Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Blog Logs

All times UTC

Japan
5985 Shiokaze/Sea Breeze via Yamata, Japan, Nov 3 first day of heavy jamming, also covered Myanma Radio on 5985.8. Reception this past week fair to poor, with Nov 2 (Fri.) in English with "Shiokaze Sea Breeze" ID. Still need to check if they use callsigns (JSR) in any IDs. (Ron Howard-CA-USA, JPNpremium )

Kazakhstan
As in B-06 Voice of Orthodox (Golas Pravaslavia) in Russian 1630- 1700 Tue and Fri on 7460 kHz, announced address in St. Petersburg Russia. (Rumen Pankov-BUL, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 9)

North Korea
Voice of Korea was reported on Nov the 3rd at 1600 with Nat. Anthem and prgrs in English on 3560 \\ 9990 and in French on 4405 \\ 13760. BTW on Nov the 5th at 0700 UT started the winter schedule - times are as in A-07 and freqs are as in B-06. (Rumen Pankov-BUL, wwdxc BC-DX Nov 9)

11735v Voice of Korea in Russian at 0800-0900 UT. Noted two independent carriers here, the stronger on 11734.90, and another on 11735.03 kHz, hetting each other. Two co-channels txs in use ?
(wb, Nov 10)

4450 KCBS Pyongyang, 1127-1140, Nov 10, Korean. Announcer at tune-in ballads from 1135 thru t/out. Poor/weak under QRN. (Scott Barbour-NH-USA, DXplorer Nov 11)

Kuwait
13620 DRM Radio Kuwait Nov 11 at 1145 Conversation in Arabic with gentleman on telephone; strong signal, S/N 15-16 dB, 100% intelligible with no dropouts on this 11.64 kbps stream. (Ralph Brandi-NJ-USA, DXplorer Nov 11)

Laos
Lao National Radio
- updated information. There's a bunch of links on Lao National Radio's web page under which you can find information on Lao regional broadcasting. Here are some bits of information on unlisted and upgraded stations:

Khammouane Provincial Radio Station was established in 1996 and broadcasts on 765 kHz using a 10 kW transmitter donated by China.

Luang Prabang Radio Station recently acquired a 10 kW AM transmitter from the USA, and now broadcasts across the entire province on 705 kHz.

Oudomxai Provincial Radio and Television Station was completely rebuilt in 1993 and today it's broadcasting on 102 MHz FM using a 100W TSD transmitter donated by China and on 705 kHz AM using a 1 kW transmitter donated by China.

Vientiane Capital Radio and Television Station has had two second-hand transmitters that have been donated by Lao National Radio - a 50 kW transmitter which broke down and could not be repaired due to lack of spare parts, and most recently a 10 kW transmitter which is still
operating. Today Vientiane Capital Radio and Television Station broadcasts for 10 hours each day on 640 kHz. (LNR web page via via ARC MV-Eko Nov 12) Comments by Alan Davis:

Vientiane has been using 640 kHz for a few years, replacing 702 kHz, but unfortunately for DXers it was only operating in local daylight at 2330- 1000 UTC last time I checked. I suppose there's a faint chance it could be detected in Europe around the 2330 sign-on. I believe the 10 kW 640 kHz transmitter is the unit that used to carry LNR International Service on 1030
kHz.

I've never been able to hear Khammouane 765 kHz, and suspect it may be inactive. It was definitely not on air when I visited the Thai city of Nakhon Phanom, just across the Mekong, which would have been in 1999 as I recall. In the past few years I've checked 765 quite often from various locations in Laos and neighbouring countries, but have never heard a Lao
station on that frequency. In WRTH 2008 I've marked the listing as "unconfirmed".

Oudomxay's listed MW frequency is 800 kHz 1 kW with a Chinese transmitter, rather than 705 kHz as mentioned below, so probably 705 is a mix-up with Luang Prabang. In any case, I believe Oudomxay has been inactive for several years on MW and is now on FM only, based on information from recent Internet sources.

