AIR Mahalaya Special Broadcast 2021- My Observations

Every year on Mahalaya, All India Radio - Akashvani broadcasts a “special dawn programme' entitled ‘Mahisasura Mardini’. Originally composed in 1931, the 90-minute musical presentation was performed live on radio. Later, it was shifted to the pre-recorded format. The recitation narrates the creation of Goddess Durga to save the Gods from Mahishasura, the buffalo demon. Celebrated composer of the yore, Pankaj Kumar Mallick had composed the tune and top artists of that time had lent their voice to the devotional songs, which are accompanied by a Chandipath, narrated by the legendary Birendra Krishna Bhadra. For the last 90 years, welcoming Goddess Durga at the break of dawn on this day by tuning into Akashvani’s Mahisasura Mardini has been one of the most vital rituals for all devotees of Devi Durga across the globe, specially the Bengali. Like past this year also All India Radio aired this most significant musical dawn program on October 6, 2021 from 3:50 am IST.

As a radio enthusiast it has become a habit of mine for past several years to wake up at the dawn on Mahalaya and tune into my radio looking for the distance stations of All India Radio, which I normally find hard to tune in my location during normal transmission hours and every year my best toys are successfully catching loads of difficult signals from all over the country. This year I had the opportunity to listen following medium wave stations of AIR using my Degen DE-1103 receiver equipped with a telescopic antenna.

Observation Time: between 0400 IST to 0530 IST.

549 KHz – AIR Ranchi*
621 kHz – AIR Patna A*
648 KHz – AIR Indore
657 KHz – AIR Kolkata A*
675 kHz – AIR Chattarpur
684 kHz – AIR Port Blair
711 kHz – AIR Siliguri
729 kHz – AIR Guwahati (Special Mahalaya Program in Assamese)*
747 kHz – AIR Lucknow A
756 kHz – AIR Jagdalpur
801 kHz – AIR Jabalpur
828 kHz – AIR Silchar*
846 kHz – AIR Ahmedabad A
891 kHz – AIR Rampur
954 kHz – AIR Nazibabad
981 kHz – AIR Raipur
1026 kHz – AIR Allahabad A
1179 kHz – AIR Rewa
1242 kHz – AIR Varanasi*
1269 kHz – AIR Agartala*
1296 kHz – AIR Darbhanga
1386 kHz – AIR Gwalior
1404 kHz – AIR Gangtok
1593 kHz – AIR Bhopal A

(*) indicates stations with strong reception.

Meanwhile, at present the most amazing online platform for listening various AIR regional stations is ‘NewsOnAIR’, the official mobile app of All India Radio, where one can tune into numerous AIR stations from all the states of India. On Mahalaya dawn checked into this platform too and found the following stations with Mahisasura Mardini.

National & International:  AIR Neighborhood Service -2, AIR World Service -1, Port Blair PC
Andhra_Pradesh: AIR Vijayawada, FM Rainbow Vijayawada
Assam: AIR Assamese, AIR Silchar
Bihar: AIR Bhagalpur, AIR Darbhanga, AIR Patna, AIR Purnima
Chhattisgarh: AIR Ambikapur, AIR Jagdalpur, AIR Raipur, AIR Saraipali
Delhi: FM Gold, FM Rainbow, AIR Indraprastha, AIR Rajdhani
Gujarat:  AIR Gujarat, AIR Bhuj
Jharkhand: AIR Chaibasa, AIR Daltonganj, AIR Hazaribag, AIR Ranchi, AIR Ranchi VBS, FM Rainbow Ranchi
Kerala: AIR Kochi FM Rainbow
Madhya Pradesh: AIR Bhopal, AIR Chattarpur, AIR Gwalior, AIR Indore, AIR Indore, AIR Jabalpur, AIR Rewa
Maharashtra: FM Gold Mumbai, FM Rainbow Mumbai, Samvadita Mumbai
Odisha: AIR Cuttack FM Rainbow
Puducherry: AIR Pudu Rainbow
Rajasthan: AIR Jaipur
Sikkim: AIR Gangtok
Tamilnadu: Chennai FM Gold, Chennai FM Rainbow, AIR Tamil, AIR Coimbatore Rainbow, AIR Kodaikanal, AIR Madurai, AIR Tiruchirapalli.
Telengana: Hyderabad FM Rainbow
Tripura: FM Ujjayanta,  Agartala PC, AIR Belonia
Uttarakhand: AIR Almora, AIR Dehradun
Uttar Pradesh: AIR Agra, AIR Prayagraj, AIR Gorakhpur, AIR Lucknow, AIR Najibabad, AIR Varanasi, AIR Rainbow Lucknow
West Bengal: AIR Siliguri, AIR Murshidabad, AIR Kolkata FM Gold, Kolkata FM Rainbow.

