Glenn Hauser logs May 3-4-6, 2009

** CYPRUS. CyBC, 9760, surely the source of unannounced Greek folk music, Sunday May 3 from 2240 to abrupt cutoff without a word of goodbye at 2244:30. How rude! Reception was good. This is the Fri-Sat-Sun-only 2215-2244:30 transmission via BBC relay station; per EiBi, // are 7210 and 5930, not checked, but surely best here on 9760 anyway. If there were any announcements, they would be in Greek, as non-Turkish Cyprus misses a golden opportunity for outreach to the English-speaking world and its potential tourists (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** INDONESIA [and non]. As feared the day before, VOI has made another abrupt frequency change back to 11785, after many months on 9525 during the 1300 English hour. At least it`s close to 11785 rather than 11786v, but they have shot themselves in the foot since there is heavy QRM on 11785 during this hour, while 9525 was and is clear.

May 4 at 1302 I confirmed that 9525 was empty, so tuned to 11785 at 1309 and there it was, VOI detectable in English, ID at 1316 along with ``sound of dignity`` slogan. Heavy collision with at least two other stations, in Chinese, i.e. VOA via Thailand at 30 degrees also toward us, and heavy CNR-1 ChiCom jamming.

They must be totally out of touch in Jakarta about what is really happening on the available VOI channels, and this tends to confirm my assumption that the previous usage of 9525 when it was clear during the 1300 English hour, was nothing but pure luck; and of course it collided with CRI in Russian after 1400 in Malay.

Now the situation is reversed, as VOA and the ChiCom jamming quit at 1400, leaving VOI more or less clear on 11785 but there is still a weaker co-channel audible at 1422 check. Per Aoki this has to be BBCWS in Hindi at 14-15. The very strange thing about it is that on Sunday the site is Chita at 230 degrees, while the other six days of the week it`s Singapore at 315 degrees; why?

Of course Hmong Lao Radio via WHRI totally blox everything here on 11785 at 13-14 Saturdays and Sundays. Anyhow, goodbye to good reception in North America of VOI English, unless they wake up and go back to 9525. It is inconceivable that they would move to any other frequency on either band (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** SOLOMON ISLANDS. 9541.5, BBCWS mid-news ID without even straining to make it out, 1304 May 4, the best SIBC heard yet, but would prefer to hear something local from SI as there are a few other ways to hear BBC. If nothing else, they should play back some of their earlier local programming overnight (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. VOA Greenville already on with open carriers at 2250 tune-in May 3 on 6110 and 9825, prior to Spanish at 2300. I was checking these in follow-up to previous reports on nonsensical DentroCuban jamming in the middle of the night on 6110, and on a possible frequency change for Turkey at 2200 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [non]. 17880 at 0559 May 4 in Chinese with that ``diamond`` commercial theme music, which became a pop hit several months ago. Same music heard previously at exactly same time on same frequency. I think it`s R. Free Asia via NMI rather than ChiCom CNR1 jamming. Does anyone recognize which station uses that music? And how does the RFA Mandarin ID go? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WWRB spurs on 9317 and // 9453 resumed, May 3 at 2250 check with Brother Scare originating from 9385 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. WEWN, 11530 in English is the transmitter putting out plus/minus 10 kHz dirty spurs, as noted May 4 at 1420. Unless more than one of them does that. Luckily, no broadcasters audible on 11520 or 11540 at the moment, so not too obvious until BFO onturned.

Meanwhile, WEWN, 11550 in Spanish had a lo het and music mix underneath, probably RTI Taiwan in Vietnamese as in Aoki, altho at 1330-1430 R. Azadi in Dari via Kuwait is also scheduled. Serves them right for the unnecessary QRM WEWN causes (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###



** INDONESIA. Looking for VOI on reactivated 11785, May 6 at 1300 in English, but could not unearth it below the barrage of at least two ChiCom echoing jammers starting with a 5+1 timesignal, and VOA Chinese. Tried for a few more minutes and again later in the hour but no trace of VOI, so either totally buried, not propagating or off the air today.

