THE LISTENING POST

Plus: All India Radio Self Destructs

~ “Bongo, bongo, bongo, I don’t want to leave the Congo, oh no, no, no”. I don’t think the Andrews Sisters ever went there, but you can — at least partly — despite that old, old pop song, via the airwaves. Radio Congo, (Republic) at Brazzaville sees its first “Listening Post” entry this month (well, not actually “sees”). The station signs on at the more propagation-friendly 0530 UTC on 6115 kHz and holds on until a bit after 0600 UTC, notes KB8QBF.

~ “Reliable sources” (whoever they are) say All India Radio (AIR) has closed down its outlets at Chennai (4920 and 7380 kHz), Hyderabad, (4800 and 7430 kHz) and Bhopal (4810 and 7430 kHz). Also doomed is AIR Jaipur on 4910 and 7325 kHz. I talked about AIR’s self-destruction plans in some of my previous columns; now it appears to be coming true.

~ A new weekly opposition broadcaster has taken to the air, brokered by WRMI. This culprit is the Voice of Yiakl (a.k.a. Dimtse Yiakl), active from 1530-1600 UTC on Saturdays via Issoudun on 17545 kHz against Eritrea. I wonder how long this one will last.

~ Radio Vanuatu might have a problem with its 3945-kHz frequency at 1200-1400 UTC as Echo of Reunification, the opposition outlet from North Korea to South Korea, will occupy those hours or is doing so already.

~ Radio Kuwait has resumed English broadcasts on 11970 and 15530 kHz from 0500-0800 UTC. Both replace Arabic broadcasts at those times.

~ Radio Nepal has gone silent on shortwave. The reported 100-kilowatt units briefly tested a few months ago, but the tests apparently were abandoned and the usual 10-kilowatt unit was also closed down.

~ NBC Madang in Papua New Guinea is back on the air on 3260 kHz. It’s being noted by West Coast monitors around 1145 UTC to its 1200 UTC close.

~ Digging further into the Colombian mystery station from February, the new (WRTH) does not list either of the outlets on 5910 or 6010)