Topics

226

Shortwave Broadcast / Myanmar - Thazin R. in the clear on 7345 kHz.

« on: May 05, 2016, 1400 UTC »

MYANMAR. 7345, Thazin Radio (presumed) via Pyin Oo Lwin, 1230-1243, May 5.
Very good news here - CNR1 is currently off the air, as I first noted yesterday.
Now Myanmar is in the clear with pop songs and some indigenous music; in
vernacular; mostly fair. Very pleasant listening now!

My audio at  https://goo.gl/leJBQk 

227

Spy Numbers / VC01 & V13 (Xing Xing BS)

« on: May 04, 2016, 1323 UTC »

CHINA. 4029-USB, VC01 (Chinese Military numbers station),
1224, May 4. Numbers in Chinese; almost fair.

TAIWAN. 9725-AM, Xing Xing BS (Star Star Broadcasting Station),
V13,, 1208, May 4. Ex: 7502-AM; numbers in Chinese; close
to fair. My MP3 audio at  https://goo.gl/XmSBX3  .

Ron, listening in San Francisco at Ocean Beach, Calif.
Etón E1, antenna: 100' long wire

228

Shortwave Broadcast / Myanmar Radio 9730 kHz. 1102 UTC April 27, 2016

« on: April 27, 2016, 1654 UTC »

MYANMAR. 9730, Myanmar Radio, on April 27 was checking
at 1102 for the Wednesday edition of R. Australia's "English for
Business" language lesson, but it was preempted by live sports
coverage (soccer?) in vernacular; good number of mentions of
"Myanmar"; coverage ended at 1122; filler music till the normal
singing jingle ID and suddenly cut off at 1130.

229

Clandestine Stations / Echo of Hope - VOH 4885 kHz. 1156 UTC April 27, 2016

« on: April 27, 2016, 1651 UTC »

KOREA SOUTH. 4885, Echo of Hope - VOH, suddenly
on at 1156 with singing jingle ending with "VOH" on April 27;
fair, but within an hour up to good reception. Since they first
went of the air here (Dec 21, 2015), have never heard any
jamming; whereas // 3985 // 6003 and // 6348 always seem
to have white noise jamming. This is still easy to ID with the
often heard "V O H" in English. 

230

Shortwave Broadcast / SIBC - Voice of the Nation 9545 kHz. 0507-0759 UTC April 26

« on: April 26, 2016, 1157 UTC »

SOLOMON ISLANDS. 9545, SIBC - Voice of the Nation.
Tuned in at 0507 to find them on the air past their normal
cut off time of 0500; started out very poorly and slowly
improved by the time they suddenly went off the air at
0759. Some of the highlights of April 26 reception:

0533-0658: DJ in Pijin playing mostly pop USA hit songs
(Commodores with "Nightshift," etc.).

0658: Full ID with frequencies ("SIBC, Radio Happy Isles,
Voice of the Nation"); calliope music; into the news and
weather in English till 0715. Honiara sunset at 0712 UT.

0715-0730: Weekly program in English.

0730-0745: Pop USA hit songs (Starship with "Nothing's
Gonna Stop Us Now," etc.); 0733 SIBC schedule for today.

0745: Health program in Pijin with info about health
issues for new babies; intro and closing song in English
("Eat healthy, stay healthy"); followed by Solomon Airlines
flight schedule ("Are you flying Solomon Airlines today? . . .
International flights: Flight 701, 10 o'clock tomorrow morning
from Brisbane to Honiara . . . Domestic flights . . .") and
suddenly off at 0759.

Always nice to catch SIBC running well past their normal
cut off time! My audio of flight info at  https://goo.gl/DLpio1

Ron, listening in San Francisco at Ocean Beach, Calif. 

231

Shortwave Broadcast / BBS Bhutan 6034.995 kHz. 1157 UTC April 24, 2016

« on: April 24, 2016, 1512 UTC »

BHUTAN. 6034.995, BBS, from tune in at 1157 till
suddenly off the air at 1317 on April 24. Remarkable
reception! First: BBS was much stronger than PBS
Yunnan (China) also on frequency and second: BBS
ran about one hour past their usual cut off time (rare!).

1157-1202: EZL pop music.

1202-1221: Announcer in vernacular with the normal
breaks for brief indigenous instrumental music.

1221-1224: Indigenous music and singing.

1224-1256: Chatting on the phone in vernacular; mostly OM
(in the studio) talking with young girl; long conversation; very
nice segment, as the audio via phone was much stronger
than the studio audio. My audio at  https://goo.gl/L6eSTx  .

1240-1245: Musical break.

1256: BBS indigenous music mixing with PBS's music.

1300-1314: Announcer in vernacular.

1314: Indigenous instrumental music. 1317: Went off the air.

Thanks very much to Jim Young for the exact frequency, as
he also noted the stronger than normal BBS signal today. An
eventful day for BBS reception!

Ron, listening in San Francisco at Ocean Beach, Calif. 

232

Shortwave Broadcast / Radio Vanuatu 7260 kHz. post-1205 UTC April 22, 2016

« on: April 22, 2016, 1451 UTC »

VANUATU. 7260, R. Vanuatu on April 22, just at 1205*
heard PBS Xinjian go off the air here, leaving the frequency
clear for RV reception; announcer and some pop songs;
1216 clear National Anthem (“Yumi, Yumi, Yumi”);
audio ended at 1217, but they keep the transmitter on for
a long time after that. Wish they would carry some filler
music or something, seeing as the transmitter is on anyway!

Thanks very much to Hiroyuki Komatsubara (Japan) for the
tip about the post-1205 reception of Radio Vanuatu! Should
be of help to many DXers.

Ron
San Francisco

233

Shortwave Broadcast / Tribute to Prince on ABC's Double J via R. Australia

« on: April 22, 2016, 1409 UTC »

AUSTRALIA. 9580, (good) // 12065 (poor) // 12085
(fair) with ABC's Double J via R. Australia at 1142
on April 22 and subsequent checking. Tribute to Prince
that will be carried all weekend; comments and playing
Prince songs; http://doublej.net.au/ . Yesterday 9580
was silent.

BTW - Not // 4835 ABC Alice Springs NT, which had
"Grandstand" live sports coverage.

Ron, listening in San Francisco at Ocean Beach, Calif.

234

Spy Numbers / China vs Taiwan spy station V13 (Xing Xing BS)

« on: April 19, 2016, 1443 UTC »

TAIWAN[non-log]. 7502.0-AM, StarStar Broadcasting Station
(Xing Xing BS) (V13). For some time now I have been almost
daily monitoring their 1200-1230 & 1300-1330 schedule here;
normally with fair or better, un-jammed reception of their Chinese
numbers.

A major surprise on April 19 to tune in at 1206 to find program
jamming of CNR1 (// 6125) on 7501.5 for the very first time,
totally blocking any chance to tell if Xing Xing BS was even
on the air today. CNR1 jamming still on at 1326.

If these segments of Xing Xing BS are vital to the Taiwan
intelligence community, then we can look for them to move this
station to an un-jammed frequency in the near future.

Ron, listening at Asilomar State Beach (near Monterey), Calif.

235

Shortwave Broadcast / "Yunnan Radio and Television International - the Voice Shangri-la" 6035 kHz

« on: April 18, 2016, 1731 UTC »

CHINA. 6035.0, PBS Yunnan, 1250-1302, April 18, with
remarkable Asian reception; in Vietnamese; brief language
lesson in Chinese/Vietnamese (very simple words); 1300
multi-language IDs (one in English and Chinese - "SW liu
ling san wu. Yunnan Radio and Television International,
the Voice Shangri-la"); after ID went to Chinese programming.
Extremely happy to have had this rare opportunity to actually
catch a very readable ID. My audio at  https://goo.gl/SraLny .

BTW - BBS Bhutan (6035.05) had a respectable signal today till
cut off at 1214*.

Ron, listening at Asilomar State Beach (near Monterey), Calif.

236

Shortwave Broadcast / MADAGASCAR MWV with "African Pathways Radio" 9480 kHz. *0400 UTC April 15, 2016

« on: April 15, 2016, 0614 UTC »

MADAGASCAR. 9480, MWV with "African Pathways Radio," *0400, April 15.
Back on the air again! Trumpets; "Welcome to African Pathways Radio. This
is Edet Udofia. I am so glad you are joining us today. We bring you one
interesting program after another to uplift you and help you along life's path.
My co-host is Henry Huffard"; Bible reading; gave today's program schedule;
religious song "Into the World," sung by Zambian vocal group; fairly readable.
My audio at  https://goo.gl/bii3My  .

Ron, listening at Asilomar State Beach (near Monterey), Calif.

237

Clandestine Stations / Radio Free Sarawak 15420 khz. 1300* UTC April 12, 2016

« on: April 13, 2016, 2153 UTC »

15420, Radio Free Sarawak, per Aoki via Palauig-Zambales (Philippines),
1240-1300*, April 12. A rare reception for me, as normally when I daily
check on this, all I hear is a well below threshold level open carrier, as the
higher bands are mostly dead about this time period, but today well above
threshold; in vernacular chatting via phone; 1258 ID for "Radio Free Sarawak"
and pop song till off. BTW - Aoki schedule for RFS is incorrect (his dated
April 13 1100UT shows 1230*.

Ron, listening at Asilomar State Beach (near Monterey), California

238

Shortwave Broadcast / Bhutan & Myanmar

« on: April 12, 2016, 0657 UTC »

BHUTAN. 6035.05, BBS, 1146-1233*, April 11. Normal segment of
pop songs till ToH (unable to confirm if in English, as had been noted
in the past); 1215-1230 very distinctive indigenous instrumental music/
singing; usual PBS Yunnan (6035.00) QRM. Certainly one of their better
days and running somewhat past their usual sign off time!

My audio, starting with indigenous instrumental music/singing (mixing
with PBS announcer), followed by BBS announcer in vernacular (mixing
with PBS music) - https://goo.gl/Ar1Al7  .

MYANMAR. 7200.00, Myanmar Radio on April 11 again with their best
transmitter, providing fair to good reception; at 1328 heard their normal,
very distinctive format - singing jingle ID giving three different "kilohertz",
then indigenous instrumental theme music followed by chimes/bells; in
vernacular; BoH UT is their ToH local time. Can now be heard from about
1300 to 1500, after the CNR1 jamming of RTI ends.

My nice clear audio of BoH format -  https://goo.gl/XbNMSU .

Ron, listening at Asilomar State Beach (near Monterey), California

239

Shortwave Broadcast / Myanmar Radio with R. Australia program on 9730 kHz.

« on: April 06, 2016, 1438 UTC »

MYANMAR. 9730, Myanmar Radio, 1112-1129*,
April 6 (Wednesday). Start of the Radio Australia
program "English for Business," lesson 14; language
lesson with both English and Burmese ("There’s a
slight hitch. Sorry about this. If you’ll just bear with
us for a minute," etc.); semi-readable with slight SOH
(Taiwan) QRM; full transcript at http://goo.gl/bw9EYq .
Nice to find Myanmar is still carrying these programs
on Monday (about 1030 UTC or so) & Wednesday.
 
Ron, listening in San Francisco at Ocean Beach, CA

240

Shortwave Broadcast / INDIA - AIR Aizawl reactivated on 5050 kHz.

« on: April 06, 2016, 1435 UTC »

INDIA. 5050, AIR Aizawl, 1230-1235, April 6. Wonderful
to hear this one again, as they had been silent for about
six months; the best reception for me is this time period
when they carry the AIR news in English, via a relay
from New Delhi, which always produces stronger
audio (better modulation level) than the local AIR
studio; ID "This is All India Radio. The news read
by . . ."; semi-readable as there was QRM from
Beibu Bay Radio (China) also on frequency. AIR
with very respectable signal!

Ron, listening in San Francisco at Ocean Beach, CA