All India Radio's external service to be back on shortwave

With effect from 15th Jan, 2021, trial transmissions of All India Radio external service will be back on three platforms - shortwave, DTH & Live streaming. AIR external services broadcasts were suspended due to Covid pandemic from 24th March 2020. There will be 4 services, two neighborhood services ( NS I, NS II ) and two world services (WS I, WS II) round the clock in different languages. Regular transmission will commence from 26th Jan, 2021.

Schedule for AIR External Services trial broadcasts :

In Pure DRM mode

UTC        IST      LANGUAGE SERVICE FREQ  TXER SITE

-----------------------------------------------------

0945-1045 1515-1615 RUSSIAN  WS II  17830  BENGALURU

1930-2030 0100-0200 FRENCH   WS II  9620   BENGALURU

In Analogue mode

UTC        IST      LANGUAGE SERVICE FREQ       TXER SITE

-------------------------------------------------------------

2345-0115 0515-0645 CHINESE    WS I  13695       BENGALURU

0130-0230 0700-0800 INDONESIAN WS I  13695       BENGALURU

0245-0330 0815-0900 THAI       WS I  13645       BENGALURU

0245-0345 0815-0915 BURMESE    NS II 15030       KINGSWAY, DELHI

0300-0400 0830-0930 BALUCHI    NS I  9950        KINGSWAY,DELHI

0400-0500 0930-1030 NEPALI(1)  NS II 11740,15030 KINGSWAY/BENGALURU

0500-0600 1030-1130 ARABIC(1)  WS I  15030       BENGALURU

0615-0645 1145-1215 SINHALA(1) NS II 11560       KINGSWAY,DELHI

0745-0845 1315-1415 DARI(1)    NS I  11560       KINGSWAY,DELHI

0800-0830 1330-1400 PERSIAN(1) WS I  15030       BENGALURU

0845-0930 1415-1500 PASHTU(1)  NS I  11560,17830 KINGSWAY/BENGALURU

0900-1000 1430-1530 NEPALI(2)  NS II 9950        KINGSWAY,DELHI

1045-1200 1615-1730 TIBETAN    WS I  11560       KINGSWAY,DELHI

1215-1315 1745-1845 SWAHILI    WS I  15030       BENGALURU

1300-1500 1830-2030 SINHALA(2) NS I  15030       KINGSWAY,DELHI

1330-1430 1900-2000 DARI(2)    NS I  9950,11560  KINGSWAY/BENGALURU

1430-1545 2000-2015 PASHTU(2)  NS I  9950,11560  KINGSWAY/BENGALURU

1615-1730 2145-2300 PERSIAN(2) WS I  9620        BENGALURU

1730-1930 2300-0100 ARABIC(2)  WS I  9620        BENGALURU

Please note below mentioned services will not be started immediately by AIR External Services Division due to non-availibility of program content as well as aerials at Kingsway, Delhi. Same will be broadcast as soon as program content & aerials are available.

0300-0400 0830-0930 BALUCHI    NS I  9950    KINGSWAY,DELHI
0245-0330 0815-0900 THAI       WS I  13645   BENGALURU
0245-0345 0815-0915 BURMESE    NS II 15030   KINGSWAY, DELHI
0615-0645 1145-1215 SINHALA(1) NS II 11560   KINGSWAY,DELHI
1045-1200 1615-1730 TIBETAN    WS I  11560   KINGSWAY,DELHI
1215-1315 1745-1845 SWAHILI    WS I  15030   BENGALURU
1300-1500 1830-2030 SINHALA(2) NS I  15030   KINGSWAY, DELHI
1730-1930 2300-0100 ARABIC(2)  WS I  9620    BENGALURU
0945-1045 1515-1615 RUSSIAN  WS II  17830    BENGALURU  **PURE DRM  

(Alokesh Gupta)

AIR External Service resumes Farsi broadcast

All India Radio External Service has resumed the following transmission which was suspended due to Covid-19 :

Persian 0400-0430 UTC on 11560, 15210 kHz to Iran

The updated schedues are available as follows:

Time Wise: https://qsl.net/vu2jos/es/time.htm

LanguageWise: https://qsl.net/vu2jos/es/Language.htm 

Frequency Wise: https://qsl.net/vu2jos/sw/freq.htm

(Jose Jacob, National Institute of Amateur Radio )

AIR resumes External Services broadcasts

All India Radio resumed its external services broadcasts to neighboring countries on 8th May;2020, few more will resume today as per below :

0100-0200 UTC Sindhi 7380 kHz (B)

0700-0800 UTC Nepali 9950 kHz (Ki) 11620 kHz (Ki)

0830-1130 UTC Urdu 9950 kHz (Ki)

1145-1315 UTC Chinese 17510 kHz (B)

1215-1330 UTC Tibetan 9575 kHz (B)

1315-1415 UTC Dari 11560 KHz (B)

1415-1530 UTC Pushtu 11560 kHz (B)

1500-1600 UTC Baluchi 9620 kHz (D)

Tamil & Bangla Services had resumed a few days back.