©Prithwiraj Purkayastha, VU3TQD
QTH: Jorhat (Assam)

Monitoring Akashvani's Mahisasura Mardini on Mahalaya 2020

For many years now it has become a habit for me to wake-up before dawn on Mahalaya morning and tune into the radio to listen the historic radio program Mahisasura Mardini on Akashvani. As the local FM in Jorhat and nearby MW station All India Radio Dibrugarh do not play this epic Chandi Path Birendrakrishna Bhadra along with beautiful songs, for decades tuning Akashvani Kolkata or Siliguri station on radio has become a very essential part of Mahalaya celebration in our home. Our neighbors may have already switched to other modern ways to play Mahisasura Mardini but we are still sticked with radios. Ever since my association with DXing, which is a hobby to try tuning and identifying distance radio stations, this Mahalaya dawn become of immense importance to me to tune as much Akashvani stations as my radio can catch both on Shortwave and Mediumwave bands. This is because all the stations play this common content and they can be easily identified the by just knowing it's transmission frequency. Like many yesteryears, this year also the Mahalaya dawn is not an exception for me. Found a load of MW stations carrying that most popular musical content of Durga Puja festival. But unfortunately could not heard a single station  even on shortwave with Mahisasura Mardini! So, is this an indication for the end of one of the most heard shortwave network of world? Let's leave this question for policy makers and experts, but surely the following findings on mediumwave are still very encouraging for radio lovers to stick with most adventurous electronic hobby DXing! 

Here is a list of station I heard today carrying Mahalaya special program:

My tuning time from 4:00 am IST (2230 UTC)

549 kHz- Ranchi A

657 kHz- Kolkata A

684 kHz- Port Blair 

711 kHz- Siliguri

747 kHz- Lucknow 

756 kHz- Jagdalpur 

828 kHz- Silchar

954 kHz- Nazibabad 

My tuning time from 4:30 am IST (2300 UTC) 

981 kHz- Raipur 

1008 kHz- Kolkata B

1026 kHz- Allahabad 

1044 kHz- Mumbai A

1179 kHz- Rewa

1242 kHz- Varanasi

1296 kHz- Darbhanga 

1386 kHz- Gwalior 

1404 kHz- Gangtok 

My tuning time from 4:50 am IST (2320 UTC) 

621 kHz- Patna A

648 kHz- Indore 

666 kHz- New Delhi B

729 kHz- Guwahati (heard a different Mahalaya Program, not Mahisasura Mardini)

774 kHz- Shimla 

This year many radio lovers, including my seventy years old mother, tuned to Mahisasura Mardini on their mobile using NewsOnAir app with digital sound quality and audio without any disturbance, indicating the real fact that for most of the radio listeners ease in listening with best audio quality matters most not the receiving device. 

©Prithwiraj Purkayastha (VU3TQD) 

Monitoring President's Speech on AIR

President Ram Nath Kovind

President Shree Ram Nath Kovind addressed the nation on the eve of 74th Independence Day of India on Friday, 14th August 2020 between 7:00 pm to 7:45 pm IST (1330 to 1415 UTC) and it was broadcasted on the national network of All India Radio (AIR). The speech was in Hindi followed by English. Here is my observations on the AIR Stations carrying this annual special event. I have used my Degen DE-1103 digital radio and my antenna was an Inverted V one. Here are the stations I heard: 

