Monday, January 05, 2009

Blog Logs

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

Afghanistan
3321, RTV Afghanistan heard at 1627 on 29 Dec with local talk in vernacular and some music. This is the third harmonic of nominal 1107 kHz. This just appeared so they may be mis-tuned. VoA audio heard underneath the main audio, so it would appear that the US government has their fingers in this somehow. Supposedly this is 400kW. This was very strong, so there is a very good chance those outside of Afghanistan may hear it(Muick).

Antarctica
15476 LRA36 Radio Nacional Arcangel San Gabriel, Esperanza Base, 1912-1930, December 31. Spanish, folk music to announcement and ID as: "si quiere comunicarse con nosotros...si llaman desde el exterior...ransmite LRA36 Radio Nacional Arcangel San Gabriel".- Program "De Esperanza al Mundo" SINPO 24322 (Slaen)

Bolivia
4555, Raido Virgen de Remedios(presumed) Tupiza. January-03 Spanish 2306-2330. Male talks to religious choral music “la Virgen Maria...”, “nuestros pecados...”. Short pieces readable, consistent het but, who else is there at this time? Slow enhancement for observed SINPO 22222 Bobrowiec)

Brazil
11765, Super Radio deus E Amor, 2350-0010, Jan 2-3. Ex Radio Tupi. Portuguese religious sermon. Station announcements to several IDs at 0004. Back to religious sermon at 0005. Good signal. (Alexander)

4925 Radio Educacao Rural, Tefe, AM, 0157-0203, January 02, Portuguese. Song to religious talk by male. SINPO 24332 (Slaen)

4935 Radio Capixaba, Vitoria, ES, 0151-0155, January 02, Portuguese. Religious talk by male. SINPO 23222 (Slaen).

Canada
CFRX Toronto, 0317-0354, Jan 1. Phone numbers given to call in, promo for an event at their armory, sale with “40-60% off”, talk about New Year’s resolutions. Program seemed to be a syndicated talk show, 0334 clear CFRB ID. Signal poor with of course moderate to heavy QRM from CVC Chile. Surprised they made it this far west (Howard).

Chad
4904.97, RNT, 0510-0545, Jan 2. On the air at approximately 0510 with Afro-pop music. French talk. Normal sign on time is 0430. Very weak at 0510, but improved to a good level by 0528.(Alexander).

4904.97, RNT, 2222-2231*, Jan 2. Afro-pop music. French announcements. Sign off with national anthem at 2230. Good signal. (Alexander)

China
4460, CNR, Beijing. January-01 CC 2255-2302. Alternating male/female talks to music and talks like ad 2300 pop Chinese music. SINPO 33233. (Bobrowiec)

Clandestine
12120 Ginot 7 Radio, Samara,1700-1710, January 01, Amharic language. Announcement by female, news by same female and a male, SINPO 24432 (Slaen)

Cuba
5025 Radio Rebelde, Bauta, 0145-0150, January 02, Spanish. Brief news by female. SINPO 23222 (Slaen)

Ethiopia
7165, Voice of Peace & Democracy, via Radio Ethiopia transmitter, *0357-0430.* Jan 2. Sign on with Horn of Africa music. Echo ID announcements. Talk in Tigrinya at 0400 to occasional local drums. Some Horn of Africa music. Fair signal. Audible on // 9556.2v - on the air at time approximately 0413 with a fair signal. Schedule listed for Mon, Wed, Fri only. (Alexander)

Diego Garcia
4319USB, AFRTS, 1535-1554, Jan 4. Program 51%; all about issues concerning women to to segment Women in Science about Dr. Joe (Josephine) Baker and her work in NY. Signal fair (Howard)

Ecuador
9745, HCJB, 0320-0340. Noted a program in Special English until about 0330. program consisted of reading letters from listeners usually concerning religion. The web site URL was given as http://www.radio.english.net/. At the end of the program, language changed to Spanish with new broadcasters giving ID as "HCJB" in Ecuador. This was followed with more comments in Spanish between a male and female. Signal was fair. (Bolland)

Euro Pirate
Czech pirate station Radio Bila Hora heard with good signal here in Letchworth Garden City, UK from 1925 tune in on 3333.3. Music followed by talk in Czech, male and female announcer. Has broadcast in previous years on New Years Eve, station website: http://rbh.czechian.net/ (Barraclough)

Guinea
7125, Guinea, Radio Conakry. January-03 French 0850-0944. Tribal xylophone sound-like music selections, short announcements, 0908-0915 male talks segment returning music which was always as described above. Low modulation level, progressively deterioring until near dead at 0943, at peak SINPO (Bobrowiec)

India
4865 All India Radio Unid. Heard at 1610 on 29 Dec with subcontinental music. Hindi talk and booming signals. Lots of talk about Pakistan. Several IDs as "Yeh All India Radio Heh." Audio stopped at 1622 in mid talk. Dead air carrier clear through until 1742 sign-off. Nothing listed in EiBi, AOKI, WRTH or AIR website. Was this 4860 that was mis programmed?

