Radio Republik Indonesia (Pontianak) Circa 1990s

DXing Indonesia, with its former network of hundreds of regional and local stations, became a passion for many shortwave DX’ers. The shortwave bands used to be filled with these stations and in North America reception of the hardest-to-hear stations was always a challenge, even with the best receivers of the day. While some Indonesian regional stations had fairly powerful transmitters, many of the really small ones had power of only a few hundred watts or even less and QSL cards and verification letters from these stations are among the cherished items in QSL collections.

These recordings of one of the RRI regional stations, at Pontianak, was made from Bangkok, Thailand during a 5 year period when I lived in the Thai capital while Southeast Asia correspondent for Voice of America. This reception was on a Drake R8, made with an approximately 20 foot longwire antenna. The frequency I recall was 3,976 khz but this station had also been on the air at various times on 3,345 and 3,995 khz as well as 3,915 khz at one point

Many thanks to SRAA contributor, Dan Robinson, who shares the following recording