Luang Prabang has been heard much better at night over the past few years on 705 kHz than it used to be, so the story about the new 10 kW transmitter is very credible. For some reason they decided to stay on the split frequency. (Alan Davis-Asia via ARC MV-Eko Nov 12)


Liberia
4760 presumed ELWA Radio, 2125-2301* UT on Nov 14, English. Rough copy at t/in w/ CODAR,QRN and fading. Bits of religous talk b/w music. Slowly improving by ToH w/ OM w/ more religous talk; real "feel good" stuff; b/w choral music bits. Contact info for California. Hymn-like music from 2226 UT, sounded Italian, until barely audible announcer at
2300 followed by Liberian NA. NA matches that of old R. Liberia clip at intervalsignals.net

Liberia 4760 reactivated? Not 100% certain with this, but the NA and s/off time, which they
broadcasted up to occassionaly, lean toward ELWA. (Scott R. Barbour-NH-USA, DXplorer Nov 14)

I was listening to ELWA at the same time (2215-2301 UT) same day. Similar programming heard here with deep fades. Went down just before TOH but the N/A came again very nicely. No positive ID here either, but N/A and freq suggests this is ELWA. Haven't heard them for a long time (I guess I haven't tried hard enough :-)

I heard 14 Nov ELWA, Monrovia, Liberia again on 4760 kHz until sign-off 2301 UT.

I checked various websites and found out that ELWA has a new 5 kW sw transmitter under installation, maybe even testing now. They will use old 4760 frequency and another channel in the 49 meterband. Some pages suggest 6070 will be used.

Not yet known which transmitter will be on which frequency. I e-mailed the station in Monrovia and hopefully we'll have the latest from them. (Jari Savolainen-FIN, DXplorer Nov 15)

Micronesia
4754.9 Pacific Missionary Aviation (tentative) on Nov 9 at 0807 UT. Christian music mixed with religious talk in English, alternating between the two; much static, not easily intellibigle, minor CODAR interference. (Ralph Brandi-NJ-USA, DXplorer Nov 11)

Mongolia
7260 presumed Mongolian Radio, at 1203-1230 UT on Nov 6, Vernacular. News/soundbites at t/in. Exotic ballads from 1211 until announcer at 1228 UT. Wiped out by USB chatter at 1230 UT. Weak/fading. (Scott Barbour-NH-USA, DXplorer Nov 11) scheduled 0700-1300 UT

Myanmar
5985.8 Radio Myanma, at 1506-1600* UT on Nov 12, in English; pop songs, political slogans ("united we stand", etc.), more songs, usual marching music, at 1516 - "9:46 Myanmar time", YL with news, many clear mentions of the State Peace and Development Council, followed by commentary given with indigenous music in the background, 1528-1558 UT non-stop generic EZL instrumental music, YL gives list of titles of the music played, ID "Myanma Radio", anthem. Poor to fair. Also briefly noted in vernacular at 1356 with fair signal, but totally covered by Shiokaze sign-on at 1400 UT on 5985.0 kHz. (Ron Howard-CA-USA


Nigeria
4770 Radio Nigeria Kaduna Nov 8 at 2111 UT. News in English, ID in news at 2114 UT, canned ID at 2115 UT, ad for station, lots more talk. (Ralph Brandi-NJ-USA, DXplorer Nov 11)

Papua New Guinea
3335 Radio East Sepik, 1147-1215, Nov 9, Tok Pisin/English. YL w/ news at t/in, ments. Lorangau. NBC relay at ToH with English news re Pakistan and U.N. Back to YL at 1203 and OM b/w choral music bits. Animal/bird-like call at 1206 into presumed radio drama thru t/out.
Remarkable signal at t/in, eventually fading out by 1215. Quick checks for other 90m PNG's revealed a few carriers but nothing like this one. (Scott Barbour-NH-USA, DXplorer Nov 11)

Russia
11615 DRM -Voice of Russia Nov 11 at 1138 UT. Signal on the brink of decoding, 12 dB S/N, but only occasional snippets of audio making it through; program in German. 17.46 kbps stream. (Ralph Brandi-NJ-USA, DXplorer Nov 11)
(Source: WWDXC Top News/BC-DX #834 via W.B., Germany)