Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Shortwave Blog Bytes

All times UTC

AIR-Itanagar back on the air again
India: 4990, AIR Itanagar, 1338, Nov 3. Back on the air again after being off for a while. Reception better than last heard. Non-stop indigenous chanting and singing; 1400 switched to subcontinent music, Usual news at 1415in Hindi followed by the news in English and “Now the weather forecast”, along with temperatures. Carrier and 1430* (sign-off). Carrier stayed on to 1435 tuned away, so was a very early sign off, unless the audio came back on again. After 1430 assume I was hearing a very faint PBS Hunan.(Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

American Forces Network monitoring
Guam: 5765 USB, AFN, 1207, Nov 3. Mainstream Country, produced by Dial Global, with Rick Morgan’s show Morgan in the Morning. C&W songs, as opposed to the usual AFN shortwave programming of mostly news, talk and feature bits. Not on parallel 4319 USB (AFN Diego Garcia), except when they both were parallel from 1300 to 1306 (news), then back to C&W songs. Some military public-service announcement (not parallel either).

So what is happening here? This was their first day back after being off the air for maybe a week. In the past was always parallel to AFN Diego Garcia, with the usual format of news, talk and feature bits.

It will be remembered that AFN Pearl Harbor suddenly changed their format away from the usual AFN format, over to a music format, back in 2009. Shortly thereafter they went off the air, not to be heard again. AFN website shows Pearl Harbor as “Out of service for an indefinite period”. We can only hope that history does not repeat itself with Guam!(Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)

and today's follow-up monitoring
Guam: 5765 USB, AFN, 1640, Nov 10. Their mostly music format is no longer an anomaly, but now is firmly established; Z Rock show with alternative rock played by Brian Curry. Earlier (after 1200 to past 1400) heard with “Mainstream Country” with the Morgan in the Morning show of C&W songs. AFN Diego Garcia continues to broadcast the usual AFN SW programming of mostly news/talk and feature bits. Top of the hour news is the only time I have found them briefly in parallel. (Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre)

BBC World Service adds unregistered freq for B10
Unregistered frequency of BBC WS in English to Europe and Middle East:
1500-1700 new freq 11830 RMP 500 kW 095 deg,x 11945 to avoid Radio Free Asia Chinese+jammer.
(R BULGARIA DX MIX News, Ivo Ivanov, via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Nov 9/DX Mix News 650)

B10 HFCC data files now available for download
The public version of the operational schedules of HFCC members for the winter period B10, as of 2 November 2010, is now available for download from the HFCC website at http://www.hfcc.org/data/index.phtml . From now onwards, the data will be updated during the season. The filenames and URLs of the files will be different due to this change.

Tip: When viewing the main data file, use a monospaced font such as Courier so that the columns will align correctly.
(R Netherlands Media Network Blog)

Radio Netherlands adjust Dutch frequency
Bonaire relay frequency change of Radio Netherlands Worldwide in Dutch
0100-0127 new freq 6195*BON 250 kW 341 deg to Northeast Americam ex 6190
* co-ch BBC in Pashto
(R BULGARIA DX MIX News, Ivo Ivanov, via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Nov 9/DX Mix News 650)

Radio Romania English frequency change
0100-0156 new freq 7325*GAL 300 kW 310 deg NoEaAM,ex7330 // 6145 GAL 300/310
* co-ch VOA in English
(R BULGARIA DX MIX News, Ivo Ivanov, via wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Nov 9/DX Mix News 650)

Tibet on 6200 kHz
Xizang PBS via Lhasa, 1530-1600, Oct 27. Holy Tibet show in English to news about Tibet. Tibetan song to program Tourism of Tibet with very vivid description of Ranwu Lake; “Many of the peaks surrounding the lake are over 5,000 meters high and thus permanently locked with glaciers. The foot of these peaks, however, is green with pines and cypresses. The lake is especially womanish and tranquil in the arms of the peaks, whose beauty goes beyond words. The browsing herds of cattle and sheep, the barley paddy, bean and cabbage field form an oil painting that can be seen no elsewhere.” This tourism segment almost verbatim from http://www.tibettravel.info/nyingchi/ranwu-lake/. Above average reception and almost 100% readable. Very enjoyable!(Ron Howard, CA/Cumbre DX)