Meanwhile 9525 remained empty as VOI foolishly abandoned what had been a good clear frequency for them during the 1300 hour only. Tried 11785 again at 1400 when the radio war stopped, but now could hear nothing but weak Hindi from BBC Singapore, which is no doubt a big obstacle for Indonesia`s 1400 Malay broadcast when it is on 11785 (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** RUSSIA. VOA and NHKWNRJ aren`t the only SW stations with regular jazz shows: Wednesday May 6 at 1356 was hearing jazz drumming on fluttery 12065, which must be VOR as scheduled via Chita. Indeed their grid at http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&w=225&p=
confirms the Jazz Show is on at 1330 Wednesdays. Other times are: Wed 1930, 2230; Thu 0630, 1130; Fri 0230, 0830, 2030, 2230; Sun 1630; Mon 1030, 1630; Wed 0630. Has home-grown jazz improved since the Soviet era? Has anyone figured out a pattern to VOR program repeat times, or is it just random? (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A [and non]. The DentroCuban Jamming Command continues to interfere with WRMI 9955 even when it is in English and even when it is broadcasting a new WORLD OF RADIO for the first time, Wednesday May 6 at 0500 as I checked the last couple minutes at 0526. WRMI is often inaudible in the nightmiddle, but this time it had a fair signal plus jamming pulses rather than noisewall. WYFR 9680 and 9715 were meanwhile extremely strong. Yet DXers Unlimited doesn`t get jammed; Arnie obviously has no sense of fair play. BTW, if you listen to him in Spanish, he sounds a lot less ``friendly`` than he does in English (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** U S A. WEWN`s dirty transmitters only 20 kHz apart, 11530 in English and 11550 in Spanish, May 6 at 1403 effectively block anything else from 11510 to 11570, as they produce mixing products on those two frequencies, and 11530 also has the spurs around 11520 and 11540 previously reported. The squealing sound could also be heard on 11510. Add to that the general receiver overload and desensitization. There are a number of IBB broadcasts in this range (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** VATICAN. 15235 in Vietnamese, May 6 at 1351. What does PWBR `2009` say? Vatican Radio in unknown language to SE Asia, but in Winter season only --- here it is Summer. HFCC confirms it is in fact SMG beamed eastward in Vietnamese at 1315-1400. VR`s Vietnamese services reach us well in NAm, making us wonder just how direxional their antennas really are (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) ###

An illusion of normality: Liz Skelton remembers Radio Prague after the invasion

[17-08-2008]
By David Vaughan

When Soviet tanks rolled into Prague in the night from August 20-21 1968, the Czechoslovak Radio building was one of the first places that they tried to bring under control. In the process the building was damaged, several
people were killed and dozens injured. Broadcasts went on in secret for several days, keeping the world informed of what was really happening, initially from within the building itself, and then from other locations in the city, using mobile studios and transmitters.

Liz Skelton

The story of how radio staff defied the invaders is well known, but what we
hear far less often is what happened at the radio in the weeks and months
that followed. The answer may come as a surprise. Almost within days,
things went back to normal. Once the Soviets had bullied the Czechoslovak
leadership into accepting the invasion, their next step was to create the
illusion that nothing very drastic had happened. At the radio this meant
that initially no-one was sacked or purged and people just went back to
their jobs. And it was just at this time, literally days after the
invasion, that a 24-year-old Englishwoman started working here at Radio
Prague. Her name was Liz Skelton, and a few weeks ago I had the opportunity
to record an interview with her as she revisited the building where she had
worked 40 years before. She began by telling me how she came to be in
Prague at such an extraordinary moment.

“Well, it was a little impulsive. I had a friend in England who was half
Czech and half English, and when the Russians invaded in August of 1968, he had to make a significant decision, which was whether to come back to live in Czechoslovakia, with the risk that he couldn’t leave again, or stay in
England. He decided to come back and I decided to come with him, not knowing how long I would end up staying. I thought I might be here for a few weeks. It was impulsive, but it turned out to be a very interesting time. I ended up staying for nearly two years.”

