Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation / Radio Happy Isles

Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC) / Radio Happy Isles in Honiara was logged on 15 January 2014. An English language broadcast of Pacific Island music, Christian religious message for the day, local weather and news was observed from 10.30 till 11.00 UTC. Transmission has been heard in previous days from 10.00 UTC onward. Reception on 9.545 kHz is much better than their previous frequency of 5.020 kHz and is generally fair to good. SINPO on this particular day was 45433 up until 10.59-11.00 UTC when CRI in Beijing signed on at 9.550 kHz. The reported 10 kW transmitter of SIBC is no match to the station splatter created by CRI's more powerful 500 kW transmitter.

HERE is an audio file of SIBC at 10.57 UTC with their theme song, followed by a female announcer giving station ID of Radio Happy Isles, then a weather report. It's always such a delight to hear these mighty mites and their local programming. I wish they could live on forever in this age of the Internet, satellite transmissions and super-power transmitters.

SIBC Headquarters

SIBC was previously QSLed on 5.020 kHz a few years back. At the time the given email address on their website was for their news department, and rarely were reception reports passed along to the station engineer. Communication may have improved since and listeners should certainly try to email, FaceBook message or post a letter to SIBC.

To my surprise I received this reply from SIBC on 17 February 2014, more or less, confirming my reception report on 9.545 kHz. The note reads: "Hi Timm Breyel, We are so pleased that you are able to receive our signal from Malaysia. We would send you a QSL shortly. Kind Regards SIBC Engineering Team". Now, I await their promised and prized QSL. SIBC Engineering Team did indeed send eQSL on 22 April 2014 via their FB page.