STATION NEWS AND THE LOG BOOK - May 1, 2015

STATION NEWS AND THE LOG BOOK

MAY 1, 2015

STATION NEWS

ENGLAND
Here is a press release from the BBC regarding extended transmissions beamed to the earthquake devastated country of Nepal (as at April 28):

In response to the aftermath of the earthquake in Nepal, the BBC World Service is now broadcasting additional programming on shortwave in both Nepalese and in English. BBC Media Action - the BBC's international development charity - is working with the Nepali Service on BBC World Service (radio and online) and local partner radio stations to broadcast ‘Lifeline’ programming.

Liliane Landor, Controller of World Service Languages, says: “Information is vital and we are doing all we can to make sure that our audiences in the affected areas receive their local and regional news as well as ‘Lifeline’ programming designed to give practical information to help deal with the aftermath of the earthquake.”

The Nepali language programme is available on shortwave as follows:

Nepali dawn transmission (01:30-01:45 GMT)
11995 kHz (25 metre band)
15510 kHz (19 metre band)

Nepali evening transmission (15:00-16:00 GMT)
9650 kHz (31 metre band)
5895 kHz (49 metre band)

The availability of World Service English on short wave to Northern India and Nepal has been extended with the service now starting one hour earlier than normal at 23.00 GMT.

Additional frequencies for World Service in English (to S Asia) from 23:00 GMT to 24:00GMT
5895 kHz (49 metre band)
9540 kHz (31 metre band)

From 00:00GMT the broadcasts continue as normal on 12,095kHz, 9,410kHz and 5970kHz

AUSTRALIA
Reach Beyond Australia has released a slightly updated schedule, showing a change of frequency at 1100-1215 for the service to Tibet, Vietnam and Myanmar. The frequency is now 15200 (ex 9900 kHz) and may give better reception into those areas. Thanks to Shelley Martin at RBA for this information.

PUNTLAND

Puntland is an autonomous state in the northeastern part of Somalia. The capital is Garowe. One-third of Somalia's population lives in this state. My Malaysian DXing friend, Timm Breyel, reports that Radio Puntland has been heard on 13800 kHz between 1640 and 1720 on April 27. Station IDs were heard in Italian, English and a Somali vernacular with some music featured as well. Test transmissions from the country's capital have been conducted at low power and regular transmissions are expected to begin by the end of June. When finally operational, the permanent transmitter will have a power of 20kW. These test transmissions have also been heard by a few DXers in various parts of Europe. You should also watch out for a possible alternative frequency of 6160 kHz. Mauno Ritola  in Finland says that a tentative test schedule has been set up as 6160 kHz between 0300-0600 and 13800 kHz between 0600-1600. However, these times appear to be flexible at the moment. Mauro also says that reception reports could be sent to puntlandradio1@gmail.com. Timm in Malaysia has a recording of the station from his listening post and you can check this out at his excellent website:
http://shortwavedxer.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/radio-puntland-one.html

FROM THE LOG BOOK

Some monitoring here over the past week has been quite noisy with lots of thunderstorm activity in coastal New South Wales. However, below are some observations that you may find of interest:

4970   INDIA. AIR - Shillong. Daily 5 min English news bulletin at 1230, poor signal on Apr 26.

5875   THAILAND. R. Thailand - Ban Dung. Burmese service from 1145 to 1200 s/off, weak signal but in the clear and quite copyable on Apr 26.

7237.5   ETHIOPIA. Ethiopian BC - Geja Jewe (Tentative). No ID and difficult listening in French at 1710 wedged between two China outlets, some music and talk on Apr 23.

7410   CHINA. CRI - Kashi. English to SAs at 1720, fair signal but severe QRM from CRI - Shijiazhuang in Russian to EEu, Apr 23.

9720   SRI LANKA. FEBA - Trincomalee. Kannada service on Sundays at 1330-1345, good signal and pleasant music on Apr 26.

9839.85   VIETNAM. VoVietnam - Son Tay. English service with news at 1130 s/on, fair signal but QRM from VOA and CNR 1 jammer on 9845, Apr 26.

9925   PHILIPPINES. R. Pilipinas - Tinang. Scheduled as English at 1750 but Tagalog service noted  with a heavy use of English words. ID at 1800 then stock market report all in English. // 12120 also heard and a fair signal on Apr 23.

9964.6   EGYPT. R. Cairo - Abis. News in English at 2315 to NAm, fair signal but with the usual poor modulation on Apr 26.

11780.1   BRAZIL. R. Nacional - Brasilia. Nice signal at 1:15pm local time here - 0315 UTC - Anncts and music, occasional IDs, good on Apr 27.

11850   PHILIPPINES. R. Veritas Asia - Palauig. Vietnamese service at 1115, fair on Apr 26.

11905   SRI LANKA. SLBC - Trincomalee. Hindi service to SAs at 0132 with lovely ballads, weak signal but quite copyable on Apr 27.

12005   ASCENSION IS. VoVietnam - Ascension. English service to ENAm at 0110 to 0130, good signal on Apr 27. Also noted on the same day at s/on 0230 to 0300 with another English broadcast to ENAm, and still with a very good signal 12:30pm here.

13725   FRANCE. RFI - Issoudun. Nice to hear regular broadcasts back in English again. Noted with a big signal here between 0600 and 0700 targeting WAf, Apr 27.

15290   IRAN. VOIRI - Kamalabad. Japanese service noted at 1340, fair to poor signal on Apr 26.

15420.12   UAE. BBC - Dhabayya. Booming signal for the English service to EAf at 0415. However, it appeared to be a bad at the txer site as not only was it off frequency (as usual), but there was a hum on the signal and broken audio for 5 to 8 seconds at a time occurring on numerous occasions over a 15 minute period, Apr 27.

15430   SRI LANKA. AWR - Trincomalee. Meitei service on Sundays at 1230-1300, fair signal on Apr 26.

15520.07   TURKEY. VoTurkey - Emirler. English to SAs at 1645, good signal but off-frequency on Apr 23.


AND FINALLY.....

In my next post, I will have a large survey of English transmissions heard here over the past month during the new A15 transmission period. It will be a downloadable file, and should be up on this site within the next 36 hours, so watch out for it.

73 and great DX to you all,

Rob Wagner VK3BVW

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