Wavescan Tribute to SLBC Ekala Relay Station

Photo Curtsy: Mr. Victor Goonetilleke 

AWR Weekly DX program Wavescan gave its tribute to historic SLBC Ekala Relay station which was closed down recently. A special edition of the AWR DX program, "Wavescan" that honors the closure of the Ekala Shortwave Station in Sri Lanka. The Seventh-day Adventist denomination made its first broadcast from the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation back in 1951, on the very first day of what was the new SLBC Commercial Service on shortwave. Over the years, these initial radio broadcasts blossomed into Adventist World in Asia, AWR-Asia, and the programming of Adventist World Radio is still on the air shortwave from the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, though these days from the ex-Deutsche Welle Relay Station located near Trincomalee on the east coast of the island of Sri Lanka. 


Without a specific announcement, SLBC closed their historic Ekala station on the last day of May and they transferred their international programming to the station at Trincomalee. To honor the long and illustrious history of the Ekala Shortwave Station, the AWR DX program "Wavescan" has aired a special edition under the old title, "Radio Monitors International" and this was broadcast on 9th June 2013 and during the following days that week. These days, "Wavescan" is researched and written in Indianapolis by the AWR DX Editor, Dr. Adrian Peterson, and it is produced in the studios of shortwave station WRMI by Jeff White, who is noted also for his key roles with NASB, the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters in the United States. The AWR international DX program "Wavescan" is on the air from stations in the AWR network, and also from WRMI, WWCR & WINB in the United States, and from Spaceline in Bulgaria.


The old Ekala Radio Station is of such significance in the long history of international radio broadcasting that the well known International Radio Monitor in Colombo Sri Lanka, Victor Goonetilleke, is campaigning widely to have the site recognized as an International Heritage Site.

Indian DX Report- which is now a part of Wavescan is presenting the following SW realtime recording of this special edition of Wavescan under its historic title "Radio Monitors International". 

Please visit the link below to listen the recording:- 

https://www.box.com/s/jxqweddatqj7ijq2xc0a

73s. 

KBS World Radio- Indian DX Report: 5th Edition

INDIAN DX REPORT: Part-11

Date of Broadcast: 25th May 2013
Station: KBS World Radio
Program: KBS Listeners' Lounge- Weekly Listening Tips. 

Presenter: Prithwiraj Purkayastha 

Greetings friends and welcome to this month's DX tips from Indian DX Report on KBS Listeners' Lounge. I am your host Prithwiraj and hope you all are keeping fine. So lets begin with few DX news from Asia. 

Radio Taiwan International has recently announced in their website that it's transmissions towards the Philippines in English between 0100  to 0200 UTC on 11875 kHz and between 1100 to 1200 UTC on 9465 kHz will close from July 1st!! However, their Medium Wave transmission from 1100 to 1200  hour UTC on 1359 KHz will remains unchanged.

According to a news published recently, China Radio International’s Tamil service is all set to launch its FM station in India as part of its 50th anniversary this year. CRI Tamil, which broadcasts on shortwave targeting Tamil Nadu in India, is in talks with some FM stations in Chennai. The Tamil service of CRI was started in August 1963 and besides Tamil, CRI broadcasts in three other Indian languages — Hindi, Bengali and Urdu. If this proposal of CRI realised the this will establish CRI's footing in the FM area of India. 

Taiwan based PCJ Radio has recently started a series of Shortwave test transmissions via SLBC relay station in Trincomalee beamed to East and South East Asia with a powerful 125 kW transmitter.  On 19th May, Sunday they successfully conducted this test transmission between 1300 to 1400 hour UTC on 11750 kHz and three more test transmissions are scheduled on this same frequency and time on 26th May, 2nd June and 9th June, Sundays. Printed and eQSLs are offered by this station for correct reception reports for these test transmissions.   

