"Sankardeva Studies in 21st Century"- Akashvani Guwahati's Biggest Annual Presentation from a Listener's Prospective

By:- Prithwiraj Purkayastha, SWL & DXer (Jorhat, Assam)

Photo Curtsy:- Mr. Utpal Dutta of AIR Guwahati

On 23rd August 2017 Assam has celebrated the 448th "Tirobhab Titihi" (death anniversary) of Mahapurusha Srimanta Sankardeva and the state remembered this great saint of the region with deep respect. The patron saint of Assam, Sankaradeva was a versatile genius under whose warmth of mind Assamese culture, literature and society blossomed like a lotus with a thousand petals. 

To mark this occasion like previous two years, this year also Akashvani/ AIR Guwahati, along with its partner stations of the state, has come up with a special LIVE program under the title "Ekabingsha Hotikat Sankaradeva Adhyayan" in Assamese which is meaning "Sankardeva Studies in 21st Century" in English. This program was started in 2015 with extensive coverage celebration of Tithi from Satras and Namghars as well as eminent personality's interview on the subject from Assam as well as other states like West Bengal, Delhi, Odisa, Arunachal, Meghalaya.  

Live from Bardowa Than (Photo- AIR Guwahati FB Page)

This is the third consecutive year Akashvani doing this largest coverage on Sankardeva and I, as a radio listener and due to my interest in the subject listened and monitored this entire program and really appreciate Akashvani's initiative to make this event a successful one. There was a panel discussion with participants like scholar of Sankaradeva Studies Dr. Nirmali Bora Malakar, famous Satria Dance artist Dr. Mallika Kandali, eminent theater artist and play director Mr. Gunakar Devagoswami and music director Mrinalkanti. The discussion was moderated by ace radio personality of Akashvani Tapan Dutta and Rajib Phukan. The panel discussion started with mentioning Kabiguru Rabindra Nath Tagore's love and respect to the saint, which he expressed through his famous lines "Amaro Paranoid Jaha Chay..." quoted by Devagoswami. This, almost four hour long, discussion by the panelists was one of the most beautiful and elaborated discussion on Srimanta Sankardeva I have heard in any media platforms in recent time and the most learning experience ever I had on the subject. The discussion on Sankardeva as a social reformer through his great creations like Satria Dance form, Bargeet, Ankia Bhaona, Mask sculpture and other cultural attributes proved that the saint was not only a religious reformer but his contribution towards rich Assamese culture is priceless. The modern day Assamese culture might have remain incomplete without Srimanta Sankardeva. The panel also expressed their strong concern on Sankardeva's philosophical impact over new generation Assamese, particularly youths, which they strongly recommend as the responsibility of society and media, and urged that both should take some collaborative efforts to take the saint close to the youths of the state. 

The detailed discussion was also accompanied by live comments and participation of Satradhikars (Main Priest of Satras), officials of historic Namghars and eminent personalities from places like Shillong, Dhubri, Majuli, Borpeta, Dhekiakhoa (Jorhat) and Bardua, the birth place of the saint. Among them I loved the conversation of AIR correspondence Khurshid Ahmed with eminent literary person of the state Dr. Nagen Saikia where he expressed his strong support to modernization of Sankardeva Study, specially Bargeet, which as Dr. Saikia opined, is not only a means of spiritual attainment but also a form of cultural integration and means of entertainment too. Another point I really loved to remember was that short elaboration and information given on modernization and development of Odisi Dance form in Orisa by Dr. Mallika Kandali and Dr. Nirmali Bora Malakar and they expressed their opinion that the patron of Satria Dance and Satria culture in the state must follow that great cultural movement to make this great art form to attain more national and international attraction as well as popularity. Over all today's program is a historical production of Akashvani Guwahati and it's partner stations from the state and this will definitely left some impact on the the study of this subject in coming days.