Shortwave

4810 kHz- AIR Bhopal

4835 kHz- AIR Gangtok 

5010 kHz- AIR Trivandram

5040 kHz- AIR Jeypore

9865 kHz- AIR Bengalore

Mediumwave

540 kHz- AIR Ranchi 

567 kHz- AIR Dibrugarh 

576 kHz- Alappuzha

621 kHz- AIR Patna 

657 kHz- AIR Kolkata 

675 kHz- AIR Itanagar 

711 kHz- AIR Siliguri 

729 kHz- AIR Guwahati 

747 kHz- AIR Lucknow

828 kHz- AIR Silchar

837 kHz- AIR Vijaywada 

864 kHz- AIR Shillong 

882 kHz- AIR Imphal 

918 kHz- AIR Surathgarh 

927 kHz- AIR Visakhapatnam

945 kHz- AIR Sambalpur 

954 kHz- AIR Najibabad  

972 kHz- AIR Cuttack 

981 kHz- AIR Raipur 

1062 kHz- AIR Pasighat 

1233 kHz- AIR Tura 

1458 kHz- AIR Bhagalpur 

1467 kHz- AIR Jeypore 

1521 kHz- AIR Tawang 

73s, 

Prithwiraj Purkayastha (VU3TQD) 

QTH- Jorhat, Assam, India 

Reception Location:- Jorhat, Assam, India ( 26.7451° N, 94.2133° E)

Monitoring One Nation Through Radio Waves

Here is my observations on the AIR Stations carrying President Shri Ram Math Kovind's address to the nation on the eve of 71st Republic Day of India. While several Medium Wave stations were received with the transmission of President's message first in Hindi followed by in English, but this time only a few shortwave stations heard here in Jorhat (Assam) with this special annual transmission of All India Radio. I have used my Anjan DTS-10 digital radio and my antenna was an Inverted V one.

Here are the stations I heard between 1330 to 1400 UTC (1900 to 1930 IST). 

Shortwave

4810 kHz- AIR Bhopal

4835 kHz- AIR Gangtok 

4910 kHz- AIR Jaipur

4920 kHz- AIR Chennai (Strong inteefeinter from CNR)

5040 kHz- AIR Jeypore

9865 kHz- AIR Bengalore. 

Medium Wave

549 kHz- AIR Ranchi 

567 kHz- AIR Dibrugarh 

621 kHz- AIR Patna 

657 kHz- AIR Kolkata 

675 kHz- AIR Itanagar 

711 kHz- AIR Siliguri 

729 kHz- AIR Guwahati 

747 kHz- AIR Lucknow

756 kHz- AIR Jagdalpur 

765 kHz- AIR Dharwad 

801 kHz- AIR Jabalpur 

810 kHz- AIR Rajkot 

837 kHz- AIR Vijaywada 

846 kHz- AIR Ahmedabad

864 kHz- AIR Shillong 

882 kHz- AIR Imphal 

918 kHz- AIR Surathgarh 

927 kHz- AIR Visakhapatnam

936 kHz- AIR Tiruchirapalli

945 kHz- AIR Sambalpur 

954 kHz- AIR Najibabad 

963 kHz- AIR Jalgaon 

972 kHz- AIR Cuttack 

981 kHz- AIR Raipur 

1017 kHz- AIR Chennai 

1062 kHz- AIR Pasighat 

1143 kHz- Ratnagiri (very weak) 

1179 kHz- AIR Rewa

1233 kHz- AIR Tura 

1305 kHz- AIR Parbhini (very weak) 

1332 kHz- AIR Tezu 

1386 kHz- AIR Gwalior 

1458 kHz- AIR Bhagalpur 

1467 kHz- AIR Jeypore 

1521 kHz- AIR Tawang 

73s, 

Prithwiraj Purkayastha (VU3TQD) 

QTH- Jorhat, Assam, India 

Reception Location:- Jorhat, Assam, India ( 26.7451° N, 94.2133° E)

Rainsoft Calender 2015- Featured the "Forest Man of India"

Received my copy of 7th edition of RainSoft Calendar for year 2015, also known as Utpal-Dhanjeet calendar. This year the theme of this calender is Jadav Payeng, a conservationist and the "Forest Man of India" who hails from Kokilamukh area of Jorhat. Payeng is today honoured and recognized around the world for his extraordinary environment conservation effort as he single handily turned a flood hit sandbar on the banks of river Brahmaputra into a deep forest by planting trees. 

Today this 550 acres forest, full of flora and fauna, is known as Molai Kathoni (Molai's Woods), named after Jadav's nick name. The Utpal-Dhanjeet calender is a series of wonderful thematic calendar published in join venture by Utpal Datta and Dhanjeet Das. 

