Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Blog Logs

With the new winter broadcast schedules being processed, and a host of column and other commitments for Monitoring Times magazine, I've had to limit my blog postings slightly, including any recent Blog Logs for several weeks. This morning Shortwave Central brings our readers an excellent variety of what DXers having been monitoring over recent weeks. Thanks to one and all for your contributions. In the coming days, I'll be posting more new schedules and my pirate radio special to help you prepare for this weekends Halloween pirate blow out on shortwave radio. Stay tuned !
Gayle Van Horn

All times UTC // parallel frequency

Angola
4950, Radio Nacional de Angola, Mulenvos. 0455-0507 African music, top of the hour Portuguese announcements by male, time pips, news program "Assembléia Nacional autorizada.." male ID "Radio Nacional de Angola". Deterioring signal, SINPO 25333 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Brazil/Cumbre DX)

4950, Radio Nacional de Angola, Mulenvos. 0344-0350. Portuguese Afropops barely audible above the noise floor. Poor signal quality. (Joe Wood, TN).

4949.84, Radio Nacional de Angola, Mulenvos, 0217-0232. Portuguese. Male announcer with pop style music and ballads. Tentative ID at 0230, weak but clear. (Scott Barbour-NH)

Australia
2325, VL8T Tennant Creek, 0944-0951. English. Woman announcer refering listeners to "..to check our website..". Folksy music into announcer taking listener phone calls. Signal poor-fair, //2485-Katherine. (ScottBarbour-NH)

Bangladesh
4750, Bangladesh Betar, 1219. Subcontinent music to frequent IDs as “Bangladesh Betar.”, 1230 must be news in Bengali, 1235 “Assalamu alaikum. "This is Bangladesh Betar” followed by the news in English (items about the UN, Pakistan, etc.). 1242 back to Bengali. Signal poor with moderate CNR1 interference, noted 1500 sign off. RRI Makassar continues to be absent here. (Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

4750, Bangladesh Betar, 1445-1500.* RRI still off, assume in Bengali. Subcontinent music at 1451. Signal poor, mixing with CNR1. (Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

4750, Bangladesh Betar(presumed) 1328-1350+. Subcontinental music to lady announcer in subcontinental-sounding language. Almost fair at 1328 but deteriorated to very poor by 1400. RRI Makassar still off. (John Wilkins-CO/Cumbre DX)

Bolivia
3309.98, Radio Mosoj Chaski Cochabamba, 0025-0034. Spanish. Lady announcer with call-ins and program music bits. Presumed station ID at 0028 with passing announcement and noted mentions of Cochabamba. Signal poor-fair. (Scott Barbour-NH)

4700.14, Radio San Miguel, 1000-1015. Weak signal, noted a program of music and canned promos. Lots of noise this morning covering the signal at times. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

5952.54, Emisoras Pio XII, 1000-1015. Female announcer with Spanish comments between the musical selections. At 1010 a male joins in. Signal was poor.(Chuck Bolland, FL)

5952.48, Radio Emisora Pio XII, 0954-1005. Male/female announcers discussing a topic in Spanish. At 0959 noted music being presented. After the hour, the splatter increases to considerably blocking Emisora Pio pretty well. Thus the signal ended up as a threshold quality. (Chuck Bolland,FL)

6134. 79, Radio Santa Cruz, 0955-1005. Female announcer with Spanish comments. At 0958 canned comments by a male. Followed by more canned promos. On the hour a program of traditional music is heard. Canned ID at 1001 - "... onda media .... kilohertz onda corta ..."That's all that made it. Then back to music. Signal was poor and fading. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

6155.33, Radio Fides, (tentative) 1030-1045. With a very weak signal here, noted a male and female in Spanish. Comments are barely audible under the noise. So based on the frequency, I think this may be Radio Fides? (Chuck Bolland, FL)

Brazil
5045, Radio Cultura do Para (Belem). 0440. Portuguese station ID by male announcer, followed by Latin American instrumental and vocal music. Poor. (Joe Wood, TN).

