STATION NEWS AND THE LOG BOOK - November 25, 2017

STATION NEWS AND THE LOG BOOK

November 25, 2017

NEW AFRICAN BROADCASTER

A relatively new station on the air from Ethiopia (YES! Another station actually transmitting from the African continent - always good to see!) is Radio Deegaanka Soomaalida Itoobiya, a.k.a "Ethiopian Somali Regional State Radio".  Here are my listening notes from this morning:

5940   ETHIOPIA. R. Deegaanka Soomaalida Itoobiya - Jijiga. Somali talks at 1915, groovy Horn of Africa songs at 1920. Generally, a fair signal with some deep fades at times. Monitored through until 2000 when the much stronger R. Algerienne signed on with its booming 500kW via Issoudun. Nov 24. 

Transmitting room (photo courtesy Cakaara News)

The transmitter is listed as Jijiga in far-eastern Ethiopia near the border with Somalia. The Somali city of Hargeisa is about 140km due east of Jijiga. A schedule has appeared (source unknown) which shows the following daily operating times on 5940 kHz: 0400-0510, 1300-1500 and 1810-2000 UTC. However, there could be some variation in times, so don't take this as absolutely correct!

The station was officially opened this year by government officials on June 26 in the presence of council elders and media employees. Initial transmissions were noted during August, then the station suddenly disappeared for more than a month before returning to the air.

The official opening on June 26. (photo courtesy Cakaara News)

There are nine ethnic divisions within Ethiopia, which accounts for the constant state of turmoil between the various ethnic communities over the decades. Jijiga sits in the region known as the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia and has been the capital of the region since 1994. The people here are predominantly of Somali heritage, nearly 97% speak Somali, and many seek to become a part of Somalia or gain some type of independence.

FROM THE LOG BOOK

A few notes from the past 10 days of monitoring here at Mount Evelyn

👍 6090   ETHIOPIA. R. Amhara - Addis Ababa. Music programming at 2020 with Amharic anncts, good signal, Nov 24.

👍 6110   ETHIOPIA. R. Fana - Addis Ababa. At 2027 with some very funky Afro-pop music, discussion in Amharic at 2031. Fair signal on Nov 16.

👍 7254.96   NIGERIA. VoNigeria - Ikorodu. S/on with happy dance music at 0552. Such a pity it was horribly distorted audio. Then the usual drums and wind instrument theme at 0557. The audio improved…..somewhat….by the time the Hausa ID and station anncts were heard at 0600. Good signal strength on Nov 24.

11560  INDIA. AIR - Bengaluru. Farsi to Iran at s/on 0400, NF (ex 11670), fair signal, Nov 15.

11580   USA. R. Argentina al Exterior (RAE) via WRMI - Okeechobee FL. Rock music and interviews in German for Eu at 2115, fair signal, Nov 16

👍 11610 MADAGASCAR. MWV Light of Life - Mahajanga. Mandarin to WEu at 2134, fair to poor signal. Interestingly, this service appears not to be heard very well in the targeted region either (using 100kW at 325˚)! Five different European remote SDRs also gave fairly underwhelming to poor signal strengths on this day, too. The best was the Swedish SDR in Fernebo where it was running at only S5 to 6. Also, I'm not sure that their Mandarin audience is that big in Western Europe, so it makes me wonder why they are beaming that way! On the Shenzhen SDR in southern China, the station is not heard at all. Rather curious, really. Nov 16.

11735   D.P.R.KOREA. VoK -Kujang. English to SAm at 0445 with music programming, fair to weak signal, Nov 24.

11790   ROMANIA. RRI - Galbeni. Caught the end of the English service to SAs at 0450 to s/off 0456. weak signal, Nov 24

11840   CUBA. R. Habana - Quivican. News in Spanish to Chile at 0505, fair signal, Nov 24.

👍 11860   SAUDI ARABIA. Republic of Yemen Radio - (presumed Riyadh). News at 0510, fair to poor signal with evidence of multipath echo, Nov 24.

11875   IRAN. VOIRI - Sirjan. Turkish to ME at 0515, good signal, Nov 24.

11905   OMAN. BBC - Al Seela. Farsi to ME and SAs at 0520. Fair signal until s/off 0530 but heavy QRM from CNR 6-Beijing with its Hakka service, Nov 24.

12130   KUWAIT. R. Mashaal - Umm al-Rimam. Pashto discussion program at 0540, weak signal, Nov 24.

13660   FRANCE - R. France Int'l - Issoudun. Portuguese to SAf at s/on 1900, ID and news, NF (ex 17660), weak signal, Nov 24.

13840   UAE. BBC - Dhabayya. S/on 0400 in Somali to EAf, NF (ex 15490), fair signal, Nov 15.

15030   INDIA. AIR - Bengaluru. Hindi to EAf at 0335, NF (ex 15120), fair signal, Nov 15.

👍 15560   MADAGASCAR. MWV New Life - Mahajanga. S/on 0300 in English to SAs. NF for B17 (ex 9600) and now one hour later than in A17. Very weak signal on Nov 15. The circuit between Mahajanga and Mount Evelyn on this band/this time of year/this time of day (local early afternoon here) is notoriously unreliable. Only being heard quite erratically from one day to the next.

👍 17700   PHILIPPINES. Radyo Pilipinas - Tinang. S/on 0159 to English to ME with the Dateline news program. At 0202, there was a time check for 0200 (!) and one long pip. The opening anncts gave frequencies used but did not include this new freq of 17700 (replacing 12010 from A17). Fair signal. Other frequencies in parallel also heard for this broadcast included 15640 (weak signal) and 17820 (fair signal). Nov 15.          

73 and have a great weekend everyone!

Rob Wagner VK3BVW

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