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Saturday, January 26, 2008

Blog Logs

On this cold and blustery Saturday, time to focus on what contributors Ron Howard, Hans Johnson, Joe Wood, John Wilkins, Dave Valko, Brian Alexander, and Chuck Bolland are hearing on shortwave radio. Thanks and best of DX you way!
Gayle VH

All times UTC // parallel frequencies

Angola
4950, Radio Nacional Angola. Luanda, 0113-0144, Jan 25. Pop songs, this is the best I have heard them here, as usually they are below threshold level. Thanks to Chuck Bolland for tip they were being heard so well! Heard again at 0248 with program of African high-life music and songs. Also heard from 0508-0531, Jan 26, clear ID "Rádio Nacional de Angola", several promos for music event on "Sábado", pop songs in English and Portuguese, African high-life music, mostly fair, but bothered by slight het. Live "Canal A" audio streaming not working at website: http://www.rna.ao/ (R. Howard, CA)

4950, Radio Nacional, 0050-0110. Steady local music until the hour when at that time, four ticks and a tone. On the hour, ID by male followed with news in Portuguese language. Another ID at 0106, "...Radio Nacional..." followed by promos. Signal was good. (C. Bolland, FL)

Argentina
15344.62v, RAE, 2227-2255*. Jan 24. Concert of ballads sung in Spanish, sounds of the audience clapping. Time tips at 2230, ID at 2254. Interval signal "RAE, Argentina" loop till off, fair (R. Howard,CA)

Bangladesh
7250 Bangladesh Betar (presumed) 1229 with loud buzz and weak signal. I thought I heard their interval signal played just once. There was then a man talking in English at 1230, it sounded like he mentioned 41 meters. Then a woman mentioned Bangladesh and talked, but she was just too weak to follow. I will have to try again. There was at least one other station on the channel, but it was as weak as presumed Bangladesh. (H. Johnson, FL via DX Tuner/Sweden)
Jan 26)


Bolivia
4699.34, Radio San Miguel, 1051-1100. Initially heard music which continued up to the hour. At 1059 a quick comment by a male and back to music. But at 1100 more live comments. Signal was poor. (C. Bolland, FL)

6134.80, Radio Santa Cruz, 1025-1035 At tune in, canned ID "Santa Cruz" and immediately into music. Conditions are very poor this morning with atmospheric (QRN) noise covering the weaker stations. At 1029 a male recites a poem over music. Signal is fair.(C. Bolland, FL)

Brazil
4905, Radio Nova Relogio. 0145-0200 At tune in, noted a female in Portuguese
comments prior to music. At 0155 canned ID as, "...Radio Relogio..." by a male. Signal was fair. (C. Bolland, FL)

China
6060, Sichuan PBS-2, Chengdu, 1050-1133, Jan 16. Chinese programming, Time pips at 1100, traditional Chinese music, // 7225, both fair. Noticed that at 1100 and 1130 the usual program IDs in English for "This is the Voice of Golden Bridge"(known as their "Life, Travel and City Service" program) were not given. Recently have not heard that ID at all. Possible change to their program schedule? For several years now I have found it hard to believe that this station is only the listed 15 kW. Admittedly I am less than an expert on such matters, but common sense tells me that such a distant station could not be heard by me with such a decent signal on a fairly regular basis, with only 15 kW (R. Howard, CA)

6115, Voice of Strait (presumed), 0946-1002, Jan 25. Program of indigenous singing , heard on // with 7280 till about 0958, when 7280 changes to a different program. Top-of-the-hour time pips, both about equal level, fair-poor. (R. Howard, CA)

4905, People's Broadcasting Station, Lhasa, Tibet, 1118-1130, I have a reference in my database that between 1100-1120, this station broadcasts in English. Although I tuned in when there was just a couple of minutes left for English, I couldn't tell if they were actually broadcasting in English due to the poor quality of the signal. Comments continued during the period in Tibetian probably? Music presented at 1125. Signal was poor. Checked a few parallels, (4920 and 5240) and found same type of ogram. (C. Bolland, FL)

4950, Voice of Pujiang, (tentative), 1127-1135. Tuned into music here followed by Chinese comments. Signal is very, very threshold and only fading in periodically. Pujiang isn't suppose to come on the air until 1200 UTC according to Eibi. (C. Bolland, FL)


Egypt
6290, Radio Cairo (presumed), 0257, Jan 25. Heard just before sign-off with reciting from the Qu'ran, very strong signal, which must be due to the unusual propagation conditions. (R. Howard, CA)


Guam
11690, KSDA, AWR-Voice of Hope, Agat, 1600-1615+, Jan 25. Tune-in to English noted as, "Adventist World Radio-Voice of Hope" IDs at 1600 and into Christian music. English religious talk. Weak but readable. Looking for Jordon but hear this instead. (Brian Alexander, PA)

Guatemala
4779.96 Radio Cultural Coatán 0130-0300* Jan 19. Ranchera-style religious vocals, M ancr speaking occasionally in Spanish and maybe Indian langs, as well; CST time checks; heard ID's both as Radio Coatán and Radio Cultural Coatán; church anmts from 0231-0242, then back to music. Closedown at 0300. Decent signal for 1 kW and this is probably my unID from the morning of January 17. (J Wilkins, CO)

Indonesia
1784.87v, Voice of Indonesia, 0839-0847, Jan 25. Easy-listening and ballads. Weak, clearly // 9526.0v (good). Do not recall them being regularly heard in parallel, isn't it normally one or the other? (R. Howard, CA)

