cold War’s “War with Waves”. It remains an United States Government-funded media agency until today with still a few outlets on medium wave and HF, covering East Europe as well as Russia, Iran, Central Asia, Caucasus, Southeast Asia and the Balkans.

SOUTH SUDAN [1]
Eye Radio is operated by Eye Media Ltd. and was/is supported by USAID, an organization under the US Department of State.

SOUTH SUDAN [2]

Radio Tamazuj is produced by the organization “Free Press Unlimited”, which is largely (89%) funded by the government of the Netherlands. Additional 8% of the budget comes from the Dutch Postcode Lottery. Targetting the people on both sides of the border between South Sudan and Sudan.

SUDAN
Radio Dabanga is produced by the organization “Free Press Unlimited”, which is largely (89%) funded by the government of the Netherlands. Additional 8% of the budget comes from the Dutch Postcode Lottery. Targetting the people on both sides of the border between South Sudan and Sudan.

TURKEY [among others]
Radio Dengê Welat is the third metamorphosis of what started in 2012 as Radio Dengê Mezopotamya, to be changed fived years later into Radio Dengê Kurdistanê. It transmits in four Kurdish dialects to Kurdish people. Their headquarters are said to be in Belgium in Denderleeuw near Brussels. It is backed by Uppsala-based Stiftelsen Kurdisk Media.

YEMEN [and others]
Radio Al-Azm is a branch of the Saudi Arab Broadcasting Authority with their programme aimed to Saudi military personnel in southern Saudi Arabia and Yemen