British
DX Club
EAST
AFRICAN REPORT
with CHRIS GREENWAY
ARTICLE
FROM COMMUNICATION - EDITION 328 - MARCH 2002
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Greetings from Nairobi. I've a shorter report than usual this month, mainly taking
the opportunity to update some of the reports in last month's Communication,
with news from southern and west Africa, as well as the east.
MALAWI
After
first reappearing on 7130 kHz in January, the MBC switched to using another of
its former frequencies, 3380. At the time of writing, I only hear Malawi on
3380 in the early morning and again from the late afternoon onwards. It's not
clear whether there are no shortwave transmissions during the middle of the
day, or (as I suspect) if they are on 3380 which is not propagating as far as
Kenya.
WORLDSPACE
Another
Kenyan station is now being relayed on WorldSpace.
It's Capital FM from Nairobi. The WorldSpace ID is
CAPITLFM. Unfortunately, it is only on the southern Africa beam, and so not
audible in Europe. You can read more about Capital at its web site -
http://www.capitalfm.co.ke
This
brings to five the number of Kenyan stations on WorldSpace.
Apart from Capital, they are the KBC's Swahili
service, East FM, Kiss FM and the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE).
Check
out Kiss FM's web site at http://www.kissfm.co.ke
As
reported by Mike Barraclough in the February edition
of Communication (page 59), Mali is another addition to WorldSpace,
and I can confirm that it is on the eastern and southern African beams, as well
as the western beam heard by Mike. The station opens just before 0600 GMT with
a distinctive interval signal, the Malian national anthem and a clear
identification in French, followed by frequency announcements. These mention
three shortwave channels and two FM frequencies for Bamako, but nothing about mediumwave, so perhaps Mali has abandoned MF broadcasting.
OTHER WEST AFRICAN NEWS
Benin: Ralph Brandi, in the February edition of Communication
(page 28), reported tentative reception of Benin on 7120.28. I can confirm that
while based in Ghana late last year I heard Benin - albeit irregularly - on
7210.2.
Niger: Also in last month's Communication (page 33), Rumen Pankov speculated that Niger was now inactive on 5020.
Again, while in Ghana, I heard the station on 5020.4. But, like Benin, the transmissions
were erratic. I also heard Niger on 9705 - but beware, the frequency is
variable and one must be careful not to confuse Niger with Ethiopia, which also
has an off-channel transmitter on 9705.
Nigeria: In last month's logbook (page 41) Jerry Berg wondered
whether Kaduna was still active on 9570. My
observations indicate that it is not, with the station just being active now on
4770 and 6090.
Best
wishes from east Africa, Chris
(c) Copyright British DX Club
