QSLs for September 2016

Pyongyang Broadcasting Station (QSL Card) transmitting on medium-wave from from Kangnam-gun (Pyongyang), DPRK (North Korea)

 Radio Free Asia (QSL Card) transmitting from Yerevan-Gavar, Armenia


Radio Free Asia (QSL Card) transmitting from Tinian Island

IRIB - Voice of Islamic Republic of Iran (QSL Card)  transmitting from Sirjan (Iran)

Radio Mi Amigo (QSL Card) transmitting from Yerevan-Gavar, Armenia

 
Voice of Korea (QSL Card) transmitting from Kujang, DPRK (North Korea)

Voice of Turkey (QSL Card) transmitting from Emirler, Turkey

RKB Mainichi Hoso - JOFR (QSL Card) transmitting on medium-wave from Fukuoka,  Kyushu, Japan

Voice of Vietnam (QSL Card) transmitting from Hanoi, Vietnam




Radio Prague International (QSL Card) transmitting from Yerevan-Gavar, Armenia

All India Radio Nagpur (QSL Card) transmitting on medium-wave from Buti Bori (Nagpur) in Maharashtra





Promised:
 Seoul Radio Center Korea Telecom - Station HLG (QSL) transmitting from Seoul, Republic of Korea (South Korea)

NHK World Radio Japan (QSL) Russian Service transmitting from Yamata, Japan

QSLs in the Mail

QSLs from Pyongyang Broadcasting Station (PBS) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) arrived in the letterbox today. The PBS verification is for their medium-wave transmission, whereas RFA is for a transmission presumably originating from Yerevan-Gavar (Armenia). Thank you, one and all!

QSL in the Mail

For the second consecutive day a QSL card has arrived in the mail. This one came from All India Radio Nagpur, a megawatt station operating on the medium-wave band from the Indian state of  Maharashtra. I had submitted reception reports twice before, on separate occasions, over the past two years. So, it is especially nice to finally get this QSL. Thank you, AIR and Spectrum Management & Synergy!

QSL in the Mail

While many DXers around the world have already received their special 80th Anniversary QSL card from Radio Prague International, I only received mine just today. It was worth the wait. Thank you, Radio Prague International!

Seoul Radio Center Korea Telecom - Station HLG

Seoul Radio Center Korea Telecom - Station HLG Seoul was logged on 24 September 2016. A CW (Morse code) transmission, looping station call letters (HLG), location and frequency, was observed  from 10.53 till 11.15 UTC. Reception on the shortwave-wave frequency of 12.935 kHz in CW/SSB mode rated (SINPO) 35343 -- fair signal strength, no QRM, clear CW transmission, scratchy atmospheric noise

Additional ship-to-shore stations in Korea operate on other frequencies and with the call letters: HLF / HLG / HLJ / HLO / HLW / HLW2. Content of message is usually "CQ DE HLG QSX 12 MHZ" or "CQ DE HLG QSX 8 MHZ" etc.

8 MHZ
 8.483  kHz (HLG)
 8.484  kHz (HLG)
 8.484  kHz (HLO)
 8.636  kHz (HLW)

12 MHZ
12.843 kHz (HLO)
12.843 kHz (HLW2)
12.916 kHz (HLF)
12.917 kHz (HLF)
12.917 kHz (HLF)
12.923 kHz (HLW2)
12.923 kHz (HLO)
12.935 kHz (HLG)
12.935 kHz (HLG)

16 MHZ / 17 MHZ / 22 MHZ
16.910 kHz (HLJ)
16.990 kHz (HLO)
17.130 kHz (HLW)
22.611 kHz (HLF)

Reception report was emailed with audio file, attention to Mr.Woo Hwa Lee, on the same day. Mr. Lee at Seoul Radio Center Korea Telecom replied on the following day with this message: "I have received your e-mail(reception report). I'll send our station QSL card by mail in your address direct as soon as I can.  Thank you."


