January + February 2017 on air

MID February and it is a Six Nations Sunday, a tournament which this blog has reflected upon (briefly) over past years. Spoiler alert: Ireland and England won on Saturday; Scotland v France is underway, five minutes played, no score.

I have had a couple of evenings listening to the Roberts R881 over the first six weeks of this year, here are the logs of what I heard on Short Wave and, to begin, Medium Wave. Notes: Time in UTC (GMT), frequency in kiloHertz (kHz), power in kiloWatt (kW) or MegaWatt (MW).

January 2017: Medium Wave.

• 25 January: 1812 UTC: 540 kHz: MR Kossuth Radio, Hungary. Good to strong reception, 2 MW via Solt, Hungary. 'Sports World' covering a Women's volleyball Cup match.
• 25 January: 1906 UTC: 549 kHz: Jil FM, Algeria. Good to strong reception, up to 600 kW via Sidi Hamadouche, Algeria. Music and speech, French and Arabic services.
• 25 January: 1935 UTC: 567 kHz: RNE Radio 5, Spain. Moderate to poor reception, up to 100 kW via Murcia, Spain. Male and female speech, Spanish.

• 25 January: 1958 UTC: 585 kHz: BBC Radio Scotland, UK. Good to strong reception, 2 kW via Dumfries, Scotland. Football! Heart of Midlothian v Raith Rovers in the Scottish Cup - GOAL Hearts 0 - Raith Rovers 1 (Deflected goal). Also playing: Celtic 0 - St Johnstone 0.
• 25 January: 2018 UTC: 585 kHz: RNE Radio Nacional, Spain. Good to strong reception, up to 100 kW via Madrid, Spain. MORE football! Celta Vigo v Real Madrid - Male commentators mention Bale, Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, referee blows his whistle. Isco. [Full Time: 2-2]
• 25 January: 2036 UTC: 603 kHz: BBC Radio 4, UK. Good to strong reception. 2 kW via Wrekenton, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England. 'Future Proofing': How sport plays its part in society. Link into the 'Four Thought' programme.

• 25 January: 2108 UTC: 621 kHz: RTBF International, Belgium. Strong to moderate reception, 300 kW via Wavre, Belgium. 'Viva Sports' Male speech, presumably at a football fixture. Mentions of 'goalkeeper', 'El Classico', 'Anderlecht'. Full Time? Male in quiet studio reading football scores. Music: Clean Bandit 'Rockabye'.
• 25 January: 2148 UTC: 639 kHz: RNE Radio Nacional, Spain. Good to strong reception, up to 600 kW via various transmission sites. Football: Celta Vigo v Real Madrid - Male commentary. Full Time? Highlights package.
• 25 January: 2209 UTC: 639 kHz: CRo2 Dvojka, Czech Republic. Good to moderate reception, 1500 kW via Prague. 'Night Micro forum' with Marie Retková. Female conversation, music: Frank Sinatra 'Strangers In The Night'. Conversation continues.

February 2017: Short Wave.

• 2 February: 1201 UTC: 9430 kHz: FEBC International, Philippines. Moderate reception, 100 kW to Asia, via Bocaue, Philippines. Music, top of the hour idents in various languages, music. Chinese - Mandarin language.
• 2 February: 1240 UTC: 9560 kHz: Vatican Radio, Vatican City, The Vatican. Poor reception, 250 kW to Asia + Oceania via Philippines. Chinese language programme, female and male speech. ID signal.
• 2 February: 1312 UTC: 9645 kHz: Reach Beyond Australia, Australia. Moderate to poor reception, English language to Asia, via Kununurra, Australia. 'Hope for the Heart' programme with male and female voices.

• 2 February: 1345 UTC: 9740 kHz: BBC World Service, UK. Moderate to poor reception, female speech at length, male on telephone. English to East + South East Asia via Kranji, Singapore.
• 2 February: 1452 UTC: 9880 kHz: China Radio International, China. Good to moderate reception, 100 kW via Nanning, China. Cambodian language - Music, female speech, ID sequence, off air at 1457 UTC.
• 2 February: 1509 UTC: 9900 kHz: Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iran. Moderate to poor reception, 500 kW via Sirjan, Iran. Hindi language - Very muffled speech, heavy propagation. Music, female speech. [Online as 'ParsToday']

• 2 February: 1532 UTC: 9920 kHz: BBC World Service, UK. Good to moderate reception, 250 kW via Nakhon Sawan, Thailand. Urdu language: Female speech, translating an American English male, translating an English speaking female.
• 2 February: 1555 UTC: 11635 kHz: BBC World Service, UK. Poor reception. 250 kW via Kranji, Singapore. Urdu language: Female in studio, with male on phone. Music, female speech. Off air at 1559 UTC.
• 2 February: 1606 UTC: 11725 kHz: China Radio International, China. Poor reception. 150 kW via Cerrik, Albania. Arabic language: Flamboyant music, male speech, extended music.

• 2 February: 1617 UTC: 11735 kHz: Either Zanzibar Broadcasting Corporation, Zanzibar [50 kW via Dole, Zanzibar, Swahili language] Or Rádio Trans Mundial, Brazil [50 kW via Santa Maria - Camobi, Brazil, Portuguese language]. Moderate reception, male speech, music.
• 2 February: 1632 UTC: 11815 kHz: Voice of Turkey, Turkey. Strong to moderate reception, 500 kW via Emirler, Turkey. Turkish language, male speech, music.
• 2 February: 1639 UTC: 11900 kHz: Voice of America, USA. Moderate to poor reception, English to Africa via Sentech, Meyerton, South Africa. Female and male presentation team of 'South Sudan In Focus'.

• 2 February: 1736 UTC: 11930 kHz: Radio Marti, USA. Moderate to poor reception, Spanish to Cuba via Greenville, North Carolina, USA. Strong speech from a male, with female speech too.
• 2 February: 1750 UTC: 11945 kHz: NHK World Radio, Japan. Good to strong reception, 250 kW via Issoudun, France. Music: Earth, Wind & Fire 'Boogie Wonderland', Japanese speech, music. Female speech, male speech, ID, time signal for 1800 UTC, ID. Male speech: News bulletin. Female speech.
• 2 February: 1828 UTC: 11975 kHz: BBC World Service, UK. Good reception, 250 kW to Africa, via Ascension Island. French language service, male speech, ID as 'BBC Afrique', ID set to music - Off air at 1829 UTC.

• 2 February: 1835 UTC: 12075 kHz: Voice of America, USA. Strong to moderate reception. French language service to Africa, via Botswana. Male and female speech, with idents.
• 2 February: 1854 UTC: 12160 kHz: WWCR 2, USA. Poor reception, 100 kW via Nashville, Tennessee, USA. English language: Male voice with web address, music, female speech.
• 2 February: 1925 UTC: 15400 kHz: BBC World Service, UK. Good to strong reception, English to West + Central Africa via Ascension Island - Football! Ghana v Cameroon in the African Cup of Nations - Live commentary from the Stade de Franceville, half an hour played. Ghana corner, dispossessed, Cameroon corner - 30 yard shot on goal, Ghana 'keeper punches the ball out. 0-0 on 30 minutes in the Semi-Final. Ghana have a shot on goal - Wide of the post.

That completes the logs for January and February - Much more comprehensive than I thought! I hope you have found this post informative and interesting. Until the next time - Enjoy.

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