Segenswelle in Russian on 5920 kHz: a 1.5 kW Christian station from Germany, at night

What you hear

Russian-language Christian programmes from Germany, late at night and in the small hours: from 22:00 to midnight UTC and again from 03:00 to 04:00 UTC. The name means roughly "wave of blessing", and the content matches: readings and sermons, Christian music, testimonies, programmes for families, in Russian at these hours and in German at others. The style is that of an evangelical community radio rather than a national broadcaster, warm and unpolished. The same programme goes out in parallel on 3995 kHz in the 75 metre band.

Who transmits and why

The catalogue describes Segenswelle as a German religious station with 1.5 kW, and that is what our data says; the organisation behind it and the exact location of the transmitter are not in our records, so we will not fill the gap with guesses. What can be said is why a station like this exists. Germany has a large population of Russian speakers, many of them from evangelical communities that arrived from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s, and a programme in Russian at 1.5 kW on 5920 and 3995 kHz is sized for exactly that audience: Germany and its neighbours, not Russia. The pair of low-power frequencies, 3995 and 5920 kHz, has been associated with small German-based Christian broadcasters for years, and Segenswelle is the name heard on them now.

When and where to listen

5920 kHz is in the 49 metre band and the hours are night hours, which is right for both the band and the power: at night a kilowatt and a half on 49 metres covers Germany, the Benelux, Austria, Switzerland, Poland and the Czech Republic, and on a good night reaches Scandinavia, the Baltics and Britain. The 22:00–00:00 UTC block is the easier one, with more receivers awake and the band fully open; the 03:00–04:00 UTC hour is quieter in every sense. Do not expect the signal in Russia or across the Atlantic: it is not meant to get there and usually does not.

The signal is weak, as the catalogue warns. Pick a receiver in Germany or a neighbouring country, use the narrowest filter that keeps speech intelligible, and if 5920 kHz is covered by a stronger station, try 3995 kHz, which sits in a quieter part of the spectrum at night. With a strong neighbour, the sideband away from it in SSB mode can also rescue the audio.

In ShackDeck

Station catalogue → Shortwave broadcast → Segenswelle in Russian 5920. The program picks a public receiver that covers 5920 kHz, tunes it and sets AM; no receiver, antenna or account of your own is required. For this station the choice of receiver matters more than for any big broadcaster, so let the program try several until one in central Europe comes up.