Email:
ds1qgg@paran.com

Address:
Seoul Radio Center Korea Telecom
c/o Mr.Woo Hwa Lee
680-63 Jayang-dong,
Gwangjin-Gu, Seoul,
143-707 Republic of Korea

NHK World Radio Japan (via Yamata)

NHK World Radio Japan, transmitting from Yamata (Japan), was logged on 23 September 2016. A Russian language broadcast of news, current event reports, radio drama  and music was observed from 11.00 till 11.30 UTC. Korean broadcast followed. Reception on 6.090  kHz was (SINPO) 35443 - fair signal strength, clear audio, slight fade.

Reception report was submitted online and emailed on the same day. On 27 September, NHK Radio Japan Russian Section sent this email and e-Calendar: "Thank you for sending us a reception report of our Radio Japan Russian Service! We verified your report (23 September 2016, 11.00 till 11.30 UTC,  6.090 kHz). We will later send you our QSL-verification card to your address. If you have any request of Japanese songs or music, please tell us about it. We hope you to keep listening to our Radio Japan Russian Service. We always welcome your comments and requests."

QSL in the Mail

After a dry spell of nearly three weeks this 20th Anniversary QSL card from Radio Free Asia via Tinian Island arrived in the mail. Thank you, RFA!

China Radio International (via Jinhua)

China Radio International, transmitting from Jinhua, was logged on 19 September 2016. A Japanese language broadcast of current events and Mandarin vocal songs was monitored from 23.30 till 00.00 UTC (broadcast time 23.00 till 00.00 UTC). Reception on 13.640 kHz was (SINPO) 45454 -- good signal strength, clear audio, minor atmospheric noise.

Reception report was emailed on the following day to China Radio International.

Marconi Radio International*

Marconi Radio International*, transmitting from Italy, was logged on 17 September 2016. MRI DX report was observed in English and Italian from 17.30 till 18.00 UTC. Reception on 7.700 kHz / USB mode was (SINPO) 24332 - poor to fair signal strength, slight fading amidst atmospheric noise, occasionally with some utility QRM

Reception report with audio files were emailed on the same day. On 20 December 2016, this eQSL arrived.

MEA CULPA. Marconi Radio International, I regret and retract previously stating the broadcasts of your station were "a total waste of time", owing that you were slow to verify my reception report. I spoke impetuously, and I was wrong to do so,  I am sorry. Please accept my apology. 

Email:
marconiradiointernational@gmail.com

*Logged remotely in Malaysia from an SDR receiver located at the University of Twente (The Netherlands).

SM Radio International* (via Rohrbach)

SM Radio International* via Channel 292 in Rohrbach (Germany) was logged on 17 September 2016. Station IDs in German every 15 minutes were observed during the Ron O'Quinn "Rewind" show. Mostly pop songs from the Class of '67 were featured, including tracks from  The Music Explosion, James Brown,  Rolling Stones, Bobby Darin, CCR,The Buckinghams,  Bob Dylan and Oliver from 18.30 till 19.00 UTC.

Reception on 6.070 kHz was (SINPO) 55555 - Excellent!!! HERE's SM Radio International:

Reception report was emailed on the same day. An eQSL was received on 22 October 2016.

Email:

info@shortwavecommunity.com

*Logged remotely in Malaysia from an SDR receiver located at the University of Twente (The Netherlands).

Radio Guinée / Radio Télévision Guinéenne (Conakry)

RTG headquarters. Source:  "Conakry Times"

Radio Guinée / Radio Télévision Guinéenne (RTG), transmitting from Conakry (Republic of Guinea) in west Africa,  was logged on 17 September 2016. Programming in French entailed a lot of nice West African (Guinéenne) music, conversations and frequent station IDs from 18.10 till 19.30 UTC.

Reception of Radio Guinéenne was on the short-wave frequency of 9.650 kHz.  Initially only a strong carrier and no audio was detected at 18.10 UTC. After tuning in again at around 18.50 UTC, audio was present and observed to be strong with clear audio, a bit of station splatter and slight fading. This was nearly eliminated by filtering to a narrow bandwidth.  Reception remained strong as late as 19.30 UTC. Overall SINPO rated 44544.