This program was aired live by Guwahati A on MW 729 kHz and FM 100.8 MHz, All India Radio Dibrugarh on MW 567 kHz and FM 100.3 KHz, AIR Jorhat on FM 103.4 MHz, AIR Tezpur on MW 1125 kHz and FM 102.3 MHz and AIR Nagaon FM 102.7 MHz. The Live transmission was between 9.15 am IST (UTC 0345) to 1:40 pm IST (UTC 0810). The program was also heard on a AIR Android app "All India Radio Live" Assamese section and AIR website. I heard this program on MW 567 kHz (AIR Dibrugarh) and put that on Facebook live for my friends and followers. I was doing such FB audio Live streaming for the first time and it was again a nice experience for me. Apart from this I also checked the FM band and found AIR Jorhat with usual very strong signal and AIR Nagaon and AIR Dibrugarh with weak signal carrying this special broadcast in to my home! Hope on coming days Akashvani Guwahati and it's partner stations will come up with more such beautiful and interesting broadcasts on many more topics which directly or indirectly effect building a "real modern Assam". 

AIR Correspondents at Barpeta Satra (Photo:- AIR Guwahati FB Page)

Here is the Akashvani Team who have made this mammoth task an beautiful success story. Producer:- Utpal Dutta, Asstt Director, AIR Guwahati 

Anchors:- Rajib Phukan and Tapan Datta 

Reporters:- 

Barpeta and adjacent satras- Indarjit Das and Simanta Barma

Shillong - Nayan Prasad
Satrachal Satra - Mrinal Kumar Baruah, 

Bardowa - Prabal Kumar Sarma (AIR Nagaon)
Dhekiyakhowa Namgahar ( Prasanta Datta from AIR Jorhat)
Interview with Nagen Saikia (Khurshid Ahmed, AIR Dibrugarh)
Kamalabari Satra ( Tirtha Bhuyan - Guest)
Program Coordinators:- Lohit Deka (Head of Program, AIR Dibrugarh), Sanjay Goswami (AIR Jorhat) and Dr. Debajit Saikia (Principal, Majuli College).
Management:- Asim Kumar Kazi, Ashok Bhattacharya, Rituparna Das.

A Visit to All India Radio Dibrugarh- A Great Experience

By:- Prithwiraj Purkayastha, SWL & DXer, Jorhat (Assam)

On 17th of August 2017 I planned to visit Dibrugarh the next day, not for visiting All India Radio though, but to meet a famous cardiologist of that medical hub of Upper Assam. We (me and my cousin brother) started early in the morning for Dibrugarh and on the way I got the telephonic appointment from the doctor. Interestingly the appointment was fixed for 5 pm in the evening and by that time (9 am) we were almost reached Dibrugarh! So 9 am to 5 pm, almost 8 hours without any work at hand!! OMG, I can not seat idle!! So instantly rang the cell phone of my Facebook friend and a very dedicated employee at the All India Radio Dibrugarh, Mr. Raja Chattopadhyaya Da and asked him whether I can visit and spend some good time at the radio station. His response with the words like "why not", of course" were enough for me to start expecting a nice radio day at AIR Dibrugarh station. But due to some confusion we got off from bus at AIR Dibrugarh transmitter site at Lepetkota, around 10 kms ahead of Dibrugarh city. From my childhood I have assumed this transmitter site as the main station but only after entering the station building I got to understand that this is the transmitter site only and the main program production station is situated at Malakhubasa (Convoy Road) near Dibrugarh-Tinsukia Road (NH-37)!!! But God do everything for our betterment!! Though as a student of Journalism I have keen interest to learn about radio program production and presentation, but  as a DXer I have deep interest in transmission facility that stations use for airing their programs to the target audience. So I utilized this mistaken visit to transmitter site and met Mr. Atul Dutta who is the Engineering Assistant of the transmitter site and very dedicated worker, as I assumed from my one hour stay at the site. After giving my introduction he happily and willingly took me to the newly installed 300 kW DRM transmitter room and explained us the transmission techniques. This Nautel DRM MW transmitter is installed in Dibrugarh under AIR's massive plan to convert it's transmission network from old age traditional system to new digital technology, known as DRM. The Engineer also informed me that the MW transmission of this station is not fully powered and when they will switch this  DRM transmitter with full capacity listeners will get FM like reception of this MW transmission of Akashvani Dibrugarh. After that we also saw the dismantled old BBC 300 kW MW transmitter used for years.