Earlier this calender featured eminent personalities of Assam like Homen Borgohain, Biren Dutta, Dipali Borthakur, Nilpawan Baruah, Birubala Rabha and heritage of Assam like Satriya Dance and Dima Hasao District. 

AIR Guwahati's 67th Foundation Day on 1st July 2014.

All India Radio Guwahati station will turn 67 on 1st July 2014 and to mark this occassion a special memento to be released at a grand function to be held at Rabindra Bhavan, Guwahati on the same day. If any DXer friend wishes to collect this memento, you please may write to airghy@gmail.com for details. 

(Information Curtsy:- Mr. Utpal Dutta, AIR Guwahati)

New DRM Receiver DR111 from Newstar Soon!!

Newstar Electronics and pfs-digitalradio announce the production of a new series of the well proofed and established DRM receiver DR111, provided sufficient confirmed orders will be received.

pfs-digitalradio will organize the coordinated orders from many diffe- rent customers around the world who have shown interest in the DR111 receiver. This is the reason why you receive this offer.

If you have only shown interest in the new DR212 you will also re- ceive this offer. Please decide if you want to change to the DR111 which is ready in three months after placing the order or if you want to wait for at least 12 months until the DR212 is ready developed and sufficient order quantity of at least 1.500 units is reached. Also please consider that the DR212 will be much more expensive be- cause of high developing costs. Price estimates can be given on special request and high order quantity.

The order process will happen in six steps:

1. Confirm your interest in the purchase of the DR111 together with the quantity you are interested in.
2. You will receive an offer based on the quantity of receivers in accordance with the price list below. All prices are fob (free on board) Chengdu, transport costs will be evaluated later. Custo- mers in Europe can purchase directly from me in Germany, I will handle transport, import and VAT payment. Customers in coun- tries with high order quantity can combine their order for lower prices and transport costs (India).
3. If the total order quantity reaches the critical mass for produc- tion, all interested potential customers will receive an invoice for immediate settlement and the order will be placed with Newstar.!
4. During the production time of three months the invoice for the transport to you directly or to the regional distributor will be send and have to be payed before delivery.
5. After tree month from the order date with Newstar the receivers are ready to be transported to you either directly or via a local distributor like me in Europe, provided all invoices have been settled.
6. Whenever you handle the importation in your country on your own you have to handle all custom and tax businesses by yourself.

Condition:
1.Price List (fob Chengdu/China)
1-99 DR111 175 $US
100-499 DR111 155 $US
500-999 DR111 145 $US
>1000 DR111 140 $US!

2. Payment!

All payments have to be made in full to the account mentioned on the invoice. Any trans- fer costs have to be payed additionally for by the customer. The advance payment is se- cured by a bank guaranty until the radio is delivered.!
No payment has to be made if the critical order mass or minimum order quantity is not r!eached. In this case the order process will not happen.

3. Transport

Each transport has to be handled individually because of different transport costs and conditions for each country. If a customer wants to handle the transport from Chengdu to his country by himself he is free to do so. If not I would be happy to help together with Newstar to organize the transport. In any case the importation has to be done by the customer himself. For all European customers I will arrange for transport and importation in the European Union. If a European customer prefers to handle the import on his own he is free to do so.

4. Combined orders from one country

If I receive many orders from the same country and if the customers agree I will bundle the transport to this individual country either by myself or with the help of a local distribu- tor. This would allow for much lower transport costs and if the total order quantity exceeds one of the price classes above also the price per receiver. But this need a national distri- butor and the agreement by the individual customer which should be mentioned on your order.

5. Different types of DR111

The prices mentioned above are for the DR111 basis model as explained on the flyer on the first page of this information. !
This receiver can be offered with the following options and with additional costs:!

1. DR111 Basis model plus journaline and the new audio encoder xH-AAC will be avail- able for additional 15 $US per receiver.

2. The DR111A comes without Long-Wave frequency band and would cost 3 $US per receiver less than compared to the prices of the basis model. The new audio encoder xH-AAC is not foreseen for this model at the moment.

6. Warranty

Newstar gives the following warranty information:
Please keep your electronic receipt as proof of purchase. NewStar Electronics warrants the end user that this product will be free from defects in materials or workmanship in the course of normal use for one year after the original date of purchase. This guarantee co- vers breakdowns due to manufacturing or design faults. The warranty DOES NOT apply in accidental damage, negligence, excessive voltage (lightning or power surges) or any
m!odification or repair not authorized by us or case has been removed, wear & tear.

