Wednesday, January 15, 2014

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.

3 comments:

  1. congratulations for your blog! it has been very good source of information in my SWL dxing & report verification (qsl) process.

    HELP!!! 10 Email Addresses For Reception Reports needed

    I had logged/recorded about 159 SW reports (from various ITUs and bands) during summer months and iam in the process of sending reception reports to the stations via email. From the 159 loggings, i had 10 cases where i wasn't able to find any email address to send my reception report. Below is the list of the 10 reports that i dont have the station's email address:

    Freq,ITU,Station,TX Site

    17880,OMA,BBC British Broadcasting Corporation,Al Seela
    17790,SNG,BBC British Broadcasting Corporation,Kranji
    11510,BUL,Denge Kurdistani,Kostinbrod(Sofia)
    11510,MDA,Denge Kurdistani,Kishinev-Grigoriopol
    15280,AUT,FEBA Radio (Voice of Forgivenes),Moosbrunn
    11980,UKR,Radio Dniprovska Hvylya,Zaporizhia
    13860,D,Radio Farda,Lampertheim
    21505,ARS,Radio Riyadh,Riyadh
    11935,MRA,VOA Voice of America,Tinian Island
    12015,KRE,Voice of Korea (KCBS),Kujang

    Any help will be greatly appreciated!

    73

    George Vastianos SV8GXC

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi George.

      BBC via Al Seela and Kranji no longer will QSL, nor has BBC replied to my reception reports in recent years.

      Denge Kurdistani is a difficult station to QSL, whether in Kostinbrod or Kishinev. used to QSL, but I only managed a get a form letter addressed to another listener. You might try info@denge-mezopotamya.com, but I'm not sure whether it is still valid.

      FEBA is difficult to QSL nowadays, but you are welcome to try this email address: lifechange@feba.org.uk

      Radio Farda (Lampertheim) via VOA and VOA (Tinian Island) will QSL, although it may take months to receive a reply. Contact AskVOA@voanews.com

      Radio Riyadh does not QSL and hasn't for many years.

      Voice of Korea (KCBS) can only be reached by postal mail. Address: The Voice of Korea, Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

      Hope this helps you. 73 from Malaysia, Timm

      Delete
  2. thanks alot Timm, you "made" my day :D

    73

    George Vastianos SV8GXC

    ReplyDelete