HERE's how Radio Guinée sounded in Malaysia.

Reception report was written in French and submitted with audio files. It was emailed, sent online to multiple websites and posted in subsequent days. Hopefully Radio Guinée has a better track record for QSLing than most African stations.

Address:
RTG (Radio Télévision Guinéenne)
Division des Programmes Radio
Ratoma - BP 391
Conakry,  Republic of Guinea 

Radio Free Asia (via Yerevan-Gavar)

Radio Free Asia, transmitting from  Yerevan-Gavar (Armenia), was logged on 15 September 2016. A Burmese  language broadcast of news/current event reports relating to Myanmar and region was observed from 16.30 till 17.30 UTC.

Reception on 9.940 kHz (SINPO): 44544 -- good signal strength, slight transmitter noise and minor fading. Otherwise transmission was audible, clear and with discernible content. HERE's an excerpt from their transmission.

Reception report was emailed with audio files on the following day. QSL arrived on 28 September 2016.

Asahi Broadcasting Corporation - JONR (Osaka)

Asahi Broadcasting Corporation (Asahi Hoso / JONR), transmitting from Osaka (Japan), was heard on 13 September 2016, from 18.35 till 18.45 (03.35 till 03.45, Japan Time), on the medium-wave frequency of 1008 kHz. Their signal has been monitored for nearly a month and consistently just barely breaks the threshold with occasional peaks of audio, either Japanese speech or music, to rate an SINPO of 14331.  On this particular night,  their signal was was poor, with audible content when not fading every two to three minutes, and severely affected by QRN (static bursts) due to local thunderstorm. On other nights, either no signal or multiple stations are received. Timing is crucial.

Reception report with audio file was emailed and posted to Asahi Broadcasting Corporation on the following day. QSL card and sticker was received on 6 October 2016.

Radio Republik Indonesia Banda Aceh (Sumatra)

Radio Republik Indonesia Banda Aceh (Pro-1) in Sumatra, was  logged on 9 September 2016. Content consisted mostly of Indonesian pop music. Quran recitation and national anthem was observed both at sign-on and sign-off.

Reception on the medium-wave frequency of 1251 kHz, both in the morning and evening, was (SINPO) 34433 - fair to poor signal strength, clear audio when not fading every three to four minutes. Best reception seemed to be in the morning until sunrise. In the evening, before 16.15 UTC,  strong co-frequency interference from Vietnam made reception essentially impossible, although it could be heard on the fade. When VOV signed off at 16.15 UTC, reception improved with only slight interference from a Thai station. HERE's how RRI Banda Aceh sounded at sign-on.

Reception report was emailed and posted in bahasa Indonesia, with audio files, to RRI Banda Aceh. Previous attempt to verify by Facebook, yielded only a "Yeahyeah" comment -- hardly an official verification. So, this time around -- encouraged by recent verification letters from three RRI MW stations -- I thought I'd give it another chance.

Voice of Indonesia (Stimme Indonesiens)

Voice of Indonesia (Stimme Indonesiens), transmitting from Jakarta, was received on 9 September 2016, from 18.00 till 19.00 UTC. This German language broadcast include "Nachrichten" about Indonesia, "Dieser Tag in der Geschichte", "Indonesische Wonder" about sites in Jakarta, "Kommentar" on the recent ASEAN Conference in Laos and "Indonesische Musik", including a song  entitled "Rindu Hatiku Tidak Terkira".

Reception on 9.525 kHz was initially (SINPO) 55555, then around 18.30 UTC signal deteriorated slightly to 44544. At 18.57 UTC, strong QRM from China Radio International severely degraded reception to 32442.

Reception report was emailed and submitted online to Voice of Indonesia, the following day, 10 September 2016. To date, VOI has not responded to reception reports submitted for January, June and August of this year.

