Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Blog Logs

Today's shortwave BLOG LOGS, represent those recently cut from my SWBC Logs column, due to space constraints. Contributions are always welcome for the magazine or blog, and may be directed to the above email address. Thanks very much to all the contributors for your kind words and support.
Gayle VH

Freqs in kHz, all times UTC, frequencies in kilohertz, English unless otherwise stated // parallel frequencies. * sign-on - Sign-off *

Andaman & Nicobar Islands
All India Radio-Port Blair 4760. Male/female program talk and music. Station identifications as signal began to die rapidly after 0100 and the adjacent channel QRM from 4765. No station listed there in EiBi, and only Peru in WRTVH, but HFCC B08 lists Tajikistan, Radio of Tajikistan from 1500-1200 with 100 kW. Lady announcer talk and music more Middle-Eastern than subcontinental so this is a possibility. (A Muick).

Armenia
Armenian National Radio 4810. Programming heard with musical vocals to Arabic-style music at 1920, to 1928. Arabic announcement to sstation ID, off at scheduled 1930. Signal poor, no interfernce and moderate fading. (A Muick).

Radio Netherlands- Yerevan relay 6040, 2059-2115. Dutch interval signal to identification into Newsline with headlines and news. Booming signal. (S Barbour).

Brazil
Rádio Senado 5990, 0900-0930. Portuguese text via announcer to "canned" commercials and public-service-announcements. Braz pop vocals to station announcements. (F. Hillton).

Clandestine
Radio Echo of Hope 6348, 1522. Korean text via lady announcer's talk and text. Very weak signal, noted without any interferences. (A Muick).

Colombia
Marfil Estereo Lomolinda 5910, 0920-0931. Spanish programming including announcer's text to music, station ID and string music. Signal fair at best. (S Barbour).

Greece
Fonis tis Hellades 9420, 2250-2255. Greek text to Greek musical ballads to text, // 7475 very good signal. (J Wood).

India
All India Radio-Bangladore. 9870, 1330-1345. Hindi Vivdh Bharati service (which loosely translates to Indian Variety show) . (B Barker).

All India Radio-Bhopal 4810, 0019. Began with Song of India interval signal at 0022 and ID. Sign-on choir song at 0025. Signal noted weak with slight splatter from China on 4810 (China has no concept of occupied bandwidth). Checking this as followup to my report of Armenia from logging previous day. At 0130, time pips were heard and the usual Akhashvani identification from AIR. Previous signal different as was the language and there were no time pips at 0130. (India UTC + 5:30). I could attribute the program change to it now being a weekday.(A Muick).

All India Radio-Guwahati 4940, 1144-1205. Vernacular serice. Hindi music with brief announcer between selections. Signal dropped like a brick at 1158. Signal poor. Noted 1140-1202 with same format as a day earlier. Signal fading and no discernible ID observed. (S Barbour).

All India Radio-Kolkata 4820, 0025. Vernacular. Weak signal for Song of India interval signal under co-channel Tibet; into usual sign-on routine. Not much audible after that-poor signal. First log of this All India Radio. (S Barbour).

All India Radio-Thiruvananthapuram 5010, *0019-0030. Vernacular language service noting interval signal and choral-like vocals. Station ID into Hindi music. Announcer from 0025 for poor signal quality. (S Barbour).

Iran
Voice of Islamic Republic 6120, 0228-0231.* Closing bits of programming with sign-off announcements. Station ID and national anthem during fair signal quality. (J Wood).

Israel
Galei Zahal (Tel Aviv) 6973, 0340-0352. Hebrew programming on womens health with two lady announcer's comments between soft/rock music program. (J Wood).

Madagascar
Radio Sweden relay 9895, 2056-2058.* Tail-end of transmission with weather conditions for Sweden. Repeat of news headlines to filler music from Jesus Christ Superstar music at sign-off. Signal good. (S Barbour).

