Sunday, March 02, 2008

Tropical bands alive and well on shortwave


Tropical bands very much alive in Colombo! Walt's post stimulated me to list what we usually hear in Sri Lanka. Not a bad collection I guess. Add the occasional Brazilian and a few channels from Africa and you have the picture here in Colombo. Will update this list. in a day or two with a real comprehensive list which will add a few more Chinese, Afrticans and some of those Vietnamese straying in the 4700-4750 kHz area. Also give you a 90 meter band list which will make you guys feel sad for me if my 60 meter band makes you envious!

4635 Tajik Radio, Dushanbe fair to good
4750 China Chinese at 16:45 on Sat. Chinese programming
4750 Bangladesh 1230 + 1600
4760 Sat only. May have been Trans World Radio via Swaziland at fair level.
4775 Sat only at fair level with weak music. ?India-AIR Imphal.
4780 Djibouti very regular fair level 1530+
4790 Indonesia-RRI Fak Fak 1200 1500 best Indo. I am sure this must be a new txer
in the last 2 years or so.
4800 Music at good to very good level. Chinese. China always strong
4800 India-AIR (All India Radio)Hyderabad very strong sometimes mixing with Chn.
4810 India-AIR Bhopal
4810 Armenia. around 1900 usually fair to weak.
4820 Chinese talk at good level and s/off at 18:00. Lhasa, Tibet.
4828 Zimbabwe fair with music. regular. 1800 past 2000
4835 India-AIR Gangtopk 1530 +
4840 fair talk India-AIR Mumbai
4860 Koran at 16:52 India-AIR Delhi with Northern Service. Fair.
4880 India-AIR Lucknow with Northern service.
4880 Zimbabwe Service 1800 + jammed car horns etc.
4895 fair reception on Saturday. Probably AIR Kurseong, 1300+
4900 fair to good with Firedrake style music. Voice of the Strait, Fuzhou listed.
4904.8 Chad 1800-2000 free of China
4905 Very good reception with easy-listening music. Again, Lhasa, Tibet.
4910 India AIR Jaipur.
4920 Very good reception of easy-listening music. Again, Lhasa, Tibet.\\4905
4925 Indonesia RRI Jambi 2300 sometimes also 1300 4930 VOA, Botswana. very good sometimes 444 1800+
4940 India-AIR Guwahati, in Assam. Heard on Saturday.
4940 Voice of America-Sao Tome relay 1900
4950 lively Portuguese talk at 17:20 at fair to good levels. This is Angola. Either has weak modulation, or was cochannel with a stronger OC station. Not sure. Very rarely heard on the west coast for sure!
4950 India- Sri Nagar regular both AM PM
4965 Voice of Russia 1400+
4965 Zambia Christian Voice
4970 India-AIR Shillong 1230
4975 poor reception. Again,perhaps Tajikistan. Voice of Russia relays
4980 fair talk at 16:57 on Saturday. Xinjiang PBS.
4990 poor to fair again on Saturday. Either India-AIR Itanagar,
5000 WWVH and co channel Chinese time signal station. very regular 1500,
1800
5005 Nepal 2345, 1400+ a little irregular these days.
5010 Madagascar after AIR sign-off around 1740 \\ 3287
5010 India-AIR Trivandrum/Thriru......
5015 India AIR Delhi 1230 past 1700
5025 Cuba Radio Rebelde 000 fairly regular.
5030 Usual power house Chinese station at very good level
5030 Malaysia 1200-1500
5040 India-AIR Jeypore
5040 Myanmar
5050 India-AIR Aizawl 0025..evening bad CNR cochannel.
5060 poor reception of presumed Xinjiang PBS.
(Victor Goonetilleke-CLN 4S7VK, DXplorer Feb 19)
(Source: Victor Goonetilleke, CLN 4S7CK, DXplorer Feb 19; WWDXC Top News/BC-DX #849 via wb, Germany)