All India Radio

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w2xq

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Sad to see another overseas broadcaster in trouble. But then here in NJ AIR can only be decently and regularly heard on its English to Europe service on 11620.
 

SDRPlayer

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When conditions were better, AIR used to be one of the few DRM transmissions i could reliably pick up. The other 2 being RNZL and ABC Australia when it ran testing for a few good years. Can't recall the last time used DREAM.
 

Boombox

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In the article one ambassador is quoted as saying he or she couldn't hear the external service overseas...

In today's mediocre conditions, I am not surprised.

The last time I heard a transmission from India was over a year ago. I think it was one of their transmissions in the 25 meter band.
 

pjxii

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In the article one ambassador is quoted as saying he or she couldn't hear the external service overseas...

In today's mediocre conditions, I am not surprised.

The last time I heard a transmission from India was over a year ago. I think it was one of their transmissions in the 25 meter band.

It's ironic that I'm constantly complaining about how bad HF conditions have been but AIR on 9445 kHz has been a very consistent and reliable signal here in Florida every afternoon, sometimes okay but most often very strong.
 

Boombox

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It's ironic that I'm constantly complaining about how bad HF conditions have been but AIR on 9445 kHz has been a very consistent and reliable signal here in Florida every afternoon, sometimes okay but most often very strong.

I think (actually, I am convinced) that conditions are worse in the northern latitudes, where I am.

I think I logged the 9445 AIR outlet a few years ago. It was fairly consistent, even on a portable off the whip.
 

GB46

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I think (actually, I am convinced) that conditions are worse in the northern latitudes, where I am.

I think I logged the 9445 AIR outlet a few years ago. It was fairly consistent, even on a portable off the whip.

For what it's worth, in all my roughly 60 years as a shortwave listener I've never heard AIR even once, no matter how hard I've tried. During some of the earlier years I was living at lower latitudes (New Jersey), with better antennas and under better propagation conditions, too. DX was great back then. Even R. Peking was booming in, and at that time it was direct from China, not via a relay. For some strange reason AIR was one of the few exceptions.
 

majoco

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When AIR was using DRM it was about the only station I could reliably decode - first thing in the morning was good but faded badly after about 9am/2100UTC. AIR still booms in at those times now - sad to see them go too.

Even R. Peking was booming in, and at that time it was direct from China, not via a relay. For some strange reason AIR was one of the few exceptions.
Plot the Great Circle route and you may find there's some rather large hills in the way depending on which transmitter you were hoping to catch!
 

GB46

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When AIR was using DRM it was about the only station I could reliably decode - first thing in the morning was good but faded badly after about 9am/2100UTC. AIR still booms in at those times now - sad to see them go too.


Plot the Great Circle route and you may find there's some rather large hills in the way depending on which transmitter you were hoping to catch!
Make that big mountains, by which I'm currently surrounded! From where I lived in central New Jersey as a kid, the Great Circle route would have gone north-northeast along the coast of North America, including Canada's maritime provinces, crossing Greenland's southeastern coast, then due east across the Atlantic crossing northern Sweden and Finland, and finally southeast across Russia to India. That would have been a distance of 7340 miles.

I'm not sure which transmitter I was looking for back then. The terrain in that part of New Jersey was pretty flat, being only about 25 miles from the Atlantic coast. We had foothills, but they were west of us (part of the Appalachian chain of mountains).
 

GB46

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I was thinking more of the Himalayas!
Ah, ha, I see what you mean -- directly blocking that path, too! Hearing AIR from where I am now would be just as difficult, if not impossible, at least under the current propagation conditions. It would add more than 500 miles to the distance and more mountains to the terrain. If I were in Vancouver I wouldn't be so landlocked, but wouldn't get much help from being near water, because the Great Circle route skips the Pacific altogether, although it does cross the Arctic Ocean.

So much for the geography lesson. :)
 

majoco

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Any GC route that goes over or near the poles is doomed to fail - that's why you guys can hear the South African BBC relay and I can't.
 