9680, RRI Jakarta, 1000-1020, Jan 16. Kang Guru Radio English program #5807, talking about growing and the uses for cloves, interview with famous Indonesian motorbike racer who is only 17, several pop songs, their usual segment with song "That's What Friends Are For", fair, light QRM/WYFR. (R Howard, CA)

4869.94, RRI Wamena 1112-1130. Noted a male in the tailend of Indonesian comments. He is followed with bridge music and then a female in comments. At 1116 music is presented. Signal was fair. (C. Bolland, FL)

Malaysia
6049.68, Radio & Television Malaysia, 1013-1029. With a weak signal during the period, noted a male in comments, couldn't identify the language however; and noted music typical of the area. I thought I heard somekind of chanting around 1026, but could not be certain. At 1029, HCJB comes on the air blocking an already weak signal, which resulted in Malaysia's "wipeout".(C. Bolland, FL)

Mexico
4800, XERTA/Radio Transcontinental de America, 0317-0323, Jan 25. Assume preaching in Spanish, not the usual non-stop religious music, weak. Also 0539-0551, again with non-stop preaching, CODAR QRM. Also heard from 0939-1015, Jan 26, distinctive program of non-stop singing by children, in Spanish, clearly parallel to their live audio streaming http://www.xertaradio.com/transmision.htm (thanks to Mark Schiefelbein for noting this way for positively ID'ing them), still no ID heard, fair, decent strength, but some splatter from an unusually strong Brazil on 4805, CODAR QRM (R. Howard, CA)

9599.35v, Radio UNAM (presumed), Mexico City. 0535-0545, Jan 16. Conversation in Spanish, 0954 heard with classical music, weak. Frequency higher than usual (R. Howard, CA)

North Korea
6071.22, Voice of Korea, 1035-1049, Jan 16. Program in Japanese with Asian songs and music, best in USB, // 9650, both fair. This frequency is interesting in light of 6101.22 that I heard yesterday (R. Howard, CA)

Papua New Guinea
3290, Radio Central (tentative), 1007-1033, Jan 25. Indigenous music and singing, followed by series of conversations in vernacular, weak. Also heard 1059-1131 & 1155-1200*, news (seemed to be segment in vernacular and in English), 1105 DJ playing C&W songs (Islands In The Stream by Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton, etc.). Anthem before sign-off. Also from 1149-1159*, Jan 26, pop songs in English, Anthem at sign-off, CW QRM. Rare for me to hear them above threshold level. (R. Howard, CA)

3335, Radio East Sepik (tentative), 1201-1210, Jan 26. News in English (police report, etc.), weather (list of cities and they were all having "showers"), DJ playing pop songs, weak. (R. Howard, CA)

7325, Wantok Radio Light (tentative), 1030-1143, Jan 26. After the sign-off at 1030 of Radio France International, via Taiwan (their signal was much stronger than usual), heard signal at threshold level, could not make out the language of OM and YL's conversation, very slowly improving, so by 1058 could tell was religious programming in English (he seemed to have an accent) and segment of religious songs in English. (R. Howard, CA)

3345 Radio Northern 1117. Lively island and pop music. Including a remake of Abbas "I Have a Dream" Woman announcer program host after just about every song. 1256 end of Island song, then same woman announcer with station ID and closing announcement with frequency and morning sign-on time. Little top-of-the-hour tinkly melody at 1258. Still going at 1304. ( D. Valko, PA via HCDX 12 Jan.)

3290 Radio Central 1156 The Lady in Red by Chris DeBurgh. Woman announcer with very short closing announcement, including an ID, then instrumental national anthem from 1158-1159. Carrier still on at 1255 check. (D. Valko, PA via HCDX 12 Jan.)

3334.97 Radio East Sepik 1233. End of Rock-like song, then male announcer with talk 1234-1236, and possible live remote. 1238 back to music. Remote continued at 1239 with talk by child and male. 1245 studio male announcer after island song. 1247 Male announcer's phone caller, audio much stronger than announcers items. Reggae song at 1259. 1301-1302 studio announcer with possibly closing announcements and mentions of broadcast. 1302-1303, short instrumental national anthem, then NBC national news/ Program off at 1305:43*. Fair but a lot of CHU slop-over QRM. (D. Valko, PA via HCDX 12 Jan.)

Peru
4774.97, Radio Tarma, 1100-1115. Just tuning by and caught a live ID during comments as "Radio Tarma...". Then into Huaynos music. Usual CODAR interference on this frequency, but signal was still fair. (C. Bolland, FL)

Pirate
6925 Sunshine Radio. 2007-2021. 12 Jan 08. English. Soft rock and pop music presented by lady announcer. Signal S7/fair-good quality. (J Wood, TN)

6925 Grasscutter Radio. 1900-1932+. 12 Jan 08. Several IDs and music by artists Robin Trower, Rod Stewart, Billy Squire and others. First log of this station in quite a long time. Nice show! Fair-Good. (J. Wood, TN)

Saudi Arabia
15250 Radio Jeddah(Cumbre DX follow up) It was a switching error I heard yesterday. They still had English after 1200 today. 1144 with program in called Network Journal produced and presented by Rabia Hersey (as heard). Rabia and a male announcer (I have heard him on other programs, they both have American accents.) were talking about which Bluetooth device is best. At 1148 there was a new program, but I could not understand the title. It consisted of an interview with a man living in Saudi Arabia who had converted to Islam. This program ended at 1159. 5+1 time pips and then there was an ID for Radio Jeddah and news in English read by a woman. (H. Johnson, FL via DX Tuner/Sweden Jan 26)

Zanzibar
11735, Radio Tanzania-Zanzibar, 1757-1812, Jan 24. Non-stop African music and singing, yet again no Spice FM news today (R. Howard, CA)