Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Blog Logs - Asia

The following additional logs were excluded from my Broadcast Logs column in Monitoring Times magazine at www.monitoringtimes.com/ for space contraints. Special thanks to the contributors. Submissions for the magazine or blog are always welcomed at the above email address.
Gayle Van Horn

All times UTC // parallel frequency *sign-on sign-off*

Australia
ABC Northern Territory Service (Alice Springs) 2310, 1204-1215. Pop music tunes to announcer chat. Poor signal noted with fading // 2325 slightly weaker // 2485 barely there (Bolland).

Bangladesh
Bangladesh Betar 7250, *1228-1235. Flute interval signal and muffled talk at 1230. Could not make out any additional details due to audio quality, low modulation and amateur radio interference. An overall very poor signal quality (Alexander).

Bhutan
BBS (presumed) 6035, 1402-1418. Heard in English with usual BBS musical bridge, but lost to PBS Yunnan when they started playing the traditional Chinese music (Howard).

China
Central People's Broadcasting Station 4750, 2350-2359. Weak signal quality during Chinese comments to 2355. Signal very poor (Bolland).

Central People's Broadcasting Station (presumed) 9675, 0945-0955. Chinese comments over music program for fair signal quality (Bolland).

China Huayi broadcasting Company (Fuzhou) 4830, 1224-1229. Chinese programming, poor but steady signal quality. Station heard on subsequent recheck at threshold level (Evans).

China National Radio 1 (Beijng) 5030, 1216-1218. Chinese from male/female announcer duo. Poor signal with fading. Appeared to be in parallel with weak signal on 5945 kHz (Evans).

China National Radio 1, 7185, 1349. Used as jamming against Taiwan, the echo was not apparent; clearly // 5030 (Howard).

China National Radio 1 9680, 1349-1353. Fair reception, heard with echo (they were operating more than one jamming transmitter and out of synch, causing an echo). Parallel on 5030; several other stations under them with poor reception, one in Chinese (possibly Taiwan, intended for the jamming) and perhaps the other was RRI-Jakarta (Howard).

China National Radio 2/China Business Radio 9810, 1158-1210. Chinese chat to local pop music. English ID as, "China Business Radio" at 1201 and back to Chinese talk. Fair signal, much weaker on // 6090, 7245, 7315 and 7375 (Alexander).

Voice of Pujiang (Shanghai) 4950, 1226-1236. Programming of Chinese music for threshold level signal. Heard the next day with announcer's Chinese text and similar quality signal (Evans).

Voice of the Strait (Fuzhou) 4900, 1222-1227. Chinese programming including occasional Chinese musical bridges, joined by lady announcer at 1223. Continued Chinese music at 1225. Poor signal noted with some fading. Noted on next-day recheck at 1223-1230 with pop music and lady announcer's presentations (Evans).

Clandestine-Shiokaze Sea Breeze 5985, *1400-1403. Before their sign-on observed strong jamming (pulsating noise, assume from North Korea). Mixing with Myanmar, after sign-on signal was a mess with jamming and Myanmar and Shiokaze mixing together - seemed to be in Japanese (Howard).

Indonesia
RRI-Jakarta (presumed) 9680, 1130-1150. Pop music program to 1137, followed by announcer's Indonesian comments. Noted interference from co-channel station in Chinese, possibly from Taiwan (Bolland).

RRI-Jakarta 9680. Kang Guru Indonesia program with random checking between 0800-0822. Only carrier at 0800 and below threshold level. Heard in English at 0820 talking about next week's programming. Clear mention of Kang Guru and giving the usual end of program announcements. Signal very poor and only able to catch a few words (Howard).

RRI-Kendari (presumed) (Kendari) 3995.04, 1245-1251. Bahasa service for station announcements. Observed threshold level signal, up and down in noise with amateur radio interference (Evans).

RRI-Manokwari (Manokwari) 3987.05, 1136-1204. Bahasa service including pop music tunes to brief announcements at 1159 followed by the station's Song of the Coconut Island interval signal. Newscast at 1200. Signal quality poor initially, improving to good after 1155 (Evans).

Voice of Indonesia, 9525, 1122-1130. Language lessons at tune-in until 1123. Assume this program in Chinese. Program comments over background music. Signal of fair quality (Bolland)

Japan
NHK/Radio Japan 9690, 0950-1000. Female announcer's Indonesian text for presumed newscast to 0954. Fair signal quality (Bolland).

