BC-DX 789 05 Jan 2007 Private Verwendung der Meldun

Additional 15620 kHz Sines or Kigali?, which is the strongest, but DWL
also on 11645 Kigali, 15640 Trincomalee - weak today, 15660 Kigali.
Strongest jamming noted here on 15660 today, covered DWL in total of 95%,
also Ethiopians jammed 11645 and 15620 kHz, but not 15640 kHz. So I guess,
they have 3 jamming tx units at their disposal ?...
(wb, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 27)
DW, 9690 via Kigali, 295 degrees, English to WeAf, Nov 22, after news
about Uganda at 2016 UT, at 2019-2023 interviewed the head of DW's Amharic
service, Ludger Schadomsky about the recently started Ethiopian jamming.
Among the points: it was first detected by DW's in-house monitors on Nov
11 against the service's two frequencies [WTFK? 15640, 11645], and
'yesterday' also against the third [15660]; and there is also jamming
against 3/5 of the VOA Amharic frequencies.
The jamming will ultimately backfire, but DW is not pointing fingers at
who is behind it; however, DW Intendant Bettermann has written to the
Ethiopian ambassador in Berlin asking him to look into it. There has been
a clampdown on press freedom in Ethiopia since the elexions of May 2005.
He said 20% of the adult population of Ethiopia listens to the DW Amharic
service, so it is very influential.
(Glenn Hauser-OK-USA, dxld Nov 23)
DWL Amharic at 1400-1500 UT. Best reception on 15620 kHz, not jammed.
Other three channels jammed heavily, like 11939-11649.5 kHz, 15637-15651,
15657.8-15667 kHz. Strongest QRM on 15660 kHz.
(wb, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 29)
Ludger Schadomsky, appointed as head of the Amharic service in last
December:
(illustrated)
Today he also wrote a piece for the DW website in German, right now linked
on the frontpage with the headline "just like during the Cold War":
Says that listeners complained via e-mail, SMS and phone calls about that
kind of noises typical for jamming, easily distinguishable from
atmospheric noises. Subsequent monitoring confirmed that DW Amharic, the
most listened foreign radio service in Ethiopia (about 20 percent of the
Ethiopians tune in at least once in a week), is subject of a "big and
expensive censorship campaign".
Ethiopia has the lowest power consumption amongst the countries south of
the Sahara desert, people will presumably not be amused by the
circumstance that this little bit of power is not used for economic
development but instead to fuel jamming transmitters. But what is even
more important is the timing of this sabotage: Observers fear that a new
war between Ethiopia and Eritrea is looming.
The Ethiopian government takes action against DW since the reporting about
the elections in May 2005 with 135 killed and some ten thousand arrested
people. Villagers were compelled to sign a petition to the German
parliament, Ethiopian authorities were instructed to reject interview
requests, DW correspondents experience massive hindrance of their work and
are not allowed to attend press conferences.
Recently two visits of DW director Erik Bettermann in Ethiopia and an
intervention by the German ambassador lead to an improvement of the
situation. This makes it even more surprising that Ethiopia now falls back
upon the Cold War practice of jamming which used to be common on the Horn
of Africa, too. Ethiopian websites claim that the necessary equipment has
been delivered by China. So far this is merely a speculation, but it is a