China Radio International in Russian on 5905 kHz: five hours a day from Kashi

What you hear

Five hours without a break, from 12:00 to 17:00 UTC. The Russian service of China Radio International is one of the largest Russian-language operations left on shortwave, and the programme shows it: hourly news from Beijing with a strong emphasis on China's economy, diplomacy and regional affairs, then features on Chinese culture, history, medicine, cuisine and travel, Chinese language lessons for Russian speakers, music, and a programme that answers letters from listeners. The Russian is fluent, often from native speakers working in Beijing alongside Chinese presenters, and the identification comes at the top of every hour.

Who transmits and why

China Radio International is the external service of China's state broadcaster. Its history reaches back to the 1940s under the name Radio Peking, the present name dates from 1993, and since 2018 the station has been part of China Media Group. Russian has been one of its main languages for decades, for Russia, Central Asia and the Russian-speaking populations of the former Soviet Union, and in recent years CRI has kept its shortwave hours in Russian while cutting many other languages.

The daytime block comes from Kashi, in the far west of Xinjiang, at 100 kW. Kashi is the westernmost of CRI's transmitter sites and the natural one for Central Asia, Russia and Europe: the signal starts thousands of kilometres closer to the audience than it would from Beijing. In the evening the service continues from Beijing with 500 kW, on 6100 kHz from 19:00 to 20:00 UTC and on 6155 kHz from 20:00 to 21:00 UTC; the 6100 kHz hour has its own entry in the catalogue.

When and where to listen

5905 kHz is in the 49 metre band, a low frequency for a five-hour daytime block, and the choice makes sense only from the target's point of view: at 12:00 UTC it is already evening in Siberia and the Far East, and by 17:00 UTC it is evening in Moscow. The band carries the signal well over the dark half of the path. Receivers in Siberia, Kazakhstan, the Urals and the Volga region hear it at full strength through the block; receivers in European Russia and Ukraine hear it best in the last two hours. From Europe the signal is a long-haul one in the early afternoon and improves towards 17:00 UTC; receivers in Finland, the Baltics and Poland are the best bet, and a weak but readable signal in Germany is normal in winter. In summer the European afternoon is too bright for 49 metres and the first hours may not make it at all.

The 49 metre band fills up towards evening. A narrower filter, or the sideband away from a loud neighbour, keeps the Russian clean when the band gets crowded.

In ShackDeck

Station catalogue → Shortwave broadcast → China Radio International in Russian 5905. The program picks a public receiver that covers 5905 kHz, tunes it and sets AM; no receiver, antenna or account of your own is needed. A receiver in Russia or Kazakhstan, when the program offers one, gives the broadcast as it is meant to be heard. CRI's European evening on 7295 kHz via Albania is covered in a separate article.