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"Wavescan" is a weekly program for long distance radio hobbyists produced by Dr. Adrian M. Peterson, Coordinator of International Relations for Adventist World Radio. AWR carries the program over many of its stations (including shortwave). Adrian Peterson is a highly regarded DXer and radio historian, and often includes features on radio history in his program. We are reproducing those features below, with Dr. Peterson's permission and assistance.

Wavescan N725, January 15, 2023

Nepal Earthquake: The Current Radio Scene in Nepal

Recent news items inform us that the Himalayan country of Nepal has undergone another disastrous earthquake, this time at a magnitude of 5.6. Significant damage and several deaths were reported in the quake, which struck a sparsely populated area of far western Nepal in November (2022).

The tremors lasted about 10 seconds and were felt as far distant as Delhi in India. Government agencies in Nepal conducted a search and rescue operation in the isolated area where regular communications are not readily available.

The most disastrous earthquake ever to hit Nepal occurred seven years ago (2015) at a magnitude of 7.8 which resulted in massive damage and the death of at least 9,000 people.

The current radio scene in Nepal indicates that the most significant form of radio coverage in Nepal is achieved by more than 500 FM stations; government owned, commercial, and community stations. Programming is on the air in a multitude of local and regional languages, and also in English, Hindi and Urdu for wide area coverage. Off air relays in several languages from the BBC in London are also heard on some FM stations.

For a few years beginning back in 2007, a commercial company known in English as Antenna Foundation Nepal operated a small mobile FM station under the title Radio Doko. This low powered mobile station with an output of just 30 watts provided its own generator power, and it was usually deployed for one week at a time for special local events and emergencies.

In addition to the multitude of FM stations throughout the landlocked mountainous country, Radio Nepal is still operating a network of six mediumwave stations, mostly at 100 kW each, that provide nationwide coverage. These stations are located at:

Radio Nepal no longer broadcasts its programming from any of the previously operated shortwave stations. However, back in April 2001, ORF in Vienna, Austria carried a relay on shortwave on behalf of the Nepali community in London, England. Four times each week, Radio Everest was on the air with an hour long broadcast in the Nepali language, for which QSL cards were issued.

ORF at Moosbrunn carried this relay broadcast with 100 kW on 7235 kHz. However, in January of the following year 2002, the special relay broadcast came to an end due to lack of funding.

ARAMCO Radio in Saudi Arabia and BFBS Radio Programming in Nepal

The earliest beginnings for ARAMCO Radio in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia can be traced back to the late 1930s when the Arabian American Oil Company played music over a set of loud speakers that were installed at a company swimming pool. The Arabian American Oil Company was established in 1933 and with its exponential growth it has become the largest and most valuable commercial company in the world.

ARAMCO Radio and TV was established at Dharan in Saudi Arabia in 1957 for the benefit of foreign personnel serving the Arabian American Oil Company. Initially there was just one radio program stream with just one transmitter, a small mediumwave unit. Programming consisted of unannounced recorded music with two news bulletins each day.

The style of programming from ARAMCO Radio appealed to not only the foreign staff, but also to the local citizens living nearby. Quite soon, the stream of programming was increased to three separate channels, together with a network of small low powered mediumwave and FM transmitters at three different locations.

Three transmitters were installed at each of the three different locations; Dhahran, Abqaiq and Ras Tanura. The three program channels played non-stop and unannounced music; classic, popular and jazz.

The first listing in the WR(TV)HB for ARAMCO Radio is found in the volume for 1972, and it was shown in every subsequent issue. The use of mediumwave was dropped in 1984, and all programming at the three different locations is these days on FM only.

Currently, ARAMCO Radio provides 6 different program streams via 6 FM channels, and in addition to the music, they also provide feature programs and educational information. They state that they have a daily audience of one million people.

On October 20, 1978, I was on a passenger flight from Delhi in India to Kathmandu in Nepal, and quite by chance my seat companion happened to be an English girl under transfer. She had just completed her term of service as an announcer on ARAMCO Radio in Saudi Arabia and she was under transfer as a diplomatic secretary to the English Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal. This diplomatic girl stated that ARAMCO Radio was indeed on the air, and that they radiated three different channels of programming.

Then two years later, on March 23, 1980, I was on another international flight, this time from Bombay In India to the United States via Frankfurt in Germany. During the dark hours of the night, the captain invited me into the Flight Deck, and he gave me the use of one of the plane's radio receivers.

While flying over the appropriate area of the Middle East, I performed a mediumwave dial search for all of the mediumwave channels of ARAMCO Radio as listed in the WR(TV)HB. I found nothing, not on mediumwave and not on FM either.

With little else to do during that lengthy flight sector, the entire flight crew also made their own mediumwave bandscan in the search for ARAMCO Radio on mediumwave, and they came to the same conclusion. They found nothing.

However, after several hours of sleep in the passenger cabin, I was invited back into the Flight Deck around daylight. By that time the plane was flying high over the edge of the Mediterranean. What a splendid view of the entire Mediterranean coastline from Turkey in the north down to Egypt in the south with the Biblical Mt. Ararat to the northeast.

I performed another dial search on the same radio receiver, hoping to hear three American-operated AFRTS stations on the ground below. Just one of the stations was successfully logged, and that was AFRTS Adana, loud and clear with 10 watts on 1590 kHz, at the central corner on the southern coast of Turkey.

A subsequent reception report was posted off to the station and a self-prepared QSL card was duly received. That card, with full QSL details, verified AFRTS Adana, with just 10 watts on 1590 kHz. Interestingly, the wavelength is shown as 61886.792 feet, which is actually a mistake in calculation. By moving the decimal place by two positions, the equivalent is indeed 1590 kHz.

We should also remember that the British also established a radio service in Nepal for the benefit of local army personnel. The British army established a transition camp at Dharan in east Nepal in 1953, and a few years later they began radio programming for the encampment, which consisted of music and information in English and also in the Nepali language.

Back in that era while I was making the flight from India into Nepal, the international radio world was speculating that the radio service was on the air, perhaps on mediumwave. I asked my English flight companion, did she know anything about the radio service at the Dharan army encampment. She said she did not know, but she said she would find out and let me know.

In due course I received a communication from her, and she stated that the radio service in the army camp was produced in a radio studio, and that it was broadcast to the entire encampment via a loud speaker system, not over a radio transmitter. We would today call that a form of cable radio.

However, in 2004, the British army established an FM radio service in the national capital Kathmandu which is still on the air to this day. The BFBS transmitter operating on 105.7 MHz carries English programming, and the transmitter on 107.5 MHz carries programming in the Nepali language.