The National Institute of Amateur Radio (NIAR) in Hyderabad, India where I work often deputes me for various assignments all over the country like Demonstrations, Radio Meetings, Training Programs, Emergency Communications, Dxpeditions, etc. As we always carry general coverage transceivers with us, it is always interesting to check the different bands from far away locations.
My latest assignment was to provide Amateur Radio communications for the trekking teams of the Officer Trainees of Lal Bahadur Shastry National Academy of Administration, Govt. of India, Mussoorie, Uttanchal State, North India which trains the future administrators of the country. As they don't have much communication during the trekking in the remote areas, this time they sought our assistance. Besides me, my colleague Mr. Sushil, VU2LFA and half a dozen other Radio Amateurs from the Academy were deputed for this. Special mobile permission was issued to us by the Ministry of Communications to use our radios in the trekking routes. We arrived in Mussorie on 21st September 2006 with lots of radio equipment. On the way in Delhi I accepted the hospitality of the active Dxer from the Indian capital, Mr. Alokesh Gupta and stayed with him.
The Academy is located at Mussoorie, a popular hill station about 200 kilometers north of Delhi the capital of India. It overlooks the sprawling Doon valley and the city of Dehradun, the gateway to the entire Garhwal region of the Himalayas. Spread over a ridge, 2000 meters above sea level, Mussoorie offers distant views of the holy and mighty river Ganga from one end of the ridge, and of the famous river Yamuna from the other; a stretch of around 19 kilometers.
The trekking was scheduled in such a way that 17 teams each consisting of about 20 members crossed the Garwal region of the mighty Himalayas for 10 days using different routes. On the 22nd morning the Academy campus looked like a bus station with 17 buses carrying the various teams were flagged off to their respective destinations.
I traveled in the bus accompanying the team which started their trekking from Naitwar in Uttarkashi District about 150 kms away from Mussoorie. We had to travel mostly through small ghat roads, thick forest and deep valleys which was an interesting experience for me. But it was also frightening when I observed the deep gorges next to our road.
In the late evening we reached the Naitwar Forest Rest House (termed as our Base Camp) located at 1380 Meters above MSL inside the Govind Wildlife Sanctuary & National Park which spreads over an area of 958 sq. Kms with an altitude up to 6323 Meters. Immediately after reaching there, I installed an Inverted Vee HF antenna & a VHF Ground Plane antenna and set up our Amateur station and contacted our office in Hyderabad and other stations. The rig was a brand new Icom IC 7000. As there was no electricity in the Base Camp we used the car batteries that we had carried and used to recharge it in a nearby house. The noise level was very low when there was no electric power in the area.
The trek members left early next morning and I had the company of an Assistant sent from the academy for the next 10 days. There were two "suites" in that Forest Rest House and we were the only occupants during the period.
Naitwar is a remote village in the forest in Uttarkashi District and is a starting/ending point for trekking in the area. Here there are two tributaries of the River Yamuna . Good water was available in plenty. We could see small streams in a lot of places. Last year there were severe land slides in the area causing lot of damages.
The houses were made mostly of wood. Local people spoke Hindi, Gadwali, Bengani, Nepali, Himachali and Tibetan. Some English is understood by guides and others. The conveyance was limited and often we could see people traveling on top of jeeps. Mules were used for transportation of material. Electricity is unreliable and lot of solar panels was seen along with DTH satellite dish antennas for TV reception. The nearest working telephone was about 12 kms away. Cell phone was also not working there. There were some VHF communication systems of the forest department in the area. During our stay the nights were very cool and days warm. It used to snow there in winter. We felt comfortable in our sleeping bags at night. For food we had to 'trek' about one km through the forest to reach the Bazar. Although there were some leopards, bears etc. in the area, luckily there were no untoward incidents.
Meanwhile Mr. Sushil set up the Amateur station in the remote Dharwadar Range which included trekking for about 13 kms. The radio equipment, batteries and other items were carried on mules. During daytime he had to operate from a suitcase in open air and stayed in a stone hut at night in a cold climate at an altitude of 4091 Meters above MSL. The snow clad mountains were visible clearly from his location. Not many people were living in that area. So they had taken cooks and provisions were transported by mules to make food arrangements for our trekking teams passing by.
The Amateur Radio contacts with trek teams were scheduled 4 times per day and progress of the trekking etc. were conveyed to the station in the Academy at Mussoorie, sometimes relayed by our NIAR Hyderabad station. At other times I used to check the broadcast bands keenly, especially the lower HF bands, MW & FM. In my rucksack, I had also brought the 2006 editions of World Radio TV Handbook, Passport to World Band Radio, latest schedules of AIR etc. to support my BC Dxing.
Last year also around this time I was in the nearby Holy Town of Haridwar on the banks of the River Ganges where we had come for Amateur Radio communication for the National Jamboree of Scouts & Guides and did some similar BC Dxing. We returned to Mussoorie on 1st October 2006 along with a team which ended their trekking at our place. I have been stationed at the Academy for some more time to give Amateur Radio training for the new Officer Trainees.
