Report on the Special “Mahalaya” program broadcast early this morning 17 Sept 2020 IST:
Like the previous years, I got up early in the morning to listen to the Special “ Mahalaya” program broadcast by different stations of AIR which ushers in the famous Durga Pooja festival of the people West Bengal and other places. Here is my detailed report of reception (indicating sign on timings)
(DXSWLs please note that 3.30 am is 2200 UTC)Sign on (IST) kHz
3.30 am : 666 New Delhi,
3.35 am : 819 New Delhi
3.48 am : 657 Kolkata, 1008 Kolkata
3.54 am : 675 Chhatarpur, 747 Lucknow, 774 Shimla, 956, 1260 Ambikapur, 1395 Bikaner
3.57 am : 756 Jagdalpur, 1125 Udaipur
4.00 am : 918 Suratgarh
?: 711 Siliguri
4.05 am: 810 Rajkot, 846 Ahmedabad, 1404 Gangtok,
?: 891 1026 Allahabad, 1386 Gwalior, 1530 Agra
4.20 am: 1179 Rewa, 1242 Varanasi
4.25 am: 648 Indore, 801 Jabalpur. 981 Raipur, 1593 Bhopal
The following frequencies reported in previous years were not heard:
792 Pune, 990 Jammu, 1044 Mumbai
Receiver: Yaesu FT 757 GX II
Antenna: Icom AH 710 (Folded Dipole)
This year I checked the “Live Streaming” of all AIR stations and heard 44 stations / channels like many FM Rainbow stations & FM stations including
4.35 am Guwahati sign on MW & FM.
Stations in South India carried this broadcast on FM Rainbow channels only, not on MW.Live streaming was not there of AIR Agartala, Bhuj, Jammu, Patna, Pune, Rajkot, FM Rainbow Visakhapatanam at that time.
No SW channels were observed this year, may be due to skip conditions
It is nice to see reports showing that many Dxers in India were awake early this morning to monitor the different AIR stations carrying the special Mahalaya programs.
Jose Jacob
