All India Radio (DRM): April 14, 2014

Shola highlands are found in Kudremukh National Park, Chikmagalur which is part of the Western Ghats. (Photo source: Karunakar Rayker)

Shola highlands are found in Kudremukh National Park, Chikmagalur which is part of the Western Ghats. (Photo source: Karunakar Rayker)

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Mark Fahey, who has shared this Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) recording of All India Radio.

Mark explains:

"Almost every morning at 5:45AM (Sydney time) I have my first cup of coffee and eat breakfast and listen to the All India Radio Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) Hindi language evening broadcast to Europe. At this time of year in Australia (April) the broadcast starts in darkness and ends as the sun is rising. The broadcast originates from the Khampur (Delhi) transmission facility. 

I have a deep love for India and have spent a large part of my life working and living there, so I take every opportunity to listen to All India Radio in both DRM and analogue mode.

Digital DRM provides the opportunity for fade and noise free reception. But as you can hear on this recording, AIR introduces plenty of unintended noise into their programs even before the broadcast reaches the transmitting antenna. The 50Hz hum is a feature I notice in all AIR DRM broadcasts. On some occasions (perhaps every few months) they "forget" to patch the audio path correctly to the transmitter and all that is heard is the hum without any programming for the hour!"

This recording was made on April 14, 2014 starting at 19:45 UTC on 9,950 kHz. Mark received this broadcast at Freemans Reach, NSW, Australia (60 km North West of Sydney), on a WinRadio WR-G31DDC Excalibur Receiver and Wellbrook ALA1530 Loop antenna.

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below. Please subscribe to our podcast to receive future recordings automatically.