All India Radio Port Blair station transmitting with a 10 KW transmitter from Beautiful Indian Islands of Andaman and Nicobar is reported missing on 4760 kHz due to a breakdown in transmitter. The station engineers are trying best to restore the faults and hopefully AIR Port Blair will be soon on air again. Here is the current transmission schedule of AIR Port Blair:-  2355 to 0300 hour UTC and 1030 to 1700 or 1730 UTC on 4760 kHz; AIR Port Blair is also available on  7390 kHz between 0315 to 0400 UTC (Saturdays till 0415 UTC and on Sundays till  0500 UTC) and  0700 to 0931 UTC (on Sundays till 1000 UTC).    

And well, I would like to conclude this edition of Indian DX Report with some good news for our listeners in Bangladesh. News is that Bangladesh Betar is seems to strengthen its FM transmission power within the country as they has installed some new BE FM 10S 10 kW FM transmitters at following cities & currently test transmissions being carried on - Dhaka on 102.0 MHz, 104.0 MHz, 106.0 MHz, Sylhet 88.8 MHz, Rangpur 88.8 MHz, Comilla 103.6 MHz, Coxesbazar 100.8 MHz, Khulna 88.8 MHz, Noapara, Jessore 100.8 MHz, Rajshahi 88.8 MHz, Chittagong 88.8 MHz and in Barisal on 105.0 MHz. 

For this edition I would like to thank all members of Asian DX League and DX India Yahoo Group. If you have any suggestion or comments on this report or if you would like to obtain a special IDXR QSL by sending a reception report, then please write to:

INDIAN DX REPORT

C/O- PRITHWIRAJ PURKAYASTHA

PUB BONGALPUKHURI

BY LANE.4

JORHAT-785001

ASSAM (INDIA)

or you can drop me an email at <indiandxreport@gmail.com>

So, friends until next time its goodbye from India. 

You can listen to this edition of KBS-IDXR Here:-

https://www.box.com/s/05ry696y4php4tcj2h3p

KBS World Radio- Indian DX Report: 4th Edition

INDIAN DX REPORT: Part-10

Date of Broadcast: 27th April 2013, Saturday

Station: KBS World Radio

Program: KBS Listeners' Lounge- Weekly Listening Tips. 

Presenter: Prithwiraj Purkayastha 

Greetings friends and welcome to a new edition of Indian DX Report on KBS Listeners' Lounge. I am your host Prithwiraj. As always I would like to start this month's DX tips with few updates from All India Radio.

As we all know that from 31st March, Sunday, the summer A13 transmission schedule of all international Shortwave broadcasters began. But AIR External Service & Home Service on SW has not made any changes in their A-13 schedules compared to B-12 schedules! That means AIR external service and home services may still tuned on the same frequencies and schedules as it was available during last winter. For complete A13 schedule of AIR you can log into www.allindiaradio.gov.in or for a DXer friendly schedule please have a look into http://qsl.net/vu2jos/sw/freq.htm , a wonderful DX resource page maintained by Mr. Jose Jacob, the Assistant Director of  National Institute of Amateur Radio at Hyderabad.  

Recently many regional stations of All India Radio are aiming to rope in DRM transmitters to improve its transmission and content quality. After successfully testing the signals as part of a live in-car demo, the DRM signals will now be tested in AIR Bengaluru to monitor the quality of broadcast. From 22nd April AIR Bengaluru is testing DRM signals for around a week  using a 500 kW transmitter for their Vividh Bharati Service on 9870 kHz. The schedule for broadcast will be in three segments; from 0025 to 0435 UTC, from 0900 to 1200 UTC and  from 1245 to 1740  UTC. The station is interested in reception report mainly from Indian listeners at various timings. Reports can be sent to -

Suptg. Engineer, AIR, Super Power Transmitter, Bengaluru, Karnataka  Or  it may be emailed to:sptairynk@rediffmail.com 

Mr. Atanu Das, a producer at RVA Bengali Service at "Chitravani" Kolkata informed me that Radio Veritas Asia is interested in reception reports for their different language services from listeners and they promise to verify with QSL cards and Stickers. Reception reports for all day's transmission in a week will be highly appreciated. Latest frequency schedule of RVA can be found at RVA website www.rveritas-asia.org and reports can be mailed to <arleneadonarber@gmail.com>. 

And Here are some A13 Summer Schedule of English language transmissions of few popular international stations targeting Asian regions.

