Links

SupratikSanatani's DX page

Internet Buying tipsfor the Indian DXer

Past DX news
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

BBC Bangla broadcast on 23rd November 08 is outright secessionist on Kashmir

BBC Bangla's role is outright secessionist from the Indian point of view in its evening broadcasts of 23/11/08. It reported the poll percentage of the 2nd stage of the 7 stage election in Jammu and Kashmir as "more than 50" even when the BBC Hindi website in its report said that the turnout was 65% . The figure of 50%+ was probably taken from the English site which said that the poll percentage was "slightly more than 50% in the Muslim dominated areas" .
But the most disturbing part of the BBC Broadcast was that in the 1630-1700UTC Sunday broadcast of 23/11/08 , which had no mention of the J&K elections, but carried the concluding part of their 12 part program on Kashmir which started with the clip of the Indian National Anthem interspersed with women shouting "Down with Indian Dogs". It is not clear if it was an actual recording or a digitally mixed audio clip.I have captured and put it up for every one to hear.
Whose interest is BBC Bangla serving? It is time that the these documentary collections are handed over to the authorities along with a protest note. Those of us who have as young DXers monitored the Cold War broadcasting wars will find this reminiscent of the old days.

My first DRM success - AIR Vividh Bharati

On 7th October 2008 I had my first luck with a DRM broadcast. AIR Vividh Bharati testing DRM on 6100 kHz came in very momentarily around 1130 UTC. The scanning dialogue on my DREAM software showed the AIR HPT Khampur data off an on.The audio came in very briefly. I had no luck on the 8th and 9th October. At least I know that my DRM setup is ok. I was using Ten Tec 320 hooked to my laptop.I am still trying to figure out the DREAM software. No luck, however with DW German in DRM on 12070 kHz at around 0830 UTC.

20th September 2008

BBC Bangla "kills" Delhi terror again

Delhi Police shoot out with terrorists is the headline of Kolkata news paper Anandabazar Patrika today.BBC Bangla "Probhati" simply "kills" this item in the Kolkata Press review. It only mentions a letter by Amartya Sen.Rest of press review is filled with news room junk like Dhaka traffic jam, two Bangla politicians planning to meet etc.BBC Bangla suppresses Indian terror reporting with uncanny regularity. Verify it for yourself.

Mandarmani - the dream DX Location

180 km away from Kolkata on the Bay of Bengal lies the just discovered beach resort Mandarmani.There are no roads - you have to drive along the beach for the last 6 km and you have to wait while the tide is on. There are no electricity poles - the resorts run on diesel generators. While on a holiday I was awestruck by the quality of DX signals. Diego Garcia 4219 kHz USB  was coming in as though I was at Diego Garcia !All I had was a modest 150 m long wire running south  strung along Debdaru trees by the beach side.Pardon me for the modest logs because I was simply not expecting them .

18th July 2008

Propagation - Something is seriously wrong
The sunspot numbers continue to be zero for most of the days in the last month.Experts are doubting whether the next sunspot cycle 24 has really started.Others are fearing that his prolonged low of sunspot cycle 23 could be one like the Maunder minimum ( 1645-1710) when the prolonged sunspot low brought in an " ice age" in Europe with prolonged winters and crop failures.Why does this abnormal low sunspot activity bother me as a DXer ? I am perplexed when on most of the days in Mid July 2008 I couldnot get usable signals on DW German 12095Khz and 9505 kHz at 0130 UTC. I have never experienced DW signals so poor in their target area.On the other hand Myanmar ,Yangon 594 kHz at 1515 hrs was coming in with booming signals ,albeit some deep fades, which was even better than their sw 5985 kHz. That prompted me to look for the Bangladesh MW frequencies. I was not surprised at finding Khulna 558 kHz because it is just across the border from Kolkata.But Chittagong 873 kHz with 444 signals at 1530 hrs is a treat !.What caps it all is that this is summer and not winter when the MW bands are supposed to be difficult and I still remember how weak Chittagong was the whole of last winter.

18th May 2008

Inside Radio JU 90.8 Mhz
While I was still waiting for the QSL of my inaugural broadcast reception (14th April 2008) of this station, which is situated barely 1.5 kM from my house I got a chance to visit the station.I was to drive my wife, who is also an ophthalmologist, for a studio recording of a programme on pediatric eye care for this station. Here was a DXer who was trying his best to conceal his glee at this opportunity to visit the station. I was armed with a digital camera in my pocket. After all the media reports in recent times, what I found out was a small signboard at the entrance of the high tension laboratory of their electrical engineering department which is a few block inside the main Jadavpur University Campus and just opposite their canteen. On a deserted Sunday morning we climbed up the empty stairways of the building to reach the top floor and through an unmarked door into a newly done up area , brightly lit with glass windows and antireflective material on the wall. Yes we were bang inside the four roomed radio complex. The first room had a back up battery power supply in the corner, the second room was the for editing with studio mixers and monitors. It was the third room which was heart of the station. Abhishek Das the principal anchor and the person in charge of running the station was there at the controls. He was the only person in this whole building and who welcomed us at our knock. The microphone and controls were at one end of the room while the centre of the room had the transmitter. The transmitter and antenna have been supplied by WEBEL , a Government of West Bengal undertaking. From the display I could check that the transmitter was running at 100 watt. Two other parts of the console appeared to me like two additional power amplifiers of 50 W each. As per government regulation, the allowed transmitter power for community radio station, a very recent phenomenon in India, is 100 w which can be increased to 250 watts with special permission. This programme is funded through the TEQUIP programme of the University Grants Commission. Abhishek Das had come in from Radio Miaow and joined just three days before their inaugural broadcast.A self taught Radio Jockey Abhishek had toyed with the idea of pirate stations in his early days. To my disappointment he had not met any DXers before and the term QSL was unfamiliar to him !The regular station time is from 1130 - 1400 UTC. What was running on Sunday morning was a test transmission with Bangla rock music. When the interviewer for the program Abhijit turned up, it was decided to have a live interview! The studio recording room was the last room in the series of rooms where the interview on eye care was recorded. I sat in the transmitter room watching the show through glass windows. What about the technical persons? No one is on site but the support is provided by WEBEL. While the program was being recorded I strolled around to photograph the antenna mast which is hoisted on top of the building. It has three folded dipoles. But I must admit that the height of other buildings around it and the trees make it inefficient. The signal fades a lot and reception even in all parts of the campus is difficult. When I returned the recording was nearing its end. The recorded CD was then edited by Abhishek for rebroadcast during regular broadcast .While the program was on, our 16 year old son was recording his mother live on the air through the thick of fading and weak signals. But he did manage to catch the background conversation during the breaks because the jingles were not turned on while the studio mic was still on- a true test transmission!

The station is run by School of Media Communication and Culture of Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Contact phone +913324146352 email: mailto:radioju@school.jdvu.ac.in

Listen to a sample of their announcement

View more photos of Radio JU

Supratik Sanatani
athena_eye@vsnl.com