A17 SCHEDULE CHANGES

A17 SCHEDULE CHANGES

Lots of them!!

The new A17 transmission season began last weekend. China made many modifications to its transmission schedule, along with the BBC and others. But why do radio stations need to make any changes to their schedules? At the start of the B16 season, I wrote a post that might give some insight into all this frenzied movement around the radio dials, which you can read here - How to Identify Changes in Station Schedules

It's been a busy week here at Mount Evelyn with family commitments, but I've managed to monitor some of the changes during my waking hours. Here's a few I've confirmed already:

NOTE:  Frequencies in kHz, Times in UTC
ABBREVIATIONS: NF = New Frequency, ex = deleted frequency, QRM = interference, // = another or parallel frequency used at the same time, As = Asia, SEAs = South East Asia, etc. Af = Africa, WAf = West Africa, etc. Eu = Europe, EEu = Eastern Europe, etc. NAm = Nth America, ENAm = Eastern Nth America, etc. Oc = Oceania
FORMAT: Freq - Country of Transmitter site - Station Name - Transmitter Location - comments.


5875   ASCENSION IS. BBC - Ascension. Hausa service to WAf 0630, NF and a weak signal, Mar 28.

5890   SINGAPORE. BBC - Kranji. English to SEAs at 2200-2300, NF (ex 9740), weak signal, Mar 26.

5950   OMAN. BBC - Al Seela. English to SEAs, NF (ex 5840), weak signal, Mar 26.

5970   OMAN. BBC - Al Seela. Dari service to SAs 1830-1900 s/off, NF (ex 5875), poor signal and heavy QRM from the dominant co-channel CRI with its French broadcast, Mar 27.

5975   AUSTRIA. R. Japan - Moosbrunn. 30-min English service to WEu at s/on 0500, NF (probably ex 13640 Dhabayya), surprisingly good signal using a non-directional antenna, Mar 28.

6080   NTH MARIANA IS. RFA - Tinian. Mandarin at s/on 2000, NF and a weak signal under heavy Firedrake jamming, Mar 26.

6105   FRANCE. R. Japan - Issoudun. Japanese to CAm 0435, NF (ex 5960) and a weak signal here (but should be strong in CAm!), Mar 28.

7235   IRAN. VOIRI - Sirjan. Italian service to Eu 1925, NF (ex 7305), fair signal, Mar 27.

7245   CHINA. CRI - Baoji. Russian at 2015. NT (ex 1900-2000), weak signal, Mar 26.

7255   CHINA. CRI - Kashi. Mandarin 2010, NF (ex 7245), weak signal, Mar 26.

7365   THAILAND. VOA - Ban Dung. Korean service 1935, NF (ex 5875??), fair signal, Mar 27.

9410   UNITED ARAB EMIRATES. BBC - Dhabayya. Arabic to EAf at 0330, fair signal. At 0400, changes over to the Moosbrunn relay for continuation of Arabic till 0500, but the signal is considerably weaker after the switchover. In B16, English was heard between 0300-0500 via Oman. Mar 30.

9450   PHILIPPINES. FEBC - Bocaue. Believed to be in the Mein language or similar at 2320, NF (ex 9455), weak signal, Mar 26.

9460   CHINA. CRI - Kunming. Cantonese at 2325, NF and poor signal on Mar 26.

9480   JAPAN. R. Japan - Yamata. English to Oc, s/on 1930, NF (ex 9625) and very good signal, Mar 27.

9535   ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. DRM service to Eu at 2025 in French, then English at 2030, NF on Mar 26.

9535   KUWAIT. RFA - Umm al-Rimam. At 2305 in Mandarin to EAs. In B16 this was Tibetan at this time. Poor signal and jamming, Mar 26.

9570   CHINA. CRI - Kunming. Cantonese to Aus/Oc at s/on 1100, NF (ex 13580), excellent signal, Mar 26.

9610   CHINA. CRI - Kunming. Mandarin to Aus/Oc at 1110, NF (ex 15440), excellent signal, Mar 26.

9610   ROMANIA. RRI - Tiganesti. English to ENAm at s/on 2030, NF and poor signal, Mar 26.

9620   TURKEY. VoT - Emirler. English s/on 2030 English to Asia and Aus, NF (ex 9610) and one hour earlier, good signal, Mar 26.

9655   FRANCE. R. Algerienne - Issoudun. Arabic to NAf at 2040, NF (ex 9810), fair signal, Mar 26.

9685   AUSTRALIA. Reach Beyond Aust - Kununurra WA. Slow English at 1120, NF, poor signal and heavy QRM CNR jammer 9680, Mar 26.

9820   MADAGASCAR. MWV - Mahajanga.  Russian at 1918, NF (ex 9495) and a weak signal. No sign of the scheduled BBC WS via Oman on this day, Mar 27.

9880   CHINA. CRI - Kashi. S/on 2200 in Esperanto (only one of about two stations still offering a service in this language), NF (ex 9860), fair to poor signal, Mar 26.

9890   SINGAPORE. BBC - Kranji. Burmese 0000-0030, NF (ex 9560), poor signal and // 11700 also heard, Mar 27.

11650   ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. Romanian to SEu at 0940, NF and on Sundays only, poor signal, Mar 26.

