All India Radio(AIR)'s Mahalaya Special Transmission 2018

On October 7th..around 2240utc onwards I began monitoring All India Radio(AIR) Mahalaya Special Transmission on both shortwave & medium wave via different AIR's regional shortwave & medium wave stations up to  to 0026utc Octber 8th (of 2018).

I used my Grundig YB 400 for shortwave monitoring  via 9V Adapatar connected to Mains Power supply & Grundig YB 80  on battery.

No external antenna was used for medium wave reception with the receiver mentioned

And the external antenna used  for shortwave ..Cu Wire of 78ft long & 30ft height with Coaxial leadin

Geographical Location of Reception Place(Abhayapuri):

Longitude:26º18´20´´North

Latitude:90º37´50´´East

At first not a single AIR regional shortwave stations was audible,but there was plenty of medium wave regional AIR Stations on air and some were with blasting signal sometimes..like AIR Siliguri on 711kHz..the most consistence & the most reliable.

I began the monitoring session with an aircheck on shortwave...2240utc onwards but nothing audible on all possible AIR regional shortwave stations...& the switch on to medium wave..

Here is the link to the  first recorded signal of AIR Mahalaya Special Transmission via AIR Siliguri on 711kHz.. around 2245utc:

https://app.box.com/s/yb2f5vqn4ct1qvq4ozzppzttd7rs04b3

I also heard following AIR Stations on medium wave with Mahalaya Transmission..

(The time mentioned indicates the first time I logged the station..)

AIR Lucknow on 747kHz at 2248utc, AIR Guwahati A on 729kHz at 2304utc ,AIR Kolkata A on 657kHz 2258utc ,AIR Kolkata B on 1008kHz at 2335utc ,AIR Jabalpur on 801kHz,AIR Vanarasi A on 1242kHz at 2332utc  AIR Delhi Indraprastha on 819kHz at 2323utc...And besides these I also heard Mahalaya transmission on some other frequencies on medium wave ...I believe they were these AIR Regional MW Stations..AIR Najibabad on 954kHz at 2330utc ..AIR Rewa on 1179kHz at 2333utc...AIR Ajmer on 603kHz ar 2344utc.

On The Shortwave:

First signal I heard was from AIR-Portblair on 4760kHz  a very faint signal and later the signal strength improved and copied the signal during a random aircheck around 2338utc onwards and I also heard Morse Code signal  on that frequency in the background as source of co-channel interference.

And here is the recording of AIR Portblair with Mahalaya Transmission around 2339utc:

https://app.box.com/s/gaklq66lmnsuoyvbdy9nvvboqpyt3hwv

And the Mahalaya ended around 0006utc on AIR Portblair on 4760kHz and mentioned at the end that this transmission was relayed from AIR Delhi with station identification of AIR Portblair by lady. And still morse code signal could be heard on that frequency that time also.

I heard for the first time AIR Bhopal's Mahalaya transmission on 4810kHz around 0009utc & continued listening upto 0226utc & perhaps Mahalaya transmission ended  just before the start of AIR Delhi Hindi News bulletin from 0030utc.The signal was fair with fading & interference as side band splatters from nearby by Chinese regional stations was there.

Here is the link to the audio recorded around 0025utc approx of AIR Bhopal:

https://app.box.com/s/zzsjxpueh23lqpw6nj1diuaev9o08l29

This is the only two shortwave AIR regional stations heard by me with Mahalaya Special Transmission this year.

However I observed AIR-Jeypore on 5040kHz & AIR-Shillong on 4970kHz was on air as per their normal skd...no special transmission.

Perhaps last year or so I heard a Nepalese version of Mahalaya on AIR-Gangtok in the early morning hours on 4835kHz after a few days of the usual Mahalaya special transmission.Let me check this year.

More monitoring observations etc soon.

73s

Gautam Kumar Sharma(GK)

Abhayapuri(Assam)(India)