Echo Helsinki on 9670 kHz: an independent Russian-language hour via Channel 292

What you hear

An hour of Russian talk radio on three evenings a week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 20:00 to 21:00 UTC. The programme is in the style the Echo name suggests, conversation rather than bulletins: interviews, commentary on the news, discussion of Russian politics and culture from an independent point of view, with the pace and informality of a studio talk show rather than a state broadcaster. The identification is Echo Helsinki, Эхо Хельсинки. Outside those three hours the frequency belongs to other clients of the same transmitter, so whatever you hear at other times is not this station.

Who transmits and why

The station is an independent Russian-language project and, as the catalogue puts it, a partner of Echo, the project that continued the work of Echo of Moscow after that station was closed in 2022. Beyond that our data is thin: who exactly produces the programmes, where they are made and how long the shortwave outlet will last are things the station itself is the authority on. What is known for certain is the transmitter. The hour is bought from Channel 292, a private shortwave station in Rohrbach in Bavaria that sells airtime to anyone with a programme and a budget, from music hobbyists to small religious and political broadcasters. Its transmitter on 9670 kHz runs 10 kW, which by broadcasting standards is tiny.

Why shortwave at all, when the programme is surely available online? Shortwave is hard to block at a border and needs no account, which is presumably the attraction for a Russian-language station that calls itself independent.

When and where to listen

9670 kHz is in the 31 metre band, and 20:00 UTC is a reasonable hour for it in spring and autumn, less so in midwinter, when the band may already be closing over central Europe. With 10 kW the signal is never loud; the catalogue is honest about this. The trick is to pick the right receiver. Close to Rohrbach, within a couple of hundred kilometres, the signal arrives by ground wave and high-angle skip and is usually fine; at medium distances, 500 to 1500 km, in the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Austria and northern Italy, it arrives by a single hop and is often the clearest; receivers in Scandinavia and the Baltics are hit and miss, and from Russia itself it is a difficult catch unless conditions are good. A narrow filter helps, and if a stronger station sits on 9665 or 9675 kHz, switch to the sideband away from it.

In ShackDeck

Station catalogue → Shortwave broadcast → Echo Helsinki 9670. The program picks a public receiver that covers 9670 kHz, tunes it and sets AM; no receiver, antenna or account of your own is required. If the first receiver gives only noise, let the program try another, ideally one in Germany or a neighbouring country, and check the day: outside Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evenings the station is not on.