And this was in fact just after the Soviet invasion, so it was a time of  great uncertainty and concern here in Czechoslovakia. Nobody had the faintest idea what was going to happen…

Photo: Josef Koudelka

“No, they didn’t at all and nor did I, obviously, and I was very politically naïve. I was 24 years old in 1968 and really had very little knowledge of what could happen walking into a communist country at the time. We drove here and crossed the border about five days after the invasion, and there were tanks quite visible. We arrived in the dead of night and I wondered what on earth I had come to. It was very dark and bleak, and actually in the first couple of nights you could hear tankfire or gunfire, there were still some skirmishes going on until things settled down a bit.

“In the following months there were a lot of demonstrations, there were some very interesting pictures that I actually smuggled out of the country for a fellow called Josef Koudelka, who is very famous now, I gather. He took photos of the crowds climbing up on tanks and, I guess, yelling at these young Soviet soldiers, who were rather offended, because they thought they had come in to save everybody and in fact they had got a very, very unfriendly reception.”

And how about the radio? You started working at Radio Prague. How did that
come about? It was a time when the Soviets wanted to clamp down on Radio
Prague and there had even been fighting outside this building.

August 1968 outside the Czech Radio building

“That’s true. Let me tell you first how I came to work here. Pavel,
who was my boyfriend at the time, had worked in the English section of
Radio Prague before he had gone to England for six months, so when he came
back, he wanted to continue to work part time at the radio. He was actually
studying, doing a degree at Charles University, but as a part time employee
he had worked at the radio. When we came up to see his former colleagues, I
was asked if I had ever had any broadcasting experience, because they
needed another voice in the English section. I said I certainly hadn’t
had any broadcasting experience, but they said, ‘Let’s do a mic
test.’ So they put me in front of a microphone. At the time I had a much
more British accent than I now have, as I’ve lived in North America for a
long time. They said, ‘That’s fine. We’ll give you a job.’

“So I started to work here part time. I read the news, I had a weekly
programme with a lovely fellow called Franta Fröhlich, where we just chatted about local happenings and I introduced a few concerts. But interestingly Dubček was still in power at the time and there was still virtually no censorship for quite a long time. The news broadcasts were, as far as I remember, very truthful, there was no propaganda. I think there was still a lot of optimism, despite the fact that the Soviets had rolled in the tanks. I think people were still very rebellious and not accepting at all the idea of going back to the old regime. So for a long time broadcasting was absolutely unfettered.”

I believe it was really in the spring of 1969 that the screw began to
tighten and many people were sacked. Do you remember that time as well?

“I do. It became rather grim and got to a point where people started to mistrust each other a bit. You weren’t quite sure who you could confide in…”

And you must have been under pressure to read things that you didn’t
believe in.

“I was, and I have to admit I had to stop doing that. I had to start refusing to read some of the news items. My parents were back in England and somewhat masochistically listening to me every night….”

They must have been a little worried….

“They were very worried. My mother in particular was worried that I was going to be spirited away by the Russians and never seen again, which was probably a possibility, but at my age and naïve as I was, it didn’t really cross my mind that that could happen. But it did get to a point where I really couldn’t work here any more. Eventually in fact I was summoned by the police to have what you could describe as an interrogation – although it was not really. They didn’t threaten me with anything, but they actually said I shouldn’t have been working at the radio all that time because I came in on a student visa and I wasn’t technically allowed to work. So they basically said that I couldn’t work at the radio any more. In a way I was relieved that I couldn’t because it was getting to a point where I couldn’t broadcast much of what was put in front of me.”

We are now sitting in a studio in the new radio building, which is just behind the old building where you were working. This is all very hi-tech and modern. It must have been quite different in the late ‘60s.

“Obviously everything was much less hi-tech and we had those old tape
recorders – reels and reels of tape, which occasionally went wrong, the
tape broke and it all ended up on the floor. The editing was literally
cutting and pasting. Everything was done more slowly. There were no
computers and I don’t think there were many copies kept of recordings: in
fact it would be lovely to find a recording from back then.”

