RNW Madagascar resumes full schedule on 17 Jan

There was a fire on Christmas Eve in the high voltage room of the external mains power supply at Radio Netherlands Worldwide’s relay station in Madagascar. Firefighters from the Madagascan capital Antananarivo managed to bring the blaze under control within hours.

The fire destroyed the high voltage circuit breaker equipment, so broadcasts from Madagascar had to be suspended while repairs were carried out. Satellite and Internet broadcasts were not affected.

All transmitters are now working again, but our colleagues in Madagscar still need to do some additional work to clean up after the fire and to create a reliable and safe situation. Therefore it has been decided that the station will return to its full schedule commencing Sunday 17 January 2010. In the meantime, the interim schedule below remains in effect.

Installation of the new 20KV/400V-160KVA for the auxiliary equipment inside the power plant building

The visible damage to the Siemens transformer after a summary clean up (20KV/400V- 400KVA). There is also some oil leakage.

The situation through Saturday 16 January:

All times UTC:

Transmitter 1 (250 kW):

• 0300-0428 on 9660 kHz Vatican Radio (multilingual)
• 0430-0457 on 9660 kHz Vatican Radio (French)
• 0500-0527 on 9660 kHz Vatican Radio (English)
• 0530-0630 on 7265 kHz IBB (French)
• 1300-1357 on 17670 kHz AWR (Vietnamese)
• 1400-1557 on 15595 kHz RNW (English)
• 1600-1657 on 9590 kHz Family Radio (Swahili)
• 1700-1727 on 9895 kHz RNW (Dutch)
• 1730-1757 on 6020 kHz RNW (Dutch)
• 1800-1957 on 7395 kHz Family Radio (English)
• 2000-2030 on 7395 kHz Radio Sweden (Swedish)
• 2030-2100 on 7395 kHz Radio Sweden (English)
• 2100-2130 on 9680 kHz IBB (French) Mon-Fri
• 2200-2300 on 7380 kHz Deutsche Welle (Indonesian)

Transmitter 2 (250 kW):

• 0200-0230 on 11550 kHz Radio Sweden (Swedish)
• 0230-0300 on 11550 khz Radio Sweden (English)
• 0330-0358 on 7360 kHz Vatican Radio (Swahili)
• 0400-0500 on 11610 kHz Radio VOP (multilingual)
• 0500-0600 on 12015 kHz IBB (Persian)
• 1330-1428 on 17550 kHz Voice of Tibet (Tibetan)
• 1430-1527 on 17495 kHz DVB (Burmese)
• 1530-1627 on 13800 kHz Press Now (multilingual)
• 1630-1657 on 13740 kHz RNW (Dutch)
• 1700-1757 on 12080 kHz IBB (Multilingal)
• 1800-1857 on 6020 kHz RNW (English)
• 1900-2057 on 7425 kHz RNW (English)

Transmitter 3 (50 kW):

• 0230-0330 on 3215 kHz AWR (multilingual)
• 0400-0500 on 11610 kHz Radio VOP (multilingual)
• 1430-1530 on 3215 kHz AWR (Malagasy)
• 1630-1655 on 3215 kHz FLM (Malagasy)
• 1900-2000 on 6020 kHz Family Radio (English)
• 2000-2100 on 6020 kHz Family Radio (English)

Madagascar transmissions temporarily via other sites:

RNW: The following arrangements remain in effect:

• 2100-2131 UTC Dutch via Bonaire on 13700 kHz azimuth 80 degrees
• 1957-2057 UTC English via Montsinery on 11655 kHz azimuth 80 degrees
• 1730-1757 UTC Dutch via Nauen on 11655 kHz azimuth 300 degrees

Vatican Radio: Transmissions at 0300-0530 UTC have returned to Madagascar, but the transmission at 1600-1630 UTC on 13765 kHz is broadcast via Santa Maria di Galeria.