Ghanaian regulator told to "stop radio stations from transcending their boundaries"

A project consultand, Nii Tackie Otoo, has called on Ghana's National Communication Authority (NCA) to enforce its regulations that prevent radio stations broadcasting beyond their boundaries. He said some radio stations were broadcasting beyond their boundaries because certain aspects of the NCA regulations, LI 1719 of 2003, were not proactive [sic].

He was speaking at a one-day workshop on "Radio Stations Broadcasting Beyond their Boundaries" organised by the Western Salem Communication, operators of Kyzz Fm, and the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund in Takoradi.

Nii Otoo said the regulation should be reviewed to ensure that radio stations that broadcast beyond their boundaries face stiff sanctions. The framework of the law, he said, must ensure a level playing field and fairness in the industry because well-established radio stations were overshadowing small ones. He suggested that radio stations and the NCA signed a memorandum of understanding so that the Authority could be held accountable when its regulations were flouted.

(Source: ModernGhana.com)

Andy Sennitt comments on http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/: This displays a lack of understanding about the basic laws of physics and insufficient technical planning. By definition, a radio station's coverage area cannot have "boundaries". The signal can't be turned on and off like a tap. What's needed is a licence which specifices a primary coverage area, and the required transmitter power calculated accordingly. It may be that a lack of regulations and/or monitoring and onsite inspections have led to some stations using transmitters which are far more powerful than they need to be. However, just because a station may be received well beyond the area for which it is licensed, that doesn't necessarily mean that it has flouted any regulations. Hopefully, the situation can be resolved without forcing stations off the air or making them pay crippling fines.

VU2RVM: the first post merger HAM Operator from Sikkim

A sample of the VU2RVM QSL Card

My story on AC3PT was widely appreciated and it was something new to the people of Sikkim too. But little did I know that there was one person in the entire crowd who was closely watching my article and he too had been part of Sikkim Ham radio activity. Meet Rajesh Verma, Director, Department of Information Technology, Government of Sikkim. Rajesh Verma is better known in Sikkim for his well-liked Guide book on Sikkim. Nevertheless there are few people who really know that he was also an active radio ham with a call sign VU2RVM and he had also written a book on ham radio. His book “ABC of Amateur Radio and Citizen Band” was first published in 1987.

It was more of an opportunity for me to have a swap over of emails with Rajesh Verma. I shall also remain ever grateful towards him for his book that he sent me along with his personal call sign QSL card. I am here sharing his call sign QSL card that shows eight lucky sign of Buddhist culture along with other different QSL cards he had received over the years.

I also would like to add Rajesh Verma’s fantasy with Ham in his own words “…… But it is not always talking for pleasure that hams indulge in. There are examples galore in which hams have provided efficient communication during emergencies such as floods, earthquakes, storms and other calamities. I operated a Ham station from Gangtok from 1979 to 1995 with a call sign VU2RVM (VU2 denotes India) using home brewed equipment. Later as a Club Station of National Institute of Amateur Radio I used Kenwood equipment. In 1986, I trained 20 Scouts and Guides and their instructors from Sikkim and many of them got their licenses. Some of them used to operate my equipment for going on air. Sadly with the advent of the internet and mobile communication, Ham Radio is steadily taking a backseat. But in Sikkim there is still scope for Ham radio to be used as an alternate means of communication during disasters.”

What is more interesting is the piece of information that when Sikkim was an independent kingdom, Sikkim had a call sign AC3 followed by PT named after late Chogyal (King) Palden Thondup Namgyal. Post 1975 after Sikkim got merged with mighty Indian Union, the next call sign licensed was VU2RVM i.e. VU2 for India and RVM the person's name.

QSL cards collected by Rajesh Verma:

Sri Lankan media groups to challenge new restrictions

Media groups in Sri Lanka, already restricted from covering the war against Tamil rebels in the north, are bracing to challenge new regulations that seek to control television broadcasting and new media, Inter Press Service reports. The new rules, announced on 27 October, control content not only for broadcast but also MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) on mobile phones. Newspapers reported government plans to bring in similar rules for radio broadcasting.

"Censorship, there is no doubt about it," said Sunanda Deshapriya, spokesman for Sri Lanka's Free Media Movement (FMM), an association representing journalists, publishers and private broadcasters. He said media groups and civil society organisations plan to challenge the regulations in the Supreme Court before 10 November, the deadline for objections before the regulations take effect.

The new regulations provide the Media Minister with powers to cancel licences if content is "detrimental to the interests of national security; incites a breakdown of public order; incites ethnic, religious or cultural hatred; is morally offensive or indecent; is detrimental to the rights and privileges of children", among other restrictions.

The government has defended the new regulations. The Media Minister, Anura Priyadharshana Yapa, said they were needed to bring about uniformity in the fast-growing electronic media broadcasting field.

Official radio in Moldova's rebel region in dire situation - paper

The state-run radio Pridnestrovye in Moldova's breakaway Dniester region has cut its broadcasts from 23 to a bit more than three hours a day due to the lack of proper office space, the eponymous Dniester official daily reported on 5 November.

The paper said that because of the last summer's floods the station's radio equipment and personnel were evacuated from its premises in central Tiraspol, but no new office place has been allocated to it so far.  The radio channel's equipment is stored in a garage, and journalists work at a canteen of the breakaway region's information ministry.

While information minister Vladimir Belyayev is still in the process of making a decision whether to repair the station's old premises or to find a new office for it, 100 out of the station's 146 staff members have been sent on an open-ended leave, with their wages cut by 30 per cent.

Commenting on the radio station's critical situation, the Russkiy Proryv! weekly said on 5 November that the situation was aggravated by disagreements between the Dniester parliament and the information ministry. According to the law on the state-run media in the Dniester region, all official radio and TV channels should list parliament and the president as founders, but the ministry took upon itself all managerial functions over the Pridnestrovye radio channel, the weekly said.

It recalled that in 2007, parliament initiated a probe into the ministry's activities linked to the radio station and unveiled numerous violations, including money-laundering. Members of the Dniester parliament tabled a proposal then that the radio station sign a separate agreement with president Igor Smirnov and radio Pridnestrovye become answerable to parliament, the paper said.

(Sources: Pridnestrovye, Tiraspol, in Russian 5 Nov 08; Russkiy Proryv!, Tiraspol, in Russian 5 Nov 08 via BBC Monitoring)

BBC World Service temporarily broadcasting via RNW Madagascar relay

Serious flooding in Thailand has forced the BBC's relay station at Nakhon Sawan off the air. It's expected that the station will be silent until next Tuesday at the earliest. VT Communications has arranged temporary broadcasts from other sites. Until Nakhon Sawan is back in normal operation, the RNW Madagascar relay station is broadcasting BBC World Service programming towards India as follows:

• English 0100-0200 UTC on 11955 kHz 250kW beam 050 degrees
• Hindi  0230-0300 UTC on 15405 kHz 250 kW beam 050 degrees
• English 0300-0500 UTC on 17790kHz 250kW beam 050 degrees