Thursday, July 15, 2010

Shortwave Blog "Bytes"

All times UTC // parallel frequency *sign-on/sign-off*

India
Random check on All India Radio regional transmitters
Leh 4760 - 59+20 dB this morning, heard regularly during morning and evening. Port Blair also heard here at 0000 onwards before Leh signs on at 0130z.

H'bad 4800/Kolkata 4820/Chennai 4920 & few others - Co-channel interference from China going on since ages. Several verbal and written complaints to AIR, nothing happened.

Sri Nagar 4950 - 59+30 dB here last night. Heard regularly.

Ranchi 4960/5985 - Off air since Oct 2006

Jammu 4830/5965 - Off air since Oct 2006

Kohima 4850 - Off air, heard only on special ocassions.

Gangtok 4835 [4837.22v] - Off freq due to problem in synthesizer unit, Partha Sarathi from Siliguri spoke to the stn engineer y'day, expected to be rectified by this week.

Kurseong 4895 - Was noted back on air after being off air due to repairs,
not checked recently.(Alokesh Gupta-IND, DXindia July 8/BC DX 971 Top News)

Jonathan Marks Interview
Jonathan just finished producing a superb video interviewing Peter Homfrey, former Managing Director of Radio Australia. In the interview, which occurred in 2004, Peter initially talks about his early military life. The second half of the video is devoted to his working involvement with Radio Australia and discusses such topics as the Christmas Island shortwave relay station that never was and the snubbing by former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. Jonathan includes some imagery of the areas discussed and incorporates usage of Google Earth indicating areas of Peter’s travels.

Peter is revealed as a fascinating gentleman and I found the entire video engrossing and enjoyable. I highly recommend it to all members. Video length is around 35 minutes from memory.

You can find the video here:
http://www.vimeo.com/13249732
(Ian Baxter/SW BCB yg)

Kazakhstan
9950 at 1432, Golos Pravoslavya (Voice of Orthodoxy)I can just make out this twice weekly religious program through a huge ute smack on the channel. Otherwise, I suspect the signal would be just fine. LSB seems to only way to hear anything. (Walter Salmaniw, Masset-B.C.-CAN, DXplorer July 7)

KNLS Alaska monitoring observations
11765 at 1700-, KNLS. Despite of information from the station, I heard neither the English broadcast at 1200 UT nor the Russian broadcast at 1700, so I guess they're still having issues to work out before the newer transmitter returns to the air. (Walt Salmaniw-BC-CAN, DXplorer July 8)

KNLS off the air, but should return tomorrow. Explains why I haven't heard them for a few days. I'll be listening tomorrow for their return!

Dear Mr. Salmaniw, You are correct in assuming that both transmitters have been off the air. We appreciate your listenership and apologize for the problems. One of the two transmitters has been off line since late March. It's a 25 year-old transmitter, and it's taken some time to get rebuilt parts for it. The older transmitter carried the bulk of the English and Russian hours.

The newer transmitter has been off since last week because an electric transformer malfunctioned. We hope to have the transformer and thus the newer transmitter back in service by tomorrow.

The English Hour should be available at 1200 UTC (5:00 a.m. PDT) on either 7355 or 9680 kHz. The Russian Hour should be available at 1700 UTC (10:00 a.m. PDT) on 9920 kHz.

You can also listen to a podcast of the English at any time of day on our website

Thanks again for your interest and listenership.
Best regards, Rob Scobey, Senior Producer, English Language Programming
KNLS. (via Walt Salmaniw-BC-CAN, DXplorer July 5/BC DX 971 Top News)

Libya - Voice of Africa schedule
Summer Schedule 2010
Arabic
0400-0700 9870sab 9880sab
0700-1000 11630sab 11650sab
1000-1200 17735sab 17740sab
1700-0300 1251tri
2000-2200 9880sab 11850sab

English
1400-1600 15235sab 15240sab

French
1600-1800 9880sab 11850sab

Hausa
1800-2000 9880sab 11850sab

Swahili
1200-1400 17735sab 17740sab
(wb, Germany/HCDX)

Papua New Guinea log
3905 Radio New Ireland at 1200-1220.+ Female announcer speaking briefly, then interestingly, an acoustic/semi-classical guitar version of "Dixie" lasting until 1205. Five minutes of a male announcer (news?) was followed by assorted vocal music, including a selection by Men at Work. Fair but deteriorating. Not sure of language. (John M Wilkins-CO-USA, DXplorer July 9)

Radio Liberty changes frequency
USA in Avari/Chechen/Chercassian
0300-0400 new freq 9480 LAM 100 kW / 092 deg, ex 5955//7290 LAM 100 kW / 108 deg
(DX Mix News # 633 via Alokesh Gupta, India)

Taiwan - I- Kuan Tao
Presumed station on 7460 kHz via Huwei in Chinese at 1100 to 1157 on July 10. Opened with Asian vocal and instrumental music. Woman announcer spoke briefly, then a man spoke until transmitter went off at 1157. Fair signal. This is a regular here at 1100 but usually fades out by 1120. (Wendel Craighead, Kansas)

Vietnam update
12019.419 at 1444, Voice of Vietnam. Tentative logging on this off-frequency channel, noted at very good level with ?Bahasa Indonesian. English is scheduled at 1500, so will confirm Vietnam. Confirmed, as 9840 kHz is in \\ (actually 9839.897 kHz), also at good level, but with some splatter from 9845 kHz (CNR). Sure enough in English when rechecked after 1500, but suffering from lots of splatter from both 12015 (Voice of Korea in Russian) and 12025 kHz (Radio Free Asia in Mandarin from Saipan at very strong level, with both short/long path
echo). The 9 MHz channel is stronger for English, but also suffers from some splatter.(Walt Salmaniw-BC-CAN, DXplorer July 7)