NHK/Radio Japan 9710, 0955-1005. Steady musical interval signal mixing with Radio Australia's Tok Pisin broadcast. Station identification at 1000, followed by newscast. Signal fair despite sharing this frequency with Radio Australia (Bolland).

Laos
Lao National Radio 6130, 1415-1427. Two lady announcer's French conversation, which agrees with their program schedule. English lesson as Functioning in Business followed by Sport Analyze program for Friday and Saturday.Observed interference from assumed China's PSS Xizang from Tibet (Howard).

Northern Marianas Islands
Radio Liberty relay 9520, 0915-0930. News and commentary in Russian. Signal very good (Bolland).

Myanmar
Myanma Radio-Minorities and Educational Service, 5915, 1425-1512.* Vernacular segments of reading long list of numbers and segment on "Psychological testing, part one" and "how well did you do?" Back to vernacular text. At sign-off the usual brief selection of indegenous instrumnetal music. Stations' sign-off times vary considerably day-to-day, but about 1512 is a frequent time for them to sign-off. Station mixing with China Radio International (Howard).

Myanma Radio 5985, 1404-1414. Station mixing with Shiokaze, both about equal strength, but with no jamming observed. Myanmar Defense Forces BS on 5770 fair in Vernacular language with indegenous singing. Signal was poor (Howard).

Myanma Radio 5985, 1450-1536. Programming in vernacular in presumed Burmese songs. Noted in English at 1530 into news (ceremonies held in Yangon attended by Minister of Information. Several mentions of "Myanma Radio and Television." Station ID as, "this news comes to you from Yangon, Myanma Radio" followed by mention of "the weather news issued at 7 pm." Noted the ansence of their usual slogans and patriotic pep talk but instead went straight into their music program. (Howard).

Myanmar Defense Forces BS via Taunggyi 5770, 1431-1445. In vernacular with easy-listening pop songs and ballads. Signal almost fair. Seemed to be a very weak station under this one (Howard).

Myanmar Defense Forces BS via Taunggyi 5770, 1513. Noted earlier report this was in USB, today noted signal in conventional DSB mode. Could hear all three in AM, LSB and USB. Programming in vernacular service with a fair signal quality (Howard).

North Korea
Korean Central BS (presumed) 9665, 0938-0950. Korean service including program segments and martial march music, interspersed with announcer's comments. Poor signal quality. (Bolland).

Voice of Korea, 9650, 0930-0940. Announcer's Japanese program comments to choral style music. Fair signal quality (Bolland).

Philippines
Radio Pilipinas/VOP 15285, 0211-0251. English service. Dateline and Today in Philippines History programs. Station identification as; "Radio Pilipinas Overseas Service, the Voice of the Philippines." Update Mindanao program. Observed signal as mostly fair, but with moderately strong hum noted (Howard).

Radio Veritas Asia 9615, 1120-1135+. Observed religious music at tune-in to 1122. Brief announcers' Chinese comments followed by extended Chinese discourse (religious sermon ?). Signal experienced fading while remaining at a fair level (Bolland).

Singapore
Radio Netherlands (Kranji) 6120, 2303-2310. Bahasa service from announcer duo. Poor signal quality // 9525 (Tinang) noted with a slightly better signal quality (Evans).

Sri Lanka
Radio Free Afghanistan-Radio Azadi 9990, 1120-1331.* Talk in unidentified language. Brief instrumnetal music breaks and "Radio Azadi" identifications. Program interviews and phone chats. Reception poor at tune-in, gradually improving to good at 1135-1215. Signal poor-weak in noisy conditions by 1300 (Alexander).

Taiwan
Radio Taiwan International 7185, 1130-1145+. Male/female announcers' Chinese comments. Station // 9680 where Taiwan has been interfering with Indonesia. Signal on 7185 very good, signal on 9680 poor (Bolland).

Thailand
Radio Thailand 15275, 0218-0231. Good reception in English for the "Global News" and "Take on Thailand" about going to temples and monasteries to take meditation classes. Chimes signal and into Thai service (Howard).

Radio Thailand 12095, 0058-0105. Caught close of English broadcast with theme music, gongs, English ID and anthem. Thai service commencing at 0102. Signal surprisingly good, strong signal (Alexander).

Vietnam
Voice of Vietnam (Son Tay) 9840, 2333-2340. English news read by male/female announcers. Station identification at 2340. Signal obseved as weak with slight improvement by 2340 (Evans).
Contributors
Brian Alexander, PA
Chuck Bolland, FL
Jim Evans, TN
Ron Howard, CA