5939.90, Radio Voz Missionária, 0405-0420. Portuguese Christian music to Portuguese religious talk. Poor signal in noisy conditions. Stronger on // 9665.15. Threshold signal on // 11749.85. (Brian Alexander, PA)

5990, Radio Senado, Brasilia DF, *0851-0915. Station sign-on with Portuguese talk and lite instrumental music. Local pop ballads. ID announcements at 0901-0902 and local pop ballads.
Good. Strong. (Alexander-PA)

9587.67, Super Rádio Deus é Amor, 2335-2355. Portuguese religious talk, announcements and promos. Poor signal with adjacent channel splatter, // 11764.98, 6070 // 6060 - weak under
Argentina. // 9565 - weak under noise. (Alexander-PA)

11764.97 Super Rádio Deus é Amor, 2355-2405 Oct 16. Religious program winding down. Canned ID at 2359, giving freqs of 1210, 9585, 11765, and 6060. Additional Portuguese religious talk and music at top-of-the hour. SIgnal fair at best on this frequency, also heard on // 9587.72 with fair signal and splatter. Frequency 6060 with interference. (John Wilkins-CO/Cumbre DX)

15189.64, Radio Inconfidencia, 2141-2200. Local music. IDs at 2143 and 2200. Portuguese talk. Fair to good signal but fairly well covered by WYFR at their 2159 sign on. (Alexander-PA)



Canada
6159.98 CKZN Vancouver 1246-1302. News, features, wake-up fare on "The Early Edition" (CBC Radio One). Traffic at 1250, weather at 1251. PDT time checks (UTC-7) to mentions of 690 AM (heard here in parallel with a good signal) and 88.1 FM. No mention of shortwave. Good signal. (John Wilkins-CO/Cumbre DX)

Chad
6165.07v, RNT, *0428-0459. Sign on with Balafon interval signal. National anthem at 0430. French talk at 0431. Some Afro-pop music. Frequency slowly drifting downward. Was on 6165.07 at sign on. Drifting down to 6165.05 by 0430. Stabilized onto 6165.00 by 0435. Poor. Weak. Covered by Radio Nederland 0459 sign on. (Brian Alexander, PA)

China
5050 Beibu Bay Radio. 1300-1340.+ Time pips (5+1), then multi-language station identifications. English as, "this is Guangxi Beibu Bay Radio", then a mix of talk by man and woman in Vietnamese. Vocal music and additional multi-lingual station ID at 1330, followed by more of the same. Fairly good signal at 1300 but deteriorated after 1315. Parallel of 9820 which had interference. (John Wilkins-CO/Cumbre DX)

Clandestine
9779.9 Furusato no Kaze *1600-1630.* Run-up music to 1600, then lady announcer's opening announcement. Possibly choral religious music from 1602-1610, then talk in Japanese. Long closedown announcement at 1623 mentioning e-mail address info@rachi.go.jp and website http://www.rachi.go.jp/ . Good signal, presume via Taiwan. (John Wilkins-CO/Cumbre DX)

Colombia
6010.12, LV de tu Conciencia, 0420-0430. Spanish talk to local music. Short English ID announcement at 0426 with call letters and ID as “the Voice of Your Conscience“. Fair.(Brian Alexander, PA)

Marfil Estereo (Puerto Lleras). 0510. Spanish. Station identification and Latin American pop music hosted from male announcer. Signal poor. (Joe Wood, TN)

6010.09, LV de tu Conciencia, 0415-0430. Program of local music. Spanish announcements. Short English ID announcement at 0425 and Spanish talk. Fair signal. (Brian Alexander, PA)

Costa Rica
5954.18, ELCOR - Radio Republica, 0315-0354.* Spanish talk to local music and station ID. Poor signal and mixing with jammer. (Brian Alexander, PA)