IRIB - Voice of Islamic Republic of Iran (via Sirjan)

Voice of Islamic Republic of Iran, transmitting from Sirjan (Iran), sent this QSL for a reception report dated 22 June 2016. An English language broadcast on 13.780 kHz aired  from 15.30 till 16.30 UTC. Oddly, I have no recollection nor record of submitting a reception report to merit this QSL, unless: 1) I actually sent and spaced it, thinking IRIB might not reply; or 2) it was mistakenly dated for a report submitted in June 2015. In any event, thank you, IRIB.

Email:

englishradio@irib.ir

Radio Free Asia (via Tinian Island)

In conjunction with the 20th Anniversary of Radio Free Asia a new QSL card will be issued to commemorate the occasion. Listeners may obtain this recent verification card by simply submitting a correct reception report to RFA, The card will be available from September through December 2016. RFA broadcasts in Burmese, Cantonese, Khmer, Korean to North Korea, Lao, Mandarin (Wu dialect), Vietnamese, Tibetan (Uke, Amdo, and Kham), and Uyghur. RFA broadcast frequency schedule is available at www.rfa.org. With that in mind, I recently tuned in to catch a few of their broadcasts.

Radio Free Asia, transmitting from Tinian Island, was logged on  6 September 2016. A Korean language broadcast of current event reports about Korea and the region was observed from 16.00 till 16.35 UTC (broadcast time 15.00 till 17.00 UTC). Reception on 5.830 kHz was (SINPO) 23342 -- Poor signal strength, audible and clear speech with occasional transmitter noise or an attempt to jam signal, generally just poor propagation.

Reption report was emailed on 7 September 2016.

Email:
qsl@rfa.org

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

Radio Sultanate of Oman (MW Station)

Radio Sultanate of Oman, transmitting from Muscat (Sultanate of Oman), was logged on 5 September 2016.  Arabic music, station ID,  talking (presumably news) in Arabic from female and male announcers was observed from 17.15-17.45 UTC.

Reception on the medium-wave frequency of 1242 kHz was (SINPO) 23322 -- fair to weak signal with audible content when not mixing with All India Radio Varanasi and fading every three to four minutes. Prior to 17.00 UTC, Radio Sultanate of Oman was not received due to strong co-frequency interference from stations in the South East Asia region. HERE's how Radio Sultanate of Oman (MW) sounded in Malaysia. 

Radio Sultanate of Oman was first detected, along with AIR Varanasi, on 1 September 2016, each mixing at near equal decibel levels. Strangely, a month earlier, after 17.00 UTC, 1242 kHz seemed to be a clear frequency in South East Asia. Only Nippon Hoso-JOLF (Tokyo) was observed after 18.00 UTC. Why the anomaly? My guess is propagation. Either that or their transmitter is operating at the full 200 kW  capacity, rather than the reportedly reduced 50 kW output. Who knows? Maybe with the Hajj (Pilgramage) approaching, power has been increased temporarily.

In any event, a reception report with audio file was emailed, submitted online and posted to multiple accounts/sites/addresses, considering  the great difficulty in obtaining a verification (QSL) from Oman in recent years. 

QSL in the Mail

Today's QSL arrived from Radio Mi Amigo, the Spanish broadcaster known for their transmissions from the ShortwaveService sites in Kall-Krekel (Germany) and Yerevan-Gavar (Armenia). This particular verification was for a test transmission originating in Armenia. Unfortunately, their follow-up anniversary broadcast was not received in South East Asia, and as a consequence their special QSL for this occasion was not issued. All in all, it's still fantastic to finally catch this station directly in Malaysia. Thank you, RMA!

All India Radio Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh)

All India Radio Varanasi (Akashvani Varanasi), transmitting on the medium-wave frequency of 1242 kHz from Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh (India), was received on 1 September 2016. Presumably Indian classical music, a rather lengthy flute piece, moderated occasionally by a male announcer, was observed from 17.10 till 17.30 UTC / 10.40 till 11.00 IST. Transmission closed at 17.40 UTC.

