Summertime Africans!

Like many places in the world, summertime DXing on the lower frequencies can be a challenge with increased thunderstorm activity and tropical band stations not at the signal strength heard during the winter months. But.....reception of African stations here at Mount Evelyn has been good over the past few days. Here's a summary of some stations noted during the past weekend:

3200   SWAZILAND.  TWR - Manzini. English religious programming at 1845. Weak signal and thunderstorm noise made listening more difficult.

4780   DJIBOUTI.  R. Djibouti.  French service with an information program at 1910, moving into fast Afro pops at 1913. Fair signal but local electrical noise degraded reception somewhat - but was reduced by the MFJ-1026 noise cancelling unit.
4940   SAO TOME & PRINCIPE.  VOA - Pinheira.  Out of the two VOA African stations operating in this band at this time (the other being 4930 - VOA Botswana), this one is always the weakest here at Mount Evelyn, and often not heard at all. However, the English service at 2015 was a little stronger on this occasion and playing some great African dance music; running parallel to 4930. Of the two stations, its usually the first to fade out and on this occasion it was gone by 2050.


 4949.8  ANGOLA.  R. Nacional de Angola, Luanda. Usual low modulation with Portuguese talks at 1945. Weak signal and fades by 2040.

4976   UGANDA.  R. Uganda - Kampala. First noted at 2025 with English programming but the signal was pretty weak. Finally faded by 2055.
5915   ZAMBIA. ZNBC - Lusaka. Radio 1 network in local languages, can barely be heard under France's Russian service at 1900, but it's in the clear at 2000 with a good signal.

6055   RWANDA.  R. Rwanda - Kigali. Party Time!! Great dance music in their Saturday evening programming at 2030. The studio was a-rockin'!! Ummm….in French! Big signal, too.

6165   CHAD.  R. N'Djamena.  News in French at 2035 and a good strength. No sign of Iran's Albanian service at this time.

6110   ETHIOPIA.  R. Fana. Lovely signal, interesting music and telephone callbacks in the (presumed) Oromo language service at 2020

6130   SWAZILAND.  TWR - Manzini. Portuguese service with a program of preaching at 1930, ID and address at 1947 before changing into a local African language program at 1950. Fair signal and in the clear.

6190   SOUTH AFRICA.  BBC - Meyerton. Weak here for the English service at 2000.


 11940   MADAGASCAR.  R. Tamazuj - Talata. Arabic talk program at 0420, ID at 0423 and into a Sudanese song. Another ID as Radio Tamazuj at 0426 and closing announcements.

THEN…..

R. Dabanga - Talata. Continued on from the Tamazuj broadcast with s/on at 0428 with a singing ID from Radio Dabanga, frequencies given in the Arabic program. Fair level and in the clear.

Rob



Comments

  1. Rob WagnerFebruary 14, 2013 at 6:35 AM

    ADDITION TO THE ABOVE BLOG REPORT:

    6115 CONGO REP. R. Congo - Brazzaville. Long talks or news/information program in French with alternating male and female announcers. Occasional short bursts of music. First noted at 1807 and continued through till 1832 when there was a change of announcers. Finally closed down without any real fanfare at 1839. In the clear but the signal was not strong and the audio appeared to be down.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rob WagnerFebruary 15, 2013 at 9:51 AM

    2nd ADDITION TO THE ABOVE BLOG REPORT:

    11735 TANZANIA. Zanzibar BC - Dole. Checked at 1800 and heard nothing. Checked back at 1845, heard nothing. But then a minute later, while tuning around it suddenly popped up out of the mud. Talks in Swahili with two announcers. At 1852, into some groovy Afro dance music. Very weak at this time and accompanied by deep fades.

    ReplyDelete

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