All India Radio to expand global services; To cover Japan, Germany, Canada

[Oliver]

http://www.financialexpress.com/industry/all-india-radio-to-expand-global-services-to-cover-japan-germany-canada/877501/

[BoomboxDX]

Wow, very cool. Some of the Canadian programs may reach the US as well, naturally.

Cool pic of the guy listening to a small boombox -- can't recognize the brand, though.

[Fansome]

Any word from Partial India Radio related to this?

[Looking-Glass]

That's good news, while everyone else is cutting back or closing services entirely it's refreshing to see India taking a more proactive response to shortwave broadcasting.

I often tune into to their service to Australia and the Pacific on 11 and 13MHz and the signal is always good, although transmitter faults are not uncommon, one night this week they didn't come on air at all.

[skeezix]

Cool pic of the guy listening to a small boombox -- can't recognize the brand, though.

The brand is Nakai. Unable to find anything further on it.

[ChrisLobdell]

Sanjay and Harald Krishna of PIR plan to up the ante on their end and provide service to Montreal I understand.

[Josh]

India still has a large portion of populace that can barely afford a sw set let alone a pc and high speed innernets so swbc is still relevant to India. Also their neighbors are in just about the same shape so they have plenty of listeners.

[Looking-Glass]

Josh, you are correct, I noticed this when I was in India and Pakistan, many people, who had the money to buy batteries, still using shortwave receivers in villages and semi rural areas.

Same applies to the majority of islands in the Pacific, many villagers in remote islands that have no aviation service and only get a ship every two or three months still rely on shortwave radio to stay abreast of events. They were shocked when Radio Australia pulled the plug back in January.

Not long back some aid agency was giving away "wind up" power shortwave receivers to some islanders, a similar programme operated in Africa some years back I recall.

Now there's not a lot for the Pacific islanders to listen to, just Radio New Zealand, Radio Vanuatu and Solomon Islands BC on shortwave, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and New Caledonia have terminated their outer island services on HF altogether.

However, with a decent piece of wire strewn through the coconut palms they tune Australian and other Pacific stations on Medium Wave, better than nothing.

[Pigmeat]

Sanjay and Harald Krishna of PIR plan to up the ante on their end and provide service to Montreal I understand.

Sanjay's up to the minute weather reports by looking out the window were years ahead of their time. Doppler radar still can't beat him.

Off topic, how many people were posting on the old FRN as Sanjay in the pre-password days? Some days there would be three or four of them going at it. By Ganesha's great hanging gonads, it was a jumble, by Jove!

[BoomboxDX]

Josh, you are correct, I noticed this when I was in India and Pakistan, many people, who had the money to buy batteries, still using shortwave receivers in villages and semi rural areas.

Same applies to the majority of islands in the Pacific, many villagers in remote islands that have no aviation service and only get a ship every two or three months still rely on shortwave radio to stay abreast of events. They were shocked when Radio Australia pulled the plug back in January.

Not long back some aid agency was giving away "wind up" power shortwave receivers to some islanders, a similar programme operated in Africa some years back I recall.

Now there's not a lot for the Pacific islanders to listen to, just Radio New Zealand, Radio Vanuatu and Solomon Islands BC on shortwave, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and New Caledonia have terminated their outer island services on HF altogether.

However, with a decent piece of wire strewn through the coconut palms they tune Australian and other Pacific stations on Medium Wave, better than nothing.

Hi LookingGlass,
Wasn't aware that Pacific Islanders had any concerns about Radio Australia discontinuing... I figured they would, but hadn't heard it expressed in fact.

Luckily New Zealand is serving the islands. Sounds like they don't have any intentions of stopping, at least for the next few years.

The islands seem to have a strong connection with NZ, I know that Pitcairn, at least, was administered through an office in NZ (if memory serves).

I wonder which MW stations can be received in the islands with a good portable, without an external antenna.

[Josh]

"I wonder which MW stations can be received in the islands with a good portable, without an external antenna."

I was thinking the same thing. Sw should be spectacular too, surrounded by all that salt water. I wonder if anyone will ever get a utwente style sdr going on one of the islands and share the take with the world?

[Looking-Glass]

I know from when I was living on Nauru and Tarawa (Western Kiribati) in the Central Pacific it was not uncommon to pick up Fiji, northern Australia, New Zealand, PNG, Solomon Islands plus Hawaii and Guam on MW just using a simple AM/FM cassette radio with a telescopic antenna or inbuilt ferrite rod. 

Not forgetting the high powered Asian MW stations too, especially Japan, Korea, the Philippines and China. 

The 5Kw powered and up MW stations were pretty reliable reception back in those days when propagation too was a lot better.

The Station Engineer at Radio Kiribati (Mr Bill Rieher) on Tarawa had a world map in his workshop with flag needles marking places where reception reports were received from and I was amazed at some of the distances achieved on the MW transmission alone.  They also had a shortwave link to Christmas and the Line/Phoenix Islands (Eastern Kiribati) back then too, think that has been discontinued.

Tarawa would have to be one of the top places for a MW DXpedition too, totally flat atolls and right on the equator with loads of high coconut palms to string wire through, not to mention chasing NDB's too. 

[BoomboxDX]

"AM-FM radio cassette recorder"... sounds like it might have been a boombox.

Boomboxes often had very good radio sections. I've always been pleasantly surprised. Did some of my best DXing on one back in the 1980's.

[Josh]

Now if we can get smolinski to finance our Tarawa 2018 DXpedition via squid sales....