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!!
