India's 71st Independence Day- From a DXer's Point of View

➽President's Speech on the Eve of I-Day 

 

Photo Curtsy- Google.com

On this evening, i.e. 14th August 2017 the Hon'ble President Shri Ram Nath Kovind address the nation on the eve of 70th Independence Day of India and this was broadcast 'live' by all national and regional stations of All India Radio - Akashvani . This annual event is closely monitored by many DXers around the world as many irregular AIR stations switch on their transmitters to air this special event. I have been monitoring this event for past several years and this time also did not do any exception. Today I have tried to catch AIR stations specially from North East India and able to hear the following stations. 

The live transmission began at 7:00 PM IST (1330 UTC). On SW I heard AIR Shillong station on 4970 kHz with strong signal and clear audio, same as this station received here on my Jorhat QTH usually. AIR Gangtok was live on 4835 kHz with nice reception of SINPO 35343. Apart from this I found AIR Bhopal on 4810 kHz with good signal (SINPO 44444), AIR Trivandrum on 5010 kHz (SINPO 35333), AIR Jeypore on 5040 kHz (SINPO 35333). I was expecting to listen AIR Kohima Akashvani and AIR Aizwal as both the stations found switch on during such special occasions, but this time they may have decided to stay silent or may be the strong Chinese signals resist their signals to reach me! The most surprising signal of the evening for me was the AIR Srinagar which pleasured my ear at around 1355 UTC with weak signals though (SINPO 25222). But I was happy enough to receive them after a long time and hope that our brothers at Kashmir heard the President with extreme patriotism in their heart. The national channel of AIR broadcasting from Bangalore was very string on 9865 kHz. 

On the MW too I was looking for the stations from my own North East India to check their current activity status on the air waves and I started with All India Radio Dibrugarh which was crystal clear with its 300 kW transmission on 567 kHz. My favourite AIR Tawang was heard with nice and audible reception quality on 1521 kHz, AIR Tuensang was weak but heard on 1602 kHz, Pasighat was doing good on 1062 kHz along with AIR Guwahati - B on 1035 kHz. Guwahati A was weak though on 729 kHz as well as AIR Kokrajhar on 1512 kHz, AIR Tura on 1233, AIR Tezpur on 1125 kHz and AIR Shillong on 864 kHz. But the loud and strong reception of Akashwani Kohima on 639 kHz, Allindiaradio Itanagar on 675 kHz and All India Radio, Imphal on 882 kHz were listening pleasures for me. The signals from Akashvani Silchar and All India Radio News Agartala were not found on my receiver. Apart from these this evening's successfully heard stations were AIR Kolkata A on 657 kHz (good), AIR Siliguri on 711 kHz (poor), AIR Shimla on 774 kHz (poor), AIR Pune A on 792 kHz (Good) and ALL India Radio Cuttack A on 972 kHz (good). 

Overall this was a nice DX experience with my little toy Tecsun PL-660 and I hope that All India Radio will continue reaching millions of Indian hearts in India and worldwide in coming many many years.

 ➽➽DXing on 71st Independence Day 2017

 PM's Address to the Nation from Red Fort on occasion on 71st Independence Day celebration was broadcast live by All India Radio and it's regional stations on all broadcasting platforms i.e. on shortwave, medium wave and FM. As I have been doing in past years, this time also I did the band scan in the morning past 7:05 IST (0135 UTC) and found signals of only few stations could touch my receiver Anjan DTS-10 accompanied with 30 mt. long wire external antenna. Last night I used only my Tecsun PL-660 with its telescopic stick antenna and heard many distance AIR stations carrying live broadcast of President's speech. This again prove that DXing, specially on SW and MW bands are best after sunset. So here are the list of AIR stations I could heard this morning.

On shortwave band I heard AIR Shillong on 4970 kHz with SINPO rating 35433 for reception. Live transmission also heard on AIR frequencies 15040 kHz (SINPO 55444), 9380 kHz (weak) and on 11620 kHz (SINPO 44333). 

On medium wave I could hear only All India Radio Dibrugarh, Kohima Akashvani and Allindiaradio Itanagar on frequencies 567, 639 and 675 kHz respectively. 

On FM band my home station AIR Jorhat was booming as usual on 103.4 MHz. Apart from this AIR Kohima was clear on 103.00 MHz and AIR Mukokchung on 100.9 MHz. Another station I heard loudly on 102.5 kHz, but I could not identify the station as AIR Tezpur on 102.4 MHz and AIR Nagaon comes on 102.7 MHz. But I am not sure about this 102.5 MHz that I logged this morning. 

At last I would like to wish all my fellow countryman a Happy Independence Day 2017.