GB46

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Any GC route that goes over or near the poles is doomed to fail - that's why you guys can hear the South African BBC relay and I can't.
Well, I do get a pretty strong signal from BSKSA in Saudi Arabia during our morning hours, and from R. Romania International in the early evening, although the signal from RRI is often nearly unreadable due to severe fading. At any rate, both stations reach me via the Arctic route.
 

GB46

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GB46, perhaps this https://ns6t.net/azimuth/azimuth.html website will ferret out thè direct path to AIŔ sites. Remember the Èng to Europe beam mày put you off to thè side of thè lobè. In any event it is tough trip over the pole. Here 11620 is usuallý besy.
Well, I'm planning to be in the Canadian prairies for a couple of weeks next summer and will have my portable with me, so I'll be able to compare the reception out there with the little I get here in the BC interior. I've a hunch that I'll be able to finally hear AIR from Saskatchewan, that is, if they're still on the air. When I lived in Moose Jaw, SK for six years I was overwhelmed with what I could pick up, even during daylight hours.

By the way, Tom, I'm noticing a lot of accents over many of the characters in your post; have you inadvertently switched over to a European character set? My laptop keyboard has an alternate character set for French, since it was marketed in Canada.
 
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Boombox

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For what it's worth, in all my roughly 60 years as a shortwave listener I've never heard AIR even once, no matter how hard I've tried. During some of the earlier years I was living at lower latitudes (New Jersey), with better antennas and under better propagation conditions, too. DX was great back then. Even R. Peking was booming in, and at that time it was direct from China, not via a relay. For some strange reason AIR was one of the few exceptions.

I used to hear it nearly every morning in 2002-2003, when conditions were better. Generally there would be an AIR outlet behind one of the Chinese stations on either 49, 41, or 31 meters early in the AM. This happened most mornings during that winter. Once I heard the AIR outlet broadcasting from Chennai (Madras), in the 31 meter band, clear as day. Very odd. There were great conditions that season.

More recently, I was able to hear the AIR outlet on either 31 or 25 meters (can't remember which) on good nights. And I live in a hole. But then, the Cascade Mountain range is to my east, so it's not in the way of things Asian.

As for your comment on hearing more on the Canadian Prairies, I would think that the flatter terrain, combined with the elevation would have been a factor in SW reception.
 

w2xq

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By the way, Tom, I'm noticing a lot of accents over many of the characters in your post; have you inadvertently switched over to a European character set? My laptop keyboard has an alternate character set for French, since it was marketed in Canada.
No. I use a Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 SM-T827V with OS v8.27. I don't know what the default character set is, nor do I see how to change it. I can't explain it.
 
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GB46

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More recently, I was able to hear the AIR outlet on either 31 or 25 meters (can't remember which) on good nights. And I live in a hole. But then, the Cascade Mountain range is to my east, so it's not in the way of things Asian.
Same here; Asian stations come in pretty strong here during the morning hours, at least China and North Korea do. As for living in a hole, that makes two of us. With those mountain ranges immediately to the east and west of me I might just as well be living inside a volcano. :lol:

As for your comment on hearing more on the Canadian Prairies, I would think that the flatter terrain, combined with the elevation would have been a factor in SW reception.
Exactly. The prairies are flat and high like on a plateau. When I lived there for six years I could see way into the distance in all directions. The radio reception was correspondingly excellent. However, it would now be too difficult for me to move back there permanently; there are things to consider that are unfortunately more important than my hobby.
 

GB46

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No. I use a Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 SM-T827V with OS v8.27. I don't know what the default character set is, nor do I see how to change it. I can't explain it.
The accents were over the vowels, and oddly enough, a capital R, but it hasn't happened in your post this time. Perhaps the phone switched on some special characters automatically upon quoting someone else's post. I don't have a smartphone or tablet, so I have no idea what those gizmos may be capable of these days.
 
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