Moldova
Radio DMR (PMR) 6240. Heard at 2315 with close of German program into English then French with classic Soviet-style non-news. Talk about the glorious teaching of Bulgarian language and culture in Moldova, and the fact that the announcer himself determined that over 95% of Bulgarians did not want to join the EU. (A Muick).

Mongolia
Mongolian Radio HS-2 Ulaanbaater 7260, 1145-1203. Vernacular text to continuos music ballads, pips and distinct interval signal at 1200. Presumed news during fair-poor signal. (S Barbour).

Morocco
Medi Un 9575, 0845-0915. French/Arabic programming knocking Radio Australia right off its block on 9580 kHz. Signal solid and strong without the usual fading. French text to 0900, shifting to Arabic. Two French/Arabic ads. (B Barker).

North Korea
Voice of Korea 6285, 1550. Light style instrumnetal music to male/female announcer's text sounding Russian. Good signal for programming. (A Muick).

Pakistan
Radio Pakistan 11565, 1431-1446. Programming listed as Urdu. Announcer with talk and mentios of Pakista between Hindi style music. Signal poor battling with co-channel interference from WYFR. (S Barbour).

Peru
Radio Maranon Jaen 4835.75, 1012-1032. Quecha music to Spanisha nnouncements. Commercial string to station ID at 1030. Signal poor-fair. (S Barbour).

São Tomé
Voice of America relay (tentative) 4940, 2005. African/Latin style music, (no ID announcements observed). Programming mostly music, did note announcer's text in possible Hausa sounding like a newscast. Signal fair to poor with flattery fading. Seems to jive with 100kW and a 30 degree beam. (A Muick). Noted 6080, 2105-2116. (S Barbour).

South Africa
Radio Sondergrense (Meyerton) 3320, 0355-0401. Afrikaas service noting station ID and news at 0400 with mentions of Zimbabwe during the news. Poor signal quality. (J Wood).

Thailand
Radio Thailand 11870, *1200-1214.* Listed as Malay service. Station interval signal to English ID at sign-on. Musical bridge into listed Malay service, music at 1211. Station pulled the plug at songs close, signal fair. (S Barbour).

USA
WRMI 9955, *0700-0720. English/Spanish station identifications to opening for Radio Prague relay programming. National Czech news to mailbox programming and cultural focus on literature. (F Hillton).

WWCR 3215, 0830-0845. Bizarre programming text on aliens and implants - and those that actually believe in such! (F Hillton). 3215, 0550 (S Mackenzie) 7465, 2230 Golden Age of Radio program. (B Fraser).

Uzbekistan
Radio Netherlands Tashkent relay 9345, 1448-1500.* Announcer with report on India. Frequency schedule for South-east Asia and Radio Netherlands Worldwide promos. Station ID and contact information at sign-off. Signal fair-poor. (S Barbour).

Vatican State
Vatican Radio 7250, 0610-0630. English service to Europe. Religious scriptures to latest news from the Vatican, // 4005, 5965. Sign-on noted 0630 on 7360, monitored to 0645. More world news items and Vatican's role in African Catholic churches. (F. Hillton).

Vietnam
Voice of Vietnam 7220, 1134-1157. Russian announcements to talk segments between music bridges. Signal wiped out by amateur radio carrier at 1157. Signal fair-poor at best. (S Barbour).

Zimbabwe
ZBC Gweru 3396, 0259-0307. Vernacular/English. Hi-life music into English/Vernacu;ar announcement identification as "Radio Zimbabwe" with frequency schedule mentioning shortwave and 90 meter band. Music bit at 0305, brief talk and back to music at tune-out. Signal fair at best. (S Barbour).

Contributors:
Scott Barbour, NH
Bruce Barker, PA
Bob Fraser, ME
Frank Hillton, SC
Stewart Mackenzie, CA
Albert Muick, Kabul, Afghanistan
Joe Wood, TN