Public broadcaster NHK on mediumwave.
For the past week or so I’ve been using webSDRs to peruse Japanese public broadcaster NHK outlets on mediumwave and have a few observations to make.
NHK Radio 1 is on air round the clock on many MW frequencies, giving local identifications a few seconds preceding the following UTC times according to my own observations and/or the 2022 edition of WRTH (the most recent edition to have this information): 0300, 1000 (confirmed), 2000 (confirmed).
NHK Radio 2 is on air from 2053UT daily to 1440UT Monday-Saturday, 1500UT on Sunday, starting with an interval signal played on a celesta followed by a local ID just before the hour. Note that these times are different to those given in MW List and some other sources. If timings confirmation is required it can be found in the programme guides on the NHK website – nhk.or.jp. There’s another local ID at closedown, followed by the national anthem “Kimagayo” then a very unusual feature (if not unique) – another interval signal played on celesta, but a different melody to the one played at sign-on! Local IDs other than those given at sign-on and sign-off are at the following UTC times, again according to WRTH 2022 edition and/or own observations: 0030, 0410 Sat-Sun, 0415 Mon-Fri, 0720 (latter confirmed).
Off-air recordings of many of these regional NHK mediumwave outlets will be appearing on the Interval Signals Online website in the coming days – intervalsignals.net
David Kernick, Interval Signals Online to MWlist iog (2024-09-29)