Radio Taiwan International can be heard in South Asia between 1600 to 1700 hour UTC on 9440 and 15485 kHz and in South East Asia RTI is transmitting from 0300 to 0400 UTC on 15320 kHz and from 1100 to 1200 hour UTC on 7445 kHz.

Radio Romania International is transmitting targeting India between 0300 to 0400 UTC on 15340 and 17830 kHz and in Japan they can be heard between 2200 to 2300 hour UTC on 9790 and 11940 kHz.

Voice of Vietnam can be well heard in Asia between 1100-1130 UTC on 7285 kHz, 1230 to 1300 UTC on 9840 and 12020 kHz, 1600 to 1630 UTC on 7220, 9550, 9730 and 7280 kHz and between 1900 to 1930 UTC on 7280 and 9730 kHz.

Vatican Radio in English can be heard in Asia between 0140 to 0200 UTC on 9580, 11730 and 15470 kHz and in the evening hours between 1530 to 1550 UTC on 11850 and 15110 kHz fromSunday to Friday and on Saturday the Holy Mass can be heard between 1530 to 1600 hour UTC on 11850, 17815 kHz and in DRM mode on 17500 kHz.

Radio Cairo in English can be heard on 17870 kHz between 1215 and 1330 UTC in South East Asia.

And last but not the least our beloved KBS World Radio English language transmission can be heard in Asia between 0200 to 0300 UTC on 9690 kHz, between 0800 to 0900 UTC on 9570 kHz, between 1300 to 1400 UTC on 9570 kHz, Between 1400 to 1500 UTC on 9640 kHz and between 1600 to 1700 UTC on 9640 kHz. KBS is also heard with good reception on 9515 kHz between 1600 to 1700 UTC and on 7275 kHz between 1800 to 1900 hour UTC.

And with this I would like to conclude this edition of  DX report from India. For this edition I would like to thank all members of Asian DX League and DX India Yahoo Group. If you have any suggestion or comments on this report or if you would like to obtain a special IDXR QSL by sending a reception report, then please write to:

INDIAN DX REPORT

C/O- PRITHWIRAJ PURKAYASTHA

PUB BONGALPUKHURI

BY LANE.4

JORHAT-785001

ASSAM (INDIA)

or you can drop me an email at <indiandxreport@gmail.com>

So, friends until next time its goodbye from Assam. 

You can listen to this edition of KBS-IDXR Here:-

https://www.box.com/s/3y52r0xxklup2333svo1

Wavescan-Indian DX Report: 7th Edition

INDIAN DX REPORT: Part-9

Date of Broadcast: 31th March 2013, Sunday

Station: Adventist World Radio

Program: Wavescan 

Presenter: Prithwiraj Purkayastha 

Namaskar and greetings from India and welcome to the first edition of Indian DX Report in year 2013. I am your host Prithwiraj. First I would like to share a great news with you all. From January 2013 "Indian DX Report" is being aired by KBS World Radio on every last Saturday of the month in their popular mailbag program "Worldwide Friendship". I invite you all to listen to this KBS version of Indian DX Report every month and send me your valuable feedbacks and reception reports. And of-course I shall verify all your reports with our special QSLs as we are doing with the reports on Wavescan version of IDXR. 

So friends, lets begin this edition of DX report with some latest news from All India Radio. 

All India Radio is slowly but surely trying to march and upgrade itself with the new age technologies to reach the world audience. Apart from upgrading many of its relays with DRM transmitters, now AIR has been moving towards web based broadcasts too. First a couple of months back AIR General Overseas Service has started transmitting the English language programs via World Radio Network or WRN. Now all English language transmissions of GOS can be heard online at www.wrn.org/listeners. And to carve a niche for itself on the social media, couple of weeks back AIR has launched live streaming of its Urdu service and  FM Gold services, an exclusive YouTube channel of AIR and an Android based mobile phone application of for its news service. This will definitely help grow the listenership of AIR both at home and abroad. If you are interested in these new media availability of AIR you can log into http://allindiaradio.gov.in/Profile/ListenLive and choose your desired services to get more closer to India and you can also download AIR android app from a specified link available there. Mean while in national budget for the current fiscal year the government of India also announced many reform action plan of AIR including upgradation of many MW and SW transmitters, setting up new DRM transmitters and  FM radio expansion to cover 294 cities with around 839 new FM stations. Meanwhile  with repeated requests and plea from private FM radio operators, the government of India has agreed and is set to announce free news by 2014. Currently private FM stations in India are not allowed to broadcast free news in their broadcast except those attained from AIR. So, hopefully All India Radio is marching towards a era of radio broadcasting. 