5954.19, Radio Casino, (tentative) 2355-0015. Male host and possibly a female's Spanish comments. Believe there's music also on the frequency, but everything is mixed up with interference, so can't be sure. After the hour things clear up slightly and the signal improves in gain, but very muffled. Just down the band at 5952.91 can see a trace of Emisoras Pio XII fading in. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

Dominican Republic
6025.07, Radio Amanecer, 0055-0130. Mostly continuous Christian music. Some Spanish announcements. Weak. Poor with adjacent channel splatter. (Brian Alexander, PA)

6025.03, Radio Amanecer, 0337-0444. Unusual for them to be on this late. Will they be on all night? In Spanish with a series of monologues. Religious music to full IDs “Radio Amanecer Internacional.” Signal poor to almost fair. (Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

Djibouti
4780, Radio Djibouti, *0300-0340. Sign on with national anthem. Opening Arabic announcements at 0301 and local tribal music. Qur`an at 0302. Arabic talk at 0314. Local music at 0336. Fair signal. (Brian Alexander, PA)

Ecuador
4919, Radio Quito (Quito), 0326-0340. Spanish. Talk by two men (one in studio, one remote). Talk by man at 0328. Two IDs at 0332 followed by music. Surprisingly good signal with CODAR interference. Last log of Radio Quito was in 2006. (Jim Evans, TN)

Equatorial Guinea
6250, Radio Nacional, Malabo. 0635-0646. Male and female in Spanish talks, news program, "buenos dias", outside talks by male "vamos ser patriotas..elecciónes presidenciales..transparencia ..la democrácia", African music. 33333. (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Brazil)

Ethiopia
7210, Radio Fana, *0257-0340.+ Sign on with interval signal. Vernacular talk at 0301. Horn of Africa music. Covered by BBC at *0300-0329*. Fair signal after BBC 0329 sign off but occasional amateur radio interference. Also heard // 6110 - very weak under Cuba.(Alexander-PA)

Guatemala
4055.21, Radio Verdad, 2320-2335. Noted two males in Spanish conversation until 2325.
At that time a third male talks possibly religious topic? This is followed by music which sounds religious. ".... Radio Verdad ... punto .... metros onda corta ... Radio Verdad ... numero cinco, Guatemala ..." Music continues as signal improves from a very poor to fair. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

4055, Radio Verdad, 0401-0410.* Spanish. Religious vocal music with occasional short periods of talk by man. Off at 0410 after anthem. Poor signal, fading up to moderate a couple of times. USB with a rather weak carrier that hung around for a few minutes after 0410, then signal disappeared.(Jim Evans, TN)

Guinea
4899.96, Familia FM, 2325-0003.* French talk. Wide variety of Afro-pop, rustic local music and Euro-pop music. Weak. Poor in noisy conditions and CODAR interference.(Brian Alexander,
PA)

Honduras
3249v Radio Luz y Vida (San Luis). 0235-0247. Spanish for lady announcer to preaching and inspirational music. Heavy interference, as poor signal.(Joe Wood, TN)

3250.05 R. Luz y Vida 1131-1140. Mention of programs "Luis Palao Responde" and "Perfeccionando a la Santidad." Lady announcer, then religious talk in Spanish. Fair but losing steam. (John Wilkins-CO/Cumbre DX)

Indonesia
3325 RRI Palangkaraya 1332-1400.+ Mix of middle-of-the-road vocal music and one long indigenous song and chant. Lady announcer took one phone call to organ interval signal at 1358. Talk at 1400. Very good signal at tune-in but weak at 1400. Also signal was very good the next day around 1315 UTC. With Serui, Manokwari, and Makassar still off, Palangkaraya is now the best low-band Indo at this location. (John Wilkins-CO/Cumbre DX)

4750, RRI Makassar,(presumed) 0935-0945. Signal noted here as lady announcer has comments. Can't actually hear it well enough to identify the language, but it's definitely a female talking. At 0941 some promo type music as bridge then more comments. Signal remains at a threshold level throughout the period. Possibly a later check will reveal a better signal? That's called "wishful thinking", because a recheck at 1023 showed that conditions had gotten worse instead of better. (Chuck Bolland,FL)