Reception Reports appreciated to    

spectrum-manager@prasarbharati.gov.in

Please see the current full schedule in

Time wise : https://qsl.net/vu2jos/es/time.htm

Language wise: https://qsl.net/vu2jos/es/Language.htm

(Jose Jacob, VU2JOS, National Institute of Amateur Radio)

External Services Division of All India Radio now available on Radio Garden

External Services Division of All India Radio is now available on Radio Garden, explore live radio by rotating the globe at http://radio.garden

Radio Garden allows listeners to explore rado stations available online across the globe, one can tune in to live radio as it is happening into any place on the globe.

Five live stream of All India Radio External services is available on Radio Garden :

Air World Service 1

Air World Service 2

Air World Service 3

Air World Service 4

Air World Service 5

Geetham Tamil Radio

(Alokesh Gupta)

All India Radio launches new website for its external service

All India Radio has launched a multimedia website for its external service. The website airworldservice.org  is presently available in English, Hindi and Urdu languages. The content consists of rich bouquet of news, current affairs, programmes on culture, heritage, music, art, tourism, health-care, issues relating to economy, investment, development, education etc. The website which has a blend of text, pictures, video and audio components, also features live streaming of radio programmes. It also has a segment of "Radio On Demand".

The External Services of All India Radio have been broadcasting their programmes in 27 languages (15 foreign and 12 Indian). They are reaching out to more than 140 countries through medium and short wave. Broadcasts are aimed at Indians living abroad as well as others worldwide. The programmes of AIR have wide following as is evident from large number of letters, e-mails received by the different language services. It is mainly for Indian Diaspora and to give the listeners a feel of Home away from home. AIR also broadcast in Bangla, Baluchi, Burmese, Chinese, Dari, Pashtu, Punjabi, Nepali, Saraiki, Sindhi, Sinhala, Tamil and Tibetan for the neighbouring countries. Their objective is to project the progress and policies of India, along with its arts and culture. All Indian nationals living abroad who are interested to see the external service of All India Radio may log to its website www.airworldservice.org

Source : http://www.indianfrontliners.com/article/22882-launching-of-a-website-by-all-india-radio-for-its-external-services/118-embassy-news

AIR’s External Services turn 70 on 1st October, 2009

Jose Jacob, VU2JOS

The External Services Division of All India Radio, India’s cultural ambassador to the world will be 70 years old on October 1, 2009. The External broadcasts were started on October 1, 1939 by the then British Government to counter the propaganda of the Nazis directed at the Afghan people. The first broadcasts were in Pushto beamed to Afghanistan and the then North West Frontier Province. Soon broadcasts were started in Dari, Persian, Arabic, English, Burmese, Japanese, Chinese, Malay, French etc.

The External Services today broadcast in the 27 languages (16 foreign and 11 Indian languages) with a total program out put of 70.25 hrs. per day (on MW & SW).

The foreign languages are: Arabic, Baluchi, Burmese, Chinese, Dari, English, French, Indonesian, Nepali, Persian, Pushtu, Russian, Sinhala, Swahili, Thai and Tibetan. The Indian languages are: Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Saraiki, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

The maximum duration is the Urdu Service to Pakistan round the clock on DTH and on Short Wave / Medium Wave for 12.15 hrs while the English broadcasts to various parts of the world called “General Overseas Service” are there for 8.15 hrs. During the Haj season, there are special broadcasts in Urdu beamed to Saudi Arabia but I do wonder if the pilgrims carry any radioes with them. The External Services of AIR is even broadcast to Europe in the new broadcasting mode DRM (Digital Radio Mondial).

These transmissions are broadcast by the High Power Transmitters located at Aligarh, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Gorakhpur, Guwahati, Mumbai and Panaji on Short Waves and from Jalandhar, Kolkata and Tuticorin on Medium Waves. Some of these transmitters are of 1000 kW and 500 kW power. Programs are beamed to different areas of the world except to the Americas but it is often heard there by many radio hobbyists.

In each language service a composite program is presented consisting of news bulletin, commentary, press review, talks on matters of general and cultural interest, occasional feature programmes and documentaries, Indian music as well as music of the area concerned. Most of the programs originate in the New Broadcasting House located in Delhi with a few originating at Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jalandhar, Kolkata, Mumbai, Thiruvanthapuram and Tuticorin.

The External Services Division of AIR has been a vital link between India and rest of the world, especially with those countries where there are Indian emigrants and people of Indian origin. It projects the Indian point of view on matters of national and international importance and demonstrates our way of life through its various programs.

Beautiful QSL cards are issued to the radio hobbyists from time to time by AIR in New Delhi for reception reports of their broadcasts. These are very much sought after by international radio hobbyists.

With the other choices in the media scene like Internet and TV, the number of listeners for Short Wave broadcasting has drastically dropped. That along with high cost of running broadcasts and also changes in political equations has prompted many countries to cut short or even completely abandon their External broadcasts.

It must be mentioned here that the AIR broadcasts to China in Chinese and Tibetan are jammed by the Chinese authorities. Added to this the ageing problems of transmitters and its maintanance, interference from other broadcasting stations due to improper coordination of frequencies etc. hampers the good efforts of AIR.

However it is business as usual for All India Radio’s External Services for the time being.