BANGLADESH: On 16th March Bangladesh Betar erratically aired Home Service and external service both on same frequency 7250 kHz and made a huge QRM on each other, this is very rare and funny that a station carried two different services from two transmitters from the same area on a single frequency. Sources said that this was happened due to some technical problem with their transmitter which is rectified now. But they were unable to transmit home services on 60 meter band frequency of 4750 kHz and so opted for registered 41 meter band frequency 7250 kHz despite collision with external service. But two days later this problem was also resolved. Here is a recording of that interesting collision of Bangladesh Betar < Voice Clip>

JAPAN: NHK World Radio Japan Bengali and Hindi services has announced their new frequency for Summer 2013. From 31st March Radio Japan Bengali will be on 11685 kHz between 1300 to 1345 UTC and Hindi Service's evening transmission will be on 15745 kHz during its usual transmission time of 1430 to 1515 UTC. But its morning transmission time & frequency will be changed from March 31st. It will be on air from 0100 to 0130 UTC on 11590 kHz.

And with this I would like to conclude this edition of  DX report from India. For this edition I would like to thank all members of Asian DX League and DX India Yahoo Group. If you have any suggestion or comments on this report or if you would like to obtain a special IDXR QSL by sending a reception report, then please write to:

INDIAN DX REPORT

C/O- PRITHWIRAJ PURKAYASTHA

PUB BONGALPUKHURI

BY LANE.4

JORHAT-785001

ASSAM (INDIA)

or you can drop me an email at <indiandxreport@gmail.com>

Until then good bye and Happy DX in this Summer. 

You can listen to this edition of Wavescan-IDXR Here:-

https://www.box.com/s/2abvebl5mczwozqx76jo

KBS World Radio- Indian DX Report: 3rd Edition

INDIAN DX REPORT: Part-9

Date of Broadcast: 30th March 2013, Saturday

Station: KBS World Radio

Program: Worldwide Friendship- Weekly Listening Tips. 

Presenter: Prithwiraj Purkayastha 

Namaskar and greetings from India and welcome to the another edition of Indian DX Report on Worldwide Friendship. I am your host Prithwiraj. First I would like to congratulate all staff and listeners of KBS World Radio on its 60th Anniversary. I am honoured to be a part of this prestigious station today with my monthly DX report and hope to continue with support from you, my fellow Dxers around the world. 

So friends, lets begin this edition of DX report with some latest news from All India Radio. 

All India Radio is slowly but surely trying to march and upgrade itself with the new age technologies to reach the world audience. Apart from upgrading many of its relays with DRM transmitters and proving General Overseas Service's English transmissions on World Radio Network or WRN platform, now to carve a niche for itself on the social media, couple of weeks back AIR has launched live streaming of its Urdu service and FM Gold services, an exclusive YouTube channel of AIR and an Android based mobile phone application of for its news service. This will definitely help grow the listenership of AIR both at home and abroad. If you are interested in these new social media availability of AIR you can log into http://allindiaradio.gov.in/Profile/ListenLive and choose your desired services to get more closer to India and you can also download AIR android app from a specified link available there. And in my recent web search I have found that live streaming of popular AIR Vividh Bharati and AIR Telegu, Urdu and FM Rainbow services from Hydrabad are also available online through a private website http://www.voicevibes.net/, which I found very interesting. Meanwhile in national budget for the current fiscal year the government of India also announced many reform action plan of AIR including upgradation of many MW and SW transmitters, setting up new DRM transmitters and FM radio expansion to cover 294 cities with around 839 new FM stations. Meanwhile  with repeated requests and plea from private FM radio operators, the government of India has agreed and is set to announce free news by 2014. Currently private FM stations in India are not allowed to broadcast free news in their broadcast except those attained from AIR. So, hopefully All India Radio is marching towards a era of radio broadcasting. 