9680, RRI Jakarta, 1117-1130. Tuned into a program of steady Indonesian popular music. At 1124 a male in Indonesian comments talks briefly. Signal was fair with usual splatter. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

India
4920, AIR, Chennai, 0045-0055. Noted steady local music at tune in with Hindi singing by a male. Signal was fair. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

4965, AIR Shimla, in English (British/Scottish accent) and Hindi with scores from various events and live coverage of some games (“India leading 9 to 0”, etc). At about 1422 interrupted coverage to go to news in Hindi. Back to sports at 1433; coverage was // AIR Jaipur, AIR Thiruvananthapuram and AIR Jeypore. Very nice to hear this station that I do not often hear at a decent level. (Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

5010, AIR, Thiruvananthap, 0053-0100. Local music for a few moments that a male and female comments in Hindi. At 0056 a male talks probably presenting news. Signal was good. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

9425, AIR Bengaluru - National Channel, 1442-1456. Vividha program in English. “Earth Beat” (jointly produced by AIR and RNW). Item about re-introducing cheetahs into India at the Kuno Palpur and Nauradehi wildlife sanctuaries. Fair signal. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

Iran
3985, Voice of the Islamic Republic, 0025-0035. Femala announcer talking at tune-in, followed by male host in Arabic. Signal had various strenghts from poor to fair during the period. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

Japan
6135 Shiokaze *1400-1405. Noted with usual Friday English. Also noted on Saturday with Korean and Sunday with Japanese. Very good signal each day. (John Wilkins-CO/Cumbre DX)

6055, Radio Nikkei Tokyo-Nagara, 1047-1100. Japanese. Classical music program to announcer at top-of-the-hour. Station ID, tone and "zinger" of sort into male/female announcers at 1101. Fair signal, parallel on 9595-good until blown out by RHC-9600 at *1100. (Scott Barbour-NH)

Kuwait
15540, Radio Kuwait, 1845-1910. Prior to the hour noted steady music which was mainly popular tunes. On the hour full ID as Radio Kuwait followed by a segment of English comments. Signal was good. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

Libya
21695, Voice of Africa, 1513-1531. Surprisingly strong signal booming in but with some distortion. English news about African Union. Station ID to afro-pop music. English news at 1531. Noted on // 17725 - also very strong and slightly distorted. (Brian Alexander-PA)

Madagascar
5010.01, Radio Madagasikara, *0212-0310. Reduced carrier USB. Sign on with local music. Malagasy talk. 25 second interval signal at 0231 followed by choral national anthem. Local guitar music. Malagasy talk. Local music. Poor to fair. (Alexander-PA)

5010.01, Radio Madagasikara, *0216-0235. Reduced carrier USB. Abrupt sign on with Malagasy talk. Local music. Thirty second interval signal at 0227 followed by choral national anthem. Local guitar music. Barnyard animal sounds at 0231 and local music. Weak at sign
on but improved to a fair level by 0230. (Brian Alexander, PA)

Myanmar
5985.84 R. Myamna 1329-1355. Usual interval signal on Burmese instruments. Usual chimes at 1330, followed by usual news. Transmitter cut out for about 20 minutes but came back on at 1354. Fair signal at tune-in but weaker by 1354. (John Wilkins-CO/Cumbre DX)

Nigeria
7350, Radio Nigeria, Abuja, *0545-0613. Sign on with test tone. Rustic tribal music at 0546. National anthem at 0548, followed by National Pledge. Religious music at 0550. English talk. ID and English news at 0600. Poor. Weak in noisy conditions. (Brian Alexander, PA)

7350, Radio Nigeria, Abuja. 0648-0704. Male/female in English with talks of "economic competition..production lines..the option to develop..production team", "Radio Nigeria..Abuja..National Service." SINPO 44333. Next day at 0640-0650 male and female noting "education in the country", "Radio Nigeria", canned male and female talks. SINPO 35333 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Brazil)

