Fabulous reception of both Radio Okapi and SW Radio Africa (of course via relays it seems)...see below.
ALASKA 7355, 1524-, KNLS Mar 5 Very strong reception, initially in English (just caught the tail end), and then back into Chinese. (Salmaniw, Victoria, BC) RUSSIA 7260, 0228-, Golos Rossii Mar 10 Strong S9 reception with modern western sounding music and into Golos Rossii news at the BOH. Many parallels including 13665 (Petropavlovsk) good, 12010 (Komsomolsk Amur) poor, 7240 (Armavir/Krasnodar) good, 7150 (Simferopol...actually Mykolayiv, Ukraine) poor, 7125 (Grigoriopol, Moldova) fair. 7260 listed as Moskva. All sites are from the ILG database. (Salmaniw, Victoria, BC) ?CONGO 11690, 0515-, Radio Okapi Mar 10 I'm sure this is the station I have been monitoring for 30 minutes now. About an S8 signal, makes following difficult. As usual anything spoken is down in the mud, while the little music that is played is much better heard. No time pips or anything special at 0500. Mostly ongoing talk, seemingly in French, at least after the TOH. Nothing that I hear has resembled an ID, and certainly nothing like the 'Okapi' repeated many times as reported by Dave Valko. Gradually losing strength as I continue to monitor. Frustrating not to get a definite ID! Gradually faded away to subaudible levels. At 05:55 very strong open carrier, and immediately into Hello from Tokyo program. So I have no doubt I must have been listening to Okapi. Worth trying a bit earlier tomorrow. (Salmaniw, Victoria, BC) ?CONGO 11690, 0419-, Radio Okapi Mar 13 Musical 'Okapi' by YL at exactly 04:19:30. S9 to S9 + 10 signal. I'm really having trouble believing this is only 10kw. Another ID at 04:21:45. 'Okapi', not 'Radio Okapi'. In vernacular as I listen. Mentions of 'democrasiya', 'Congo'. Best by far of the last few days I've listened. Are we sure this isn't from a 100+kw transmitter? ?Kigala, ?Meyerton, ?Madagascar. 'Okapi' again at 04:26:15. Full ID as Radio Okapi at 04:30, and mentioned Hirondelle as well. Signal continues to improve. Marvellous signal at 04:40 in French. Another full excellent ID in French at 04:55. Further IDs just after the TOH, and continued in French programming about 'elections libre'. Totally about the need for free elections in The Democratic Republic of Congo. Discussion between Robert and Walter. (Salmaniw, Victoria, BC) UKRAINE 7440, 04:42-, Radio Ukraine International Mar 13 Wonderful S9 + 10 reception with RUI's mailbag program, with the lovely music of the Orange Revolution. For Ukrainian speakers, these lyrics never fail to bring a lump in my throat, and tears to my eyes. Beautiful music and very frank, almost apologetic talk in English about not telling the real story in Ukraine before the revolution. Rarely heard so well on the coast. Brings me back to the days when RUI used far east Russian relays for their service to WCNA. (Salmaniw, Victoria, BC) USA 7490, 05:08-, WJIE Mar 13 Powerful S9+20 with modern Christian pop music. I'm assuming that they are running back at their full 50 kw. Nothing noted on 13595. (Salmaniw, Victoria, BC) RUSSIA 3955, 1409-, Voice of Russia Mar 13 ILG lists Korean, which sounds about right, 100 kw from Vladivostok, at fiar level, and sure enough their IS was heard at 14:10. Mostly talk by OM. I would have guessed a North Korean from the tone of his voice!. (Salmaniw, Victoria, BC) CHINA 4940, 1440-, China Huayi BC Mar 13 I'm confused. This is a Chinese station, with English programming at fair level, with a relatively thick Chinese accents. 'Have you ever been to China?, etc'. ILG lists Voice of the Strait(s) from Fuzhou, whereas DBS lists China Huayi Broadcasting Corporation in Chengdu. I'm leaning towards the latter, but which is right? Could not find any parallels. Signal gradually improved towards the TOH. Perusing my 2000 WRTH notes that both of these stations broadcast to Taiwan. Googling I found at www.schoechi.de/az-chn01.html reference to shared QSLs, so there must be some link. Program ended at 1500 and into Chinese again. (Salmaniw, Victoria, BC) ASCENSION IS 11845, 1600-, SW Radio Africa Mar 13 Powerful S9 + 20 reception with crash start with multiple IDs in English with some short/long path echo. All in English. With song 'Africaaa, Africaaa', then this is SW Radio Africa, Zimbabwe's independent voice. Through the valley religious program after announcements. (Salmaniw, Victoria, BC) ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- World Radio TV Handbook 2005 is coming out. Preorder yours and support open communications for DXers: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0823077942/hardcoredxcom ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list [email protected] http://dallas.hard-core-dx.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ _______________________________________________ THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License published by Michael Stutz at http://dsl.org/copyleft/dsl.txt
