Saturday, January 02, 2010

Blog Logs

the first edition of Blog Logs for 2010

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

Belarus
6155, Radio Belarus,(presumed) 2340-2359. Noted a group of individuals - male and female - in Russian language conversation. Tried to find parallel's but wasn't able to. The signal on 7360 was in Portuguese and was religious. (Chuck, Bolland, FL)

Bolivia
5952.43, Emisoras Pio XII, 0005-0015. Very weak signal which hasn't faded in yet, Spanish language comments. Usually it's been my experience that this station fades in after 0100 UTC usually. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

Bulgaria
7400, Radio Bulgaria (Plovdiv). 0330-0343. English schedules to station ID with Happy New Year wishes to listeners. SW Listeners program with propagation forecasts and general shortwave news. Call for reception reports and ID at 0340. Into program about Bulgarian New Year’s customs. Fair. (Wood, TN).

Canada
9625, CBC (Sackville). 0426-0500. English. Very nice program entitled “Vinyl Tap” with host Randy Bachman of The Guess Who and BTO fame. Mx from the 1960-1970’s. Artist featured included: Tommy James, Ring Star, Paul McCartney, Janis Ian, Chicago, Yes, and many others. All of the music had a numbers theme. Many comments by Mr. Bachman about the music and his musical career. Very good signal (Wood, TN).

Clandestine
6045, Voice of the Tigers, (tentative) 0028-0100. Noted two males and sometimes a female in comments. The language listed is Tamil. At 0037 music presented which sounded very much like it had originated from South East Asia or India. Believe the area that this broadcast is concerned with is north of Trincomalee in Sri Lanka, or maybe I got my countries mixed up?
Checking out an Atlas, I see the Tamil region listed on the southern tip of India at about 11 South and 78 East. Two men back at 0043 in conversation. Signal was poor to fair, but with all of the splatter and noise, it was difficult to glean anything significant. I don't know if the name of the station is correct (Voice of Tigers)? I seem to recall that the Tigers military was exterminated earlier in 2009? It's getting bad! Please go easy with the criticism if any of the above is wrong. Thanks. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

no problem Chuck, this blog will never criticise or humilitate our readers, ever ! thank you for your observations - GVH

Costa Rica
2859.82, Radio San Carlos, 1110-1140+. Second harmonic signal two x 1430v. Spanish talk and Spanish ballads. Promos. Announcements. Fair signal in peaks. (Brian Alexander, PA)

Ethiopia
7165.20v. Heard the usual trio of Ethiopia/ Eritrea stations on 41meter band (7110.0 and 7175.0) at 1642, Dec 30, but this one clearly off frequency. Last heard on 7164.44v on the 28th (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA/Cummbre DX)

Germany
7375, Voice of Croatia (Wertachtal). 0310-0330. Engliah/Spanish. Station ID, schedules and websites in English followed by music. Into Spanish service at 0330. Very good signal. (Wood, TN).

Guinea
7125, Radio GuineƩ, 2335-0049*. Station on late for New Year celebration with French talk. Short breaks of Afro-pop music. Abrupt sign off. Fair. (Brian Alexander, PA)

India
4820.78v, AIR Kolkata, 1522-1531,. Another day off frequency! Not parallel to Delhi programming. Signal poor-fair, Also here at 1634 with fair reception. Kolkata is now randomly off frequency from their normal 4820.0.

4850, on several days have heard an open carrier here. Dec 30 from about 1310 till last check at 1530. Seems about the correct strength to be from AIR Kohima, but why no audio?

4970, AIR Shillong, 1609-1630.* Non-stop songs by the Carpenters. English sign off announcement with local ID as, "North Eastern Service of All India Radio broadcasting from Shillong" "The time now on the studio clock is a few seconds past 10 PM and with it we come to the end of the evening transmission. We will be back with you at 6."; Suddenly off the air. Signal fair-did not notice their usual strong hum today (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA/Cumbre DX)

Madagascar
5010 (LSB + carrier mode), RTVM, 1537- 1602. That's correct- in LSB! French and vernacular with long series of ads. Christmas song for fair to poor with interference from All India Radio. Was rather surprised to be unable to hear them in their normal USB mode, which I just heard on the 26th (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA/Cumbre DX)

Mauritania
4845 Radio Mauritanie (Nouakchott). 0603. Arabic. First log of this station since Feb. 2009. It is comforting to know that their programming has remained constant. Male announcer's prayers. Fair. (Wood, TN).

Mexico
6185, Radio Educacion (Mexico City). 0610-0635. Spanish. Tentative reception. Continuous string of music including martial, folk and polka type songs. Several of the tunes mentioned Mexico. The signal was almost completely covered by a Brazilian station at 0626. A very good reception up to that point. (Wood, TN).

Peru
4835.40, Radio Maranon, 1119-1130. Noted a male and female discussing current news in Spanish language. At one point a second male in the field comment. Signal was weak and almost gone for the morning. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

4746.84, Radio Huanta Dos Mil, 1124-1130. Noted a male in Spanish language comments during the period. Signal was at a threshold level. At 1126 music was presented. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

6019.26, Radio Victoria, 2333-2345. Noted a male in Spanish language comments until 2337 when music heard. Male back in comments by 2340. There's just too much splatter and noise on this band at the present time. Victoria was threshold. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

Rwanda
6055, Radio Rwanda, 2235-2257.+On late for New Year celebration with French/vernacular talk. Phone talk. Mentions of Rwanda. Occasional Afro-pop music, some bits of English with mentions of “Happy New Year”. Good signal but completely covered by Spain’s interval signal at their 2257 sign on. (Brian Alexander, PA)

Ukraine
7440 Radio Ukraine Intl. (Lviv). 0344-0401. English. Station interval signal to station identification. Happy New Year greeting and into news of Ukrainian elections. Fair signal quality. (Wood, TN).

USA
7505 USA, WRNO. 0403-0419. Inspirational music with a very strong signal hampered by very deep fades. Continuous mx with a canned ID as “This is W-R-N-O” at 0412. Can anybody tell me where they are broadcasting? The reception ranged from very good - poor. (Wood, TN).