11660   ENGLAND. BBC - Woofferton. Hausa s/on 0630 for 30 min service to WAf, NF and weak signal, Mar 28.

11665   MALAYSIA. RTM Wai FM - Kajang. Malay with pop music programming 0945, fair signal, Mar 26.

11700   ROMANIA. RRI - Tiganesti. Spanish to SAm s/on 2300, NF (ex 9610?) and // 11800. Now on one hour earlier than for B16, weak signal, Mar 26.

11710   CHINA. CRI - Xian. English to EAs at 0900, NF and fair signal, Mar 26.

11720   GERMANY. VOA - Lampertheim. Tigrinya service to EAf at 1905, NF (ex 12040-Ban Dung) and good signal, Mar 27.

11785   THAILAND. VoA - Ban Dung. Mandarin 0950, NF and a weak signal under heavy CNR jammer, Mar 26.

11800   ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. Spanish to SAm s/on 2300, NF (ex 7325?), weak and under much stronger co-channel CNR, Mar 26.

11825   JAPAN. R. Japan - Yamata. Japanese to EAs 0705, NF and fair signal, Mar 28.

11865   D.P.R.KOREA. VoK - Kujang. Japanese service 0955, slight audio distortion (muffled sound), NF and good signal, Mar 26.

11875   CHINA. CRI - Kunming. S/on 1000 in Cantonese (Yue Chinese) to Aus/Oc, NF (ex 15440) and excellent signal, Mar 26.

11875   OMAN. BBC - Al Seela. Farsi service to ME SAs 0410, NF and fair signal, Mar 28.

11895   CHINA. CRI - Xian. English to CAs at 1005, NF (possibly ex 7215), very good signal, Mar 26.

11905   AUSTRALIA. Reach Beyond Aust.- Kununurra WA. S/on 1115 in Indonesian, NF and fair signal, Mar 26.

11945   UNITED ARAB EMIRATES. BBC - Dhabayya. S/on 0400 for 60-min English service to EAf, NF for this time period and a weak signal, Mar 30.

11980.05  TURKEY. VoT - Emirler. Turkish to Eu at 0445, NF (ex 9700), very good signal but slightly off freq, Mar 28.

11985   CHINA. CRI - Urumqi. Mongolian service to CAs at 1112, NF (possibly ex 6100), fair signal, Mar 26.

11995   SAO TOME. VoA - Pinheira. Kinyarwanda service to EAf at 0430 s/on weekdays only, NF (probably ex 9885). Also scheduled for English at 0505. A very weak signal, Mar 30.

12005   CHINA. CRI - Kunming. Cantonese at 1015, excellent signal on this NF (ex 17670), Mar 26.

12015   OMAN. BBC - Al Seela. Arabic to CAf 0510, NF and a weak signal, Mar 28.

12140   GERMANY. VOA - Lampertheim. Tigrinya service to EAf 1911. In B16 this was via the Kuwait site, fair signal, Mar 27.

13580   CHINA. CRI - Kunming. English to Aus/Oc at 1020, NF (ex 15210) and excellent signal, Mar 26.

13580   OMAN. BBC - Al Seela. English to ME and CAs at 0400-0500, NF and a fair to poor signal, Mar 30.

13730   CHINA. CRI - Kunming. Mandarin to Oc at 0905, NF (ex 17670) and good signal, Mar 26.

13750   CHINA. CRI - Beijing. English to EAs 0015, NF and fair to poor signal, Mar 27.

13765   CHINA. CRI - Kunming. Mandarin to Aus/Oc at 0910, NF and excellent signal, Mar 26.

13800   CHINA. CRI - Kunming. English to Aus/Oc at 0915, NF and excellent signal, // 11710, Mar 26.

13840   NEW ZEALAND. RNZI - Rangitaiki. English to Pacific at 2050, NF (ex 15720), good signal, Mar 26.

15090   KUWAIT. R. Azadi - Umm al-Rimam. Pashto service 0930-1030, NF and weak signal, Mar 27.

15325   JAPAN. R. Japan - Yamata. Japanese to SAs at 0940, NF and excellent signal, Mar 27.

15330   NTH MARIANA IS. RFA - Tinian. Suspect this is RFA at s/on 1000 in Tibetan, fair signal plus heavy jamming making listening difficult, Mar 27.

15360   THAILAND. R. Mashaal - Ban Dung. Pashto at s/on 1000, NF and fair signal, Mar 31.

15400   ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. S/on 1000 in French to Eu, NF and a fair signal, Mar 27.

15420   UNITED ARAB EMIRATES. BBC - Dhabayya. Somali to EAf ay s/on 1100, NF (ex 15530) and very weak signal, Mar 26.

15600   CHINA. CRI - Beijing. Spanish to SAm at 2215, NF (ex 6100 I think!), good signal, Mar 26.

15750   GUAM. KSDA-AWR - Agat. S/on 0000 in Thai, NF (ex 11730 Trincomalee), fair to poor signal, Mar 27.

17615   THAILAND. VoA - Ban Dung. Tibetan between 0400-0500, NF and a fair signal with CNR 1 jamming, Mar 30.

17690   GERMANY. R. Farda - Biblis. S/on 0930 in Farsi to WAs, NF and fair to poor signal, Mar 26.

17880   THAILAND. R. Azadi - Ban Dung. Dari service at 0920, into Pashto 0930, NF (possibly ex 19010), weak signal, Mar 26.


This is only a small sampling of the changes that have taken place over the past week. If you have discovered other adjustments by the international broadcasters, share it with us here.

73 and have a great weekend everyone!

Rob Wagner  VK3BVW

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