7. Warranty Registration

It is a warranty condition that you MUST register your purchase by either mail us for regis- tration information within three month of purchasing, or registers online at www.cdnse.com/register.

8. Warranty for European Uni
All receivers sold in Europe are subject to the European Warranty Regulation and will be handled by www.pfs-digitalradio.

Peter Senger
petersenger@mac.com
pfs-digitalradio@netcologne.de
pfs-digitalradio.de
pfs-digitalradio.com

NEW DRM RECEIVER FROM NEWSTAR- DR212

Win a Family Trip to Korea!

Win a Family Trip to Korea!

MONITORING OBSERVATION- AIR MAHALAYA TRANSMISSION 2013

"Mahisasuramardini"  is a widely popular early radio programme that has been broadcast since 1932 on All India Radio (AIR.) It is a one and half-hour audio montage of Chandipath (chanting from Chandi) recitation by Late Birendra Krishna Bhadra from the scriptural verses of Sri Sri Chandi, wonderful Bengali devotional songs, classical music and a dash of acoustic melodrama. The program has also been translated into Hindi set to similar orchestration and is broadcast at the same time for a pan-Indian audience. This programme, which began in 1932, is aired every year at day-break on Mahalaya on different regional Shortwave and Medium Wave station of All India Radio or Akashvani.  The programme, which started off as a live-performance has been broadcast in its pre-recorded format since the late nineteen-sixties. However, its great popularity remains undiminished even till today and now it is being aired by AIR's FM networks as well as by many private FM channels in India, specially in Eastern India. 

Here are my monitoring observation for this year's Mahalaya special early morning program "Mahisashuramardini" transmitted by AIR regional SW and MW stations between 2225 to 0015 UTC (my monitoring time between 2225 to 2330 UTC) of 3rd October and 4th October (IST 0355 AM onwards of 4th October). My QTH geographical location Latitude: 26° 45' 0 N, Longitude: 94° 13' 0, Jorhat in Assam and I have used my JRC NRD-91 receiver and a 20 mt. long wire external antenna for these observation. 

On SHORTWAVE:- 

AIR LUCKNOW- 4880 kHz- Fair reception

                     AIR Gangtok-   4835 kHz- Good to Fair reception

                           AIR Bhopal-  4810 kHz- Good Reception 

                           AIR Kurseong- 4895 kHz- Good Reception 

 and 

AIR Jaipur- 4910 kHz- Fair reception. While AIR Kolkata (4820 kHz) was overtaken by CNR and AIR Guwahati (4920 kHz) was missing on SW.   

Stations heard with Mahalaya broadcast on MEDIUM WAVE:- 

594 kHz- Chinsurah 

657 kHz- Kolkata-A

711 kHz- Siliguri 

747 kHz- Lucknow-A

801 kHz- Jabalpur-B

828 kHz- Silchar-B

954 kHz- Najimabad

1269 kHz- Agartala 

Some other MW station I heard playing Mahisashuramardini this morning were 972 kHz- Cuttack- A, 981 kHz- Raipur, 1026 kHz- Allahabad-A, 1242 kHz- Varanashi, 756 kHz- Jagdalpur, 729 kHz- Guwahati-A (poor reception of Guwahati) and 810 kHz- Rajkot-A. 

RADIO HABANA CUBA PHILATELIC CONTEST 2013

Two historic ephemeris of great trascencency for Cuba, coincide in 2013: on January 28^th, the 160^th anniversary of José Martí’s birth and, on July 26^th, 60 years of the assault to the Moncada Barracks. 

“The World of Stamps” show invites you to answer the following question: WHAT’S YOUR OPINION ABOUT THE CUBAN STAMPS COMMEMORATING THOSE FEATS LED BY TWO MEN OF UNIVERSAL PROMINENCE: JOSÉ MARTÍ AND FIDEL CASTRO?

Every participant will receive postal issues related to the National Hero of Cuba and the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution.

The best essays will be published on RHC webpage (www.radiohc.cu) and shall be read in the philatelic program. Contest deadline is December 31^st, 2013. 

Send your entries by postal mail to RADIO HABANA CUBA, APARTADO 6240, LA HABANA- CUBA, OR email your essay to <radiohc@enet.cu>. 

