Tag Archives: Voice of Hope

How power outage “load shedding” is affecting Zambia ZNBC-1 and Voice of Hope

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Richard Langley, who shares the following message he recently received from Ray Robinson, VP of Global Operations with The Voice of Hope. This message is being relayed with Robinson’s permission:

I have seen a few messages lately, regarding the non-appearance of ZNBC-1 on 5915 kHz in their early mornings. You may be aware of the rolling power outages called ‘load shedding’ the electricity utility in Zambia, ZESCO, continues to impose daily throughout the country. The outages are at different times in different areas, but at the Voice of Hope transmitter site, the outages have been effect from 6-10am local (0400-0800 UTC) since September. The ZNBC shortwave site is only a few miles from ours, and it would be logical they are on the same outage schedule. I know from when our staff visited their site a few months ago to buy some distilled water for our transmitter cooling systems before our own still was up and running, that ZNBC’s genset is not currently operational, and I don’t believe they have the budget either to repair it, or to buy diesel for it, if it was repaired and functional.

My guess is they have decided it is not really worth the effort to broadcast for the hour or so from 0245 UTC until whenever the power goes out. (This is just my speculation.) They do use 5915 later in the day after the much cheaper hydro power returns, but of course by then, the propagation conditions do not favor inter-continental reception.

As for Voice of Hope – Africa, we had expected the load shedding to end by December (two months into the Zambian rainy season), but alas the outages are continuing, with no sign of any change soon. Our own weekday morning broadcasts on 9680 and 11680 kHz have been entirely powered from our genset since September. This is expensive, and unsustainable. We have therefore decided to make a schedule change from next Monday. Instead of broadcasting weekday mornings from 0500-0800 UTC, we will switch to weekday evenings from 1700-2200 UTC, extending the duration of the broadcast from three hours to five. The last two hours will be ‘Night Light’ presented by Stephen Mdoma, reprising a program he used to present late nights years ago when the station was known as Christian Voice We will be using the frequencies 4965 kHz (omni) and 6065 kHz (to West Africa), which may also afford better opportunities for reception in ECNA after local dusk. The program schedule on our website will be updated this weekend. We plan to re-launch the morning broadcasts once the load shedding ends. I thought you might like to know.

Ray Robinson
Vice President, Global Operations
Strategic Communications Group – Voice of Hope
Los Angeles and Lusaka
http://www.voiceofhope.com

Richard adds that Ray Robinson has also confirmed the weekend schedule is unaffected.

Many thanks for sharing this news, Richard!

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KVOH re-launches this weekend on 9,975 kHz

KVOH test broadcasts this weekend

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Ray Robinson, Operations Manager at KVOH (Voice of Hope / Voz de Esperanza) writes:

[W]e would very much appreciate your reception reports (or preferably, recordings) of the tests we will be running on 9975 kHz on Friday and Saturday evenings this week. The exact times are:

Saturday 7th – 0100-0400 UTC

Sunday 8th – 0100-0400 UTC

In North and Central America, that would be this Friday and Saturday evenings, 8-11pm Central, 9pm-12am Eastern. The test program will be similar to last time, but not exactly the same. It will contain segments in both English and Spanish.

The transmitter site is near Los Angeles, and here it is currently getting dark at about 0230 UTC (7:30pm local). Therefore, during the first half of these tests, the transmission path will be increasingly in darkness, and for the last 90 minutes or so will be in complete darkness. Please let us know what reception sounds like at your location as the evening progresses, and also what type of receiver and antenna you are using.

Reception reports may be emailed to “[email protected]” or sent to:

KVOH – Voice of Hope
P.O.Box 102
Los Angeles, CA 90078
United States of America

All correct reports will be verified with our QSL card.

Thank you very much in advance for your assistance with this test!

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Shortwave Radio Recordings: KVOH test transmission

KVOH test today on 17,775 kHz

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(Source: KVOH)

KVOH – Voice of Hope, Los Angeles, would like to thank all those who responded to last Saturday’s test broadcast. It was unfortunate that the time chosen for the test happened to coincide with a geomagnetic storm, but in spite of that, reports have so far been received from 13 U.S. states, as well as from Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Indonesia.

The station will be testing again tomorrow, Sunday 7th, from 1700-1900 UTC (1-3pm Eastern). As before, the frequency is 17775 kHz, with 50 kW on a beam of 100 degrees (towards Cuba). The same test program will be used as last week, with announcements in English and Spanish, which hopefully will be easier to copy since atmospheric conditions are better this weekend. Reports will be very much appreciated to either [email protected] or P.O. Box 102, Los Angeles, CA 90078. If reporting by email, please attach a short mp3 recording of your reception if possible. If reporting by mail and requesting a QSL, please enclose return postage. In all reports, please be sure to describe your receiver and antenna used. Reception comparisons using handheld portable radios with telescopic antennas (outdoors) will be especially helpful.

KVOH currently expects to be able to launch a preliminary 2-hour daily schedule around the end of this month (July), and will build from there.

Ray Robinson
Los Angeles

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