7350 *0541-0603, Radio Nigeria (Abuja). Carrier with tone at 0541. Tribal music at
0544 followed by national anthem. Low audio talk by man at 0546. R&B type music at 0548
followed by more low audio talk by woman at 0555. Fanfare and possible prayer or religious
talk at 0556. Drums at 0559, fanfare, and ID by woman at 0600. News of Nigeria and Africa
followed with both in-studio and remote reporters. Fair to good signal, improving over time,with better audio starting at 0600. (Jim Evans, TN)

7350, Radio Nigeria, Abuja, *0539-0615. Sign on with test tone and local tribal music. Opening English ID announcements at 0540. Choral music at 0541. Religious talk. ID and English news at 0600. Weak. Poor in noisy conditions. (Brian Alexander-PA)

Peru
3329.52, Radio Ondas del Huallaga, 1025-1035, Of course this is just on the edge of CHU which is much stronger, making copying very tenuous. Consequently, "ondas" is only audible at irregular times depending on where CHU is in its time routine. Noted music and comments from ODH between CHU's announcements. ODH was threshold. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

47476.81, Radio Huanta Dos Mil, 1005-1015. Noted different persons in Spanish language comments which sounded like canned promos. This continued during the period. Signal was poor, but sometimes fading to a fair level. Singing and comments heard at 1012. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

4774.99, Radio Tarma,(presumed) 1015-1025. Steady music heard at tune in. Music
continues during the period as the signal diminishes to threshold. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

5039.40, Radio Libertad, 1010-1030. Of course Cuba is on 5040, but being able to notch
Cuba out, Radio Libertad is audible at a threshold level. Noted a male in Spanish language
comments. The jest of the talk from Radio Libertad sounds political. But since the signal is threshold, it's just a guess at this point. (Chuck Bolland, FL) so whats the point, Chuck ?

6019.282v, Radio Victoria, 1001-1015. Prior to 1003 could only hear the carrier, but at 1003 the signal pop in, like someone had opened the window and a bird flew in so to speak. Noted a male in Spanish language comments. Even though Victoria was better, it was still being hit by the station on 6020 KHz which I had already notched out. As it turned out, the programming from Victoria was religious, but the preacher sounded different than the usual fellow. Took a quick look out the window (regular window), and I was definitely in the gray zone as it was just starting to get light outside. At 1110 Victoria's signal dropped into the noise slightly. Over all it was fair and then gone. (Chuck Bolland, FL)

6019.368, Radio Victoria, 1015-1025, With the usual need to notch out the stronger signal
on 6020, noted a male in Spanish comments. Victoria not yet strong enough to hear details
however, and signal tuned to frequency where best heard, down to one Hertz. (Chuck Bolland,FL)

Suriname
4990, Radio Apintie, Paramaribo. 0445-0454 Male in Dutch with talks to pop music, and English romantic tunes. Poor signal, SINPO 25222 (Lúcio Otávio Bobrowiec, Brazil)

Swaziland
3200, TWR Manzini, 0253-0258. English/vernacular. Interval signal to ID loop in English. Sign-on at 0256 with announcer and choral music. Signal fair. (Scott Barbour-NH)

Tibet
6200, Xizang PBS via Lhasa, 1530-1600. Holy Tibet show in English. Items about Tibet (during the National Day Holiday about 250,000 tourists came to Lhasa. Tourism of Tibet (60th anniversary of the liberation of Chamdo in eastern Tibet Autonomous Region of southwest China). Info about Chamdo almost verbatim. No musical selections today, with their recent reactivation, now heard again with routine reception.(Chuck Bolland, FL)

Tunisia
7275, RTV Tunisienne (Sfax). 0523-0545. Female in Arabic with announcement to middle-eastern music. After 0528 male announcer's talk during poor signal quality. (Joe Wood, TN).