Wavescan Annual DX Contest 2013- Results Announced

AWR DX program “Wavescan” take pleasure today in announcing the list of winners for the big 2013 Annual DX Contest, “Focus on Africa”. This contest took place during the month of July, and all entries were received at the Indianapolis address by the end of August. 

We are grateful again for the large number of entries received this year from so many countries around the world, and we appreciate the time consuming effort that so many listeners exerted in preparing their excellent entries. We note that many entries were from new participants this year, and we are grateful to those also who have entered on previous occasions during the past 37 years of contesting. From a long list of entries, we have chosen the following listeners to whom awards will be sent.

Here are the 2013 Continental Winners, each of whom will receive a copy of the 2014 edition of the “World Radio TV Handbook” early in the New Year:-

* Asia- Muhammad Shamim, Trivandrum, India
* Europe- Harald Denzel Egelsbach, Germany
* North America- Edward Insinger Summit NJ USA
* Latin America- Jose Roberto da Silva Cunha Governador Valaderas Brazil
* Pacific- Bruce White Karoonda SA Australia

Among the many outstanding entries in this year’s contest, neat colorful and nicely prepared, we have chosen the following to receive the Award of Merit:-

* Jonathan Short, Changshu, China
* Jose Jacob, Hyderabad, India (Has also entered every contest)
* Leonardo Santiago Puebloe Llano, Venezuela
* Vijaya Krishna Bhat, Puttur, India
* Thomas Drescher, Rosrath, Germany
* Claes Olsson, Norrkoping, Sweden
* Christian Ghibaudo, Nice, France


And now, the name of the World Winner in the big 2013 AWR Annual “Wavescan” DX Contest, “Focus on Africa”. This year’s winner also presented his entry in a neat colorful book style folder with several pages in full color. He will receive a book of his choice, one of the authoritative volumes on shortwave history written by the noted radio historian Jerome Berg of suburban Boston in the United States.

The World Winner for 2013 is:- Tony Ashar, Depok, Indonesia.

Once again, we acknowledge with appreciation the many entries in this year’s “Focus on Africa” DX Contest. Thank you for participating, and we trust that you enjoyed participating as much as we did in perusing all of the interesting entries. All entries will be acknowledged through the post, and all reception reports will be verified, though it will take time, perhaps well into the New Year, to process them all.

We invite you to enter our 2014 DX Contest, which will feature “Focus on Asia”, similar to this year’s “Focus on Africa”, though there will be an additional new innovation. The 2014 contest will be staged during the month of September, due to the fact that shortwave propagation conditions during this year’s contest in July were not so favourable.

(Curtsy:- NWS238 Sun Sep 15, 2013 via Dr. Adrian M Peterson)

RFA Announces 17th Anniversary Commemorative QSL!

Radio Free Asia (RFA) announces the release of their 17th anniversary QSL card.  RFA’s first broadcast was in Mandarin on September 29, 1996, 2100-2200 UTC. Acting as a substitute for indigenous free media, RFA concentrates its coverage on events occurring in and/or affecting the countries where we broadcast; they are:  Burma, Cambodia, Laos, North Korea, Peoples Republic of China, and Vietnam. RFA does not express editorial opinions but provides news, analysis, commentary, and cultural programming. A combination of U.S. government-operated transmitters and a variety of shortwave leased facilities support RFA. This card will be used for all valid reception reports from September 1 – December 31, 2013.

RFA encourages listeners to submit reception reports.  Reception reports are valuable to RFA as they help us evaluate the signal strength and quality of our transmissions. RFA confirms all accurate reception reports by mailing a QSL card to the listener.  RFA welcomes all reception report submissions at http://techweb.rfa.org (follow the QSL REPORTS link) not only from DX’ers, but also from its general listening audience.  If you have a smart phone, feel free to use the QR code below to access the automated reception report system and submit your reception reports to the web site.

You also have the option of using the following Microsoft Tag from your smartphone. The free mobile app for your smartphone is available at http://gettag.mobi.

Reception reports are also accepted by email at  qsl@rfa.org, and for anyone without Internet access, reception reports can be mailed to:

Reception Reports
Radio Free Asia
2025 M. Street NW, Suite 300
Washington DC 20036
United States of America

Upon your request, RFA will also send a copy of the current broadcast schedule and a station sticker.

