Pacific Games | The SWLing Post

SRAA contributor, Richard Langley, recently shared the following recording of the 2015 Pacific Games coverage of the National Broadcasting Corporation on the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. Richard notes:

Live three-hour recording of the 2015 Pacific Games coverage of the National Broadcasting Corporation, the Voice of Papua New Guinea (PNG), via a transmitter in Australia on 10 July 2015 beginning at 07:01:21 UTC on a frequency of 12025 kHz. At the time of the uploading of this sound file, it is not clear if the signal originated from the former Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s lower-power facility at Brandon (as registered with the High Frequency Co-ordination Conference (HFCC) organization; 25 kW beamed 80°) or their higher-power Shepparton site with 100 kW transmitters.

The recording, mostly in English with some Tok Pisin, includes commentary on the games being held in Port Moresby, music, news bulletins, public service announcements, and the NBC’s drum, flute and bird call interval signal near the top of some of the hours. Note that PNG time is 10 hours ahead of UTC.

The broadcast was received on a Tecsun PL-880 receiver with its built-in telescopic whip antenna in Hanwell (just outside Fredericton), New Brunswick, Canada. Signal quality is generally good and gets better towards the end of the recording as propagation conditions improved.

Many thanks, Richard!

Click here to download the recording as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

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SWLing Post contributor, Rob Wagner, has shared the following update on his blog:

It’s quite difficult to hear Papua New Guinea these days now that nearly all their shortwave transmitters have closed and moved to FM. BUT….In the last day or so, PNG’s National Broadcasting Corporation has been transmitting on shortwave with two new outlets. NBC is the host broadcaster of the 15th Pacific Games, being held in the capital Port Moresby. The games begins tomorrow July 4 and runs through till July 18. The following schedule was noted from on-air announcements as follows:

6075 kHz – 1900 to 2159 UTC
9860 kHz – 2200 to 0959 UTC
6075 kHz – 1000 to 1400 UTC
12025 kHz – 2200 to 1000 UTC (to Pacific Island communities)

Many thanks for sharing this news, Rob!

Nigel Holmes also sent an update confirming that the transmitter site is Brandon and that the transmitter can run a 20 kW carrier. Nigel notes:

The aerials are HR 2/2/ 6-12 MHz arrays so about -6 dB cf. the arrays at Shepparton.

[…]The broadcasts have a power of 20 kW AM up from 10 kW when the site carried Radio Australia programming.

As of time of posting, I can hear the games here in the eastern US on 6,075 kHz, but the signal is very weak and the propagation window will close soon. I will also listen on 12,025 and 9,860 kHz.

Check out the Mount Evelyn DX Report for more details.

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