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Thursday, April 02, 2009

Blog Logs

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

Australia
2485 VL8K Katherine NT 1240-1301+ Apr 1. Man chatting. Program note at 1245 for something on "105.7 FM in Darwin," a long interview followed, continuing past 1300 with the economy being the subject. very good signal, best in a long while. (John Wilkins, CO)

9500, Radio Australia, 2148-2200. Noted two males with English conversations continuing to 2157 when the signal dropped off the air, poor signal quality. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

Bhutan
6035, BBS (presumed), 1226-123. Live call in show with mostly young girls calling, listed as Dzongkha. Signal poor with light QRM from PBS Yunnan. From 1405 to 1421 heard in English, man and woman with news items, usual BBS music bridge between items, noting only able to make out a few words. On a day with better conditions I think it is a real possibility to maybe understand some of these news stories, but will also depend on how well PBS Yunnan is being heard. Forget about the 1300 to 1330 time period, as BBC in Indonesian dominates over both BBS and PBS Yunnan (Ron Howard, CA)

Bolivia
5952.45, Emisoras Pio XII, 0315-0330. Noted a male's Spanish comments, followed at 0318 by second male. Canned program announcement to At 0332 "Cornel Boogie's March" played for a few seconds. Station schedule and frequency announcement. End of transmission at 0334 UTC. Signal fair but muffled. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

China
5030, China National Radio One, 1100-1215. Noted this earlier when it was a very weak signal with various individuals in Chinese language comments and news. Looked for a parallel, but none were propagating in at that time. At 1200 China had faded in to a poor level from it's original threshold with another station on the same
frequency trying to be heard it seemed? Believe that that station may have been
Malaysia which only has a 10 KW power while China uses 100 KiloWatts. That is a tough battle to overcome by Malaysia. Anyway, it was an interesting frequency to listen to this morning. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

4750, PBS Qinghai, (presumed) 0014-0040. Noted a male with steady Chinese comments. Don't hear much on this frequency anymore. Every once in awhile, some music heard. Signal was poor but almost readable. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

6035, PBS Yunnan, 1226-1237. Traditional Chinese music heard under BBS/Bhutan. Noted parallel to the spur on 6043, but no audio heard on the open carrier spur on 6027. Signal weak but clearly there (Ron Howard, CA)

7185, CNR-1, 1349. Used as jamming against Taiwan, the echo was not apparent. Signal clearly // 5030 (Ron Howard, CA)

Clandestine
5985, 1420. Noted the absence of Shiokaze/Sea Breeze. Very nice to hear Myanmar in the clear again. Where is Shiokaze now? (Ron Howard, CA)

Equatorial Guinea
5005, Radio Nacional-Bata, 2255-2300.* Threshold-very weak signal but able to hear their national anthem at 2258-2300.* Some occasional QRM from two-way radio traffic at 2300. (Brian Alexander, PA)

15190, Rsdio Africa, 2104-2300.* Thanks to Brian Alexander’s tip. About the same time Brian was listening today, I could only make out an open carrier with no audio. Later at 2202 heard one preacher’s program suddenly end without ID and started into the Tony Alamo program # 405 (program originally aired in 2007), which was already in progress. Reading a letter from a prisoner: “Dear Tony Alamo”; a lot of rambling talk by Tony; , even back then he talked about being railroaded by the government and media. Religious music, signal mostly fair but weaker after 2230 (Ron Howard, CA)

Radio Africa, 15190, 2205-2258.* Tune-in to the Tony Alamo Show with religious talk. Gospel music at 2252. Closing ID announcements at 2255-2257 with IDs and email address. Good signal quality. (Brian Alexander, PA)

India
4970, All India Radio-Shillong, 1435-1450. Local programming in English including segment of non-stop Beatles songs. news at 1445, followed by “That was the news headlines from the North Eastern Service of A.I.R.broadcasting from Shillong.” Back to songs in English. (Ron Howard, CA)

5050, All India Radio-Aizawl, 1338-1503. This frequency regularly has Guangxi FBS mixing with the Voice of Strait, but with the absence today of the VOS, I could hear a weak AIR Aizaw underneath Guangxi FBS. easy-listing songs to 1430 news in English. AIR identification into assumed Hindi with subcontinent music. Signal mostly poor, but with some improvement until lost after 1500. A rare event for me to hear them (Ron Howard, CA)

Indonesia
3976.06 RRI Pontianak 1255-1311. Sub-continental music. Announcer with local ID at 1259, followed by a drama or play and animated dialogue. Good signal but ham interference noted. (John Wilkins, CO)

4789.97 RRI Fak Fak 1248-1302. Vocal music to lady announcer. Song-of-the coconut island internval signal, followed by Jakarta news relay. Good signal but CODAR QRM worse thanusual. (John Wilkins, CO)