BANGLADESH: On 16th March Bangladesh Betar erratically aired Home Service and external service both on same frequency 7250 kHz and made a huge QRM on each other, this is very rare and funny that a station carried two different services from two transmitters from the same area on a single frequency. Sources said that this was happened due to some technical problem with their transmitter which is rectified now. But they were unable to transmit home services on 60 meter band frequency of 4750 kHz and so opted for registered 41 meter band frequency 7250 kHz despite collision with external service. But two days later this problem was also resolved. Now again Bangladesh Betar home service is available on 4750 kHz at schedule transmission times. 

JAPAN: NHK World Radio Japan Bengali and Hindi services has announced their new frequency for Summer 2013. From 31st March Radio Japan Bengali will be on 11685 kHz between 1300 to 1345 UTC and Hindi Service's evening transmission will be on 15745 kHz during its usual transmission time of 1430 to 1515 UTC. But its morning transmission time & frequency will be changed from March 31st. It will be on air from 0100 to 0130 UTC on 11590kHz.

And with this I would like to conclude this edition of  DX report from India. For this edition I would like to thank all members of Asian DX League and DX India Yahoo Group. If you have any suggestion or comments on this report or if you would like to obtain a special IDXR QSL by sending a reception report, then please write to:

INDIAN DX REPORT

C/O- PRITHWIRAJ PURKAYASTHA

PUB BONGALPUKHURI

BY LANE.4

JORHAT-785001

ASSAM (INDIA)

or you can drop me an email at <indiandxreport@gmail.com>

Until then good bye and Happy DX in this Summer. 

You can listen to this edition of KBS-IDXR Here:-

https://www.box.com/s/l0pzcx8pazs1ojyn1qd8

KBS World Radio- Indian DX Report: 2nd Edition

INDIAN DX REPORT: Part-8

Date of Broadcast: 23rd February 2013, Saturday

Station: KBS World Radio 

Program: Worldwide Friendship- Weekly Listening Tips. 

Presenter: Prithwiraj Purkayastha 

Hello KBS friends. Greetings on Seollal- the Korean New Year and Lunar New Year celebrated couple of weeks back all over the world, particularly in some Asian countries. So lets begin the February edition of Listening Tips from Indian DX Report. 

Hope you all are familiar with the historic Ekala relay station of Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation which was started as SEAC radio and also housed VOA and NHK relay stations. Sad news is that this Ekala station is to close down on the 31st of March and shift existing services to the ex Deutsche Welle  and now SLBC station in Trincomalee, if electricity from the National Grid is connected to Trincomalee. Trincomalee now runs on Diesel generators which are very expensive to run unless the station is at full capacity. Thus the move to get power from the local grid. So, if you want a QSL from SLBC Ekala you will have to do so before the 1st of April. Here is the present schedule of SLBC Broadcasts via Ekala relay station. Hindi and Vernaculars to India on 7190 kHz and 11905 kHz between 0012-0330 UTC, on 6005 and 11905 kHz between 0930-1215 UTC. English to Asia can be heard between 0125-0300 UTC and on Sundays till 0500 UTC on  6005, 9770 and 15745 kHz. 

Couple of Years back, Radio Deutsche Welle has almost ended all its South Asian language transmissions including English, Hindi and Bengali. But in Bangladesh they are available in FM networks through Bangladesh Betar till today and they have now decided to end this FM transmission too, which means that DW will be available in South Asia only in Urdu, Dari and Poshto languages on Shortwave. From 10th March DW Bengali will become silent on Bangladeshi FM networks ending a great era of Bengali language broadcast from the heart of Europe. From16th April onwards DW Bengali TV programs will only be available via Bangladeshi TV channel "Ekushe TV" with a weekly magazine program. DW in Dari and Poshto transmissions can be on 9440 and 15640 kHz between 1330 to 1400 UTC and 1400 to 1430 UTC respectively. DW Urdu can now be heard between 1430 to 1500 hour UTC on 15360 and 15640 kHz. DW English transmissions beamed to Africa is also well heard in South Asia in the midnight hours. 

