China Radio International, The Beijing Hour: February 8, 2016
/Live, off-air, one-hour recording of the Chinese (Lunar) New Year's Day 7 p.m. edition of "The Beijing Hour" from China Radio International on 8 February 2016 beginning at 19:00 UTC on a shortwave frequency of 7295 kHz. According to the filing with the High Frequency Co-ordination Conference, this broadcast came from a 500 kW transmitter in Urumqi, Xinjiang, in western China, with an antenna beam azimuth of 270°, targeting North Africa and the Middle East. A recording made simultaneously on the parallel frequency of 9440 kHz is also available on request.
"The Beijing Hour" is produced by Beijing 1008 AM, Discover Plus Radio, a division of China Radio International, and is identified as such at the beginning of the recording. "The Beijing Hour" includes the segment "People in the Know" in the second half of the program, beginning around the 29-minute mark. In addition to reports on New Year's celebrations, the program includes a discussion of future Chinese space missions, while the "People in the Know" segment is on the growth model of the Chinese economy. Following station identification for "News Plus Radio" and promos at minute 54, the recording ends with a "Chinese Studio" Chinese language lesson.
The broadcast was received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in AM mode with 5.09 kHz RF filtering. Reception quality was generally quite good with some minimal interference from one or more stations occasionally noted.