Here are some observations of interest observed this time.
INDIA:
(Note : Timing of Indian stations are mostly in IST unless mentioned in UTC. All others in UTC)
It was observed that the low power 1 kW AIR MW stations in the area started their broadcasts only in the evenings. Several of them were heard starting their programs with Vanthe Matharam sign on routine as follows;
5.00 pm 1602 kHz AIR Pauri
5.15 pm 1602 kHz AIR Pithorgarh (Relay of Almora)
5.30 pm 1584 khz AIR Kalpa?
5.39 pm 1602 kHz AIR Uttarkashi
5.40 pm 1485 kHz AIR Gopeshwar?
At 4.55 pm 1602 kHz an unidentified AIR station was heard with Vanthe Matharam sign on.
Being very close to Jammu & Kashmir State, the stations from there were monitored clearly.
684 kHz Radio Kashmir, Srinagar Yuv Vani program noted in evenings/night. No id of the new station AIR Kargil observed.
1089 kHz AIR Naushera noted with relay of Radio Kashmir Jammu only in the mornings. They used to start abruptly in the middle of the programs at various times and rarely started the relay on time at 5.55 am.
1350 kHz AIR Kupwara, Kashmir noted sign off at 10 pm, co-channel interference from AIR Jalandhar B (Vividh Bharathi)
Radio Kashmir Srinagar was heard on 1116 4950 & 6110. In the late evenings severe co-channel interference was noted from a Chinese station.
They were also noted with the special programs for Ramadan from 4.15 to 5.15 am on 1116 & 4950.
Radio Kashmir Leh was noted very well on 1053, 4760 & 6000 (full sked with changes observed given else where)
Radio Kashmir, Jammu was noted back on SW (4830 5965) on 29 Sept 2006 after being off air for some time. Their MW frequency of 990 kHz was also very clear in darkness hours.
Radio Sadayee Kashmir transmissions from Delhi was heard well on 6100 at 0230-0330 & 1430-1530 and on 9890 at 0730-0830 UTC.
The strongest local station was AIR Shimla on 3223 and 6020. They were noted with several strong spurious signals also on 3161 3190 3255 and 5986 6052 6080 etc.
The Uttaranchal program of AIR Delhi was noted well on 6030 at 0200-0310 & 1215-1430 UTC.
The 500 kW Vivdih Bharathi transmissions from Bangalore was normally noted at excellent level on 10330 during day/night. However the 9425 Khz National Channel also from Bangalore used to fade out late in the night till early morning.
On FM all the 9 FM stations from Delhi about 200 kms away was monitored there at fair level (see Appendix.1).
At Mussoorie which is 2000 M above MSL besides all the Delhi stations the following AIR stations from long distances were also noted on FM
100.2 Patiala sign on at 5.55 am
101.4 Kurukshetra sign on at 5.55 am
107.2 Kasuali 5.55 am sign on with relay of AIR Chandigarh till 2.00 pm followed by relay of FM Rainbow.
AIR Mussoorie operates on 102.1 at 5.55 am to 11.06 pm. Local id is given at sign on followed by relay of AIR FM Rainbow, Delhi from 6.00 am. This station is heard in a wide area.
While at Mussorie test tones and continous music were noted for long time in the afternoons/ evenings on 104.0 MHz for a long time, may be some new station / transmitter testing. Vividh Bharathi programs were also noted faintly on 100.9 (Shimla?) and 103.5 (Rohtak?)
Discussions are going on for setting up a community radio station Lal Bahadur Shastry National Academy of Administration.
All India Radio HS SW Schedule with changes observed.
(Full schedule of the channel is listed in UTC, including the changes)
4760 Leh s0130/w0213-0400/0413, 1200-1700
4880 Lucknow 0025-0430(Sun 0415)
4960 Ranchi 0025-0445, 1100 (Sun 1130)-1741
5985 Ranchi 0630-1000 (Sun 1130)
6000 Leh 0700(Sun 0630)-0930
6020 Shimla 0700(Sun 0630)-0930
6110 Srinagar 0225-0509 (Sun 1115), 0600-1115
7105 Lucknow 0700(Sun 0415)-1000, 1005-1006
Appendix.1: Delhi FM Stations:
1. 91.0 Radio City
2. 92.7 Big FM
3. 93.5 Red FM
4. 94.3 Radio 1
5. 95.0 Hit FM
6. 98.3 Radio Mirchi
7. 102.6 AIR FM Rainbow
8. 105.6 Gyan Vani
9. 106.4 AIR FM Gold
AFGHANISTAN:
Radio Afghanistan was noted sign on at 0100 on MW 1107 kHz with lot of IDs. They were also noted at 2330 earlier with Ramadan prayers. On 1296 Ashna Radio (Radio Free Afghanistan) of VOA group was also heard very well . On the low power frequency of 1602 kHz at 0130 Radio Khost was noted signing on above the AIR stations. This station was also noted at 1530.