Mongolia is always a great DX search for many DXers worldwide and for a long time now their English transmissions heard but with fair to poor reception quality. So to improve their reception from March Voice Of Mongolia is set to change its transmission timings. As announced in their program from March their English transmission to South Asia can now be heard from 0900 UTC on 12085 kHz and English to Europe can be heard from 1500 UTC on 12015 kHz. Hope this timing changes will help them to be better heard world over. 

And with this I would like to wind-up this edition of Listening Tips from India. I would like to thank my fellow listener Victor Goonetilleke from Sri Lanka and Partha Sarathi Goswami and Swopan Chakraborty from India for their support and suggestions. If you have any comments or suggestions on this, then please drop me an email at <indiandxreport@gmail.com> or you can also stay connected with us via our Facebook page. So friends until next time 73's and good bye.  

You can listen to this edition of KBS-IDXR Here:-

https://www.box.com/s/1l2qvalwn10ygyw04o5p

KBS World Radio- Indian DX Report: 1st Edition

INDIAN DX REPORT: Part-7

Date of Broadcast: 26th January 2013, Saturday

Station: KBS World Radio 

Program: Worldwide Friendship- Weekly Listening Tips. 

Presenter: Prithwiraj Purkayastha 

Hello KBS friends! Greetings from India and welcome to this very first edition of Weekly Listening Tips from Indian DX Report and I am your host Prithwiraj Purkayastha.  

In his first returning edition of "Weekly DX Tips" our friend Kevin O'Donovan discussed about listening international radio stations via World Radio Network or WRN and adding to that I would like to inform you that All India Radio's General Overseas Service English programs now can also be heard via WRN. The External Services Division of All India Radio (AIR) broadcasts to 100 countries in 27 languages, 16 of them foreign and 11 Indian. All India Radio through its external broadcasts keeps overseas listeners in touch with the ethos of India and things that are Indian, reflecting the ideas and achievements of India as an open society. To listen AIR GOS programs on WRN you can log on to www.wrn.org/listeners and click the link STATIONS where you'll find ALL INDIA RADIO listed at the top. An archive of past few day's broadcast is available there and please don't forget to tune into "Faithfully Your's"- the popular mailbag program of AIR GOS aired every Monday. 

Due to the interference brought about by Romania and China to the reception area, Radio Veritas Asia which is transmitting from Philippines implementing few changes in their Bengali, Hindi and Tamil transmission effective from Sunday, January 27, 2013. The Bengali transmissions between 1400 to 1427 hour UTC  and Hindi transmission between 1330 to 1400 UTC now can be heard on 11915 kHz and the Tamil language transmission between 0030 to 0057 UTC will be available on 11855 kHz.

Voice of Indonesia transmitting from Jakarta was not heard for quite a long period over the last few months. But now they have claimed that they renovated the transmitter and using a new tube.  Now they can be heard  in English with much clear signal between 1900 to 2000 hour UTC on 9525 kHz, but still their transmission between 1300 to 1400 hour UTC is missing. Live web streaming and complete broadcasting schedule of Voice of Indonesia are also available on www.en.voi.co.id

PCJ Radio which is playing as a major FM media in Taiwan is going to have its own shortwave transmitter soon. At present PCJ's programs are heard on over 20 stations worldwide in more than 20 countries on FM, Satellite, Cable and shortwave as well through partner stations. On February 16, 2013 PCJ will conduct its first test on shortwave. It will begin at 1600 hour UTC until 1800 hour UTC. The test will be done using the two 1kw transmitters directed to South East China, Fujian Province and Guangxi Province. Frequencies for this test are yet to be announced. 

And with this we came to the end of this edition of Listening Tips from India. If you have any comments or suggestion on this, then please drop me an email at <indiandxreport@gmail.com> or you can also stay connected with us via our facebook page. So friends until next time good bye and 73's. 

You can listen to this 1st edition of KBS-IDXR Here:- 

https://www.box.com/s/yhkdfidtvjj9tfo3tce8