Indonesia
4925 RRI-Jambi. Station heard at 1558 on 29 Dec with Indonesian talk. Station ID up until sign-off at 1622. First Indo regional heard by me here in Kabul. Signal Weak, but may be the precursor to a good opening. (Muick)

Madagascar
5009.93, RTV Malagasy, 0250-0320, Jan 2. Malagasy talk. Familiar whistling theme music at 0300 & Malagasy talk. Wide variety of instrumental music, ballads, and local Afro-pop style music. Fair signal. Slightly off frequency and in full AM mode. Not in the usual reduced carrier USB. And not usually off frequency. Different transmitter? (Alexander)

Malaysia
7295, Malaysia, RTM Traxx FM (tent.) Kajang. January-03 2251-2301 English Pop selections. Noted at 2300 strong QRM from 7300 Chinese annoyed the English music, SINPO 22322 (Bobrowiec)

Mauritania
7245, Raido Mauritanie, Nouakchott. January-02. Arabic 0806-0814. Male talks and mentions of “Mauritania.” Brief announcement at 0811 to music returning. SINPO 34443. (Bobrowiec)

Mexico
6104.75, Candela FM, Merida, 0235-0245. Noted a male in Spanish comments between USA pop music selections. Signal was good. (Bolland)

New Zealand
9765, Radio NZ Int'l, Rangitaiki. January-03. English 0946-0955. Lyric music and male's comments. SINPO 34433 (Bobrowiec).

Papua New Guinea
Random monitoring of their extended New Year's Day programming:
3290, Radio Central, 1440-1512, Dec 31, mostly talking, probably in Tok Pisin, weak to begin but slowly improved, by 1457 was fair with nice island music. (Howard)

3315, Radio Manus, 1439, Dec 31, heard with pop music, not on by 1445 check, fair-poor. (Howard)

3365, Radio Milne Bay,1431-1503, Dec 31, tuned-in to hear a speech in English, pop songs, woman DJ seemed to also be in English, 1456 back to speech in English, not heard at 1503 check (Howard)

3385, Radio East New Britain, 1437-past 1638, Dec 31. Pop songs and indigenous chanting/singing, man DJ in Tok Pisin. Many time checks ("10 after 1"), wishes listeners Happy New Year, mostly fair (Howard)

3905, Radio New Ireland, 1440-1525, Dec 31. This was the best reception for PNG, in Tok Pisin, woman DJ with dedications, playing pop songs (C&W song Queen of Hearts, pop songs in English, etc. (Howard)

Peru
6019.39, Radio Victoria, 1115-1141. Noted a weak signal here just off a few hertz from 6020 with a male in Spanish language comments. Needed to notch out the stronger station on 6020 however. Later a female comments also. (Bolland).

9720, Radio Victoria, 1145-1200. Decided to check this freq out to preacher in Spanish sermon. Later a female joins in with the testimonials. Signal was a lot better on this band than it was at 6 MHz. Signal was fair to poor. 9Bolland).

Solomon Islands
9541.50, SIBC, 0455-0637, Jan 5. program started out below threshold level, by 0530 faded in to clearly in English with man with Australian accent talking, but poor. SIgnal better by 0600 with local time-check (5:00); 2+1 pips into BBC "The World Today" (items about Gaza to report from northern Sri Lanka, gas situation with Ukraine and Russia will affect Europe, ect. At 0629 local announcements (PSA and ad for "a Solomon Islands company" with phone number and fax numbers. Time check ["29 minutes to 6"])into vernacular. After 0600 signal was close to fair.
(Howard).

South Africa
9610, BBC, Meyerton relay, 0257-0310. ID's in English before the hour as, "This is the BBC World Service ... dot com". On the hour a female begins broadcasting in Swahili(listed). Signal was poor and kept fading into the noise and popping back out. (Bolland)

Tajikistan
4765 Tajik Radio, Dushambe, 0250-0300, January 02, Vernacular. Electronic pop and other pop music to brief announcement by male/female. Statio ID at 0300. SINPO 24332 (Slaen).

Yemen
9780.14, Rep of Yemen Radio, 1845-1903.* Jan 2, Tentative with Arabic talk. Some Mid-eastern music. Abrupt sign off. Fair. (Alexander)

Zambia
4965, Radio Christian Voice/CVC, 0403-0419, Jan 5. News in English then into their morning program with the theme music from Movin' On Up from the TV show The Jeffersons, but with the words "Wakin' On Up with Radio Christian Voice." Woman in English playing religious songs in English, high-life singing and talk in vernacular. Signal fair (Howard).

5915, Radio Zambia/R. One, 0146-0217, Jan 1. Mark Schiefelbein and I coordinated our listening for this extended schedule for New Year's (usual sign-on about 0240). Heard with man DJ in vernacular, call-in program along with high-life music and unusual hymn-like singing. After 0200 into a segment of many on-air calls with African drums and high-life singing between each call, signal mostly poor. It was back on Jan. 1, 2007 that this program was well heard and I keep tuning in with the hope of good reception again, but no such luck. Noted QRM at 0159 from CRI sign-on (Howard)

Contributors
Brian Alexander, PA
Mike Barralough, UK /worlddx
Chuck Bolland, FL
Lucio Otavio Bobrowiec, Brazil/playdx2003
Ron Howard, CA
Al Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan
Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina