AIR Vividh Bharati 9865 kHz 1608 UTC 1 Oct 2018

[Treehouse SWL]

Tuned in AIR's Vividh Bharati service at 1608-1643 UTC on 9865 kHz with lots of Indian music and Hindi talking in between. The signal was very audible, but never above barely fair with frequent fading in and out.

It slowly strengthened a little between 1610 and 1625 UTC, but as 1645 UTC and local mid-morning approached, it faded back out, as it has in the past when I've caught this service.

As Ct Yankee noted, today is the 80th anniversary of AIR's external service, though this Vividh Bharati service is more domestically oriented.

[MDK2]

I try to check for this one most mornings in the fall and winter months, along with AIR on 11560 which is often the strongest AIR signal anywhere on the band for me, at any time. (East coasters can often get it in the late afternoon on 9445 or 7550, but those are almost impossible for me.) Here's how 9865 is this morning in Denver:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC5DKGQZ9dg

[Treehouse SWL]

Funnily enough, this service on 9865 kHz was even a bit better today, as there was pretty low noise across the bands here.

The AIR general service on 11560 kHz is indeed the strongest, most reliable frequency for hearing India here, too, as all those other frequencies audible from the U.S. East Coast are not great at daytime here or clash with broadcasts from China. It used to sign off (as recently as August) at 1545 UTC (8:45 a.m. here) with 15 minutes of English, but when I tuned in today, AIR now stays there until 1715 UTC. It's listed as Russian in that last hour, but I couldn't tell for sure.

[MDK2]

Yes, they seem to have ceased the 15 minutes of English and now sign off at 1530. It's a shame because it's the only AIR in English I could ever seem to copy.