Blog Logs

special thanks to contributor Ron Howard for sharing his recent radio monitoring

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

China
Feb. 13 Chinese New Year's Eve (Spring Festival) gala shortwave coverage. Audio feed from the CCTV live coverage from Beijing. Noted randomly from 1335 to 1441. The CCTV coverage was for five hours (1200-1700 UT).

CNR-1 (4460 // 4750 // 4800 // 6030 // 6125), heard with limited coverage of the gala. A change from last year, in that they had much of their own programming instead of non-stop gala coverage. 1430 with "This is the C-N-R evening news" followed by the news in Chinese; along with the usual montage of English audio bits, etc.

Voice of Strait (4940) had non-stop gala coverage.

China Huayi BC (5050) extended their schedule past their usual 1300 sign off time to broadcast non-stop coverage of the festivities. QRM from Guangxi Beibu Bay Radio, with their usual programming mostly in Vietnamese. Have seen a few reports of the Voice of Strait being heard here, but I rather doubt it. If heard before 1300 in Chinese is probably CHBC and if after 1300 in Chinese, probably Guangxi Beibu Bay Radio, which does broadcast short segments in Chinese.
Voice of Strait did not return to 5050 nor 4900 (continues to be a clear frequency), but only returned to 4940.

Voice of Pujiang (3280 // 4950 // 5075) had no coverage of the Beijing gala, but instead broadcast their own variety show, just as they did last year.
(Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach)

India
4850, AIR Kohima, 1311, Feb 11. Chanting/singing with subcontinent music; 1314 ID in vernacular and into the usual Naga segment that starts with indigenous theme music; tuned away and returned looking for the news at 1440, but they were off the air by then. Feb 12 seemed off the air; not heard at my first check at 1309 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA)

South Korea

6215, Numbers Station, 1231-1236, Feb 10. Korean folk song. Woman announcer reading assume numbers in Korean; fair (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA)

Laos
7145, Lao National Radio, Vientiane, 1330-1359*, Feb 12. English identification as; "This is the Lao National Radio, broadcasting from Vientiane, the National Democratic Republic. Our English language is broadcast twice daily at 1300 hours and 2030 hours local time, which is 7 hours ahead of GMT. It is transmitted on a frequency of 97.25 MHz. on FM"; local news (items emphasizing Laos negotiations to join the World Trade Organization [WTO], many people in Laos will be traveling during the upcoming New Year, etc.); "You are now listening to the Lao National Radio transmitted on FM 97.25 MHz., with our English news program"; international news; into FM programming in Laotian (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA)

Malaysia
11885, Voice of Malaysia, 1142, Feb 10. Thanks to a tip from Dan Sheedy, I dusted off my Etón E5 and listened from home, something I have not done in a while. Dan measured this at 11884.6. I heard them in Chinese with easy-listening-mudic; Signal reception fair and good audio. Time tips at top-of-the-jour 1+1 pips and into a different audio feed in Bahasa Indonesia with poor audio (mushy/muffled); many "Voice of Malaysia" IDs (both spoken and singing) (Ron Howard, Monterey, CA)

Zambia
5915, 1Africa/CVC, *0401, Feb 15. Continues to be heard with very good reception in English with religious programming. Will be interesting to hear what happens here once Radio Zambia/Radio One returns to the air! (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA)

Zimbabwe
6045, ZBC/R. Zimbabwe, 0213-0311, Feb 15. Vernacular language from on-air DJ with African high-life singing; 0300 usual canned four-minute ID in English (drums, "Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Zimbabwe." More drums, long list of cities and FM frequencies). Back to vernacular. Signal mostly poor. This confirms my Feb 9 "presumed" reception. Nothing on 3396 (Ron Howard, Asilomar Beach, CA)