Here I also noticed a piece of DRM receiver AV-DR+1401 manufactured by Indian company Avion and currently available online through Amazon India. All these are new experiences for me and I really appreciate Mr. Dutta and everyone at Engineering section of the station for maintaining the station with top quality management facilitating wonderful contents of AIR Dibrugarh to reach the world.  

Due to heavy rain shower out side, we spent some useful time at the transmitter site and then proceeded to the main station at Convoy Road where the program production center and studios of AIR Dibrugarh situated. I informed my long time Facebook friend Parasha Konwar about my Visit to the station. Mrs. Konwar is a senior and a very energetic radio producer. We reached the main station on expected time and first met Raja Chattopadhyaya there, who, after greeting us with full heart and a cup of tea at the AIR canteen, took us to the chamber of Mr. Utpal Bhattacharya, the Deputy Director, Engineering and Head of Office. I spoke to Mr. Bhattacharya in the morning too over telephone and during our meeting he showed his great interest in receiving Listeners' feedback on the quality of signals they receive in their locality. He also informed me that the station often receive reception reports from Listeners and DXers from foreign nations and these encourage them to try their best to produce and transmit quality contents. I also described him about my DX activities and informed him about my DX segment on AWR Wavescan under title "Indian DX Report".

After a nice short discussion Raja Da took me to the main studios of the station where I experienced the live broadcast of Dibrugarh station's popular "Phone-in Huror Hathori". My FB friend Parasha Konwar was in the control room and two famous voices of Akashvani Dibrugarh Rupjyoti Dowerah and Tribeni Das Gogoi were on live telephonic conversation with the a lady listener who was describing nicely the real picture of devastating flood in her place and ended up with a song request titled "Mahabahu Brahmaputra" sung by Dr. Bhupen Hazarika. That was a nice experience for me watching three famous AIR personalities of Assam recording live in the studios. But I was surprised when Mrs. Konwar, the Transmission Executive, called her program assistant and instructed her to took an interview of me for another famous program of the station "Antara". Ms. Sangita Madhabi Dutta prepared quickly for this after a short chat with me and we conversed for around 45 mins recording my 2nd consecutive interview with All India Radio on my radio hobby- DXing. I was greatly honored by the gesture of all these AIR personalities and appreciate their cultural sense of humor. 

After that Mrs. Konwar introduced myself with the Program Head of the station and famous literary and cultural personality of Assam Mr. Lohit Deka, whom I am trying to contact, meet for a long time. I had a nice and constructive discussion with Mr. Deka and I also demonstrated my self made QSL cards to him which I usually issue to my Listeners of "Indian DX Report". I am also surprised when Deka sir mentioned about my recent postings on Social Media about AIR frequency monitoring as well as appreciate my AIR Dibrugarh station monitoring from time to time with a special mention of log at Parapat, Indonesia.  He also gifted me one precious souvenir published by Akashvani Dibrugarh on the occasion of North East Folk Festival - 2012 and 43rd Foundation Day of the station, a collectable item I was looking for a long time. 

With this I winded up my sudden but a successful visit to Akashvani Dibrugarh, listening which we grew up and spent and spending many knowkedgeworthy time of our life. After meeting everyone at Akashvani Dibrugarh I can easily understand why this station is counted among the best resource of art, literature and cultural exchange centre of India. In conclusion I can only say that AIR Dibrugarh is the next big thing in the Indian radio broadcasting system and I hope to return to this station again and again, who knows may be with some creative contents!!

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.

 

Indian DX Report

Broadcast Station:- Adventist World Radio, WRMI, WWCR
Program:- Wavescan
Date of Broadcast:- 30.07.2017 (Sunday)
 
Click Here is Listen IDXR 

Hello and Namaskar to all radio enthusiasts around the world! This is Prithwiraj Purkayastha reporting for Wavescan from India. Friends, during last week of May this year, I got a chance to visit Indonesia on invitation from Radio Republic Indonesia’s foreign language service, popularly known as Voice of Indonesia. As a winner of their annual Quiz contest under title “Wonderful Indonesia” I had the opportunity to spent few memorable DX moments with 10 other DXers from India, China, Australia and Japan in the North Sumatara region of Indonesia. And during this trip I did not waste the opportunity to scan through the receiver and experience the band situation there in Sumarta Region. On 28^th May, while staying in a Hotel at the port town Parapat, Dxer Michael Cunningham from Australia, DXer Pradip Kundu from Tripura in India and myself  tried to understand the band condition with Tecsun PL-660 supported with a 10 meter long wire antenna and surprisingly heard many distance stations on both MW and SW bands. Here is a quick report of the stations we heard there in Sumatara Region of Indonesia.

