[SW] 15640 kHz - VOA Deewa Radio, Lampertheim - 3 years & 1 day after Taliban takeover, Aug 16 2024

A snippet of an August 16th, 2024 news broadcast, with a number of reports concerning the anniversary of fall of Kabul and Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, from Voice of America Deewa Radio, as heard on shortwave in Poland.

I didn't have anything to note the anniversary in mind, so this should suffice :)

Aug 15th, 2021 saw a rather resistance-less takeover of Kabul by Taliban forces, after they conquered a number of other Afghan provinces in weeks ahead. President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, and so were remaining US troops stationing in Afghanistan.

Both BBC and US Agency for Global Media maintain a strong presence on mediumwave & shortwave, with several hours of programming a day, and in case of USAGM, a number of stations, beaming Afghanistan, despite severe cuts in both organisations' SW schedules made in 2024. Deewa Radio broadcasts specifically to Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, complementing a similar service from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Mashaal.

According to https://www.insidevoa.com/p/6458.html, "VOA Deewa (which means Light in Pashto) provides news and information to the critical Pakistan/Afghanistan border region. The region lacks local independent sources of information on regional, international and U.S. perspectives on global issues. Military narratives, jihadi agenda and extremist groups are dominant in the state and private media market. VOA Deewa reaches this critical region via digital platforms, direct-to-home satellite TV, radio, and the Internet."

This broadcast, heard at 13:21 UTC August 16th, 2024 on 15640 kHz, is beamed from Lampertheim, Germany, with 100kW & 92deg direction. Signal is very strong in Poland, and remained clear even when something, probably outside of my home, had bumped my noise level.

This reception was made using an old SDRPlay RSP1 and a 5-element vertical LFA Yagi for FM band.