Special Christmas Broadcast

TWR has some news that will make Christmas a bit more interesting. For the first time ever, KTWR will broadcast a program in the Portuguese language. This will be in DRM format. It will be on 15400kHz at 1000-1030UTC on 25 December. We do encourage those who can understand Portuguese to listen to the entire program since we believe it will add to your Christmas celebration.

This Christmas broadcast had actually been requested by listeners in Brazil quite a while back, but it has taken some time to make it happen. The timing appears to have worked out well with the current solar cycle situation.

Some of you may be wondering why a station with antennas beaming toward Asia would air a broadcast intended for Brazil. It turns out that shortwave propagation between Guam and South America this time of year benefits from the "gray line". This allows the radio signal to follow a path that is always in a dusk/dawn situation. That works well for the 19-meter band.

Since South America is at the opposite point on the planet from Guam, listeners in that area may get signals from the west and the east. This could be problematic for those who do not have directional antennas. If possible, consider trying to null out one path or the other. One thing that would be very helpful to us at TWR is to let us know from which direction you hear the broadcast best.

Thank you for listening to KTWR and helping us make the broadcasts better over the years. We wish that all of you have a blessed and joyful Christmas celebration. Remember whose (earthly) birthday is being celebrated.

73 from KTWR

KTWR B24 DRM Schedule

Hi everyone. We hope your shortwave listening experiences have gone well with the current elevated solar activity. We have seen signals do some interesting things over the past year or so.

Now that the B24 HFCC conference is over, we can let you know what our DRM broadcast schedule will be. We had to delete one broadcast to China and split the South Asia broadcast blocks. 

The broadcast to Japan will continue its experiment with the 25-meter band. We may change this back to 31 meters at mid-season if the data indicates the need to do so. Finding a frequency free of digital interference has been a challenge.

Another experiment will be using two different antennas for the 15390kHz broadcasts. The Sunday broadcast will be beamed mostly toward central India while the Saturday broadcast will continue the southern India heading. Please let us know the differences in performance that you notice.

DRM broadcasts (Effective 27 October 2024):

 

                                                                           Designated

Day              Time (UTC)        Frequency        Coverage Area         Language

Saturday     1059-1130          12040 kHz          China                       English

 

Saturday     1130-1230          11965 kHz          Japan                      Japanese, English

                         

Sunday        1600-1645        15390 kHz           India                        English

Saturday      1600-1630        15390 kHz           India                        South Indian languages

73 from KTWR

New Frequency for Japanese DRM

Hello again everyone. While KTWR's TX6 has been transmitting the Japanese/English DRM programs on 9320kHz with SNRs typically reaching ~39dB, reception has been disappointing. There has been too much interference on the 31-meter band frequencies that we have tried. We are going to try the 25-meter band next. Effective 17 August 2024, KTWR will use 11590kHz instead of 9320kHz for the 1130-1230UTC broadcast. There may some skip zone issues with this frequency. Reception reports would be very much appreciated. Thank you for your help.

73 de KTWR

Special Broadcast - 22 June 2024

Global Radio Ministries will broadcast both English and Japanese versions during their regular Saturday DRM broadcast from 1200 to 1230 on 22 June 2024.

Broadcasting two audio channels requires us to use 64-QAM modulation for the Main Service Channel.  The receiver needs about 3dB more signal than is required for the 16-QAM usually used.  We expect to have our Antenna 1, which was destroyed in the typhoon last summer, restored by Saturday.  That will improve our signal to Japan.

Global Radio Ministries hopes to switch that program from English to Japanese in the near future, but this Saturday is a demonstration of their ability to produce the program in the Japanese language.

DXers Diary Drawing

Hi everyone,

Many of you have used or heard of the World Radio and Television Handbook (WRTH). The following is an announcement of a drawing for the WRTH web app.

Dear Friends and fellow DXers.
I have happy news from WRTH. WRTH has come forward to gift 2 free licenses for WRTH web app to DXers Diary listeners. The programme is broadcast every Sunday in DXers Diary in 15390 KHz DRM at 15.00 hrs UTC and 11965 kHz analog every Wednesday at 11.00 hrs UTC. 

This is what you need to do to take part in the drawing:

Listen to DXers Diary on a regular basis for the next three months and send me your reception reports.
The listeners who send me reception reports on a regular basis for 3 months will be eligible for the lucky draw. I will soon announce the date of commencement of the contest. This contest is open to both DRM and SW listeners.

Reception Reports need to be sent to:

dxersdiary@gmail.com

Happy DXing 
Arun Kumar
VU2BBF
Producer and Presenter 
DXERS DIARY

Language Change on Saturday DRM to China, English to Mandarin

 Beginning on 27 April 2024 the program will be entirely in Mandarin.  20 April will be first program of a new series in the New Testament book of First Thessalonians in English.  That program will be repeated the following Saturday in Mandarin.  The rest of the series will be broadcast in Mandarin.

South India Reception Issue

Hi DXers. We hope that the A24 broadcast season has provided good listening conditions for you. However, we know this has not turned out to be the case in all KTWR coverage areas. 

We are currently investigating the poor performance in parts of southern India for our 15390kHz broadcasts. We saw similar behavior with the 13690kHz broadcasts last season. It seems as if there is a multipath issue. The areas where the problem is most apparent are in near Coimbatore, near Bangalore, and near Chennai. If we could get data such as impulse response plots from Dream listeners in those areas, it would help us see what is happening. 

Thanks for your help and 73.

KTWR A24 DRM Schedule

Hi everyone.

We have good news for you. KTWR is maintaining the current amount of time for DRM broadcasts for the A24 broadcast season. The only timing change is that the two Sunday blocks will have no gap between them. The South Indian language broadcasts will start 15 minutes earlier than they do in the B23 season. The end time will also be earlier.

We are grateful for your reception reports. The posts on WhatsApp have been quite helpful. It will be interesting to see how 19 meters performs in India. We have seen some intermittent multipath issues with 22 meters in parts of India.

KTWR Digital Broadcasts

 

DRM broadcasts (Effective 31 March 2024):

 

                                                                           Designated

Day              Time (UTC)        Frequency        Coverage Area         Language

Saturday     1059-1130          12120 kHz          China                       English

 

Saturday     1130-1230          9320 kHz            Japan                      Japanese, English

                         

Monday       1215-1245         9910 kHz            China                       Mandarin

Sunday        1500-1545        15390 kHz           India                        English

Sunday        1545-1615        15390 kHz           India                        South Indian languages

73 from KTWR