INDEPENDENCE DAY DXING (15th August 2013)

As India today celebrated 67th Independence day and its a national holiday today, so I got the opportunity to spend some time with my radios and log these stations today at my QTH located in Jorhat in the Assam state of India. Geographical location Latitude: 26° 45' 0 N, Longitude: 94° 13' 0 E, receivers used JRC NRD-91 and Sangean ATS-909 and antenna used 20 mt. long multidirectional antenna and Kestral W31MS active loop antenna.  

Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation transmitting from Trincomalee in Hindi received on 11905 kHz around 0205 UTC with great signal today. Here is a video:- 

Bangladesh Betar Home Service transmitting from Shavar in Bengali received on 4750 kHz around 0145 UTC with clear reception. Watch the video:

Vatican Radio in Indian languages was also coming with nice signal on 15460 kHz around 0220 UTC. Here is a video:-

KTWR from Guam in English also received with fair signal on 15200 kHz around 0920 UTC. Here is a video:-

Radio Mashal from Kuwait in Poshto received on 15740 kHz around 0926 UTC with fine reception. Here is a video:-

Radio Pakistan from Islamabad in Urdu received on 15725 kHz with not much satisfactory reception though around 0925 UTC. 

Voice of Russia in English was booming on 21820 kHz around 0930 UTC. VOR was also coming great on 21800 kHz at this same time. Watch the video:- 

T8WH- World Harvest Radio from Palau in English was monitored with good reception on 9930 kHz around 0932 UTC. 

But Voice of Mongolia English transmission was not heard today at 0900 UTC on 12085 kHz. Please see the video. 

Hope these logging details will be of some use to my fellow DXers around the world. 

73's,

Prithwiraj 

India's 67th I-Day Celebration- Some AIR Monitoring Observation

Today India is celebrating 67th Independence Day and on this auspicious occasion All India Radio and all its regional stations on shortwave, medium wave and FM has broadcast live coverage of Flag Hosting and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's address to the nation from Red Fort, New Delhi. Here are some monitoring observation of AIR stations on SW and MW from my QTH at Jorhat in the North Eastern state of Assam. 

AIR Kohima, which was off air for past several weeks, monitored active during I-Day celebration. After yesterday's coverage of President's message to the nation between 1330-1400 UTC, today AIR Kohima was received with strong signal and clear audio on 4850 kHz from my monitoring time 0130 UTC. AIR Kohima also heard on MW 639 kHz, with not so strong reception though.  Here are two videos. 

AIR Aizawl, again a North East Indian station, was also active with live I-Day coverage on 5050 kHz at 0145 UTC. 

AIR Shillong, on 4971 kHz (instead on actual 4970 kHz) was inactive yesterday during President's message coverage. But today this station was also heard with good signal at 0140 UTC on 4971 kHz with running commentary from Red Fort. 

AIR Itanagar, though off air on SW 4990 kHz, but today heard them on MW 675 kHz with I-Day coverage. Here is a video. 

Another AIR regional station from NE India, like AIR Guwahati was heard on 7420 kHz but nothing was on 4940 kHz which has been reported off air for some time now. AIR Imphal (on 7335 kHz and 4775 kHz) is still off air and nothing heard on occasion of Independence day. AIR Gangtok from Sikkim was heard on 4835 kHz but the reception was not that satisfactory here in my QTH. Here is a quick reception summary of other AIR stations I have monitored this morning during I-Day celebration coverage from Red Fort.

7225 kHz- ?- SINPO- 3333311985 kHz- Delhi- SINPO 45444 
15050 kHz- Delhi- SINPO 55555
6030 kHz- Delhi- Not heard
6155 kHz- Aligarh- Not Heard
9595 kHz- Delhi- SINPO 55444
11620 kHz- B'luru- SINPO 35333
7430 kHz- Bhopal- Not Heard
7380 kHz- Chennai- SINPO 35333
7420 kHz- Hyderabad- Not Heard
7210 kHz- Kolkata- SINPO 35222
7390 kHz- Port Blair- Not Heard
6020 kHz- Shimla- Fainted 
4880 kHz- Lucknow- SINPO 25222
4895 kHz- Kurseong- SINPO 35333 
4950 kHz- Srinagar- Not Heard 

And last but not the least AIR Dibrugarh from Assam was also heard on MW 567 kHz with clear reception relaying I-Day coverage from Delhi station. 