9680, RRI Jakarta, 1301-1317, April 1.Seems Taiwan is only on-the-air from 1100-1300 (ex: 1100-1700). The CNR-1 jamming (heard with pronounced echo), which is used to block Taiwan, was heard at 1113 and 1255-1301*, after which RRI Jakarta was clear of any direct QRM, but had splatter from a strong 9675. Reception was only poor to fair. Still this is a vast improvement in RRI reception (Ron Howard,CA)

Malaysia
7295 Traxx FM 1335-1400. Presumed with vocal music. Lady announcer in English to 1245 a ten-minute talk. Back to music at 1355. Usual two-pips at 1400, then possible news. Fair signal but hard to understand in interference. (John Wilkins, CO)

Malaysia/Sarawak
7130, Sarawak FM via RTM, 1350-1400. CNR-2/CBR has indeed gone from this frequency, so Sarawak had fair reception with DJ in vernacular playing pop songs. Interference at 1400 from CNR-1 sign-on, used as jamming against Taiwan (Ron Howard, CA)

7270.02 Limbang FM via Kuching 1400-1422. "Limbang FM" ID a few seconds past 1400, then apparent news to 1408, followed by another Limbang ID and soft vocal music to 1420 tuneout. Unsure if they switched to Wai FM sometime during this period. Good signal, and has been good/very good for the past several days around this time. Either Nei Menggu is no longer on this freq or they are being totallly dominated by Kuching. (John Wilkins, CO)

Myanmar
5770, Myanmar Defense Forces BS via Taunggyi, 1431-1445. Vernacular with easy-listening pop songs and ballads. Signal almost fair. Seemed to be a very weak station under them. (Ron Howard, CA)

5915.0, Myanma Radio - Minorities and Educational Service, 1426-1444. Segment all in English with a language lesson about suffixes and telling if the word was a verb, noun, adjective or adverb to series of numbered questions, along with “The answer is …." Into vernaculars language at 1445, mixing with China Radio Internaitonal. Sign-off at 1512.(Ron Howard, CA)

5985.0, Myanma Radio, 1530-1545. English ID with frequencies. News (newly accredited ambassadors from Sudan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia today will present their credentials to members of the State Peace and Development Council, etc.). Weather update to music program. (Ron Howard, CA)

5985.0, Myanma Radio, 1450-1536. Vernacular with program of assume Burmese songs. English commencing at 1530, news (ceremonies held in Yangon attended by Minister of Information, several mentions of “Myanma Radio and Television”, etc.). Station ID to “this news comes to you from Yangon, Myanma Radio.” Weather (“the weather news issued at 7 PM.” Noted the absence of their usual slogans (patriotic pep talk) but instead went straight into their music program. Good reception initially, but by the 1530 was poor. An excellent day for Myanmar reception, with 5915.0 also being heard (Ron Howard, CA)

Portugal
15170, RDP International, 1700-1800. Heard program of Portuguese popular music and comments between the tunes. Noted a parallel program on 15560 KHz which was much better in signal quality, however 15170 wasn't bad with a good signal.(Chuck Bolland, FL)

Russia
Frequency changes for Radio Rossii. Checked 0700-0726 + 1241-1300* (ex: 1400*), 5920 via Petropavlovsk-Kamchatka (ex: 6075). Program begin with usual interference, but by sign-off was fair, with good audio. Assume their local “Radio Rossii Kamchatka” Mon.-Fri. programming will be changing to 0710-0800 (ex: 0810-0900),but I need to actually confirm this. Parallel with 5940 via Magadan (ex: 5935). Heard the usual 7320 via Magadan, also // 7200 via Yakutsk continued on past 1300 (Ron Howard, CA)

6160, GTRK Pomorye (tentative) 0410-0436. First time I have ever heard Russian here. Nno sign of Vancouver. At 0410 and 1430 sounded like IDs for “Radio Rossii Pomorye.” definitely not // with the other Radio Rossii network programming on 6075, 7200 and 7320. Their local and regional programming consisted of interviews and pop Russian song. Signal poor-fair. Unusual reception conditions! (Ron Howard,CA)

Syria
9330, Radio Damascus, 2110-2204.* Tune-in to English news, followed by local music. More news at 2125 about Israel’s government. Station IDs. National anthem at 2159. Strong carrier, weak hum and fair to good modulation, // 12085 - strong carrier, hum & no audio with only some occasional bits and pieces of weak audio at times. Both frequencies off the air at 2204 but noted 9330 back on the air at 2225. Check in Spanish but with weak modulation. (Brian Alexander, PA)

Zambia
5915, ZNBC, 0310-0350. DJ in African vernacular with nice program of Hi-Life music. Mentions “program Zambia,” mostlyf air and well above average reception for them (Ron Howard, CA)

Zanzibar
11735, Radio Tanzania-Zanzibar, 1800-1814. English “Spice FM” news at 1800-1811. Swahili talk at 1811. Signal wobbly and slightly distorted audio. Audio continues to get worse every week. (Brian Alexander, PA)