0n 9345 at 0300-1400 the station an Afghanistan sounding station was heard with continuous songs without announcements were heard before 0630 followed by news.
BHUTAN:
Bhutan Broadcasting service was noted from 0000 to 0600 and later upto around 1500 on 6035 at fair to poor level. One hour English broadcasts were noted at 0500, 0900 and 1400.
CHINA:
As I was close to Tibetan border, many Chinese domestic stations were heard very well on many frequencies in the 4, 6 & 7 MHz during local day time (say 0400-1100 UTC). I am not very familiar of the complexities of Chinese broadcasting but here is a run down of what was heard..
4905 weak
4820 weak parallel to 5935, 6050
4920 weak parallel to 5240
5240 Fair parallel to 6110 6120 6200
5905 Excellent 0400-0500 Russian External Service
5935 weak parallel to 6050
6085 parallel to 6150 7185 9575
6110 parallel to 6130 (Heard when Srinagar is off)
6130 Strong parallel to 5240 6110 6200
6150 parallel to 6085 7185 9575
6200 weak parallel to 5240 6110 6130
7125
7155 parallel to 9600 11630
7170
7185 parallel to 6085 6150 9575
7210
7230 parallel to 9510
7240 very strong
7275 parallel to 9560
7340 parallel to 9470 11630 11780
(11780 was faster by 8 seconds than 7340. 11630 was 1 second slower than 11780)
7385 very strong
NEPAL:
Radio Nepal was heard sign on at 2315 UTC on 576, 648,684,792 and 810 kHz but not on the listed 1143 kHz. 5005 was also heard later. At 2315 UTC they have chimes for 5 O' clock (am). From 1615 UTC on 576 BBC relays were heard.
PAKISTAN:
The following stations of Radio Pakistan (may be new ones) were heard which is unlisted in their official website or in WRTH 2006.
1134, 1170, 1332.
Most MW stations of Pakistan were monitored. Most of them signed on at 0045 UTC but being the Ramadan season many of them were heard with special prayers etc. earlier eg:
540, 1152 kHz 2250-2345
936 Azad Kashmir Radio was noted from 0040 UTC with separate AKR Mirpur id.
1080 Lahore was heard only one day in the morning
English news was observed at 0300 1100 and 1600 UTC on all their MW stations.
(Eg at 1600 UTC English news was observed on 540 585 630 756 828 927 936 1035 1134 1152 1170 1332 1341 1557 etc.) . The other channels monitored were 567 729 1008 1080 1404 1476 1512.
The News & Current Affairs channel was heard well on 1152 1170 1332
At 0311 UTC in English they announce that this service is being heard in Ladak (India), Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
792 AKR Muzzafarrabad was not heard. This frequency was dominated by Radio Nepal.
The other MW stations not heard : 612 639 855 1098 1260.
The Home Service SW schedules were irregular with normally very rough audio, hum etc.
Quetta was noted on 5034 drifting (scheduled on 5025) at sign on at 0045 and also at night till around 1805.
Islamabad was noted irregularly on 5080 drifting with very rough audio at 0200 1300 etc. Sometimes only the open carrier was noted.
Islamabad was noted very strong on 6065 at 0430-0515 & 0530-0615 but the audio and carrier was very rough.
Quetta was noted on 7150.3 from 0600 UTC instead of the listed 7155 which was occupied by a strong Chinese station.
The following SW HS channels listed in current schedules were not heard viz 5055 5860 5925 7220. At 1615 UTC they are announcing 6140 which was also not heard.
The External service was noted on 7495 at 0045-0200 & 0215-0300 in Assamese/English/Bengali/Hindi rather than on the listed 7445 .
Azad Kashmir Radio was noted on 4790 in morning & nights (0045 1815)
7265 at 0900-1215
Voice of Jammu & Kashmir Freedom was noted on 5990.5 at 0245-0415 which is 15 minutes later than before. They were also noted at 7230 at 0745-0848 and on 5102.23, 5101.94 etc. at 1300-1430 with very rough audio.
Special thanks to Mr.Noel Green of UK for passing on the latest SW schedules info of PBC before my departure.
TAJIKISTAN:
Radio Tajikistan was heard continuously in day time on 7245 with strong signals in Middle East languages. English was noted at 0345-0400 but the announcement given was that they broadcast at 2145 Dushanbe Time ie 1545 UTC. (a difference of 12 hours)
UAE:
On 648 kHz Radio Asia was heard at night in Malayalam, my mother tongue. New Hour was heard at 1930 UTC with detailed information about the happenings in my native state Kerala. Its one of the many stations for the Indian migrants in the Gulf. They used to operate on 1557 kHz till very recently.
The following links may be of interest:
NIAR : www.niar.org
ACADEMY: http://www.civilservices.gov.in/lbsnaa/index.jsp
www.wildlifeindiatours.com/travel/govind-wildlife-sanctuary.html
www.indiawildliferesorts.com/national-parks/govind-national-park.html
www.gmvnl.com/newgmvn/districts/uttarkashi/govindwildlife.aspx
(Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, India)