Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Blog Logs

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

All times UTC, frequencies in kHz, English unless otherwise indicated // parallel frequencies.
* sign-on - sign-off *

Ascension Island
(broadcasting to Sierra Leone) Cotton Tree News 9525, 0734-0738. English news about the Love One Another Campaign. News on the building project at the Freetown YMCA which should be completed in a few months. Station ID "this is CTN, Freetown" and "CTN ...now the news in local languages." Fair signal quality. (R Howard, CA)

Bangladesh
Bangla Betar 7250, *1228-1230. Interval signal to local music and opening ID announcement at 1230. Weak modulation and lots of thumderstorm static. Signal just too poor to catch any further details. (B Alexander, PA)

Bolivia
Radio Mosoj Chaski 3310, 1017-1030. Bolivian folk music at tune-in, followed by announces comments. Fair signal quality. (C Bolland, FL)

Bonaire
Radio Japan relay 17605, 2314. Japanese service. SIO 444. Classical music program. (S MacKenzie, CA)

Croatia
Croatian Radio/Voice of Croatia 3984.86, 2315-2330, Croatia Today program of news and weather, plus program schedule at 2321. Local pop music at 2323. Signal very weak, better on // 7285 via Germany. (B Alexander, PA)

Costa Rica
Radio Exterior Espana relay 17850, 2257. Spanish. SIO 444. Vocal music to lady's station ID and info to 2300.* (S MacKenzie, CA)

Cuba
Radio Nacional de Venezuela 6060, 1110. News and comments in Spanish. SIO 554. (B Fraser, ME)

French Guiana
Radio Japan relay 6195, 0945-1000. News and commentary in Japanese. Signal good and steady for this relay to sign-off at 1000. (C Bolland, FL)

Gabon
RTV Gabonaise 4777, 0507. News or talk from announcer with phone-ins from listeners. (J Wood, TN)

Indonesia
RRI-Biak 4920, 1402-1427+. Jakarta theme music at 1402, then into program of vocal music. Signal fair-poornot rising above the band noise. (J Wilkins, CO)

RRI-Manokwari 3987.04, 1400-1430. Short Jakarta programming close at 1406. Male announcer into Arabic/subcontinental-influenced vocal music. No announcements heard from 1408-1430 tuneout. Pretty good signal but QRM by amateur radio operators and Echo of Hope station below on 3985. (J Wilkins, CO)

Libya
Voice of Africa 21695, 1500. News in English read by male with focus on topics in Africa. SIO 353. (P Ng, Malaysia)

Myanmar
Radio Myanmar 5985.82, 1441-1451.+ English talk segments-possibly news but could not tell for sure as signal was on the decline. Brief music bridge at 1448, followed by more talk. Music noted after 1500 but quite weak by then. (J Wilkins, CO)

Peru
Radio Luz y Sonido (presumed) 3234.81, 1005-1015. Noted very weak signal here with a male/female announcers comments after music. "Peru" mentioned as signal fading. This coupled with the noise and a het via Radio New West Britain made details difficult to get. C Bolland, FL)

Radio Vision 4790.2, 0417-0430. Familiar format of Spanish religious programming into "live" sermon of fair signal quality. (S Barbour, NH)

South Africa
Radio Sondergrense 3320, 0221-0230. Afrikaans programming including pop music tunes from Abba. Fair signal quality. J Wood, TN)

Sudan
Republic of Sudan Radio 7200, 0517-0527. Lady announcers mix of pop and Middle Wastern music, followed by traditional Arabic music program. Fair signal quality. (J Wood, TN)

Thailand
Bangkok Meteorological Radio 8743USB, 1008-1012. Interval signal to ID as "this is Bangkok Meteorological ........." SINPO 25432. Reported at 1035 on 6765USB with 25442 SINPO. (A. Slaen, Argentina)

Turkey
Voice of Turkey 15450, 1309. Report on English Literature being taught in high schools. SIO 554. (B Fraser, ME) 6295, 2230. Letterbox program. SIO 554. (B Fraser, ME)

Contributors:
Brian Alexander, PA
Scott Barbour, NH
Chuck Bolland, FL
Bob Fraser, ME
Ron Howard, CA
Arnaldo Slaen, Argentina
Peter Ng, Malaysia
Stewart Mackenzie, CA
John Wilkins, CO
Joe Wood, TN

Photo of Ascension Island flyover via World QSL Book