We heard,

RRI Palankariya on 3325 kHz at around 1440 UTC with SINPO rating 35333

All India Radio Port Blair station was heard with Hindi movie songs on 4760 kHz around 1455 UTC with SINPO 34333.

All India Radio Chennai was logged with news in English at 1512 UTC on 4920 kHz. SINPO was 45344

At 1630 UTC we heard AIR Trivandrum on 5010 kHz with program on Indian classical music and SINPO was 34343.

KBS World Radio in English was heard both on 9515 and 9640 kHz at 1615 UTC with very strong and clear reception. Likewise Radio Taiwan International was also good on 9405 kHz at 1630 UTC.

On the Medium Wave we had the opportunity to listen AIR Dibrugarh station which is using a strong transmitter of 300 Kw, on 567 kHz at 1545 UTC.

RRI Medan was heard with audible reception on 801 kHz at 1537 UTC.

RRI Pekanbaru was heard with nice folk music on 927 kHz at 1541 UTC.

RRI Banda Ache was on 1251 kHz at 1557 UTC with Islamic religious chants and talks.

Apart from these we heard many unidentified Korean, Thai and other stations during our short DX scan in Sumatra.

During our this trip we also had the opportunity to visit the Transmitter site of RRI situated in Chimangies near Jakarta. There we have been informed by the Station Engineering staffs that the shortwave transmitter used for RRI foreign service on 9525 kHz is in bad condition resulting in poor reception on many occasions. But the enthusiast RRI staffs are hopeful to continue Shortwave service for a longer period and of course they are working on introduction of DRM in very near future.

Staying in Indonesia, here is a good news from Jakarta. RRI Voice of Indonesia has inaugurated their Dutch language broadcast on 1^st July and this service is now available on the SW frequency 9525 kHz between 1500 to 1530 UTC.

And now here is a quick report on some important DX loggings made in my QTH located in Jorhat, Assam.

Radio Kuwait Urdu language service was heard with good signal on 15540 kHz from 1600 hour UTC. My friend Avijit Mandal from West Bengal also reported that Radio Kuwait Bengali service was heard on the same frequency between 1530 to 1600 UTC.

Deutsche Welle in English was heard on 9670 kHz between 1600 to 1630 UTC with SINPO 35333.

Myanma Radio in English was heard on 5985 kHz at 1540 UTC with SINPO 35433.

Vatican Radio in English was heard at 1545 UTC on 9800 kHz with SINPO 55444.

AIR Kolkata was heard on 5040 kHz at 1540 UTC. SINPO 35333.

Adventist World Radio in Punjabi was logged with SINPO 45333 on 15605 kHz at 1500 UTC.

FEBC in Chinese was received nicely on 9345 kHz between 1500 to 1525 UTC.

Voice of Mongolia in English was heard with SINPO 33333 on 12015 kHz at 1530 UTC.

Voice of Turkey in English is audible on 15520 kHz between 1630 to 1727 UTC with SINPO 25222.

And friends, with this I would like to conclude this edition of Indian DX Report and I hope it’ll be useful to you.  Please send your write-ups for our proposed DX book, your loggings and DX information for inclusion in IDXR  or reception reports and feedback for this edition of IDXR to:-  

INDIAN DX REPORT

C/O. PRITHWIRAJ PURKAYASTHA

PUB BONGALPUKHURI, BY LANE- 4

JORHAT-785001

ASSAM (INDIA)

Our Email ID is  <indiandxreport@gmail.com>

So, until next time friends its good bye and 73s from Assam.