What's going on at Dhabayya?

For some time now, the persistent hum on transmissions coming out of the Dhabayya (U.A.E.) site makes me wonder what is happening there. Clearly, there is some technical issue that they are struggling to fix.

Take, for example, two scheduled transmissions today (April 15) at 0500 UTC. The BBC broadcast in the Kinyarwanda language to East Africa, a weekend-only service on 21660 kHz, saw repeated on/off switching of the carrier with a low-level transmitter hum and no audio content. The broadcast finally fired up at 0506 UTC, partway through the scheduled programming.

At the same time, the daily English World Service broadcast to East Africa at 0500 on 21560 kHz suffered similar symptoms of on/off carrier, a hummy transmitter and no audio content. I sat on this frequency for the scheduled full hour, listening to the carrier kicking in and out while I when about other business in the radio shack. The service never appeared during that whole hour. When the clock reached 0600 UTC, there was a switch of the transmitter site over to Talata, Madagascar, for the continuation of the World Service broadcast with excellent signal strength and audio.

Transmissions of other stations have also been subjected to hum behind broadcast audio from the Dhabayya facility. The signals have generally been at their usual strength, but the delivery of audio quality hasn't been up to standard. Dhabayya is a vital relay station currently used by the BBC, Deutsche Welle, VoA, IBRA Radio, and other stations such as Radio Ergo and Mizzima Radio that lease time from Encompass Digital Media. Let's hope repairs are quickly undertaken so that listeners can once again rely on the quality and reliability of broadcasting services from this transmitter site.

UPDATE (April 16): 21560 at 0500 is up and running again with the World Service in English. But it has both a strong transmitter hum and is off-frequency, with its carrier centred on 21560.15 kHz!