Unfortunately we haven’t found any recordings of you from that time,
which is a great shame…

“It was fun. It was a bit nerve-wracking for me having never done
anything like that before. Probably, if I were to listen to a recording
from back then I would be terribly embarrassed, because I think my voice
was very flat, I had no acting experience. Someone once told me that I
sounded rather like the Queen, which I don’t consider a great compliment
as she has rather a monotonous voice.”

You certainly don’t sound like the Queen now!

“I think my accent has been corrupted a little.”

At the time the English section was much bigger than it is now. Today
there are eight people in the section, plus freelancers. It was a much
bigger operation then.

“Yes, it was a fairly major operation.”

It was at the height of the Cold War, but from what you’re saying the
atmosphere seems to have been very relaxed.

“It was for about a year. I think that was totally a reflection of the
Prague Spring, when people were so excited all of a sudden to have a taste
of the Western way of life. It wasn’t at all what I imagined living in a
communist country would be, but then I came at the best possible time. But
by the time I left in early 1970 people were getting rather reticent to
confide in others, the political conversations were fewer and farther
between. It was a much less open society generally.”

You managed to stay on at Radio Prague until the end of 1969, but you
didn’t go back home immediately.

“No, I didn’t leave Czechoslovakia until probably the spring of 1970.
I taught English to a group of people who I think were then in what was
called the Ministry of Industry, and I don’t remember how I got that job,
but I did teach English. A couple of times I flew across the country to
Slovakia and taught a group of businessmen English, which yet again was
something which I had no experience in. So my whole time in Czechoslovakia
was doing things that I had no training in at all!”

Eventually you decided to leave.

“I did. I don’t think anybody really kicked me out of the country, but
it came to a point where I almost felt guilty being here with the friends
that I had, who were Czech and simply didn’t have the freedoms that I had
to walk in and out. I knew that I could always leave when I wanted to,
because I had a British passport. It was becoming a bit depressing to be in
this environment.”

At that time were you still with your Czech-English boyfriend?

“Actually we had gone our separate ways as a couple, but we were still
friends, and when I left he was still here. But he did actually want to
leave. He had a British and a Czechoslovak passport, but as long as he was
in Czechoslovakia he was considered to be Czech. He wanted to get out and
go to England. I was able to arrange that for him, once I was back in
England, by putting together a bunch of documents, most of which I forged
– with a lot of fancy-looking sealing wax and stamps on them and
flourishing signatures, the essence of which was that we were going to get
married in England. That was one of the only reasons which would justify an
exit visa from Czechoslovakia at the time. So I sent all these things to
Pavel, and he was actually able to get out of the country on the pretext
that he was going to be marrying me in England. He later got a job at the
BBC and – from what you tell me – he worked there until quite
recently.”

And you didn’t stay in England…

“No. About six months later I actually went to Canada and ended up
staying in Canada for ten years and then went off to New York for ten years
and ended up staying in North America.”

And you didn’t follow a career in broadcasting. You studied law.

“Yes, I gave up broadcasting. I don’t think it was really a career
that was meant for me in the first place. I don’t think it was really my
forte!”

How does it feel to be coming back, to be seeing these places that you
haunted forty years ago?

“It’s wonderful actually. I think it’s thrilling to see what’s happened to Prague. Prague was really a beautiful but bleak city under communism, and it is just gorgeous now. The buildings have been restored, the economy is booming and it’s really a delightful place to be. I would love to come back and spend quite a few weeks here. I’m wandering around
looking at places I used to hang out in, and it’s amazing how everything has developed. It was always a beautiful city, but it had never been allowed to flourish.”

So, Liz Skelton, thank you very much indeed for coming back into the studio after all these years. It’s been a real pleasure to talk to you.

“Thank you for having me here, and thank you for helping me try to find a recording. Maybe we’ll come up with something eventually. It’s lovelyto be here.”

And if any of our listeners happen to have recordings of our broadcasts from late 1968 or 1969 at home, do have a listen, and if you do come across Liz Skelton’s voice, we’d be delighted if you could send us a copy.