Reception rated a SINPO of 23322 -- fair to weak signal with audible content when not mixing with Radio Sultanate of Oman and fading every three to four minutes under static bursts from a local thunderstorm. Prior to 17.00 UTC/10.30 IST, Akashvani Varanasi was not received due to strong co-frequency interference from Radio Republik Indonesia Bogor (Java), stations in Thailand and Vietnam, and to a lesser extent Nippon Hoso-JOLF (Tokyo) after 17.00 UTC/10.30 IST. On previous and subsequent days, owing to poor propagation, Akashvani Varanasi just barely broke through the threshold, and only then at a whispered level.

While Southeast Asia is not the primary broadcast target of Akashvani Varanasi, it is interesting to note the station radiated a signal over 3,150 km away, well beyond Uttar Pradesh and India. This is a rather impressive distance for any medium-wave station!

Reception report was emailed and posted, with audio files, to Spectrum Management & Synergy. QSL card arrived in the mail on 18 October 2016.

Address:
Spectrum Management & Synergy,
Directorate General, Room No. 204,
All India Radio,
Parliament Street,
New Delhi 110001, India

Email:
spectrum-manager@air.org.in

Voice of Turkey

Voice of Turkey, transmitting from Emirler, was logged on 2 September 2016. An English language broadcast of news and featured programmes "Turkish Press in Review", "Question of the Month", "Tales of Islam" as well as Turkish contemporary music was observed from 20.30 till 21.15 UTC.

Reception on 9.620 kHz was (SINPO) 55545 -- strong and clear transmission with only slight fading. Transmission targeted Australia and Southeast Asia, so no surprises on the quality of reception, which is almost always excellent.

Reception report was emailed in subsequent days. QSL card and coaster arrived in the mail on 30 November 2016.

Email:
englishdesk@trt.net.tr

QSLs in the Mail

QSLs from Voice of Turkey and Voice of Korea (DPRK) arrived in the letterbox, today. Thank you, TRT and VOK!

Nippon Hoso - JOLF (Tokyo)

Nippon Hoso (JOLF) in Tokyo was heard on 1 September 2016, from 18.20 till 19.05 UTC, on the medium-wave frequency of 1242 kHz. A selection of contemporary Asian and Western pop songs with occasional DJ comments was observed during this time and has been heard on previous nights.

Nippon Hoso's signal has been monitored for nearly a month. It consistently just barely breaks the threshold with a dominant carrier and only occasional peaks of audio, either talking or music, is heard. SINPO was never better than 25421.

However, on 1 September 2016, propagation improved and their signal was much stronger, earning a SINPO of 24432 --  clear speech when audible and not fading (every 2 to 3 minutes). No co-frequency interference was observed after 17.40 UTC (02.40am, Japan Time), which made for ideal reception conditions. Before this time interference from All India Radio Varanasi (Akashvani Varanasi) and Radio Sultanate of Oman prevents reception. By 21.00 UTC, Radio Republik Indonesia Bogor (Pro-1) is the only station received. In the evenings, stations in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia virtually own the frequency at various times.

Reception report was emailed and posted to JOLF.

Address:
Nippon Hoso (JOLF)
1-9-3, Yurakucho
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-0006
JAPAN

QSLs in the Mail

Two QSL cards from Asia arrived in the mail in the first week of September. RKB Mainichi Hoso - JOFR, Fukuoka (Japan) and Voice of Vietnam (VOV5) in Hanoi. RKB Mainichi Hoso is a medium-wave station in southern Japan, and as one can see their antenna is impressively anchored in the coastal waters. Awesome!  As for VOV5, a colourful QSL card and postcard depicting a Vietnamese Junk on the Halong River was included in the envelope. Nice! Thank you, RKB Mainichi Hoso and Voice of Vietnam!

September 2016

The Rhein Main Radio Club Calendar for month of September 2016