For all these above monitoring I have used my JRC NRD-91 receiver and a 20 mt. long multi directional long wire antenna and these observations were made between 0130 to 0225 UTC. 

With my hearty Independence Day wishes to all my fellow Indians. 

73's.   

AIR Monitoring Observation:- President's Message to the Nation

Here are some important monitoring observation of AIR stations on SW relaying President's message on 14th August 2013, the eve of 67th Independence day of India between 1330-1400 UTC here in my QTH at Jorhat, Assam. 

4660 Leh:- Fainted reception. 
4775 Imphal:- Off the air.
4810 Hyderabad: SINPO 35323
4830 Jammu:- off the air.
4835 Gangtok:- SINPO 25222
4840 Mumbai:- SINPO 25222
4850 Kohima:- SINPO 45333
4880 Lucknow:- SINPO 35333
4895 Kurseong:- SINPO 45444
4910 Jaipur:- SINPO 35333
4920 Chennai:- SINPO 35433
4940 Guwahati: off the air. 
4960 Ranchi:- off the air. 
4970 Shillong:- Only hum noise heard.
4990 Itanagar:- off the air. 
5010 Trivandram:- Fainted
5040 Jeypore:- SINPO 25222
5050 Aizawl:- SINPO 34333
6030 Delhi:- SINPO 32322
9425 Delhi:- SINPO 55444
9870 B'lore:- SINPO 54544

Also on mediumwave heard President's message on 567 kHz (Dibrugarh), 621 kHz (Patna), 675 kHz (Itanagar), 711 kHz (Siliguri) and 828 kHz (Silchar). 

Here is a recording of first 10 mins of President's message to the nation. 

https://app.box.com/s/gun2ebeigl4lfb87texx

ALL INDIA RADIO KOHIMA IS BACK ON 4850 kHz!!

All India Radio Kohima from Nagaland state in the North Eastern region of India, which was off the air for past few weeks, as monitored by DXers around the world, is back today on 4850 kHz as I monitored this station between 1330-1400 UTC relaying President Mr. Pranab Mukherjee's address to the nation on the eve of India's 67th Independence day. The reception condition was also satisfactory. 

Here is a video of AIR Kohima with President's message translated in Hindi. 

My Recent Monitoring of AIR Stations from NE India

In past few days I have read many monitoring observation posts from Ron Howard from California, USA and Gautam Kumar Sharma of Abhayapuri, Assam regarding AIR Shillong, AIR Aizawl and other AIR regional stations who are currently broadcasting on shortwave. These postings in yahoo DX lists increased my curiosity for these station's recent status and during past few days I have been regularly monitoring these stations. As far as  AIR Shillong and AIR Aizawl is concerned, I have monitored these two station in past few days and yes, found that AIR Shillong is now can be better heard on 4971 kHz rather than 4970 kHz. Please find below two links for AIR Shillong video as received here in my QTH at Jorhat in Assam, in the morning hours. 

And AIR Aizawl, although not very strong, but can be heard now in morning as well as evening hours on 5050 kHz. During evening hours though I observed some interference from CNR. Here are two videos. 

I have also tried other AIR stations in NE, viz AIR Imphal on 4775 kHz, AIR Gangtok on 4835 kHz, AIR Kohima on 4850 kHz, AIR Kurseong on 4895 kHz, AIR Guwahati on 4940 kHz and AIR Itanagar on 4990 kHz on 9th August morning between 0300-0400 UTC, but could not heard any of them except AIR Kurseong on 4895 kHz. This prove that other AIR stations are off the air these days as already informed by Ron Howard and Gautam Sharma. Here is a video of this AIR station search. 

For all these observations I have used JRC NRD-91 receiver and a 20 mt. long dipole antenna. Hope these will be useful information for all of you as AIR will be broadcasting LIVE commentary of  India's 67th Independence Day celebration from Red Fort, New Delhi on 15th August and these AIR stations are suppose to relay this program on their respective frequencies between 0135-0240 UTC. Please monitor and if received any you can send your Reception Reports to : spectrum-manager@air.org.in

or

Director ( Spectrum Management & Synergy)
All India Radio,
Room No. 204
Akashvani Bhawan,
Parliament Street
New Delhi110001, India

So, until next time good bye and 73's.